Kung-Fu Wednesday | Lesson 4

canstock1038972 Kung Fu Wednesday | Lesson 4 Review previous: Lesson 1 | Lesson 2 | Lesson 3

Fantasy

So far we have tackled Historical Kung-Fu, Modern Kung-Fu Action, and Modern Kung-Fu. Fantasy is a major device in many kung-fu movies traditionally and in current kung-fu cinema. We have yet to breach the world of supernatural fantasy in our movie selections thus far, so we will break that ground this week whilst still staying with films that will be accessible for the uninitiated (or at least little-initiated).

chinese ghost story a 300x225 Kung Fu Wednesday | Lesson 4

What one might see in a Chinese Ghost Story

Fantasy usually takes one of two forms in kung-fu cinema. First there is folk/religious fantasy where characters have mystical powers due to their religion (like a Shaloin monk) or folklore origin. The second type usually has to do with a mythical creature of power like a ghost or vampire (be forewarned; a Chinese ghost or vampire or zombie is considerably different in concept than the Western versions).

Movie Recommendation

cthd 233x300 Kung Fu Wednesday | Lesson 4 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Many purists look at this movie as a complete sell out. Sell out to what, I’m not sure. More than likely neither are they. “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” (CTHD) has all of the ingredients of a traditional martial arts fantasy and the added weight of a Hollywood darling director and the budget to match. So what one gets is the traditional elements of a Historical Kung-Fu Fantasy with all the trimmings of Hollywood. This is not a Bad Thing. It spawned an era of crossover friendly movies like Hero, House of Flying Daggers, and Curse of the Golden Flower. The last is the weakest entry of the four mentioned, but has the coolest most unexplainable Ninjaporn ever. It totally rocks for that reason alone.

CTHD has secret societies, arcane powers, a magical sword, and tragic love. It also has what came to be very familiar martial-wire work choreographed by the crazy-in-demand Wo Ping Yuen (Matrix series, et al, ad nauseam). So not only does CTHD bring the devices all of the traditional elements of kung-fu fantasy, it also – in true to genre groundbreaking fashion – revolutionized a certain type of film making due to Wo Ping’s signature wire/fx based fight choreography.