Have Kung Fu Movies Lost Their Punch?

There was a time when everyone was indeed kung fu fighting. Films belonging to the genre, made popular in the 1970s by the late Bruce Lee, helped to boost Hong Kong cinema, not to mention the careers of various Chinese actors such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Jet Li.

However, in recent years, it seems that the kung fu film is losing the raw bad-assery that fans have grown up watching. As martial arts films are now evolving to feature more computer animation and culture rather than pure, unadulterated violence, has kung fu lost its touch?

The first kung fu film dates back to the late 1930s, when folk heroes and famed martial artists Fong Sai-Yuk and Wong Fei-Hung were immortalised for the first time (they would later be portrayed by Jet Li in the 1990s). Features from various Hong Kong studios, such as Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest, saw an influx of kung fu films, but it wasn’t until Bruce Lee came onto the scene with The Big Bossin 1971 that the kung fu genre became widely popular.

Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Matrixchoreographer Yuen Woo-ping helped boost the trend in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with features such as the Lucky Stars series,Drunken Master, Snake In The Eagle’s Shadow, and The Young Master to name a few.

The genre began to lose pace after Lee’s sudden death in 1973, while key actors Chan and Jet Li moved their attention to Hollywood in the mid to late 1990s (if you include lacklustre TV show Martial Law, Hung can also be included).

However, a significant turning point in martial arts films was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was an international co-production between Asia and the USA. Praised for its action sequences, direction and cinematography, it became an unexpected success among Western audiences and went on to win four Academy Awards, including one for Best Foreign Film. However, it also had a positive impact on Asian cinema, as it sparked a boost in wuxia films.

However, subsequent films in the genre such as Hero,House of Flying Daggers, Ip Man (2008) and its 2010 sequel, and recent release The Grandmaster, have shown to be more artistic and culturally relevant, concentrating on how the film is stylised and the philosophy of martial arts, while making fight scenes into a more choreographed affair, similar to a ‘dance’ of some sort.

Additionally, when kung fu scenes are featured in Western cinema, such as the Rush Hourtrilogy, Romeo Must Die, and The Man With The Iron Fists, they don’t feel as exciting, natural or authentic. Put simply, this new wave of kung fu films lacks punch.

This may be due to the increasing use of computer animation, which has affected the jaw-dropping realism of kung fu in film. In the past, the brutality of a fight and the strength of its opponents were unrestricted, but thanks to wire work (or 'wire fu') and CGI, kung fu has turned into a fantastical form of movement.

In films such as Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccerand Kung Fu Hustle, and the Wachowskis’ Matrixtrilogy, it is incorporated to make ordinary characters extraordinary, but by adopting this element into fight scenes, it feels like actors, film studios and directors are playing it safe. In doing so, the impact of such action scenes is lessened and as a result, modern kung fu fights pale in comparison with past features, where the physicality of the actors was a key selling point of the genre.

A nostalgic aspect in earlier kung fu films is that most, if not all, stunts and fights are performed by the actors. Along with the occasional blood trickles and broken bones, the do-it-yourself concept of action scenes drums in the realism behind the fight and slow-motion was actually used to slow-down the actors’ lighting fast moves (examples include Magnificent Butcher, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, and The Prodigal Son to name a few).

While films such as the Lucky Starsseries, Project A, Wheels on Meals, and Dirty Ho included elements of comedy slapstick, practically all kung fu films included bone-crunching action sequences that didn’t shy away from inflicting personal injuries. Notable works include Armor Of God, where Jackie Chan suffered an almost-fatal head injury from a stunt gone wrong, and Police Story, where he dangled from a bus using an umbrella, and suffered third-degree burns from sliding down a metal pole that had been heated with fairy lights.

It is easy to say that the level of danger and adrenaline will not be the same as it was almost 30 years ago, but it has come to a point that it has become so risky that key actors in the kung fu genre are starting to move away onto other projects. Chan stated that he would be moving away from action films as he is ‘too old’ and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Zhang Ziyi commented that due to the injuries she inflicted in her roles in The Grandmaster and House Of Flying Daggers, she has since retired from kung fu roles.

This fear of personal injury is conveyed in the genre’s diminishing impact on action films, as it is now paling in comparison with other forms of martial art, not to mention younger martial artists such as Tony Jaa, Yanin Mitananda and Iko Uwais.

So, what next for kung fu films? Jackie Chan, Yuen Woo-Ping and Donnie Yen are still contributing to the genre; Yen won various Hong Kong Film Awards for his 2014 film Kung Fu Jungle, Chan’s latest film Dragon Blade was released in China in February, and Woo-Ping is directing the forthcoming sequel Crouching Tiger: Hidden Dragon II: The Green Destiny, so there is still hope that it retains its popularity.

While it is not as adrenaline-pumping as its modern counterparts, the kung fu genre remains an endearing era in martial art films, not to mention an integral part of China and Hong Kong’s film industry.