Filem Kungfu Mandarin

Salah satu film action yang dinantikan yakni Ip Man 4: The Finale. Film yang pertama muncul tahun 2000-an ini menjadi salah satu film kungfu yang paling banyak digemari para pecinta film. Selain Ip Man 4, ada juga film-film Mandarin yang sedang ditunggu-tunggu penayangannya di bioskop lho. Film Kungfu terbaik pertama adalah seri film Ip Man, film yang mengangkat bela diri Wing Chun dan menjadikannya tenar di dunia. Saking kerennya adegan bertarung menggunakan Wing Chun, tingkat pencarian orang terhadap bela diri itu pun meningkat drastis pada saat itu.

Kung fu film (Chinese: 功夫片; pinyin: Gōngfu piàn; Jyutping: Gung¹fu¹pin³) is a subgenre of martial arts films and Hong Kong action cinema set in the contemporary period and featuring realistic martial arts. It lacks the fantasy elements seen in wuxia, a related martial arts genre that uses historical settings based on ancient China.^[1] Swordplay is also less common in kung-fu films than in wuxia and fighting is done through unarmed combat.^[2]

Kung fu films are an important product of Hong Kong cinema and the West, where it was exported.^[3] Studios in Hong Kong produce both wuxia and kung fu films.

History[edit]

The kung fu genre was born in Hong Kong as a backlash against the supernatural tropes of wuxia.^[4] The wuxia of the period, called shenguai wuxia, combined shenguai fantasy with the martial arts of wuxia. Producers of wuxia depended on special effects to draw in larger audiences like the use of animation in fight scenes. The popularity of shenguai wuxia waned because of its cheap effects and fantasy cliches, paving way for the rise of the kung fu film.^[5] The new genre still shared many of the traits of wuxia. Kung fu protagonists were exemplars of chivalry akin to the ancient youxia, the knight-errants of Chinese wuxia fiction.^[6]

The oldest film in the genre, The Adventures of Fong Sai-yuk (Part 1: 方世玉打擂台; Part 2: 方世玉二卷之胡惠乾打機房), is a 1938–39 two-part movie about the adventures of folk hero Fong Sai-yuk. No surviving copies of the film exist.^[7] A series of films that dramatized the life of Wong Fei-hung, a historical Cantonese martial artist, was another early pioneer of the genre.^[8] The first two films of the Wong series, directed by Wu Pang and starring Kwan-Tak Hing, were released in 1949.^[9] The major innovation of the Wong Fei-hung films was its focus on realistic fighting or zhen gongfu, a departure from earlier wuxia films. The fights were still choreographed, but were designed to be more believable.^[10]Jet Li played Wong in a later revival of the series in 1990s, Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China, and also Fong in the movie Fong Sai-yuk.^[11]

Resurgence in the 1970s[edit]

The kung fu genre reached its height in the 1970s, coinciding with Hong Kong's economic boom.^[12] It overtook the popularity of the new school (xinpai) wuxia films that prevailed in Hong Kong throughout the 1950s and 1960s.^[13] Wuxia had been revitalized in the newspaper serials of the 1950s and its popularity spread to cinemas in the 1960s.^[14] It displaced the kung fu dramatizations of Wong Fei-hung and brought back the supernatural themes of traditional wuxia cinema.^[15] The rivalry between the Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest, and Seasonal Films studios stimulated the growth of kung fu movies in the Hong Kong film industry.^[16]The Chinese Boxer (1970) directed by Wang Yu and Vengeance directed by Chang Cheh in 1970 were the first films of the resurgent kung fu genre.^[17][18]

The new wave of kung fu films reached international audiences after the financial success of Bruce Lee's first feature-length film, The Big Boss, in 1971.^[19][20] Lee spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong where he learned wing chun martial arts and performed as a child actor. He left for the United States, his place of birth, and continued his martial arts training as a high school student. In America, he created Jeet Kune Do, a martial arts style inspired by wing chun, and briefly worked in Hollywood as a film and television actor.^[21]

He returned to Hong Kong and performed his breakthrough role in The Big Boss, followed by five more films. The movies of Bruce Lee began a trend of employing genuine practitioners of martial arts as actors in martial arts films.^[22] Kung fu films were internationally successful and popular in the West where a kung fu fad had taken root.^[23] The anti-imperialist themes of his films held a broad appeal for groups that felt marginalized and contributed to his popularity in Southeast Asia and the African-American and Asian-American communities of urban America.^[24][25] Audiences were sympathetic with Lee's role as a minority figure struggling against and overcoming prejudice, social inequality, and racial discrimination.^[26]

Kung fu comedies[edit]

The genre declined after Bruce Lee's sudden death in 1973. In the same year, a stock market crash brought Hong Kong into a recession.^[27] During the economic downturn, audiences in Hong Kong shifted to favoring comedies and satires.^[28] In the late 1970s the kung fu comedy appeared as a new genre, merging the martial arts of kung fu films with the comedy of Cantonese satires.^[29] The films of Lau Kar-leung, Yuen Woo-ping, and Sammo Hung followed this trend.^[30] Yuen's Drunken Master in 1978 was a financial success that transformed Jackie Chan, its leading actor, into a major Hong Kong movie star.^[31]

The mixture of slapstick comedy with martial arts reinvigorated the kung fu genre. Jackie Chan was the first significant action hero and martial arts performer to emerge from Hong Kong after the death of Bruce Lee.^[32] The films of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung integrated techniques from Peking Opera, which both had trained in prior to their work as stuntmen and extras in the Hong Kong studio system.^[33][34] They were students of China Drama Academy, a Peking opera school operated by Yu Jim-yuen, which brought elements of combat and dance from Beijing into Cantonese opera.^[35] The Peking Opera-influenced martial arts of kung fu comedies were more fluid and acrobatic than traditional kung fu films.^[36] In the 1980s, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung transitioned to kung fu films set in urban environments.^[37]

Modern kung fu films[edit]

The realism of the kung fu genre has been blurred with the widespread use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in the industry. Technology has enabled actors without martial arts training to perform in kung fu films.^[38] Wuxia films experienced a revival in recent years with the films of Ang Lee and Zhang Yimou.^[39] Kung fu comedies remain popular staples of Hong Kong cinema and the kung fu films of Stephen Chow have been box office hits. His 2001 film Shaolin Soccer combined kung fu, modified using CGI, with the sports and comedy genres.^[40] Chow's 2004 film Kung Fu Hustle, choreographed by martial arts directors Sammo Hung and Yuen Woo-ping, was a similar mixture of kung fu and comedy that achieved international success.^[41]Donnie Yen, who emerged during the early 1990s in Jet Li's Once Upon a Time in China II, is currently Hong Kong's highest-paid actor, starring in several films which helped him achieve international recognition, such as the Ip Man trilogy and Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen.

Global influence[edit]

The competing Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios entered Western markets in the 1970s by releasing dubbed kung fu films in the United States and Europe. Films like The Big Boss (Fists of Fury) and King Boxer (Five Fingers of Death) were box office successes in the West.^[42] By the 1980s and 1990s, American cinema had absorbed the martial arts influences of Hong Kong cinema.^[43]The Matrix, directed by the Wachowskis, was choreographed by martial arts director Yuen Woo-Ping. Martial arts stars like Jackie Chan and Jet Li left Hong Kong to star in American films, but occasionally returned to Hong Kong.^[44]

Notes and references[edit]

Citations[edit]

1. ^Teo 2009, p. 6
2. ^Teo 2009, p. 5
3. ^Teo 2009, p. 5
4. ^Teo 2010, p. 104
5. ^Teo 2009, p. 58
6. ^Teo 2009, p. 59
7. ^Teo 2009, p. 59
8. ^Teo 2009, p. 58
9. ^Teo 2009, p. 60
10. ^Teo 2009, p. 70
11. ^Teo 2009, p. 60
12. ^Li 1996, p. 708
13. ^Teo 2009, p. 70
14. ^Teo 2009, p. 87
15. ^Teo 2009, p. 86
16. ^Szeto 2011, p. 26
17. ^Teo 2009, p. 78
18. ^Szeto 2011, p. 25
19. ^Szeto 2011, p. 25
20. ^Li 1996, p. 708
21. ^Teo 2009, p. 75
22. ^Li 1996, p. 708
23. ^Szeto 2011, p. 26
24. ^Teo 2009, p. 77
25. ^Szeto 2011, p. 27
26. ^Szeto 2011, p. 28
27. ^Li 1996, p. 708
28. ^Li 1996, pp. 708–709
29. ^Li 1996, p. 709
30. ^Li 1996, p. 709
31. ^Li 1996, p. 709
32. ^Szeto 2011, p. 28
33. ^Szeto 2011, p. 29
34. ^Li 1996, p. 709
35. ^Szeto 2011, p. 29
36. ^Szeto 2011, pp. 29–30
37. ^Li 1996, pp. 710–711
38. ^Teo 2010, p. 104
39. ^Teo 2010, p. 109
40. ^Klein 2010, p. 193
41. ^Klein 2010, pp. 193–194
42. ^Teo 2009, p. 77
43. ^Szeto 2011, p. 25
44. ^Teo 2009, p. 159

Bibliography[edit]

• Li, Cheuk-To (1996). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-811257-0.
• Klein, Christina (2008). 'Kung Fu Hustle: Transnational production and the global Chinese-language film'. Journal of Chinese Cinemas. 1 (3): 189–208. doi:10.1386/jcc.1.3.189_1.
• Szeto, Kin-Yan (2011). The Martial Arts Cinema of the Chinese Diaspora: Ang Lee, John Woo, and Jackie Chan in Hollywood. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN978-0-8093-8620-8.
• Teo, Stephen (2010). Art, Politics, and Commerce in Chinese Cinema. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN978-962-209-176-4.
• Teo, Stephen (2009). Chinese Martial Arts Cinema: The Wuxia Tradition. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN978-0-7486-3286-2.

External links[edit]

• Stephen Chin collection on kung fu films, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Fist of Fury (also known as The Chinese Connection) is a 1972 Hong Kong actionmartial arts film written and directed by Lo Wei, produced by Raymond Chow, and starring Bruce Lee in his second major role after The Big Boss (1971).^[1] Lee plays Chen Zhen, a student of Huo Yuanjia, who fights to defend the honor of the Chinese in the face of foreign aggression, and to bring to justice those responsible for his master's death.^[1]

Background[edit]

The film was produced by the Orange Sky Golden Harvest film production company, still in its infancy at the time. Directed by Lo Wei, this was Bruce Lee's second kung fu film. The film, which touches on sensitive issues surrounding Japanese colonialism, features 'realistic combat choreography'. It differs from other films in the genre for its historical and social references, especially to Japanese imperialism.^[2]

Plot[edit]

Set in 1910s Shanghai, Chen Zhen returns to Jingwu School to marry his fiancée. However, he learns that his master Huo Yuanjia has died, apparently from illness, which devastates Chen. During the funeral, people from a Japanese dojo in Hongkou District arrive to taunt the Jingwu students. Wu En, translator and advisor for the Japanese dojo's grandmaster Hiroshi Suzuki (the villain of the film), taunts Chen by slapping him on the cheek several times, and dares him to fight one of Suzuki's protégés. They present a sign to Jingwu School, bearing the words 'Sick Man of East Asia', seemingly to insult Huo Yuanjia, describing the Chinese as 'weaklings' in comparison to the Japanese. The protégé taunts the Jingwu students to fight him and promises, 'I'll eat those words if any Chinese here dare to fight and defeat me'. Chen Zhen wants to retaliate, but is prevented from doing so by Fan Junxia, the most senior student in the school.

Shortly afterwards, Chen Zhen goes to the Hongkou dojo alone to return the sign. He winds up fighting the Japanese students, defeating all of them, including their sensei, single-handedly. He smashes the glass on the sign and makes the students who taunted him earlier chew up the paper bearing the derogatory words, so as to make them literally 'eat their words'.

Later, Chen takes a stroll to a park. A Sikh guard refuses him entry, due to a posted sign that forbids dogs and Chinese in the park. After the guard allows a foreigner to bring her pet dog into the park, a Japanese man approaches Chen and tells him that if he behaves like a dog, he will be allowed to go in. Chen beats up the man and his friends in anger. After the fight, Chen breaks the sign. The guard blows his whistle to alert the police, but the citizens who watched the whole fight help Chen to escape the park.

The Japanese students and their master retaliate by attacking Jingwu School on Suzuki's orders. After causing severe damage, the Japanese students leave. Wu, accompanying the Japanese students, warns Jingwu School to hand over Chen. Chen returns and realises that he has caused big trouble. His fellow students are reluctant to hand him over to the Japanese, so they make plans to help him escape from Shanghai.

That night, Chen discovers that Master Huo had all along been poisoned by Tian, the cook. Chen then sees Tian and Feng Guishi, the caretaker, talking. Chen kills Tian, followed by Feng while trying to determine why they killed Master Huo. Chen hangs Tian and Feng's bodies from a lamp post. Chen's fiancée, Yuan Li'er, finds him hiding near Huo's grave, and they share a passionate moment together. Meanwhile, Suzuki forces the local police inspector, Inspector Lo, to arrest Chen, but he eludes them. Then, while Suzuki is entertaining his visiting friend Petrov, Chen kills Wu and hangs his body from the lamp post as well.

The angry Suzuki heads to the Japanese Consulate and reports Chen, then sends his men to Jingwu School to kill everyone inside. That same night, Chen barges into the dojo to take his revenge, killing the students' master, Yoshida, Petrov, and Suzuki. Chen returns to Jingwu School and finds most from Jingwu School and the Hongkou dojo dead. However, a few Jingwu students - among them Yuan, Fan Junxia, and Xu - remain, as they had also been searching for Chen at the grave site, acting on a tip from Yuan. Inspector Lo arrives at Jingwu to arrest Chen, who agrees to surrender himself to Lo to protect his master's legacy. Lo tells Chen that he can always trust him since he is Chinese. As they exit the school, Chen faces a line of armed Japanese soldiers and officials at the outer gate, all pointing their guns at him. Furious, Chen charges the line and makes a flying kick. The film ends on this freeze-frame shot and the sound of gun shots, implying his death and final sacrifice.

Cast[edit]

• Bruce Lee as Chen Zhen
• Nora Miao as Yuan Li'er (Yuan Le-erh), Chen Zhen's fiancée. The character's name is never mentioned in the film.
• Riki Hashimoto as Hiroshi Suzuki (Nihongo: 鈴木博, Suzuki Hiroshi), the master of the Hongkou dojo
• Robert Baker as Petrov (Russian: Петров, Petrov), a Russian gang boss and Suzuki's friend
• Tien Feng as Fan Junxia (Fan Chun-hsia), the eldest student in Jing Wu School
• Paul Wei as Wu En, Suzuki's translator
• Fung Ngai as Yoshida (Nihongo: 吉田, Yoshida), the head instructor in the Hongkou dojo
• Lo Wei as Inspector Lo, the police inspector
• Huang Tsung Hsing as Tian, the cook in Jing Wu School
• Han Ying-chieh as Feng Guishi (Feng Kwai-sher), the caretaker in Jing Wu School
• James Tien as Fan Jiaqi (Fan Chia-chi), a Jing Wu student
• Maria Yi as Yen, a female Jing Wu student
• Jun Katsumura as Suzuki’s bodyguard
• Lee Kwan as Xu, a Jing Wu student
• Jackie Chan as a Jing Wu Student (Special Appearance)

Robert Baker was a student and friend of Bruce Lee's and was recommended for the role by Lee. His voice was dubbed in the Cantonese and Mandarin versions by Lee as well.

Title[edit]

Fist of Fury was accidentally released in the U.S. under the title The Chinese Connection.^[1] That title was a means of tapping the popularity of another film, The French Connection (starring Gene Hackman), released in the U.S. in 1971.^[1] That title was intended to be used for the U.S. release of another Bruce Lee film, The Big Boss, which also involved drug smuggling. However, the U.S. titles for Fist of Fury and The Big Boss were accidentally switched, resulting in Fist of Fury being released in the U.S. under the title The Chinese Connection until 2005, while The Big Boss was released as Fists of Fury.^[3]

Recent television screenings and the current official DVD release (by 20th Century Fox, originally available in The Bruce Lee Ultimate Collection box set) in the U.S. have restored the original titles of all the films starring Bruce Lee. Fist of Fury is now officially known as Fist of Fury in the U.S. The current DVD version also has a subtitle that reads 'A.K.A. The Chinese Connection' when the Fist of Fury title appears on screen, as the source material is the Fortune Star digital remasters.^{[citation needed]}

Box office[edit]

Fist of Fury grossed HK$4,431,423 in its Hong Kong release,^[4] beating the previous box office record set by Lee's The Big Boss in the previous year.^[5] Its Hong Kong gross was equivalent to US$790,000.^[6] In the United States and Canada, the film earned US$3.4 million in box office rentals.^[7]

Despite the film having Japanese antagonists, the film was a success when it released in Japan on 20 July 1974, becoming the year's seventh highest-grossing film with ¥600 million (US$5.43 million) in distribution income.^[8][9] In France, it became the 12th highest-grossing film of 1974 (below two other Lee films in the top ten, Enter the Dragon and Way of the Dragon), with 3,013,676 box office admissions.^[10] At an average ticket price of 12.22F,^[11] it grossed approximately 36.83millionF (US$7.66 million)^[12] in France. Combined, the film grossed a total worldwide box office revenue of approximately US$17.2 million, equivalent to about US$118 million adjusted for inflation in 2017.

Dubbing[edit]

Sync sound was not widely used in Hong Kong cinema for a long time so the voices (even on the original Cantonese track) for the film were dubbed. The voice of the Russian fighter Petrov on the original Mandarin track was dubbed by Bruce Lee, with added reverb.^{[citation needed]}

This film marks one of the few times that a DVD has an alternative new commentary.^{[citation needed]}Media Asia UK distributor Hong Kong Legends has released this film as a 'Special Collector's Edition' and a 'Platinum Edition'. Bey Logan recorded two alternative commentaries for both releases. The usual process with re-releases on DVD is that the commentary is passed on to the next release. Logan decided to re-record his second commentary as he wanted to give it a new light, being an avid fan of this film. The re-dubbed theme song was played by Mike Remedios. Bey Logan had previously done a commentary track for the Media Asia Megastar DVD release, which is almost word for word the same as the commentary he did for Hong Kong Legends' years later. Donnie Yen did the Cantonese language commentary on the same 'Megastar' DVD.

Sequels and remakes[edit]

The film spawned three sequels: New Fist of Fury (1976), starring Jackie Chan, followed by Fist of Fury II (1977) and Fist of Fury III (1979). The film also spawned a remake, Fist of Legend (1994), starring Jet Li. The Film also spawned a television series of Fist of Fury in 2009 starred Donnie Yen as Chen Zhen, in 2010 Donnie Yen reprised his role as Chen Zhen in Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen. The movie acts as the sequel to Fist of Fury.

Release[edit]

The film was released on 22 March 1972 in Hong Kong by Golden Harvest, and first released in the United States on 7 November 1972 in New York^{[citation needed]} before Lee's first major film, The Big Boss, was released there.^[13]

The film was originally distributed in the U.S. by National General Pictures beginning in 1973, shortly before the release of Enter the Dragon. Columbia Pictures acquired the U.S. distribution rights to the film, after the demise of National General Pictures, in 1980 and re-released it, along with The Big Boss, as a studio-sanctioned double feature with the tagline 'What's better than a Bruce Lee movie? Two Bruce Lee Movies!'^{[citation needed]}Install xfig on windows 7.

Reception[edit]

From contemporary reviews, John Gillett of the Monthly Film Bulletin reviewed a 106 minute dubbed version of the film.^[14] Gillett commented on Bruce Lee stating that he had 'somewhat rudimentary and charmless acting style (all curled lips, sinister glances and clenched fists), but he performs his main function-that of keeping the action going through a series of furious karate fights-with considerable aplomb and proves as adept with his feet as with his fists.'^[14] While finding the story 'extremely naive' and that the 'anti-Japanese bias is more rather more pronounced' while the fight sequences 'are staged with tremendous vigour (and a judicious use of slow-motion)' concluding that 'the production values are only moderate, with a rather uneasy fusion of studio interiors and real street locations, and the English dubbing is unusually inept.'^[14]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdWeiler, A. H. 'The Screen: A Chinese 'Fist of Fury':Stark Tale of Revenge Opens at Pagoda Shanghai Is Setting for Kung-Fu Combats'. The New York Times.
2. ^Kato, M.T. (2007). From King Fu to Hip Hop: Globalization, Revolution and Popular Culture. State University of New York Press. p. 12. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
3. ^'Alternate title confusion - The Big Boss (1972) - Chinese Kungfu Kaleidoscope'. Cultural China. Archived from the original on 21 August 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
4. ^Fist of Fury - Hong Kong Film Archive database
5. ^'Film Production and Financing - Golden Harvest'. Orange Sky Golden Harvest. Archived from the original on 23 August 2010. Retrieved 27 November 2015.
6. ^'Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average)'. World Bank. 1972. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
7. ^'Big Rental Films of 1973', Variety, 9 January 1974 p 19
8. ^'ドラゴン怒りの鉄拳／精武門（1972）'. KungFu Tube (in Japanese). 2 October 2010. Retrieved 30 November 2018.
9. ^『キネマ旬報ベスト・テン85回全史 1924-2011』（キネマ旬報社、2012年）322頁
10. ^'Charts - LES ENTREES EN FRANCE'. JP's Box-Office. 1974. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
11. ^Film World. 17. T.M. Ramachandran. 1980. p. 276. France attracted a total of 180 million spectators—2.2 billion francs in receipts
12. ^'Official exchange rate (LCU per US$, period average)'. World Bank. 1974. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
13. ^'Film reviews: Fists of Fury'. Variety. 27 June 1973. p. 34.
14. ^ ^abcGillet, John (May 1973). 'Fist of Fury'. Monthly Film Bulletin. Vol. 40 no. 472. British Film Institute. p. 96.

External links[edit]

(Wayback Machine copy)

• Fist of Fury on IMDb
• Fist of Fury at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase
• Fist of Fury at AllMovie
• Fist of Fury at Rotten Tomatoes