There is surprisingly a numerous amount of literature and scholarly works in the action films of Hong Kong, many containing information about martial arts – since this is often a defining feature of Hong Kong action cinema. Many of this information is written by fight choreographers who have worked in film in both Hong Kong and the US. To be honest, I really have not heard of them nor have I seen their films. Supposedly they are pre-eminent fight choreographers who successfully bridge the gap between Hong Kong and American film fighting styles yet are still tainted by the lack of respect given to their craft in the American film industry.

I still have never heard of or seen really any of their films. Yet I think the views they put forth on choreography in their literature are fairly valid because I have seen the various aspects they discuss in many different martial arts movies. Many are in agreeance as to the fact that US choreography is not up to the standard set forth by Hong Kong choreography of fight scenes. Some of the general reasons are as follows:

1. Hong Kong choreographers are given much
more respect and freedom, treated almost on par with the director of the
film
2. Fight scenes in Hong Kong can
take up to several months to film, while in America, they are often filmed in
several hours only
3. Hong Kong
choreographers are allowed to supervise the cinematography and editing of their
fight scenes

Compounding these are several factors of American action cinema that are different than those of Hong Kong action cinema. These include an American preoccupation with masculinity, and extremely muscular bodies. This leads to choreography that often focuses on poses and slow, powerful moves which are not necessarily fluid and create a jerky fight scene that is harder for the audience to get in to.

Another pervasive feeling among the literature is that there is no ability between the skill and know-how of American choreographers and Hong Kong choreographers. It is merely a question of resources and working conditions. Surprisingly, the discussion of the abilities of different martial artists working in America and Hong Kong does not figure into the discussion much – but presumably there is little difference. Overall, it is presumed to be the various conditions under which American choreographers work under than has held back the quality of American martial arts fight scenes more than anything.

In comparing choreographed martial arts scenes from American films with those in Eastern films (most notably Hong Kong), there are several differences and inadequacies that show up mostly in American movies, including haphazard editing, less variety of techniques and a slower overall tempo. These differences have been present for decades, but what are the consequences of them and what are the current trends in fight choreography in the United States?

In Hong Kong and mainland China, the martial arts movie is king at the box office, with recent top-grossing films including Jet Li’s Fearless and Donnie Yen’s Ip Man (both historical films about great kung fu masters of China). Meanwhile, in the United States, the martial arts film is quite often relegated to direct-to-video releases or late night cable status. In China, in 2008 alone, 5 out of the top 10 highest grossing movies of the year had kung fu elements in them (http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/ent_msg.php?titleid=288). To contrast this with US films author Adrian Wilson posits that

“Historically, the martial-arts genre, with which Chan and other Asian stars are
often associated, has been only marginally successful in the United
States, and pure martial-arts narratives rarely appear in theatrical release.
Consequently, white martial-arts stars such as Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van
Damme have, in their more profitable films, appeared in straightforward action
narratives involving gunfights, car chases, and a limited amount of acrobatics
and hand-to-hand combat, rather than swordplay or martial-arts kicks and
punches.”

One of these reasons is likely the quality of fight scenes in US films, which may not be strong enough to attract US audiences as significantly as those in movies from Hong Kong and China.
A response to this issue has been for US productions to begin hiring Hong Kong directors for their films. The first was John Woo, who directed Jean Claude Van Damme in Hard Target. More recently is the Corey Yuen helmed film The Transporter starring Jason Statham. But these films usually do not live up to their potential entirely because the working conditions in the US are not as suited for their style as Hong Kong conditions are.

There is evidence that the differences between US and Hong Kong choreography are not merely issues relating to martial arts purists, but are relevant in dollars and cents. It is clear from the hiring of Hong Kong directors as well as actors (such as Jet Li) that US film producers are aware of this deficiency in their martial arts films, yet still they are not willing to provide the proper resources for quality martial arts scenes to really catch the attention of the American public. I end with this thought: high budget special effects films are some of the highest grossing in the US (exemplified by Dark Night and Iron Man). These films take months just to complete the special effects scenes in order to make sure they are top notch –the best in the world. If one is attempting to make a quality martial arts film, why not take the same time and care in developing the fight scenes – the prime draw of the martial arts genre?

Some Basics About Fight Choreography

Lately I have been delving into the topic of fight choreography in martial arts movies. What may seem like a simple matter of punching and kicking to the layman is actually a complicated and multifaceted process incorporating actors, stuntmen and specialists. Many martial arts movies are made specifically to showcase the action – a fact made obvious by the dearth of plot, character development, acting, and overall merit in these films. But what factors makes a good fight scene? That is the question that often is so elusive and ever-changing.

One of the major issues is the disparity between the choreography found in Western (i.e. American) martial arts movies and Eastern (i.e. Hong Kong) movies. Fight choreographer Craig Reid explains that this is due to differences in the editing techniques and structure of the fight scenes. The American style of choreography in the last few decades has been exemplified by stars such as Chuck Norris, Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. These actors are probably the three biggest names in American martial arts cinema and were very influential for their time. All three utilized choreography that highlighted powerful moves, while not necessarily focusing on speed or fluidity. This brutal strength, combined with stylized editing including frequent cuts made the fight scenes somewhat blocky.

American cinema often uses tight angles and quick cuts to mask the poor fighting ability of actors who are not very skilled in martial arts. One notable example is Batman Begins, where all the fight scenes were somewhat disjointed and fast paced, and the action was not really discernible. The overall effect was disappointing as we wanted to see Batman actually do something, instead of an almost stroboscopic action effect. Hong Kong movies are famous for making non-martial artists look like experienced fighters through a combination of well placed stunt doubles and expert choreography. These movies often use wider angles and longer takes that enhance the realism of the scene and showcase the techniques much better.

Fluidity is a trademark of Chinese martial arts, which is why many of them are referred to as “soft styles.” Many American martial artists have Japanese Karate backgrounds which is a more rigid style and not as circular and flowing as the Chinese martial arts. Circular and intricate movements are more pleasing aesthetically – exemplified by China’s Peking Opera, a combination of martial arts fighting and performance. In the past, Hong Kong cinema also benefitted from more relaxed regulations for stuntwork, which resulted in dangerous but spectacular feats performed by Chinese stuntmen. Today, this mantel of dangerous but breathtaking stunts has been taken over by Thailand, which is producing many top stuntmen who are willing to risk their lives for a martial arts fight scene.

These are just a few of the factors which make up the notable differences between American fight scenes and their Asian counterparts. Today the gap is beginning to shrink due to the practice of Americans bringing over choreographers from China to do a lot of high profile work, but still some of the American filmmaking practices are not conducive to making a highly stylized fight scene. With the ability of martial artists and filmmaking technology improving constantly, more refinements and developments in the area of choreography are sure to come.

Thinking about upcoming trends in choreography...

I have been collecting sources regarding martial arts movies for the past few weeks, and it is interesting to note the ones I gravitated towards. As a martial artist myself, and someone who is very interested in film, I have always taken note of fight choreography and its affect on the quality of a film. For a true martial arts fan, the choreography and skill of the fighters will be the selling point for a film.

Three of my sources specifically address martial arts choreography, and it is quite intriguing to me how the sources break the concept down. It really is important to take into account the martial arts style, editing, camera angles, sound effects, rhythm and myriad other factors when choreographing a successful fight scene.

Since this movie is about trends in the martial arts cinema, I got to thinking about what the trends in choreography are developing towards. Naturally, there has before been a contrast between the western types of martial arts fight scenes (which I would say are most easily exemplified by Jean Claude Van Damme), versus the Hong Kong style fight scenes seen in the movies of Jackie Chan (and of course many others). The American style used to be much slower, clunkier, and with fewer variety of techniques, while the Hong Kong style was much more varied, faster and emphasized more contact.

Yet this blog is about change, and new emerging trends. It is clear to see today that this difference between eastern and western choreography is changing. One of the primary reasons is that much of the choreography in American movies today is done by Hong Kong choreographers, or people who have trained with them. Another change is the increasing emphasis on acrobatics in choreography, which is always a crowd please (see: Jaa, Tony).

These are just a few reflections, but there is more to come soon.

A flake of page - kung fu style

http://www.pageflakes.com/skypilot28/25985750

If a little flake of the internet fell onto your tongue, would it be as unique and variable as a tiny crystalline snowflake? Would this tiny e-flake contain unique tidbits from all over the web, combining into something unlike to any other flake out there on the internet? Well, through the wonders of a resource called pageflakes we are able to explore this bizarre and partially nonsensical question.

Pageflakes is a website that allows you to easily create your own personal page with a plethora of built in search bars and newsfeeds, as well as the ability to customize your “flake” with any RSS feed or web page off the internet. Personal touches such as background images and arrangements of the various boxes and links complete the customization of your unique flake!

Today I am not writing simply to extol the virtues of pageflakes, but to introduce my own flake. It can be found at http://www.pageflakes.com/skypilot28/25985750. The focus is of course martial arts cinema. The largest and most noticeable feature on my flake is the inclusion of 10 RSS feeds from different martial arts blogs across the internet. The feeds are in a rough descending order of importance, starting with the frequently updated “Kung Fu Cinema,” followed by other mainstays such as “Kung Fu Cult Cinema” and “Kung Fu Fridays.” Additionally ,there are a few new blogs I have not yet mentioned, such as the official blog of actor and Wushu champion Wu Jing (of Sha Po Lang and Fatal Contact), which often has unique inside information not found elsewhere. Some of the other RSS feeds are from smaller blogs about Asian Cinema that nonetheless have some interesting insights or updates, while some of the blogs are about martial arts in general – mostly about the Chinese martial arts, as that is my specialty and one of my greatest interests.

To the left of the RSS feeds are a few generic search boxes, which are handily pre-loaded with the term “kung fu” to get you all the latest news from various internet news and blog sources. Between the Universal Blog Search and the Universal News Search, the News option seems to be more interesting, with a superficial search revealing several stories regarding Jackie Chan and the New Street Fighter movie.

To the far right, I have added a few resources of my own. One is my diigo bookmarks – some of which are included in the RSS feeds, some of which are not. Unfortunately, despite the “web 2.0” movement not all websites have RSS feeds, so you have to go old school and actually check them yourself. At least it makes for a nice pastime while in class, at work or in meetings. Also I have included the bookmarks for my “social bookmarking soulmate,” aka a guy who tags a lot of stuff, some of which is similar to mine. I’ve posted about “Squeezebox” before, but check the link to his del.icio.us bookmarks out, there are some really interesting links in there, such as the blog of Bey Logan which I have posted about before.

Lastly, I have included an annotated bibliography of the sources I have been looking at lately. I posted about different research materials pertaining to martial arts movies last week, and here I have collected them in an annotated bibliographic format via citeline, a website that compiles your sources and automatically creates a bibliography for you. There are a lot of websites that perform this service, but citeline has one up on them because not only does it create a downloadable bibliography, but it displays it as a web page, or “exhibit” which you can link to, as I have done here. It also has the ability to get information directly from your zotero library (a firefox add-on that stores sources) via a feature called zotz, which seems to be named merely to add to the lexicon of nonsense internet words which you will pick up from this blog.

Pageflakes is easy to use and rather elementary, but the options available for customizing it are nearly endless. Aside from the features I described on my flake, there are a few other small features and “widgets” which I have added to keep you occupied – some directly related to research and/ or news about martial arts, some not. Pageflakes basically lets you create a crude personal website, that has the ability to house many of the features possible on a self-made website with a fraction of the time and work put in. Now that you have seen mine, set forth on your own journey to flake as you will.