| The year 1982 is the birth of the first martial arts movie in China’s history.It can be said the genre of martial arts is China’s film specialty.In the history of Chinese film production,martial arts genre represents deep cultural connotation and characteristic of the Chinese society.However,the development of martial arts genre films have not always been smooth sailing,in 1930 s there was a ban for such genre of movie but in Hong Kong shortly after it was revived and continued its growth.In particular Che Zhang and Jinquan Hu’s martial arts movie series was the most widely known,Hu not only written a bold and masculine chapter in Chinese film history but more so he become the pioneer for Chinese films to enter into the world market.Zhang showcased Chinese film’s masculine nature with a thorough and brave performance of violence and death,this sculpted Chinese film’s manly perception laying the aesthetic foundation for masculine western films.In the 70s’,the Chinese martial arts movie “A Touch of Zen” directed by Hu spear headed the entering of Chinese film into the global market.In the late 80s’ Hong Kong director Ke Chu created the era for new martial arts movies.His films including “Swordsman”,“The Legend of the Swordman” and “Dragon Inn” all received outstanding results.As such since mid 1990 s there have been a large number of films imitating his style this became dulled for the audience.In 2000,the film “Crouching Tiger,Hidden Dragon” directed by An Li again brings back Chinese martial art genre into the public eyes,Hollywood style production of this genre received raving reviews.Since the beginning of this century,martial arts film’s international vision and showcasing of cultural connotation have not been used.The films produced in this era were not able to break records,made low box office sales,received negative reviews and lack artistic individuality.Even though Hao Feng Xu’s films had average box office sales but its artistic individuality received the recognition from fellow filmmakers and was known as “Xu’s Hard Style Martial Arts Film”.Ultimately martial arts films hold a significant place in both main land China and foreign film markets.At the moment,Chinese martial arts film is in a bottleneck situation,there lies a huge problem with the systematic and assimilation approach,in modern martial arts movie directors director Haofeng Xu is a unique case,following the example of Jinquan Hu’s directing style,every martial arts film have unique standards,every action shot have slight variants adjusted to each movie’s plot and mood,perfecting itself as a whole.Through fully utilizing his studies of martial arts and literacy foundation,inventing a realistic martial art movie style,recreating his own short martial arts fiction writings to develop “Xu’s Hard Style Martial Art Film”.Overturning new martial art style film’s vivid colouring and use of CGI creation,letting go of CGI developed fight scenes,chasing the aesthetic nature of real martial arts,focusing back on realism and traditional chivalry culture,leading audience back to reality,focusing cameras back on Ming dynasty and republic period’s real martial arts society and the life of martial artists,striving to project the real image and laws of the martial arts society including their culture,and of course Xu not only capture the down to earth nature of the specific period for martial arts society but he specifically highlighted Confucianism and traditional culture of martial artist’s dedication,dissecting in detail martial artists’ mentality,jumping out of the audience’s common fantasy of what martial art should be,dropping the stereotype of martial artists allowing them to have self salvation through detailed analysis.Behind the scenes of stunning and realistic fighting imagery,the film is blessed with an intriguing insight to the traditional connotation of the Chinese culture,allows the film to bring out rich cultural relevance.Due to its deep martial arts fiction foundation,and martial arts director’s rich experience and unique views,director Haofeng Xu invented the “Xu’s Hard Style Martial Arts Film”.Different to Ke Chu’s “New Style Martial Arts Films”,Xu’s hard style films follows on from Che Zhang’ and Jin Quan Hu’s earlier development of modernistic style,conveying his imaginary in combination with essence of Confucianism’s belief,adding on unique self styling and personalized touch,putting in his hard work and dedication for martial arts genre,originating a new direction for the development of martial arts film opening a new door for Chinese martial arts films.As such,Xu’s movie holds significant importance in unraveling martial arts film’s culture for learning and breakthrough,pushing this genre to become a mainstream film genre,breaking the artistic creation bottleneck for martial art films and expanding such genre’s influence in the global movie scene. |
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