Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- TRADITIONS IN WORLD CINEMA
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 Wuxia from Literature to Cinema
- 2 Reactions against the Wuxia Genre
- 3 The Rise of Kung Fu, from Wong Fei-hung to Bruce Lee
- 4 The Rise of New School Wuxia
- 5 The Wuxia Films of King Hu
- 6 Wuxia after A Touch of Zen
- 7 Wuxia between Nationalism and Transnationalism
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Filmography
- Index
5 - The Wuxia Films of King Hu
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- TRADITIONS IN WORLD CINEMA
- Acknowledgements
- Dedication
- Introduction
- 1 Wuxia from Literature to Cinema
- 2 Reactions against the Wuxia Genre
- 3 The Rise of Kung Fu, from Wong Fei-hung to Bruce Lee
- 4 The Rise of New School Wuxia
- 5 The Wuxia Films of King Hu
- 6 Wuxia after A Touch of Zen
- 7 Wuxia between Nationalism and Transnationalism
- Epilogue
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- Filmography
- Index
Summary
In the previous chapter, I stated that King Hu and Zhang Che were the two most recognised directors of the new school wuxia movement. To Hu, the wuxia genre was a vehicle with which to transmit his thoughts on the historicist model of the female knight-errant in at least two key films of the movement, Come Drink With Me and A Touch of Zen. Zhang Che on the other hand fashioned the masculine identity of xia as a heroic archetype in the Hong Kong cinema and changed its culture of the feminised leading man that had prevailed for nearly two decades. Zhang saw the wuxia genre as a reaction against the Hong Kong cinema's conservatism as well as against the staid norms of the genre itself, particularly in the depiction of xia heroism which he interpreted as a predominantly male form and activity. Given that Hu is generally recognised for his self-fashioning identification with the female knight-errant, it is worth asking whether the prominence he gave to the female knight-errant was eventually a reaction against the trend of the masculine hero which gathered momentum under Zhang's direction. At the same time, it is also worth investigating how the male and female knight-errant archetypes interacted with each other in his films.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Chinese Martial Arts CinemaThe Wuxia Tradition, pp. 115 - 142Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2009