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