"Huang Feihong: Boys Should Be Self-Reliant" is probably the best kung fu movie in China

(1) The connotation of kung fu movies

Kung Fu movies, transliterated as "kung fu film", generally refer to the genre of films with technical techniques as the main element. Kung Fu movies have become internationally famous with Bruce Lee and are even regarded as unique action genre films in China, and filmmakers familiar with bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Hong Jinbao, Liu Jialiang, Wu Jing and other filmmakers who are familiar to the audience are representative figures of this genre.

There are many overlaps between kung fu movies and concepts such as martial arts films, martial arts films, and action movies, but when you look closely, there are also some differences. Shusheng believes that the relationship between several concepts is that the action film > martial arts film" kung fu film > martial arts film

Here are a few examples as a simple argument:

Action movies are the world's most popular film genre, the English is "Action movie", such as the United States " Hurricane Rescue " , South Korea 'Uncle " " " " Berlin " , and many Japanese samurai movies can be included in this genre. But it is clear that the Chinese people will not classify the mentioned films into the genre of kung fu films and martial arts films.

Martial arts is our general term for action movies, but it also has some exclusive meanings. For example, in the 1980s, mainland film studios tried to produce films such as "The Mysterious Buddha" (1981), "Wudang" (1983), and "Wulinzhi" (1989), which is very accurate. Many co-production films, such as "Shaolin Temple" and "Kapok Robes", are also generally referred to as martial arts films. Because there are many kung fu demonstrations in these movies, it is not impossible to call them kung fu films, and the two can be regarded as equivalent concepts.

Chinese Sword-Fighting Movie (see Book The Global Return of the Wuxia pian) is a genre unique to China. In the configuration of "Wu" + "Xia", Wu is its necessary element and formal characteristics, and Xia is its inner spiritual charm, which is a kind of film with distinct national characteristics that can be juxtaposed with Japanese samurai movies (Samurai Movies) and American Western films (western films, cowboy films). The connotation is the most complex, and the extension is also the narrowest.

According to this understanding, Shusheng included martial arts films and martial arts films into the category of kung fu films, and defined the scope within Chinese films. Of course, just for the convenience of understanding, not rigorous enough, can be discussed again.

(2) A brief description of the development process of kung fu films

Film scholar Jia Leilei once divided Chinese martial arts films into six subtypes: mythical legends, character biographies, costumed swords, kung fu techniques, humorous comedies, and magical myths, and pointed out that the emergence of these film subtypes has a certain chronological nature. For example, during the Republic of China period, most of the martial arts films were legends of gods and monsters; after 1949, biographical films with Huang Feihong as the theme became the main genre; in the 60s and 70s of the last century, there were many costumed sword movies. Of course, Jia Leilei also pointed out that this division cannot exhaust all martial arts movies, and in different eras, genres are not substituted for each other, but appear in layers.

For the convenience of understanding, here, only some representative works or representative characters are selected, and a simple combing of kung fu movies is made in chronological order.

Before the founding of New China, martial arts films were already an important genre in commercial films, and "Burning red lotus temple" was one of the representative works, which was shown in Xu Haofeng's film "Master".

Beginning in 1949, the "Huang Feihong" series of films directed by Hu Peng and starring Guan Dexing was produced and released, and by the 1970s, more than 60 films had been produced.

In 1966, Shaw Films supported Zhang Che and Hu Jinquan to produce "One-Armed Knife" and "The Drunken Man" respectively, both of which became classics in Chinese film history. The two have produced many martial arts works based on different production concepts. Zhang Che has more works as a director, but the good and the bad are uneven. Hu Jinquan's works are not many, the quality is above the standard, and "Heroine" won the technical award of the Cannes Film Festival. The two eventually became a generation of masters in the field of martial arts films.

The 1970s was the golden age of kung fu movies, and it was also the most brilliant period for Zhang Che, with excellent works such as "New One-Armed Knife", "Bayonet Horse", "Thirteen Taibao", "The Great Pirate" and so on, of course, there are also some works that are muddy and sandy. In addition to a large number of kung fu films produced by Director Zhang Che, Bruce Lee's four and a half films are internationally famous; films such as "ShenDa" and "Thirty-Six Rooms of the Shaolin Temple" directed by Liu Jialiang, who was promoted to director by martial arts instructors, have obtained excellent box office revenues to help him enter the ranks of first-line directors; Yuan Heping, who also came from martial arts instructors, was promoted by Wu Siyuan to guide Jackie Chan to produce "Snake-shaped Diao Hand", which was the first to open up the humorous martial arts atmosphere; Gulong films directed by Chu Yuan also occupied a place in martial arts films with their beautiful style and highly distinctive lines. Even opened things like Meteor. butterfly. Sword" three-paragraph naming of the ethos.

In the 1980s, Zhang Che's kung fu movies gradually declined, and Hong Kong filmmakers represented by Hong Jinbao and Jackie Chan made bold innovations in kung fu movies, typical of humorous ghost films such as "Ghost Fighting Ghosts" and "Scary People"; police films such as "A Plan" and "Police Story"; and the Fuxing series represented by "Summer Lucky Star", all of which added a large number of kung fu elements and were sought after by the audience. In the same period, Liu Jialiang's production of "Elders", "Wulang Bagua Stick", "North and South Shaolin" and so on with the kung fu of hard bridges and hard horses also occupied a place in the fierce film market.

At the same time, Xu Ke invited Wu Yusen to produce "The True Colors of Heroes" to open up the era of Wu Yusen's "violent aesthetics"; the "Best Partner" series created by New Art City carried forward the theme of kung fu and adventure, and the "Fuxing" series of the "Seven Little Fortunes" brothers was temporarily bright.

What needs to be pointed out is that since the founding of the People's Republic of China, the mainland has been absent in terms of martial arts films. In the 1980s, "The Mysterious Big Buddha" became the pioneering work of mainland martial arts films, and since then major film studios or independent or co-productions have also produced a number of martial arts films, of which "Shaolin Temple", "Kapok Robes", "Wulin Zhi" and other films have become the collective memory of a generation.

In the early 1990s, Xu Ke invited Hu Jinquan to direct "Smiling Proud of jianghu", which opened the era of Xu Ke's new martial arts school, and later, he invited Jet Li and Zhao Wenzhuo to participate in the "Huang Feihong" series to become the representative works of martial arts films in this period, and the "New Dragon Gate Inn", "New Crane Needle" and "Laughing Pride jianghu" series led by him were quite popular. "Knife" also became a strange thing of this period because of its unique style.

After gaining a firm foothold in Hong Kong, Jet Li participated in or independently produced a series of works such as "Fang Shiyu", "Taiji Zhang Sanfeng", "Letter to Dad", "Hong Xiguan", "Zhongnanhai Bodyguard" and so on, which entered the public eye with the prosperity of the video hall.

In the 1990s, Jackie Chan once again attracted the attention of Hollywood with his movie "Red Fan District", and then participated in the production of a series of internationally produced kung fu movies such as "Rush Hour" and "Shanghai Noon", becoming another kung fu superstar with an international reputation after Bruce Lee.

At the same time, Yuan Heping's "Huang Feihong's Iron Horse" and "Jingwu Hero" have consolidated his position as the "first martial finger". Subsequently, through "The Matrix" and "Kill Bill" to the international.

In 1998, the movie "The Wind and the Clouds" was released, which received good box office revenue, and the use of large-scale computer special effects also improved the production level of martial arts movies. However, with the departure of talents and the downturn in the market, the decline of Hong Kong films has gradually become apparent, and "Dominating the World" is a representative work of kung fu films in the 1990s, and it has also become the end of an era.

Entering the new millennium, Xu Ke's "The Legend of New Shushan" failed at the box office, and the subsequent production of "Seven Swords" did not have satisfactory box office revenues, and by the success of the "Dragon Gate Flying Armor" and "Di Renjie" series, Xu Ke had grayed his hair.

In 2000, Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and grossed more than $200 million at the box office. Ignited the enthusiasm of the Costume Blockbuster in the Chinese film circle. Subsequently, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" opened the era of Chinese cinema.

However, during this period, the quantity and quality of kung fu films in Hong Kong films were not the same as in the past. In addition to Jackie Chan's stable production and a certain level of quality, both the audience and the creators are succumbing to kung fu movies.

During this period, films such as "Huo Yuanjia" co-produced by Jet Li, "Letter of Submission" and "Siege of October" co-produced by Chen Kexin, "Dragon and Tiger Gate" and "Fuse" co-produced by Zhen Zidan, "Raptors" co-produced by Hong Jinbao, "Kill the Wolf" and "Ip Man" series co-produced by Ye Weixin all have certain production standards and have won the recognition of the audience. What needs special note is that Stephen Chow's movie "Kung Fu" is a strange thing in this period, but Xingye then turned to behind-the-scenes work, and no sequels appeared.

After 2010, Xu Ke integrated 3D film technology into the production of martial arts films, successfully opened the "Di Renjie" series, so far has been released two, sequel works are worth looking forward to; Wong Kar-wai's "Generation of Grandmasters" let us see another possibility of martial arts movies; Xu Haofeng's "Traces of Wokou", "Master", "Arrow Soldier Liu Bai Ape" is novel and unique in terms of film language, which is an alternative in martial arts movies; Lu Yang's "Embroidered Spring Knife" series has amazed the world and is also maturing Jackie Chan maintained the diversity of kung fu films and works, and the quality was also above the standard, he put kung fu into the revolutionary war years to produce "Railway Flying Tiger", kneaded the concept of peace to produce "The Lion of heaven", joined the concept of family affection to produce "British Showdown" and "Blood of the Machine"; Wu Jing integrated kung fu into modern military genre films, produced the "Wolf Warrior" series, "Wolf Warrior 2" even created a box office miracle of Chinese films, becoming a phenomenon-level film.

From this simple combing, we can see that kung fu movies are also changing with the times. Overall: 1, in the increasingly fierce market competition, kung fu movies need to integrate more elements to ensure viability and competitiveness, simple kung fu display movies are more and more difficult to find traces; 2, compared with the traditional speculative practice of plot is not enough to make up, the audience's plot requirements for kung fu movies are becoming more stringent, and there are higher requirements for the ideology outside the film action; 3, with the progress of the film industry, new action presentation methods and technologies are more applied to kung fu movies.

Shusheng believes that kung fu movies are a popular art genre, which first need to be viewed by the public; secondly, good action presentation is its foundation; finally, it is very necessary to have a reasonable plot setting, and film ideology is the most important blessing project. Considering the three aspects of popularity, action performance and ideology, Shusheng believes that "Huang Feihong's Boy Should Be Self-Reliant" is the best kung fu movie.

(3) Kung Fu is a killing skill, wuxia is a literati skill, and Xu Ke is a film technician with literati feelings

Most of the writers of wuxia novels are literati, and the world of wuxia comes from the imagination of literati. As presented in Xu Haofeng's research: similar groups of behavior that really exist in history should be summarized by martial arts. For a long time, the warriors had both generals and soldiers, bodyguards, porters, martial arts, and sects. Obsessively letting the warriors create martial arts novels is excessive; and hoping to reproduce the true face of the martial arts with the lens may break our understanding of the martial arts characters. Imagine a historical scene in which a chivalrous guest runs for his livelihood during the day and worries about morality at night, is not the same as our chivalrous guests who do not have to earn money, but there is a difference between the scene of staying in an inn, drinking meat, falling in love, or running for parents and teachers. Therefore, wuxia is a literati skill, and the jianghu and martial arts landscapes in the martial arts world are more based on the imagination of the literati.

Although martial arts works have a large fictional component, they cannot deny the realistic value of martial arts novels.

From the perspective of the activity space of wuxia: wulin and jianghu are close to the same concept. But in fact, there is a distinction between the two. The jianghu is more like a jungle state out of the normal order of society. Although there are jianghu chivalrous here, there are many chickens and dogs, people who kill people and cross the goods, so there are many crises, and the danger of the jianghu is to a certain extent the consensus of the people in the martial forest; the martial forest is more like having various sects. A circle of organizations and so on. Wulin has its own symbol system, and the people in Wulin attach great importance to personal names. Because the name includes their own strength points, battle achievements, and origins, these add up to personal fame.

The literati's setting of the martial arts world determines the activity space of the chivalrous guests, and to a certain extent, it represents a certain intention and even a realm of the author.

Take Mr. Jin Yong's "Smiling Proud of the Jianghu" as an example. To a lesser extent, the Huashan Sect, the Wuyue Sword Sect, and the Wulin Sect formed an organizational structure of echelons. Although the activity space of the chivalrous guests coincides with the state, the jianghu grievances are also mostly attached to the sect disputes, and the jianghu here can be understood as the enterprise circle, and it can also be understood as the academic circle and other circles; to a large extent, wulin is actually a political activity space, the jianghu grievances are more like the mapping of the politics of power in the martial arts world, and the so-called jianghu unification, alliance or division is also a political activity centered on political power by the actors.

From this perspective, the martial arts world is weak or strong in relation to the real world; more or less embodied in reality or history; and the realm of the creator is higher or lower, and so on.

The jianghu set by Xu Ke has a clear concern for history, and the characters also have historical archetypes. Therefore, Huang Feihong's martial arts world has a certain sense of reality, he is constrained by various political, social forces and various rules, and he cannot be happy to take revenge. Xu Ke's martial arts are whimsical, but the background setting is more realistic, which provides a window for us to explore the creator's cognition and judgment of the various classes of characters that appear in the film. Through the analysis of the composition, personality and behavior of the characters in the film, we can see the creator's cognition, judgment and attitude towards the characters of a specific period.

Judging from the text of the film, Xu Ke has a complex emotion of compassion, resentment and helplessness towards the old feudal forces. This complex emotion is manifested not only in the first part, when Huang Feihong saw Yan Zhendong lamenting that "no matter how good kung fu is, he can't beat a foreign gun", Huang Feihong's regret is also manifested in his sympathy for Nalan Yuanshu and his helplessness for the followers of superstitious religions;

For the revolution, Xu Ke made Huang Feihong grow from a passive cognitive who was tolerant at the beginning to an active supporter of the revolution. Xu Ke projected his beautiful imagination of chivalry onto Huang Feihong, creating an image of an enlightened man with a sense of home and country and a relatively open mind with extremely high skills. Many plots in the film also show this attitude: the plot of combining traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine to heal the wounds of foreigners, pinning on the creator's gentlemanly feelings for openness, not flattering, nor blindly exclusive; Huang Feihong protects the banner of revolution, which represents Xu Ke's sympathy and support for revolutionaries; Huang Feihong uses Traditional Chinese medicine to treat diseases, uses Chinese martial arts to strengthen the body, defend the family and defend the country, and also represents the identification and adherence to national culture.

It can be seen that Xu Ke's literati sentiment gives the film a historical depth, and he regards the new elite represented by the enlightened gentry as the object that the revolution can absorb and rely on, and the people as the object of salvation, which also reflects the elite orientation inherent in the literati complex.

One of the excellent features of "Boy When Self-Improvement" is also that Xu Ke wrapped his literati feelings with martial arts, and completely expounded his cognition and attitude towards modern history and historical figures through martial arts.

(4) Portrait of the National People in "Boys Should Be Self-Reliant"

"Huang Feihong's Boy When Self-Reliance" is the second film in the Huang Feihong series produced by Xu Ke in the 1990s, and Shusheng feels that this film is the best work in this series.

The film not only has first-class martial arts scenes, but also unfolds the landscape of all walks of life to save the country in the context of the national disaster. The scene is wonderful and the connotation is rich, so it is also the best kung fu movie in the hearts of the students.

The story of "Boys Should Be Self-Reliant" takes place in the last year of the Qing Dynasty. At that time, the national strength of the Great Qing Dynasty was weakening, and the internal and external difficulties were difficult, and "saving the country and protecting the species" became the theme of the times. Feudal royalists, peasant forces, professional revolutionaries, and enlightened squires have all stepped onto the forefront of history, and the actions and fates of different characters constitute the portrait of the national people in the creator's imagination.

Nine Palaces: Representative of the peasant forces in the old society, borrowing religion to win over believers, fooling the masses, blindly xenophobic, sad and pitiful;

Naran Yuanshu: The representative of the feudal conservative forces, looking at the devastated country, with the vision of helping the people through the ages, hoping to maintain social order and strive for national independence within the old system;

Lu Haodong: A representative of professional revolutionaries from intellectuals, full of enthusiasm to save the people, but after seeing the ignorant masses, he felt desperate;

Sun Wen: A professional revolutionary like Lu Haodong, the difference between the two is that Sun Wenke hangs the pot and saves the world, but has achieved the leap from a doctor to a "doctor", which is the hope of the future Chinese revolution;

Huang Feihong: Representative of the enlightened gentry, opposed the blind xenophobia of the peasant class, opposed the demagoguery of religious forces, opposed the patriotic behavior of feudal and loyal forces in disregard of the rule of law, sympathized with revolutionaries, and remained open to the new things represented by Western medicine.

The excellence of "Boys Should Be Self-Reliant" is that he not only shows these famous and sexual characters, but also profoundly presents the group portraits of various classes at the end of the Qing Dynasty. The little girl with the lantern in the beginning became a victim of the religious forces, while a group of believers with a sense of madness chanted the divine protective body, but suffered great suffering. The revolutionary Lu Haodong's arm-raising call did not gather, but Huang Feihong pretended to be a ghost and pretended to be a true martial emperor to crush this idol of the Nine Palaces.

People who have suffered so much need to be saved, but they are also a source of power for social change. Lu Haodong's despair was that the ignorance of the believers was beyond his imagination. In the era when the people's wisdom was not yet open, was this group really worth saving, or was it worth relying on? This is also the profundity of the film.

(5) The excellence of "Boys When Self-Improvement" also lies in its big pattern and big feelings compared to ordinary martial arts works.

"The hero is the greatest, for the country and the people", Jin Yong's "Legend of the Eagle Hero" in Jin Yong's martial arts perfectly explains this martial arts concept.

"Huang Feihong's Boy When Self-Reliance" explains this big pattern and big feelings very well through images.

Compared with the typical revenge-style martial arts movies such as Zhang Che's "Revenge" and "One-Armed Knife", "Huang Feihong" has more family and country feelings;

Compared with the typical pure kung fu movies such as Liu Jialiang's "Thirty-Six Rooms of the Shaolin Temple" and "Master of the Tent", the pattern and theme of "Huang Feihong" are more ambitious;

Compared with the typical humorous martial arts martial arts movies such as "Fast Food Truck" and "City Hunter", "Huang Feihong" is better in terms of ideology;

Compared with the typical nationalist theme of kung fu movies such as "Wulin Zhi", "Huo Yuanjia", "Jingwu Hero", "Ip Man 1/2", "Huang Feihong's Boy Should Be Self-Reliant" is more complete and deeper in the face display of various characters in society, the recognition and absorption of foreign science and technology, and technical skills.

What needs special explanation is that in recent years, the new school of martial arts works represented by "The Trail of The Wokou", "The Master", "The Arrow Warrior Liu Bai Ape", "A Generation of Grandmasters", and "Embroidered Spring Knife" have emerged.

Xu Haofeng is one of the few directors in China who learns to understand and understand before starting to make a movie. Xu Haofeng believes that "the basis of genre films is not audiovisual showmanship or star parties, but mass psychology." There is panic, and redemption, in order to establish the type. Each genre film has its own system of knowledge, Westerns are gun knowledge and wandering skills, romance is female psychology and family culture, and martial arts films are liturgical music. The panic of martial arts films is the panic of the literati - "Li Collapse Happy Bad". Although this exploration of the core of the value of martial arts films is quite meaningful, the paranoia about "Li Le" reflects Xu Haofeng's elite literati vision. His display of the rules and behavior of real martial arts makes his films less of the city atmosphere that ordinary kung fu films should have, and it seems that there is more than enough academy and insufficient aura;

"A Generation of Grandmasters" also shows the martial style of the Republic of China, but the glasses brother's sunglasses not only filter the clutter he thinks, but also give the film a strong petty bourgeois tone, exquisite, beautiful, and too one-sided;

"Embroidered Spring Knife" also substitutes martial arts into the context of the times, but the author is obviously unwilling to delay too long on the macro home country issue, and the survival dilemma and choice of small people are the focus of the creators.

Other words

Xu Haofeng is more like a teacher, using the film to show what he thinks is the martial landscape, as well as the review and reflection on the rules and order in Chinese culture. The intention is too high, appearing to be high and low;

Wong Kar-wai is a brilliant film technician who can make all types of films according to his own style, and "Generation Grandmaster" is no exception;

Lu Yang's "Embroidered Spring Knife" is a rare newcomer surprise in kung fu genre films in recent years, but the jianghu in his films is embedded in the officialdom. Although the behavior of small bureaucrats has affected the big times, such a setting is very similar to a workplace movie, in the environment of interests and speculation, pure love, sincere brotherhood and insistence on professional ethics have become a clear spring in the desert, precious and beautiful, but that's all.

As for films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hero", Shusheng thought that it should not be included in the category of martial arts films in the typical sense, after all, Mr. Xu Haofeng pointed out that Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" tells li Mubai's emotional story, and bamboo fights use the technique of bed-making scenes to deal with martial arts; Zhang Yimou's "Heroes" is more like a film that borrows Akira Kurosawa's scene processing skills in films such as "Shadow Samurai" plus the narrative structure of "Rashomon".

Finally, it should be noted that Shusheng is very fond of the martial arts works of Hu Jinquan and Mr. Zhang Che, such as "Chivalrous Woman", "Dragon Gate Inn", "Zhonglietu", "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain"; "One-Armed Knife", "The Great Pirate", "Five Tiger Generals", "Revenge", etc., but these films are old, and the fluency of the movements is not the same as today; in addition, although There have been obvious changes in the action presentation and narrative methods of Hong Kong kung fu films, there is a certain inheritance between the creators. Xu Ke himself is a fan of Master Hu, and although Xu's works are different from Mr. Hu Jinquan's rigorous style, he does integrate Hu Jinquan's martial arts thinking on reality and history, and even blue out of blue in some actions and plot treatment.

So as far as the best kung fu movies are concerned, Shusheng stands xu ke and tops "Huang Feihong's Boy Should Be Self-Reliant".

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3.Yan Hong. On the Position of Hu Jinquan in the History of Chinese Martial Arts Films[J]. Film Literature, 2014, No.603(6):29-30.

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6.Teo S. Chinese Martial Arts Cinema:The Wuxia Tradition[M]. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.