Hello people!

It's been a while since I had indulged in the business of film-going! But the topic of wuxia came to mind randomly, and I felt compelled to get your opinions. Apologize if this has already been a point of discussion here.

First and foremost, allow me, for a minute, to briefly recollect the history of the wuxia genre as I personally perceive.

First there was something prehistoric... then came Chang Cheh in the late 60s, he supposedly took wuxia to a new level with ultra violence. Then wuxia was kind of dead from 1970 to 1976... until Chu Yuan popularized the genre with Killer Clans and The Magic Blade. Then wuxia enjoyed a short resurrection from 1977 to 1985-ish. End of what we generally refer to as the old school era. Then the genre was dead as a corpse from 1986 to 1990... until King Hu and Tsui Hark revitalized wuxia and kung fu with Swordsman I (1990) and Once Upon a Time in China (1991), thus initiating the new wave period which I would say lasted until about 1996.

After 1996, Andrew Lau's SFX trilogy drew inspirations from wuxia comics, but they did not really start a fad. A real turning point, IMO, occurred when Ang Lee scored success with Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It embraced, among other things--graceful wire work and drop-dead gorgeous art direction--in a new art-house approach to wuxia filmmaking.

This is the point where I would like to get your opinion. Recently we've seen a number of released and upcoming wuxia-style films, some outside of Chinese-speaking culture. In your opinion, are they stylistically similar to CTHD and Hero, such that they can all be grouped into ONE "wave"? My apologies because I have not seen many of these said features. But it seems a lot of the hotshots in HK are concerning themselves with a role in a wuxia movie these days, with Donnie Yen making a notable come back.

Anyway, please let me know your opinion on whether the current batch of wuxia-inspired period films are successors of CTHD and Hero, or are they inspired by some more recent films?

All new period wuxia films are inspired by CTHD. Ang Lee and Zhang Yi-Mou are the new King Hu and Chang Che. In my humble opinion.

I've always been confused by the use of the term old school. When I think of 'old school', I think of Tso Tat-Wah, Kwan Tak-Hing, Sek Kin, e.g., the Wong Fei-Hung, Cantonese opera inspired films. The Shaw Brothers/Chang Cheh Mandarin films are 'new' to me because they departed from the 'original' foundation of filmic wuxia storytelling. I thought that's why the Shaw films were so popular, for the heroic bloodletting and more realistic action/fighting styles as opposed to the stylized dance-like older films depicted in their black and white predecessors.

The terms "old school", "new wave" or "modern" and "post-modern" are used rather loosely in many contexts. As new things get produced, what used to be "new wave" is now "old school." So then, does "new wave" join "old school" to both become "old school", or does "old school" become "old-old school"? I guess it's a judgment call.

I've always understood contemporary Hong Kong cinema periods as such:

Old School: prior to 1984
Golden Age: roughly 1984-1993 (Golden Age comes to end when "Jurassic Park" eats domestic box office alive)
New Wave: 1993-1997
Post Handover/New Millenium: 1997-current date

...at least that was always my understanding. I invite anyone to politely correct me if I am indeed misguided across the board.

I think "New Wave" might be, and generally is, applied to that period in the late 70's and early 80's when Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam and a few others first came onto the scene. Perhaps a different "tag" is required for that 1993-1997 'tween period, although in all honesty, the golden age practically extended through those years as well, as the number of film productions didn't exactly plunge after Jurassic Park, even if the dynamics had changed, and the writing was on the wall, so to speak.


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Film seems to be the art from that is defined, more than any other, by its critics. If one accepts this and would like to be overly pedantic (which this one sometimes does) then in the case of Hong Kong film, according to at least two critics—Hector Rodriguez and Law Kar, writing separate essays in Esther C. M. Lau’s At Full Speed: Hong Kong Cinema in a Borderless World, the New Wave included the works of Tsui Hark, Ronnie Yu, Alex Cheung, Ann Hui and Patrick Tam. It was first described as such by critic Law Wai-ming in the periodical Film Biweekly in October of 1979.

Law and Rodriguez discuss the New Wave in political/social/cultural terms as well as aesthetic/critical/artistic, with film describing, reflecting and to some extent leading the fundamental changes running through the then Crown Colony.

Off topic, I think that Lau’s book is terrific, the best collection of essays in English on Hong Kong movies that I have encountered. It is both accessible and intellectually rigorous--I could figure out what the authors were writing but was still challenged by them.

Off topic, I think that Lau’s book is terrific, the best collection of essays in English on Hong Kong movies that I have encountered. It is both accessible and intellectually rigorous--I could figure out what the authors were writing but was still challenged by them.

Seconded! A definite must-read (along with Bordwell's book) for those who suspect there's more to Hong Kong cinema than meets the eye.



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Brian Thibodeau wrote:I think "New Wave" might be, and generally is, applied to that period in the late 70's and early 80's when Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam and a few others first came onto the scene.

Ineed it was and I regret that morsle of information was not heldover from last spring when I read Stephen Teo's Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions.

Perhaps a different "tag" is required for that 1993-1997 'tween period, although in all honesty, the golden age practically extended through those years as well, as the number of film productions didn't exactly plunge after Jurassic Park, even if the dynamics had changed, and the writing was on the wall, so to speak.

Quite right Brian. Perhaps this period can be tagged or at the very least partially labeled as The Great Migration.

Seconded! A definite must-read (along with Bordwell's book) for those who suspect there's more to Hong Kong cinema than meets the eye.

Maybe I'll pick it up this spring. Planet Hong Kong proved well worth my time earlier this year.

Just to make a comment on something from the past:

Brian Thibodeau wrote:I think "New Wave" might be, and generally is, applied to that period in the late 70's and early 80's when Tsui Hark, Ann Hui, Patrick Tam and a few others first came onto the scene. Perhaps a different "tag" is required for that 1993-1997 'tween period, although in all honesty, the golden age practically extended through those years as well, as the number of film productions didn't exactly plunge after Jurassic Park, even if the dynamics had changed, and the writing was on the wall, so to speak.
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The term new wave, when applied to HK cinema in general, does indeed denote the period from late 70s to early 80s when Tsui, Hui, Tam, Fong, et al came to the scene. However, strictly in the context of martial arts films and its evolution, fans usually have in mind new wave as post-Shaw Brothers, i.e. post-1985.[/i]

I'd almost be tempted to back track that a little bit, to perhaps 1981 or so, when films like PRODIGAL SON and DUEL TO THE DEATH (a couple years later) displayed a very distinct lean away from the "Shaw style" even while it was still in effect. Of course, that would almost put it in the same time frame as the other new wave.

Well, Prodigal Son I think is still more old school. However, Duel to the Death is indeed new wave because of the impressive wire work. Actually, Shaw Bros produced a handful of early new wave wuxia films in the early 80s, stuff like Holy Flame of the Martial World and Demon of the Lute. Those were largely ignored by old school fans until the recent remastering brought them into light.