Hong Kong Action Movies: a Transnational Genre - Essay Example

?Hong Kong action movies: a transnational genre. The genre of the Hong Kong action movie has enjoyed mixed fortunes over the years, representing initially a particularly Chinese genre but now reaching a much wider audience through transnational co-productions which fuse Eastern and Western production techniques and thematic content. This paper traces the development of the genre from a local to a transnational phenomenon, and the implications of changes that have occurred over the years, with reference to three films: Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow (1978), Rush Hour (1998) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004). In the 1970s the Hong Kong action film genre reached international audiences largely through the work of Bruce Lee, and the television series Kung Fu. Hunt notes, however, that the transition from East to West was effected with a clear set of boundaries in terms of the allocation of tasks in making such films: “written and directed by white westerners, fight scenes choreographed and performed by Hong Kong.”1 Over time the role of the Hong Kong choreographer in films produced in America waned, and the 1970s enthusiasm for Kung Fu faded away. It seemed that interest in kung fu was nothing more than a passing phase. The genre was revived in the 1990s again by an influx of Hong Kong cinema professionals to America but this time there was a much broader range of talent involved, from actors like Jackie Chan, to directors like John Woo and choreographers like Yuen Wo-Ping.2 At first the films produced in the United States failed to make full use of the talents of the incomers, stressing their acting skills rather than their directorial contributions, and failing to understand the cultural resonance of the Hong Kong martial arts star. There was a clash of culture also in the cinematic practices of the transnational action movie, so that it tended to deteriorate into a binary opposition between slow and powerful Western heavyweight stuntsmen and fast, intricate martial arts technicians, thus bringing new messages of racial stereotypes to the genre. For many, this kind of collaboration is a travesty of the original subtlety of the Hong Kong cinema tradition. Above all, it severely impacts on the scope that is left for the inventive choreography and direction that is the trademark of Hong Kong martial arts fight scenes. The significance of choreography for the martial arts film genre cannot be underestimated. It is the feature, alongside the Chinese cultural setting, which distinguishes the genre from other action movie types. The contribution of one choreographer in particular has dominated the field: Yuen Wo Ping who has been a leading contributor in the genre starting with the innovative Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow in 1978 which started off a long collaboration with Jackie Chan. The Chinese national context, and the filming in the Hong Kong location makes a stunning use of the acrobatic showmanship of the Beijing Opera style of action. Moves are stylized, involving set pieces with traditional Chinese equipment and costumes, often using wire techniques and extremely fast sleight of hand. In this tradition the stunt man and the actor are the same person, and choreographers also are trained in this highly specialized skill set. One way of understanding the impact of this popular and very iconic cinematography is to see it in terms of its particular chronotope. According to Bahktin the concept of a chronotope refers to the unity of time and place in creative literature, and term can also be usefully applied to film: “In the literary artistic chronotope, spatial and temporal indicators are fused into one carefully thought-out, concrete whole. Time, as it were, thickens, takes on flesh, becomes artistically visible; likewise space becomes charged and responsive to the movements of time, plot, and history.” 3 Kung Fu action films work best when deeply embedded in Chinese history, geography and culture. They have a resonance with Chinese audiences, whether in Hong Kong, Taiwan or mainland China because of their thematic connections with historical figures, and with the deeper philosophical ideas of Taoism and the legends that underpin various Asian religious. It seems that one explanation for the decline in popularity of Kung Fu action films in the 1980s might be the loss of this essential chronotope. When the direction is done by a westerner and the acting is done by an Asian actor, for example, then there is a break in the continuity of the film’s vision which even the best choreographer cannot fully overcome. The film no longer matches the expectations of an Asian audience, and does not make any sense to a Western audience that cannot connect with the original culture. Worse than this, even, is the shadow of past relations between East and West that colors the way transnational films are interpreted. The relationship is not entirely equal, and experiences in the two countries during former colonial times have left their mark. Dumas points out that this can reinforce partisan, and ultimately false impressions that have been inherited from this tainted past: “Kung Fu Hustle … in its attempt to appeal to a transnational audience, affirms distinctly Western notions of Chineseness that many earlier kung fu films set out to subvert.”4 The importance of Bruce Lee in making the transition from attachment to a historical and very Chinese past to a more modern and outward looking future is well documented: “… for Lee martial arts were meaningful not in their links to the past, but rather in their capacity to aid human expression and growth.”5 Instead of being locked into an Asian chronotope, the genre reached out towards a more universal and modern appeal. When Jackie Chan replaced Bruce Lee after the latter,s death in 1973 as the martial arts idol of choice, the themes widened to embrace modernity: “Subverting traditional Chinese patriarchy, encouraging the youth, and representing cosmopolitanism were just a few of Chan’s characters’ most notable tasks..”6 The arrival of Chan in America to take up comedy roles with a kung fu twist created a bridge between the past and modernity, between East and West, although with a distinct hierarchy in which Americans took the more controlling role. More recent developments from the late 1990s onwards have shown, however, that there are a number of promising consequences that follow from a greater fusion of American and Chinese cinematic practices: “Ironically, in contradiction to the slide in gross receipts and self-esteem, new Hong Kong films and talents have been earning international recognition – even in the difficult-to crack American market.”7 Gorman notes that the implications of an exodus of local talent from Hong Kong to the United States and the influence of American production styles are not all negative. The departing stars leave room in Hong Kong for new talents to emerge, the standard of technical and creative novelty in the Hong Kong industry is on the rise, and the influence of Hong Kong ideas, traditions and styles internationally has never been greater.8 It seems that in this more cosmopolitan and globalized era, the fusion of Chinese and American elements in high budget co-productions is creating its own new urban chronotopic motifs. The unhelpful East/West opposition is being replaced by a more nuanced appreciation of race and culture. Sarkar, for example, notes that there has been an “emptying out of racial and ethnic dynamics in the reception of the two Rush Hour films (1998, 2001) in Hong Kong. While this duo of transnational blockbusters starring Jackie Chan did well in the Hong Kong market, much of the humor – springing from the misuse of the epithen “nigger” or the more flavorful “sweet-and-sour chicken ass” was lost on the audiences.” 9 This means that the flow of negative cultural content from the United States to Hong Kong is less than one might have anticipated. Conversely, the device of partnering the Asian actor Chan with American actors reduces the flow of cultural content from Hong Kong to the United States: “The role of Jackie’s ‘buddies’ in Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon is to ‘Americanize’ him.10 The differences in the two traditions are thus diluted, and a complex mix is the result. Another benefit of transnational co-production is that that new meanings can emerge out of the exchange: “Something is always lost in translation in the transnational circulation of film genres and, arguably, something unintended or unanticipated is gained.”11 The phenomenally successful Kung Fu Hustle of 2004 catapulted Stephen Chow, and by implication also the kung fu action film genre, into the forefront of cinema world attention. It is no coincidence that Chow himself who directs, acts and choreographs the film, because he instinctively reunites these three elements of the original kung fu genre. This allows some of the unities of the original genre to shine through and accounts for the high quality of the film’s production. Critics have interpreted the film’s content, however, in different ways and not all are impressed with the way that Chinese elements are integrated with Western ones. The setting of the film in 1940’s Shanghai is, according to Dumas, presented in a way which recalls the Westerns of John Wayne, or the spaghetti Westerns of Clint Eastwood.12 From this observation Dumas deduces, somewhat unfairly, that “the unnaturalness of Chow’s synthesis of prevalent conceptualizations of China and America’s pasts seems haphazardly composed not in any sincere attempt to explore Chinese or Hong Kong identity, but rather in order to appeal to some preconceived notion of the national sentiment and sensibilities of potential viewers worldwide.”13 The point of the film, however, is not so much “a sincere attempt to explore Chinese or Hong Kong identity” but to represent a chronotope which is a more generic kind of urban gangster past. The parallels with the Western are parodic, and the purpose is more to do with comedy than any serious intent to represent some inherent truth, since the locations are nothing like the cactus and canyon scenes in American movies of this genre and the characterization is deliberately overblown. Realism is thrown to the wind, and the fantastic and supernatural take over. The film takes an ancient Hong Kong motif of two opposing martial art factions, and transplants it into a murky, culturally ambivalent and cosmopolitan past. The final battle between Sing and The Beast shows another parodic element: the transformation of a human being into an animal, in the style of a comic or graphic novel. Chow is playing with different traditions here, both the Asian comic book and the American super-hero tradition, and fusing them into an epic battle which is deliberately NOT drawn on East/West oppositions. Both parties are Asian and the cultural elements are mixed together. Sing is a kungfu superhero, and blends the two traditions in a new creation. Kungfu actin movies have, in the new millennium, finally transcended simplistic East/West opposition and entered a new globalized context. References Chow, Stephen. Kung Fu Hustle. Film starring Stephen Chow, Danny Chan etc. Columbia Pictures, 2004. Bakthin, Mikhail M. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes toward a Historical Poetics, in Brian Richardson, (ed.) Narrative Dynamics: Essays on time plot, closure, and frames. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2002, pp. 15-24. Dumas, Rachael. “Kung Fu Production for Global Consumption: The Depoliticization of Kung Fu in Stephen Chow’s Kung Fu Hustle.” Style 43 (1) (2009), pp. 65-85. Gorman, Patrick K. 2003. “Hong Kong to Hollywood.” Movie Maker January 29, (2003), available online at: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/hong_kong_to_hollywood_3279/ Hunt, Leon. “The Hong Kong Hollywood Connection: Stardom and spectacle in transnational action cinema.” In Yvonne Tasker, (ed.), Action and Adventure Cinema. London and New York: Routledge, 2004, pp. 269-283. Ratner, Brett. Rush Hour. Film starring Jackie Chan. United States: New Line Cinema, 1998. Sarkar, Bhaskar. “Tracking ‘global media’ in the outposts of globalization, “ in Nastasa Durovicova, (ed.) World cinemas, transnational perspectives, New York: Taylor and Francis, 2010, pp. 34-58. Yuen, Woo-ping. Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow. Film starring Jackie Chan. Hong Kong: Seasonal Film Corporation, 1978. Read More