The Historical Development of Martial Arts Films

After the pre-Qin period, novels with the theme of martial arts and chivalrous men gradually emerged and reached the first climax in the Tang Dynasty. At that time, the Red Line and Nie Yinniang all had the shadow of martial arts novels, but they were not fully mature. In the Ming dynasty, Elvis Presley, the biography of heroes and children, etc. Become popular. At this time, the martial arts have got rid of the stereotype that the chivalrous men in the Tang Dynasty were attached to and worked for politics, and presented the role characteristics of "wandering the rivers and lakes, being chivalrous in society" and confronting politics. This spirit is consistent with the "chivalrous man" in the Spring and Autumn Period. By the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, martial arts novels had been widely popular in the society, and gained public recognition, becoming a mature literary form.

After the film was introduced into China, novels and dramas with the theme of martial arts and the spirit of martial arts began to gradually merge with it. China's first martial arts film was Li Feifei the Woman, which was shot on 1925. The film is directed by Shao Zuiweng (Shao Yifu's brother) and starring Lin Yongrong, Ju-hua Fen and Wu Susheng. It tells the story of a woman who became a beautiful woman loved by others with her martial arts. Although the film has the embryonic form and spiritual temperament of later martial arts films, it is not born out of the story structure of China traditional opera, and its ending also falls into the stereotype, so it has not had much influence. It was 1928 that brought the martial arts film into the world's sight and achieved great success. It was "Burning Red Lotus Temple" produced by Star Film Company and directed by Zhang Shichuan.

The film is based on the martial arts novel Legend of the Wonders of the Jianghu, which is the first film adapted from the original martial arts novel. The influence is huge, the audience is like a flood, and the production company has earned both box office and word of mouth. Since then, the sequel continuous shooting, a * * * made 18, setting a single film record with the most sequels in China film history.

Martial arts films, as a unique film type in China, began to enter the film history of China.

Since 1930s, because of the popularity of Burning Red Lotus Temple, countless strange martial arts films have appeared in China. Most of these martial arts films are based on unofficial history, either pursuing novelty or being keen on old ideas, with low cultural quality and no breakthrough in technical level. After 1937, the martial arts films were interrupted by the all-out war of resistance.

Until the 1960s, China's martial arts films made no substantial progress in subject matter, shooting style and technology. Shaw started shooting martial arts movies in the 1950s, but it was not popular, so he had to combine Huangmei tune. At this time, the martial arts films are still rooted in traditional operas, and they have retained great traces of operas in terms of costumes, lines and plots.

1965 Shaw, the boss of Shaw Company, was tired of the proliferation of old-fashioned martial arts films and decided to shoot new types of martial arts films. After several attempts, Zhang Che filmed his masterpiece One-armed Knife on 1967, becoming the first movie with a box office of over one million, and Zhang Che was awarded the title of "million director". This film established Zhang Che's important position in the film industry, and was called the new martial arts film. In Zhang Che's movies, the actor really has a leading role; In Huang Mei's previous works, the actor was just a foil. In Zhang Che's films, the hero is a chivalrous man with strong personality, independent personality and his own standards of dealing with others. He values the friendship between men, and being immersed in love with children is the foil.

The new school of Wushu has got rid of the routine of the old school of Wushu and made great attempts and breakthroughs in technology. Some stylized and close-to-life characters and aesthetic tastes began to appear, but what really caused a great sensation and marked the maturity of martial arts films was "Woman" filmed by Taiwan Province director Hu Jinquan in 197 1 year.

This masterpiece of China's martial arts film, adapted from Liaozhai, has received rave reviews for its ups and downs, calm and suspenseful atmosphere, skillful and precise skills and Zen philosophy. It won the technical award of Cannes Film Festival that year, pushing China's martial arts films to the top of the world. This is the first time that China's martial arts film has won an award at an international film festival, which indicates that this type of martial arts film has been officially recognized by the world and recorded in the world film history.

This film is very innovative in both picture and script, and the director's understanding of China traditional culture is also the reason for its success. Bamboo grove, knight-errant, political persecution, flying skills, archery, outdoor shooting and other great martial arts elements that have influenced future generations are all original. However, the landscape interest and political apathy originated from Taoism are in deep agreement with the ideological roots of China's long-term agricultural society. In particular, the heroine played by Feng Hsu (now the president of Tomson Group in Taiwan Province Province) is light, smart and neat-looking, which has almost become the freeze frame of all heroines in later generations. And when she flew up the tree, she made an amazing clip (editing stunt), full of surprises. She is known as "the first knife in China Wushu", which had a great influence in 1970s. Tsui Hark, Cheng Xiaodong and others who rose later were deeply influenced by this film.

At this point, China Wushu has fully matured.

At this time, a new film form began to appear, and finally parted ways with martial arts movies: kung fu movies.

In the late 1980s, Hong Kong's new wave movies rose, and a number of new people began to emerge, including Tan Jiaming, Wong Kar-wai, Maggie Cheung and the later four great kings. At that time, Shaw films stopped shooting, and Hong Kong films showed huge market space. In this context, with the young creative vitality and vision brought by overseas returnees such as Tsui Hark and Cheng Xiaodong, the third climax of martial arts films began.

From 65438 to 0992, Cheng Xiaodong made a movie of the same name based on Jin Yong's martial arts novel the legendary swordsman. He boldly chose plots, innovated actions and narrative skills, and made great breakthroughs in editing methods and shooting methods. The maturity of Weiya technology, the application of elegant aesthetics and the isomorphism of * * become the aesthetic interest of this film. Here, Jin Yong's description of firm but gentle, intellectual lightness skill and so on has a perfect visual display. The legendary swordsman, a song written by James J.S.Wong, was once sung for a while, and it is still talked about by people today after 20 years.

The film completely continues the shooting style of "Xia Nv", and the main elements are still bamboo forest, knight in a hat, conspiracy and so on. Tsui Hark later explained that he really learned from Hu Jinquan, and the action direction of the film refers to: detachment and detachment in the chivalrous spirit and the complex with the outside world, which made the ultimate spiritual connotation of the martial arts film for the first time! !

Since then, Cheng Xiaodong has made persistent efforts to shoot the sequel "Dong Fangbubai", which has caused more controversy and movie-watching frenzy than the former, and has attracted nearly 10,000 people in Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. In movies, not only weapons can kill people, but also flying flowers, fallen leaves, needle and thread, iron hooks and even bare hands can kill people. Dong Fangbubai, dressed by Brigitte Lin, became a breakthrough in the image of the new martial arts characters.

In this film, Brigitte Lin plays Dong Fangbubai, neither male nor female, who wields a knife from the palace because of practicing the sunflower collection. Tsui Hark and Cheng Xiaodong absorbed the Japanese shogunate style in Kurosawa's films for the first time, and combined kimono with Brigitte Lin's beautiful temperament, while Brigitte Lin's almost perfect performance level became the iconic image of "Dong Fangbubai".

Based on this film, both Hongkong and Chinese mainland set off a frenzy of martial arts movies for the third time, and made a series of martial arts movies, such as Six Fingers on the Qin Magic and Tian Shan Tong Wood, which also made huge box office overseas.

In the following years, the martial arts films gradually declined, and the infinite reproduction of genres led to the visual fatigue of the audience. The market factors surrounding the box office also inhibited investors' desire to shoot. In the late 1990s, few people made martial arts films.

In 2000, the birth of a martial arts film triggered this kind of film again, that is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee. This film, which was invested by Hong Kong Anle Film and adapted from Wang Dulu's novel of the same name, won the Oscar for best foreign language film for the first time. So far, this is the only Chinese-language film directed by Chinese investment that won the Oscar for best foreign language film, and this film has also injected chicken blood into martial arts films.

There is no great breakthrough in elements and shooting techniques. However, from the director's level, lens design, editing, clothing, picture rhythm and other aspects. Cheng Xiaodong Tsui Hark's mode is reversed, adopting the aesthetics of "lightsaber". Among them, Zhang Ziyi's image of "Jade Jiaolong" was a sensation, and Ang Lee's director level was also affirmed unprecedentedly.

Since the 1990s, with the introduction of kimono in Dong Fangbubai, China's martial arts films have become more and more divorced from local culture, and various inexplicable styles, costumes and other visual designs have been forcibly integrated into western elements to please the rising American blockbusters at that time. Tsui Hark's "Broken Knife" and other films completely combine martial arts with American westerns. Inexplicable desert customs, strange armor and clothing, so-called fantasy style and so on. , cut off the relationship between martial arts films and China agricultural society, and distorted the cultural connotation of martial arts films. Coupled with the animation style in Hong Kong at this time, this "innovation" is not serious.

In this case, Ang Lee boldly returned to the original, redefining martial arts films as agricultural social customs (in fact, where did the chivalrous man come from in the ancient desert of China? Chivalry is bound to be accompanied by society, rivers and lakes, and even beautiful women. Although there are desert scenes in this film, it has been erased from the history and plot, and almost no traces can be seen. What is important in the film is still the pure Chinese style of green mountains and green waters and small buildings with broken bridges.

The film is starred by Chow Yun Fat, who plays Li Mubai. The meaning of "hero" contained in his freehand and generous action design has not appeared for more than 20 years. However, the flying feats of Yu Jiaolong and Yu Xiulian on the roof stunned the audience, especially the American audience. Washington post even posted a front-page comment: defy gravity!

Almost all the elements in this film come from China's traditional Taoism, including "Qi", "acupoint" and "lightness". The original novel was written in the early years of the Republic of China. The film is basically loyal to the novel and captures its spiritual essence.

But unfortunately, the mainland film market was extremely bleak at that time. The fifth generation repeatedly tried to fail in business, and the sixth generation rejected the business model, which led to the occupation of the market by Hollywood films. In this case, this excellent commercial martial arts film was introduced to the mainland, which triggered a certain wave of watching movies. This situation is the envy of mainland film companies and bosses. For various psychological reasons, they hired a group of so-called film critics, who distorted the film, and evaluated it as: please the United States, please the box office, lack of connotation, etc. ...

In fact, it's hard for Americans to understand this film, because Americans don't understand what "flying skills" are. In the whole world, only China culture has descriptions of ordinary people flying in the sky. In the Christian world, flying is equal to God! Washington post's comment "openly resisting the gravity of the earth" highlights the cultural differences between the East and the West. Therefore, attacking the artistic status of movies under the pretext of "pleasing Americans" is not only inconsistent with the facts, but also highlights the impatience and sense of crisis of the mainland film industry at that time.

At this point, China's martial arts films have come to an end, and then, the first pure commercial film "Hero" that triggered the industrialization of China's films was the reference of this film, and then "House of Flying Daggers" and so on, China's martial arts films officially entered Hollywood.