“He’s a living legend, if you’ve never seen action. Who does all his own stunts.” Jackie Chan, known for his reckless stunts, comedy, and bizarre English, has introduced Hollywood to a newly perception and invented martial art that appeals to all sorts of audiences. He incorporates his knowledge from his younger days in the Peking Opera and China Drama Academy under the guidance of Master Yu Jim- Yuen, a famous Peking opera wu-shen performer, who is considered to be the grandfather of Hong Kong martial arts movies. Not only did he learn a lot from the opera and academy that helped him enter to the U.S. movie market, but also his inspiration from and working with Bruce Lee, who helped bring Hong Kong Cinema to the United States. However, there is a significant difference in fighting styles between the two famous actors. All films Bruce Lee starred promoted violence and unrealistic fighting sequences, while Jackie Chan fights incorporates realistic yet comedic and artistic characteristics in his movies. Overall, what makes Chan stand out than the rest of the martial artists is his sense of humor in all of the fighting sequences, which is sometimes needed when the audience is watching non-stop action. In all of the movies featuring Jackie Chan, he has changed how Kung fu Cinema was originally viewed, due to Bruce Lee’s entrance in Hollywood to redefine Asian masculinity, by his unique theatrical martial arts, which displays creative and realistic fighting sequences; this style of fighting is best showcase in the Bourne sequels.
Jackie Chan and a few highly trained actors and martial artists entered American cinema during the 80s and all of them had one thing in common, they were all trained in the tradition of Peking opera. Pekin...
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...t of Jeet Kung Tao and Kung Fu (Hong Kong: Bruce Lee Jeet Kung Tao Club, 1976)
Chiao, Hsiung Ping. "Bruce Lee: His influence on the evolution of the kung fu genre." Journal of Popular Film and Television 9, no. 1 (1981): 30-42.
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Anderson, Aaron. "Violent dances in martial arts films." Jump Cut: A Review of Contemporary Media 44 (2001).
Shu, Yuan. "Regarding the Kung Fu Film in an American Context: From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan." (2003): 50-59.
Shu, Yuan. "Regarding the Kung Fu Film in an American Context: From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan." (2003): 50-59.
Chan, interview by Clemetson, "Return of the Dragon," March 1996:46-47.
Strauss, Neil. "Faster than a Speeding Bullet, but Also Humanly Fallible." New York Times, January 30, 1995
The film’s protagonist is Po, a panda that, from the beginning, does not appear to be capable of doing anything heroic. As in the hero myth outline stated by Leger, Po comes from a “mundane world, doing mundane things” (Seger 312). He works in his father’s noodle shop and although he admires those that practice Kung Fu, he does not have any martial arts training of his own. But Po is content with
Imagine feeling and looking different from all those around you. Imagine if you weren’t understood the same way as the majority. In the book “American Born Chinese”, two characters, Jin and Monkey King who went through the same situations, but in different societies. The Monkey King insight into the impact of society on Jin as they both face social exclusion through experiencing internalized racism. Further as Monkey King transforms into another character, Chin-Kee, which Jin sees as an embarrassing Chinese culture.
Smarr, Janet. “Emperor Wu”. Making of the Modern World 12. Ledden Auditorium, La Jolla, CA. 17 Feb. 2012. Lecture.
In his 1937 film Street Angel, Yuan explores the inequities facing Shanghai’s urban proletariat, an often-overlooked dimension of Chinese society. The popular imagination more readily envisions the agrarian systems that governed China before 1919 and after 1949, but capitalism thrived in Shanghai during that thirty-year buffer between feudalism and Communism. This flirtation with the free market engendered an urban working class, which faced tribulations and injustices that supplied Shanghai’s leftist filmmakers with ample subject matter. Restrained by Kuomintang censorship from directly attacking Chinese capitalism, Yuan employs melodrama to expose Street Angel’s bourgeois audience to the plight of the urban poor.
Most films captivate the audience’s interest in the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which led Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford, is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who was born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li was selected from a poor Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing.
Jacobs, Lewis. “Refinements in Technique.” The Rise of the American Film. New York: Teachers College Press, 1974. 433-452. Print.
Ever since the establishment of cinema in the early 1900s, Hollywood has continuously recreated elements of history to reenact for its future generations. In order to clearly broadcast a specific theme or message to relay to viewers around the world, Hollywood executives tend to embellish real life events, in order to provide a “fairytale” aspect to a seemingly not so “happily- ever-after” story from history. As part of this “fairytale” aspect, Hollywood tends to delegitimize as well as provide a more disrespectful and more comical version of societies and cultures in the specific time frame that the film is being set. Through the art of story telling, the movies Mulan and Kung Fu Panda, depict the two sides of Hollywood, the falsifying and mockery making of Chinese people, their society, beliefs and true events of history and that of an accurate portrayal.
In the film Gung Ho filmed in the year 1986, the story is told of the plight of the people working in the region known as the Rust Belt. The group that is the focal point of this story is the relation between Asian men in an American town and the differences they share are played out in this movie. The stereotypes enlisted in this movie are both that of a villainous nature and a comedic relief with some of the characters. Throughout the film it is how the clever, white working class people of this hard working town have to overcome the maniacal working environment these Asian men have. Common stereotypes of the Asian man lay throughout the entire course of the movie, stereotypes that have been portrayed by the film industry of Asian men since its inception.
Most films captivate the audience’s interest through the main character. This film did just that. Through the main character Li Cunxin, I was able to notice the amount of hard work and dedication which lead Li to become a famous ballet dancer known worldwide. The film, based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin, “Mao’s Last Dancer” directed by Bruce Beresford is about a Chinese boy named Li Cunxin who’s born into a large family of 6 boys. At the age of eleven, Li got chosen from a poverty-stricken Chinese village by Madam Mao’s cultural representatives to leave his family and study ballet in Beijing. This film focussed on his eventual departure from China to U.S.A after being selected by a world leading choreographer, Ben Stevenson including the
One could easily dismiss movies as superficial, unnecessarily violent spectacles, although such a viewpoint is distressingly pessimistic and myopic. In a given year, several films are released which have long-lasting effects on large numbers of individuals. These pictures speak
Rickery, Carrie. "History And 'The Last Emperor' Parts Of The Film Are Accurate, But Much Is Missing, Says A China Scholar." Http://articles.philly.com. Http://articles.philly.com, 30 Dec. 1987. Web. 04 Apr. 2014.
McDougall, Bonnie S. "Bei Dao's Poetry: Revelation & Communication." Modern Chinese Literature 1.2 (1985): 225-252.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like” (Lau Tzu). Born into a life of noodles and relaxation Po, a chubby panda, always wanted to be a Kung Fu master. Out of nowhere an opportunity arises to have his dream become reality. Po, like any normal panda snatches up this once in a lifetime opportunity and runs with it. But when the going gets tough, he doesn’t know if this is the life he was meant to live. While the film was meant for enjoyment, DreamWorks has incorporated clear examples of the three major Chinese Schools of Thought: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
Cheng, Nien. Life and Death in Shanghai. New York, New York: The Penguin Group, 1986.
He was talking about dominantly expressing ones self through martial arts by letting go of rigid styles or patterns you’ve learned, and freely adapt in combat so as to fluidly move with your opponent, as in a dance, then to “crash” into your opponent in victory. What Bruce Lee described was a state of total awareness of one’s environment so as to continuously be able to entrain one’s self to it.