What makes a great martial arts movie? Sammo Hung, Lau Kar-leung and other Hong Kong action cinema legends have their say
- For legendary director Chang Cheh, the recipe for a good martial arts film is the same as for other genres – plot and characters that move and entertain people
- For others it is real physical action and southern kung fu fighting using fists, not swords. For actress Cheng Pei-pei, knowing dance gave her something extra
What makes a good martial arts film – realistic kung fu or special effects and wirework? Should the performers be trained martial artists, and does the story matter as much as the action?
The legends of the genre give their opinions.
Sammo Hung Kam-bo, who was generally absent from the effects-driven martial arts films of the early 1990s, talking to Cinema AZN in 2005:“When I first saw special effects in martial arts films, I was very excited. But now everyone uses something, every film has a special effect. I liked special effects at first, but they use them too much in martial and action films now. People don’t trust the action any more.
“I like the fact that people can perform the real actions for themselves. They show the audience that they are really good, and the audience believes that they can do it. That’s what I like.”
David Chiang Da-wai, martial arts star, from the 1974 book Kung Fu: Cinema of Vengeance :“You have to know how to hold your hands, where to kick to, how to give out all your energy, and yet avoid hurting your partner. If you do not know your martial arts, you end up looking very ugly.”
Don “the Dragon” Wilson, American kick-boxing champ and action star, from The Cinema of Vengeance DVD:
“Everybody thought that because I was a kick-boxing champion, I would be able to do martial arts films very easily. But what I found was that all the qualities that you use as a real athlete, a real fighter, you really don’t use them as a film fighter. They are really two different things. In a real fight, you want to hide the punch, and show no emotion when you are fighting. That is just the opposite of what you have to do in a film.”
