Martial arts and the globalization of US and Asial film industries

This article talks about "how globalization is affecting film industries in the USA and Asia". Due to globalization the film industries from all over the world has been coming together. People can watch Hollywood films about anywhere in the world, and Hollywood even remakes some movies from other countries. Klein notes that " a number of factors are driving Hollywood's embrace of martial arts, from a growing popular interest in many forms of Asian culture to the enthusiastic practice of martial arts by Americans across the social spectrum". Asian actresses often appear in Hollywood films, and even in the movie "Fighter in the wind" you can see couple American actors. Because of the historical background, the Korean movie "Fighter in the wind" contains three different languages.

http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Klein_Christina.pdf?issn=14775700&issue=v02i0003&article=360_maatgouaafi

Three Kims

“Kim” is probably the most popular last name in Korea, and this another Korean martial arts film tells a story about three martial arts masters who all share the same last name; Kim. One Master Kim practices Taekkyeon and he also has a little son. He is a martial arts master but he refuses to fight in any circumstances.  The other master Kim practices Kumdo, which is similar to fencing. However, he is afraid of hitting people with the sword so he purchased and stole trophys so that he can keep them in his gym. The story begins when a Kungfu master, who can actually use his martial arts skills, moves into this small town. 

Two other master Kims get up extremely upset fearing that they will lose all their students and even the landlords daughter who they have crush on. All three Master Kims compete against each other for students, the girl, and most importantly, their pride as a martial arts master. However, strange movements are occurring in this small town. All three masters gets attacked by gangsters, and people are starting to slowly move out of the town. The Kungfu master is the only one who is actually willing to fight them face to face which ultimately gets him in trouble and makes Taekkyeon master to reveal his past as a legendary fighter. 

The movie rewinds and tells the story how the Taekkyeon master was a legendary fighter who fought for justice, and lost his partner and how he determined to never fight again. The director purposely reveals his identity end of this movie to teach the lesson that real martial arts master does not use their skills to hurt people. The skills has to be used for justice, which is foundation of most of the martial arts. 

This movie ends with a kick boxing master moving into the town which provides a comic relief. You will get a lot of good laughs out of this movie while all three Master Kims trying to compete against each other. This is a martial arts film that contains actions, humor, and even a touching story in the end. 

Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action

 A Korean martial arts film, Arahan: Urban Martial Arts Action, takes place in the capital city of Korea; Seoul. The main character Sang-hwan is a clumsy policeman who cannot even run after a thief without getting hurt. However, he wants to fight for justice in the world. When six masters of Tao meets him, they believe that he has the special power to become a Maruchi, a powerful warrior. He trains to control his heart, learns that benefiting others is more important than winning and realizes that when he can sacrifice himself he can become a powerful warrior. 

However, the evil power, Heuk-woon, accidently gets released and attacks masters while Sang-hwan fights gangsters in a restaurant. The evil power is looking for a key so that he will have the power to dominate the world. When Sang-hwan and Eui-jin faces the evil power, Sang-hwan gives him the tattoo that has strong power, and the evil power gets destroyed by it because he did not have strong enough power to handle the tattoo. 

The Tattoo symbolizes the power that could dominate the world. Only someone who will used the power to benefit others will obtain the power. The director also picks the main character to be a clumsy policeman who cannot even do his job instead of someone with some martial arts experience. It suggests that martial arts is not all about just fighting. It is all about using martial arts for the right reasons, to practice justice. 

During fight scenes, there are a lot of moments where the director slows the scene down or take all the sounds away. It dramatizes the fights and creates this fantasy-like scenes. 

This movie ends with Sang-hwan and Eui-jin fighting for justice in the city of Seoul using their power, which is kind of an ending that one can easily find in many Hollywood films. 

Martical Arts Films Affect on Culture

How has Kung Fu movies affected the American audience? Furthermore, are Kung Fu movies an accurate depiction of what Asian culture is really like? The Bruce Lee Kung Fu phenomenon resonated with middleclass Americans during a time of racial prodigious and the turmoil of the Vietnam War. The movies portrayed a strong racial minority who shows super human abilities and to demonstrate that anything is possible through personal will power. So these movies did capture the middleclass audiences of the U.S. for these reasons because it provided hope in a dark time.

Some would argue that the films have not accurately depicted Asian culture correctly simple because the type of justice did not happen in the real China. The films paint a dull picture of the governments and social life in Asia. In fact, it makes it as if what happens in Kung Fu films is all that happens in China, which is completely a false way of viewing a culture. But Bruce Lee films did show that Hong Kong was discontent of British rule. Ultimately, early Kung Fu movies portrayed a strong nationalistic and racial pride which was a captivating feature to many Americans during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

Jackie Chan ushered in a more comedic form of Kung Fu movies, which had a different affect on culture than Bruce Lee movies. Chan’s hybrid fight comedy films exploited the differences between Asian and American cultures to portray characters that were not only funny but also personal. He painted Kung Fu as a realistic fight between enemies that could potential be humorous and enjoyable. This kind of film making exploded in America and now we see so widely sold today.

http://heldref-publications.metapress.com/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto=issue,1,5;journal,31,56;linkingpublicationresults,1:119937,1 

Fighter in the Wind

The movie “Fighter in the Wind” is a Korean martial arts movie that is based on a actual karate competitor, Yeung-Eui Choi , who actually went across the country of Japan to defeat martial arts masters after World War II. . The movie not only shows a lot of martial arts actions but also deals with the emotion of the main character; Bae-dal Choi. 

The first half of the movie tells why Bae-dal decided to train himself and never lose a fight ever again. In the beginning, Bae-dal is a young man who dreams of being a pilot. He hides in a back of a truck to go to japan’s air force training camp. However, he gets into a fight with one of the commanders at the military base, and gets defeated but fortunately manges to escape when America attacks the base. After escaping from the military base Bae-dal works at a Japanese market with another Korean immigrant. Again he gets defeated, and humiliated by Japanese gangsters in front of towns people. Bum-soo, who is another immigrant from Korea, stops the gangsters and rescues Bae-dal which inspires him to learn martial arts from him. After learning some martial arts from Bum-soo, Bae-dal goes around town and saves Japanese women from Amercian soilders and that’s how he meets Yoko, who he develops feelings for. However, Bae-dal’s master gets mudered by gangsters, and Bae-dal also gets knocked down and there he determines that he will never lose a fight again. So he leaves the town and goes into the mountains to train himself. 

First half of the movie helps the audiences to emotionally connect with the main character Bae-dal, so that they can understand why he decided to become a fighter and never lose a fight agian. 

After he returns, he goes across the country and defeats all martial arts masters in Japan including Kato, who humiliated him in the beginning of the movie. The movie ends with a scene where Bae-dal is fighting with a bull. 

In the very beginning of the movie, Bae-dal narrates “I am afraid of fighting. I am afraid of being beaten and losing. But I am more afraid of surviving as a cripple than dying while I am fighting”. In the end, he repeats this after he beating Kato. He also adds “However, I always try to find a new enemy”.This scene helps the audience to relate themselves to the main character and also understand why becoming a fighter was so important to Bae-dal. Also by showing many close up scene’s of Bae-dal’s face expressions tells the change of emotions. 

This movie definitely deals with a lot more emotions than other martial arts films. I personally was able to connect with the main character a whole lot better which it help me to enjoy this movie lot more than other typical martial arts films filled with actions! 

Masculinity and Kung Fu Movies

 In this article, the point being made is that from what we see in traditional Kung Fu films, we find a skew view of what Asian masculinity is like. In most movies my by Bruce Li, we find that a the manly character is offer someone who is caught in a particular system in which the character has to fight his way out of to be his own man. What we realize though is it is possible to work your way from the bottom to become a man with power and authority. But to achieve this power and authority, you are to have a body of steal and a pride to go with it. In most Kung Fu movies, it can be argued that the body is a lethal weapon used for personal gain. So this is a skewed image of what masculinity could be because it is not realistic with how things happen in the real world. A man is not superior to another just by his brawn. 

Chan, Jachinson W. "Bruce Lee's Fictional Models of Masculinity." Men And Masculinities 2.4 (2000), 371-387.

Building a Hong Kong martial arts film collection-article

Rachel Pitzer

While doing research on martial arts films, I found an article that talks about martial arts in Hong Kong. I thought this would be interesting to read about since Ip Man 2 takes place in Hong Kong, and I liked the movie, so I thought it would help me better understand the culture. This article states that kung fu is used not so much for power, but to earn respect. That is exactly what Ip Man was trying to do, and he even stated that in the movie. He said that it was not about showing who is more powerful, but to show people how to respect one another. The fighting was very structured, and no one had hard feelings after they were defeated, unless they were not experienced fighters and did not follow Confucius. In this article, Bruce Lee defined kung fu as “training and discipline toward the way to the object—be it way to healthy promotion, spiritual cultivation, or to the way of self defense.” This was very evident in Ip Man. Ip Man would have friendly competitions just for fun, and in the second movie he had competitions to how that he was worthy in opening a school. In both movies, he used kung fu to defend himself, his family, and the Chinese people.

The Chinese have their own form of sword fighting called Wuxi apian. The article states that when this fighting goes on, the fighting is done as a form or heroism, and the fighters wear silk, and the fighting is very graceful. This fighting is more of a fantasy/play fighting, and costumes and make-up is worn. Fighters will put on performances, and show off their acrobatics. In Twilight Samurai, the main character had two fights: one to make a man show respect, and two he was ordered to kill someone. In samurai fighting, I think it is more about honor than about putting on a show. However, samurais do wear very nice kimonos during their fighting.

This article says that in Hong Kong martial arts films, the director “focuses on longer fight sequences, intricately crafted choreography, slow motion shots, long shots instead of close-ups, and the fast pacing of fight scenes.” For Ip Man, it follows all of those criteria except for slow motion and long shots. Parts of the fight scenes were slower, but they were not slow motion. Also, there were a lot of close-up shots during the fights, and now a lot of long shots. In Twilight Samurai, there was no slow motion, the fights were not long and intense, but they did have long shots and no close-ups.

http://journals.ohiolink.edu/ejc/pdf.cgi/Riley_Lori.pdf?issn=01604953&issue=v23i0001&article=24_bahkmafc