I have fond memories of- as a child, lying on the floor, head propped up on my elbows in front of the TV watching an absolutely insane amount of martial arts movies. I would marvel at the styles portrayed by the actors, the movement and timing of the choreography, albeit fantastically over-exaggerated and often mystical, it filled me with delight and wonder. I dreamt of avenging the honour of my master who was ruthlessly killed in the temple by an invading clan. I would need to track down and train under the guidance of an old retired Grand Master, in order to exact my revenge.
More often than not, the story lines were pretty awful, the acting appalling and the English dubbing in many of the far-eastern productions was downright atrocious, and with the sound of every movement over emphasised by what sounded like a combination of crisp bag popping, cutlery rattling and banging pieces of wood together, to some- my mother especially, the genre was laughable, but I didn’t care!
One of my favourites: The One Armed Swordsman, starring Yu Wang and directed by The Godfather of Hong Kong cinema, the late great Chang Cheh: is a great standalone classic from 1967, far more gritty and violent than all that came before it, with a truer depiction of character combined with far more dynamic filming techniques that truly set precedence for the many great films that would come to follow. In my opinion, one of the greatest films ever made, in any genre, anywhere!
However, Martial Arts Movies would still remain almost exclusively the enjoyment of Far-Eastern film audiences. That is, until the arrival of a certain Mr. Bruce Lee.
Bruce Lee was actually born and raised in San Francisco and at the age of five, studied acting as early as he began studying Martial Arts. It was only after the failure of the Green Lantern series, broadcast in the USA, I guess the western world still wasn’t quite ready to embrace martial arts, that Bruce decided to move to Hong Kong and the rest is history.
Despite Bruce Lee’s now world-wide recognition, he played the leading role in only four movies before his sad and untimely death in 1973: The Big Boss, Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon and of course the masterpiece that is Enter the Dragon.
Rather than being a period piece, the nature of all preceding martial arts movies up to that point; Enter the Dragon was set within a more contemporary surrounding, making it far more relative and acceptable to western cinema audience. The moderate success of Bruce Lee’s previous three movies, his well-documented philosophies, that were beginning to gather some attention and the unfortunate event that took his life, which ironically coincided with the year Enter the Dragon was released; all these events combined to make Enter the Dragon a U.S Box Office smash that would firmly place Martial Arts as a film genre in its own right and open the doors for martial arts to appear in many Hollywood film and TV productions from then on.
Coincidentally, in many ways, this also introduced martial arts training as a viable lifestyle choice to many of us today. Try looking through any catalogue containing martial arts equipment and try not to conjure a picture of Bruce Lee battling through the epic Enter the Dragon nunchuku scene as you spot a pair in the weapon section. That’s an indication of how synonymous it all is. Ask yourself, why did you start martial arts? Many of us just wanted to be like our heroes, c’mon, admit it, y’know it’s true!
It wasn’t all down to Bruce though, martial arts still required a hero to keep our interests peaked. Just as all the hype surrounding Bruce Lee began to fade and David Carradine’s portrayal of Kwai Chang Caine in the TV series Kung Fu came to an end, which in itself was a result of Lee’s legacy, 1978 saw the release of two seminal martial arts movies: Snake in the Eagles Shadow and the sublime Drunken Master. Both of which starred someone who is now one of Hollywood biggest stars, Jackie Chan.
Bruce Lee left a huge hole in the genre that up until that point the Hong Kong film industry were continually trying to fill and capitalize on his success by producing a string of re-hashed tripe. Jackie Chan, a well renowned stunt-man, a product of the Peking Opera School and a Black Belt in Hapkido; having, himself, been subjected into starring in a few of these poor variations on a theme, decided to put his own spin on the characters he portrayed by adding elements of slap-stick comedy to his performances and capitalizing on his stuntman experience by taking all the risks himself. Jackie reinvented the genre and has earned himself much admirations that has kept him producing hit movie after hit movie up to this day. None more so than the box office smash, Rush Hour 2.
Throughout the 1980′s and 1990′s, Hollywood released a barrage on martial art action films, some great, many apalling. One thing was assured though, martial arts practitioners soon found there to be opportunities to not only find work choreographing the fight scenes but to actually find themselves enjoying the starring roles.
There have been far too many to list them all but the most notable to me are:
Cynthia Rothrock: 5 times Karate Forms and Weapons Champion and 7th Degree Black-Belt in Tang Soo Do, Black-Belt in Tae-Kwon-Do, and various Chinese styles including Eagle-Claw and Wu-Shu. To me she will always be China O’Brien.
Jean Claude Van Damme: European Karate Champion and Middle-Weight Kickboxer. Only knocked down once in martial arts competition. Jean has enjoyed a string of box office successes. Bloodsport and Kickboxer, probably the most notable for me as standalone martial art classics.
Steven Seagal: love him or hate him, you can’t deny the skill of the man. So much so that he is still, to this date, the first westerner to operate a Dojo in Japan. With classics such as Under Siege and Above the Law; would Aikido be as popular today if it weren’t for this Black Belt’s acting achievements?
Chuck Norris: Bruce Lee’s enemy in Way of the Dragon, Chuck began training in Tang So Do before becoming a Karate Champion. Chuck Norris is the founder of the martial arts style Chun Kuk Do. Starring in the brilliant Missing in Action trilogy, Missing in Action 2 is a classic in my opinion and of course the TV Series: Walker, Texas Ranger.
Wesley Snipes: 5th Dan Shotokan and 2nd Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and with Capoeira, Kung-Fu and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training under his belt; that’s why he will forever be known as Blade. Day-Walker!
So what of the Martial Artist who strives to become the next action hero of tomorrow? In this digital age is there a place for them at all when audiences can be fooled into believing their favourite actors, after only a few months of being taught to go through the motions, are expert practitioners, especially when combined with the use of state of the art technology, clever editing and intuitive camera angles?
Will there even be a place for fight choreographers now that technological advances in CGI allow for entire fight scenes to be animated like Neo in the Matrix, Princess Fiona in Shrek and Kung-Fu Panda?
When the current stars like Jet Li and Tony Jaa’s stardom fades and pioneering directors like John Woo, Yuen Woo-ping and Ang Lee disappear; who will be our stars of the future will they be Martial Artists or actors faking it? Will they even be real at all or just cleverly animated characters?
Will there be any future heroes with true martial arts background to encourage and inspire the next generation of kids to embrace the teaching of martial arts and if not, will martial arts itself, suffer as a result?
So who is your hero? Be it credible or an out and out guilty pleasure; tell us, what’s your favourite Martial Arts Movie?
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