Everybody needs to have an angle, and that’s true for martial arts stars, too: Jimmy Wang Yu played one-armed roles, Jackie Chan brought comedy to the genre, Hsu Feng claimed she used to “act with her eyes”, Brigitte Lin played gender-bending characters, and David Chiang put athleticism over brute strength. Here’s what stars of the genre have said about what.
Raining in the Mountain contains few fight scenes and Legend of the Mountain none, though it does have action sequences. They were filmed simultaneously on location.
Come Drink With Me (Hong Kong, 1966)
Even if you’re not a big fan of wuxia, or Chinese historical martial arts films, you’ve certainly seen
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, so you’re aware of their distinctive visual style. That style, of course, didn’t come out of nowhere, it developed over time, and can be traced back to the work of one man, writer-director King Hu, the creator of the modern wuxia movie. This week we’re looking at Hu’s first three hugely influential films, which established the tropes, look, and feel of the genre in the Asian cinema of the late Sixties.