More resources about Martial Arts Cinema

Here are some more resources I came across while taking a break from facebook. Even more academic type papers about different aspects of martial arts movies involving choreography styles, and also some of the content of martial arts movies.

The first source is called "The Global Return of Wu Xia Pian (Chinese Sword-Fighting Movie): Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" As the descriptive title explains, the essay (written by Kenneth Chan) examines the internationally acclaimed film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in context of the Chinese Wu Xia Pian (武侠片), Chinese movies popular particularly in the 1960s and 70s concerning Chinese heroes in a historical setting, who often have inexplicable powers of flight. Chan's essay contrasts the historical Wu Xia of former decades with the newer, flashier Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon which brings a few twists to the genre, with mixed results. It is a good essay to help shed light on the changes martial arts films experience over the years: re-makes, revivals and re-imaginings. Many films of the current era are built upon the foundations of old ones. One only has to look as far as Quentin Tarantino to see blatant homages (or tasteless copies, depending on the opinion of the viewer). All these trends have a source, and in Chan's essay the source is exposed for what it is, to those who may not know, and contrasted with the current tastes.

The second article is entitled "Fighting Without Fighting: Film Action" and is written by Craig Reid, who is the self proclaimed

"only Chinese-trained American fight choreographer working in the United States today"

I find this statement kind of dubious and arrogant. Does this not count the many Asian choreographers in the states such as Koichi Sakamoto? I haven't really heard of most of Craig Reid's movies before. Plus, he looks kind of like Zac Efron on acid.

That's him on the right, pictured next to revolutionary Hong Kong action director Tsui Hark. Anyways, I always enjoy reading about fight choreography, and Reid has some interesting analysis of various choreography techniques against single opponents and multiple opponents, and how they are shot and edited different in the US and in China. He claims these techniques all have detailed acronyms such as MSSQUE (Many Shot, one Strike, QUick Edit) and the SAC (Striking At Camera). I wonder if he made these terms up himself. Perhaps not, but regardless he provides some interesting insight into how these techniques originated and - essentially - how he claims they are misused by American choreographers. Most agree that on a regular basis US fight scenes are inferior to most Chinese fight scenes, so this article provides some good tips for improving potential choreography.

A third source of interest is called "Kinesthesia in Martial Arts Films: Action in Motion" by Aaron Anderson. In this article, Anderson describes principles of movement (or kinesthetics as he refers to it as) and rhythmic sound editing to tell a story in a fight scene. He uses terms such as metakinesis (transferring aesthetic and emotional concepts) while describing fight scenes shot by shot. In particular, he analyses in detail a scene from the Steven Seagal tour de force "Out For Justice" in which Steven Seagal annhihilates numerous people in a bar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMu2xNBpyQc). This is also the scene that epitomizes the vague yet douchey threats of Seagal with the line "Who's hotdog is this eh, is this yours?" Anderson describes the crescendo of action mixed with on and offscreen synchronized sound to produce an effective fight scene (which he contrasts with the very different style of Jackie Chan). This is a very detailed article that provides good details on fight choreography and editing.

One more source I happened upon is a chapter from the book The Worldling Project edited by Rob Wilson and Christopher Leigh Connery. One chapter of the book is an article written by Meaghan Morris entitled "Learning from Bruce Lee: Pedagogy and Political Correctness in Martial Arts Cinema." This article takes a different look at martial arts cinema, stepping away from the physicality and choreographically analyses of the other articles and focusing on the storytelling methods of martial arts movies - many of which are admittedly not great works of art but still have specific and effective ways of conveying their messages. Focus is put on two movies in particular, the Hong Kong/ US co-production No Retreat No Surrender and the US biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. The article uses scholarly language and can be a little dense, but the author is definitely in touch with the genre and the films reviewed.

These are some diverse and quite interesting sources, if you are interested in learning more about martial arts movies and how they are made, check them out!