Films
The earliest wuxia films date back to the 1920s. Films produced by King Hu and the Shaw Brothers Studio featured sophisticated action choreography using wire and trampoline assisted acrobatics combined with sped-up camera techniques. The storylines in the early films were loosely adapted from existing literature.
Cheng Pei-pei and Jimmy Wang were two of the biggest stars in the days of the Shaw Brothers Studio and King Hu. Cantonese screen idol Connie Chan grew up starring in wuxia films and was famous for her male roles. Jet Li is a more recent star of wuxia films, having appeared in Swordsman II and Hero, as are Tony Leung, Michelle Yeoh, and Brigitte Lin. Yuen Woo-ping is a choreographer who achieved fame by crafting stunning action-sequences in films of the genre. Mainland Chinese director Zhang Yimou's foray into wuxia films, Hero, was distinguished by the imaginative use of vivid colours and breathtaking background settings.
Wuxia was introduced to the Hollywood studios in 2000 by Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Following Ang Lee's footsteps, Zhang Yimou made Hero, targeted for the international market in 2003, and House of Flying Daggers in 2004. American audiences are also being introduced to wuxia through Asian television stations in larger cities, which feature miniseries such as Warriors of the Yang Clan and Paradise, often with English subtitles. With complex, almost soap-opera storylines, lavish sets and costumes, and veteran actors in pivotal roles, these tales can appeal to a variety of audiences.
Western attempts at the genre have been limited such as the 2008 film, The Forbidden Kingdom, starring Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Michael Angarano. However, a major exception is DreamWorks Animation's media franchise Kung Fu Panda. Created as an earnest, if humorous, emulation by producers who were knowledgeable admirers of the genre, the series has been particularly hailed in China as an excellent contribution to the form.
Read more about this topic: Wuxia Films
Famous quotes containing the word films:
“Television does not dominate or insist, as movies do. It is not sensational, but taken for granted. Insistence would destroy it, for its message is so dire that it relies on being the background drone that counters silence. For most of us, it is something turned on and off as we would the light. It is a service, not a luxury or a thing of choice.”
—David Thomson, U.S. film historian. America in the Dark: The Impact of Hollywood Films on American Culture, ch. 8, William Morrow (1977)
“The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn’t.”
—Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930)
“Does art reflect life? In movies, yes. Because more than any other art form, films have been a mirror held up to society’s porous face.”
—Marjorie Rosen (b. 1942)