Kung-Fu Wednesday | Lesson 2

canstock1038972 Kung Fu Wednesday | Lesson 2 In Lesson 1 we covered the importance of selecting the right quality and right type of movie. Our recommended movie was Jet Li’s “Once Upon a Time in China” both 1 and 2.

At this point I am going to assume that progressing slowly is the correct way to build one’s martial arts taste. There is something to be said about watching 30 movies over two weeks as a crash course for the subject. But frankly that would be a lot of long blog posts over a two week period and I just don’t have that in me.

So, on to lesson two:

Let’s Diversify

In lesson one we took the historical route in choosing a film to watch. One should understand that Kung-Fu movies – the ones I am talking about – can take place anytime in the last 500 years. One will gain familiarity with the genre as he jumps back in forth in time periods and style of movie. “Once Up a Tim in China” was one epitome of the classic historical Chinese Martial Arts film. Next we are going to move to Modern Chinese Martial Arts.

Movie Recommendation

Although the setting is going to change in this example, we are still going to pick a film that helps iconify the traditions of the genre. Our recommendation will stick to a Western familiar star, this time moving over to Jackie Chan who has been familiar to Western audiences since “Cannon Ball Run II” where he played ‘Jackie Chan – Subaru Driver’ in a role that obviously broke the racial typecast barrier for Golden Harvest and 20th Century Fox.

POLICE STORY

“Jackie Chan’s Police Story” is a hoot of a familiar story for Western audiences to cut their teeth on. Chan plays an up and coming officer who, on a sting gone wrong, reins in a notorious criminal after a dare devil chase. Chan electrifies with his famous stunts and the movie posses a tense plot, running humor, and crazy action. The story is easy enough to follow even if one is slow when reading subtitles (because we learned in Lesson 1 that we do not watch Kung-Fu films dubbed in English), but is also fun and original enough for one to see the magnetic draw of the genre.