Martial Art Movies

The first martial arts film was made in Shanghai in 1905. From the beginning in China there formed five martial arts cinema genres.

wuxia pian. Loosely translated as “martial chivalrous-hero films,” wuxia movies are soaked in traditional tales and legends of superhuman swordsmen who fight with magical martial arts skills. These films influenced the Japanese chambara – “sword fighting” movies, denotes the Japanese genre called samurai cinema in English, and is roughly equivalent to western cowboy and swashbuckler films..

gongfu pian – kung fu films, which emerged in the late 1960s and were brought to prominence by Bruce Lee. These movies were filmed with characters who fought with more realistic skills.

the success of Jackie Chan’s kung fu films at Golden Harvest, rival studio Shaw Brothers tasked director Chang Cheh and fight director Liu Chia-liang to create the third genre of film – Guoshu pian – national art film – mixed kung fu film fights with the magic of wuxia.

In the early 1980s, Jackie Chan invented the fourth genre of film known as “wuda pian” – fight films using martial arts. In these films, he combined martial arts with dangerous stunts in contemporary settings. In fact, most martial arts films made today and around the world are influenced by Jackie Chan’s wuda vision.

In 1983, director Tsui Hark created the final genre known as Fant-Asia films. These revamped stylized wuxia movies mixed frenetic over-the-top action mixed with gravity-defying kung-fu.

Films of the latter type are generally considered to be artistically superior films, but many films of the former type are commercially successful and well received by fans of the genre. One of the earliest Hollywood movies to employ the use of martial arts was the 1955 film Bad Day at Black Rock.

Martial arts films contain many characters who are martial artists, and these roles are often played by actors who are real martial artists. If not, actors frequently train in preparation for their roles, or the action director may rely more on stylized action or film making tricks like camera angles, editing, doubles, undercranking, wire work, and computer-generated imagery. Trampolines and springboards can also be used to increase the height of jumps. These techniques are sometimes used by real martial artists as well, depending on the style of action in the film.

Martial arts films have been produced all over the world, but the genre has been dominated by Hong Kong action cinema, peaking from 1971 with the rise of Bruce Lee until the mid-1990s with a general decline in the industry. Other notable figures in the genre include Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, and Donnie Yen.

Hollywood has also participated in the genre with actors such as Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee), Wesley Snipes, Gary Daniels, Mark Dacascos, and Jason Statham.