Misplaced Pages

#808191

140-456: Zodiac Killers is a 1991 Hong Kong action thriller drama film directed by Ann Hui and starring Andy Lau , Cherie Chung and Junichi Ishida . The inspiration of Zodiac Killers came from the case of a mainland Chinese female student studying abroad in Japan who died when she fell onto the tracks. Zodiac Killers is Hong Kong New Wave 's representative Ann Hui's first attempt at making

280-531: A loft and falls to the lower ground. By 1983, Chan branched out into action films which, though they still used martial arts, were less limited in scope, setting and plot, with an emphasis on elaborate yet dangerous stunt sequences. His first film in this vein, Project A (1983), saw the official formation of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team and added elaborate, dangerous stunts to the fights and typical slapstick humor (at one point, Chan falls from

420-657: A broader range of subject matter and was longer and more loosely structured than literary fiction. One of the masterpieces of Chinese vernacular fiction is the 18th-century domestic novel Dream of the Red Chamber . Chinese fiction was rooted in the official histories and such less formal works as A New Account of the Tales of the World and In Search of the Supernatural (4th and 5th centuries); Finest Flowers from

560-421: A busy high road, including a risky stunt where he slides under a truck. Chan continued to take the approach – and the budgets – to new heights in hits like Police Story (1985), which is considered one of the greatest action films of all time. Here was Chan dangling from a speeding bus, destroying large parts of a hillside shantytown, fighting in a shopping mall while breaking many glass panes, and sliding down

700-415: A commercial film, which, however, did not perform very well at the local box office. Hong Kong student Ben Lee becomes friends with his mainland Chinese classmate Chang Chih while studying abroad in Japan. Ben is unmotivated to study and only cares about money and on the other hand, whenever Chih encounters a Chinese person, he would ask whereabouts of his childhood sweetheart. Ben and Chih's friend, Ming,

840-676: A couple of attempts to crack the U.S. market, Jackie Chan 's 1995 film Rumble in the Bronx finally brought him recognition in the U.S. Since then, he has made several highly successful films for U.S. studios including Rush Hour (1998), Shanghai Noon (2000), and their respective sequels Rush Hour 2 (2001), Shanghai Knights (2003), and Rush Hour 3 (2007). Between his films for U.S. studios, he still makes films for Hong Kong studios, sometimes in English ( Mr. Nice Guy and Who Am I? ), often set in western countries like Australia or

980-520: A couple of generations of Hong Kongers by playing historical folk hero Wong Fei Hung in a series of roughly one hundred movies, from The True Story of Wong Fei Hung (1949) through to Wong Fei Hung Bravely Crushing the Fire Formation (1970). A number of enduring elements were introduced or solidified by these films: the still-popular character of "Master Wong"; the influence of Chinese opera with its stylized martial arts and acrobatics ; and

1120-459: A distinctively descriptive and erudite fu form (not the same fu character as that used for the bureau of music) developed that has been called "rhyme-prose", a uniquely Han offshoot of Chinese poetry's tradition. Equally noteworthy is Music Bureau poetry ( yuefu ), collected and presumably refined popular lyrics from folk music. The end of the Han witnesses a resurgence of the shi poetry, with

1260-862: A fad for Cantopop stars in high-tech, more American-styled action pictures such as Downtown Torpedoes (1997), Gen-X Cops and Purple Storm (both 1999). Andrew Lau 's wuxia comic-book adaptation The Storm Riders (1998) earned a record-breaking gross and ushered in an era of computer-generated imagery , previously little used in Hong Kong film. Tsui Hark 's lavish CGI-enhanced efforts Time and Tide (2000) and The Legend of Zu (2001), however, were surprisingly unsuccessful. Comedy megastar and director Stephen Chow used digital effects to push his typical affectionate parody of martial arts conventions to cartoonish levels in Shaolin Soccer (2001) and Kung Fu Hustle (2004), each of which also set

1400-475: A few hundred songs became standard templates for poems with distinctive and variously set meters. The free and expressive style of Song high culture has been contrasted with majestic Tang poems by centuries of subsequent critics who engage in fierce arguments over which dynasty had the best poetry. Additional musical influences contributed to the Yuan dynasty 's (1279–1368) distinctive qu opera culture and spawned

1540-539: A global success, across Asia , Europe and the third world . This eventually paved the way for Lee's posthumous Hollywood film breakthrough with the Hong Kong and US co-production Enter the Dragon (1973). Hong Kong martial arts cinema subsequently inspired a wave of Western martial arts films and television shows throughout the 1970s–1990s (launching the careers of Western martial arts stars such as Jean-Claude Van Damme , Steven Seagal and Chuck Norris ), as well as

SECTION 10

#1732783082809

1680-406: A lot of humiliation. Tit-lan is in love with Hideyuki Asano, who works as Yamada's top assassin, who went to South America to kill Yamada's enemy, but eventually came back to reunite with Tit-lan. However, Yamada send his men to have Asano silenced and right before he dies, he asks Tit-lan to expose Yamada to the police but Tit-lan faces the underworld's pursue to kill her. Since Tit-lan's passport

1820-495: A mini-trend of brooding police thrillers. Collaboration with other industries, particularly that of Mainland China , is another increasingly common survival and recovery strategy. Hong Kong stars and other personnel have been involved in international wuxia successes like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). Chinese literature The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, and begins with

1960-429: A modern-dress version of 1970s kung fu films by Woo's mentor Chang Cheh . The formula broke another all-time box office record. It also jump-started the faltering career of co-star Chow Yun-fat , who overnight became one of the colony's most popular idols and Woo's favorite leading man. For the remainder of the 1980s and into the early 1990s, a deluge of films by Woo and others explored similar territory, often with

2100-556: A name for him with American audiences. So far, he has returned to Chinese cinema for only two films: Hero (2002) and Fearless (2006). He claimed Fearless would be his last traditional kung fu film. Chow Yun-fat has also moved to Hollywood. After his 1995 film Peace Hotel , he has made a handful of films in Hollywood which have not seen as much success as those of the aforementioned figures'. These include The Replacement Killers (1998), The Corruptor (1999), Anna and

2240-562: A new bourgeoisie, implementing class struggle within the party itself. Literature of the period reflected both strands of class struggle. Local government bureaus and work units composed cultural works such as songs and dramas in an effort to overturn traditional cultural preferences for early marriage, large families, and sons over daughters . Academic Sarah Mellors Rodriguez writes that though these works of birth planning propaganda may seem trite to modern audiences, their themes spoke directly to widespread concerns among Chinese people at

2380-519: A new box office record. Striking a different note were a series of crime films more restrained and actor-driven than the earlier, John Woo-inspired examples. The Milkyway Image production company was at the vanguard with examples like Patrick Yau 's Expect the Unexpected (1998), Johnnie To 's The Mission (1999) and Running Out of Time (1999). Andrew Lau and Alan Mak 's blockbuster Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002–2003) has set off

2520-407: A nice dinner. The Song versus Tang debate continues through the centuries. While China's later imperial period does not seem to have broken new ground for innovative approaches to poetry, picking through its vast body of preserved works remains a scholarly challenge, so new treasures may yet be restored from obscurity. Early Chinese prose was deeply influenced by the great philosophical writings of

2660-399: A pole covered with exploding light bulbs. The latter is considered one of the greatest stunts in the history of action cinema. The 1988 sequel called for explosions on a scale similar to many Hollywood movies and seriously injured leading lady Maggie Cheung – an occupational risk Chan had already grown used to. Thus Jackie Chan created the template for the contemporary urban action-comedy of

2800-506: A progenitor of the kung fu comedy. In subsequent titles like Executioners from Shaolin (1977), The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978), and Legendary Weapons of China (1982), Lau emphasized the traditions and philosophy of the martial arts and strove to give onscreen fighting greater authenticity and ever greater speed and intricacy. The kung fu boom was partly fueled by enormous international popularity, and not just in East Asia. In

2940-580: A protege of Lu Xun who, along with his wife Mei Zhi , did not toe the Party line on literature. Socialist realism became the uniform style, and many Soviet works were translated. The ability to satirize and expose the evils in contemporary society that had made writers useful to the Chinese Communist Party before its accession to power was no longer welcomed. Party cultural leaders such as Zhou Yang used Mao's call to have literature "serve

SECTION 20

#1732783082809

3080-618: A raft of imitations, often starring Mainland wushu champion Jet Li . He went on to receive a special award for a mainland China person at the 1995 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival . The other signature star of the subgenre was Taiwanese-born actress Brigitte Lin . She made an unlikely specialty of androgynous woman-warrior types, such as the villainous, sex-changing eunuch in The Swordsman 2 (1992), epitomizing martial arts fantasy's often-noted fascination with gender instability. Hong Kong's international impact initially came in

3220-832: A second wave of wuxia films with highly acrobatic violence, followed by the emergence of the grittier kung fu films for which the Shaw Brothers studio became best known. Hong Kong action cinema peaked from the 1970s to the 1990s . The 1970s saw a resurgence in kung fu films during the rise and sudden death of Bruce Lee . He was succeeded in the 1980s by Jackie Chan —who popularized the use of comedy, dangerous stunts , and modern urban settings in action films—and Jet Li , whose authentic wushu skills appealed to both eastern and western audiences. The innovative work of directors and producers like Tsui Hark and John Woo introduced further variety, with genres such as heroic bloodshed and gun fu films, and themes such as triads and

3360-507: A similar visual style and thematic bent. They were usually marked by an emphasis on the fraternal bonds of duty and affection among the criminal protagonists. The most notable other auteur of these themes was Ringo Lam , who offered a less romanticized take in such films as City on Fire , Prison on Fire (both 1987), and Full Contact (1992), all starring Chow Yun-Fat. The genre and its creators were accused in some quarters of cravenly glorifying real-life triads, whose involvement in

3500-513: A strong caesura , producing a driving and dramatic rhythm. Both the Shijing and the Chuci have remained influential throughout Chinese history. During the greater part of China's first great period of unification, begun with the short-lived Qin dynasty (221 BC – 206 BC) and followed by the centuries-long Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), the shi form of poetry underwent little innovation. But

3640-471: A strong streak of racial and/or nationalistic pride. The popularity of these movies in North America would continue into the 1980s when ninja movies were introduced. In popular culture, the films of this era were colloquially known as Kung Fu Theater or Black Belt Theater , names that many independent stations used for their weekly airing slot. The Brothers (1979), a Shaw Brothers production,

3780-531: A technique known by Western fans, sometimes disparagingly, as wire fu . As so often, Tsui Hark led the way. He produced Swordsman (1990), which reestablished the wuxia novels of Jin Yong as favorite big-screen sources (television adaptations had long been ubiquitous). He directed Once Upon a Time in China (1991), which resurrected oft-filmed folk hero Wong Fei Hung . Both films were followed by sequels and

3920-452: A vogue that helped reinvigorate the waning kung fu genre. Especially notable in this regard were two of Chan's childhood Peking Opera School classmates, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao , who also made careers of this specialty, sometimes co-starring with Chan. Hung, noted for the seeming paradox of his overweight physique and physical agility, also made a name for himself as a director and action choreographer from early on, with titles like Enter

4060-458: Is Li Bai (701–762) also pronounced and written as Li Bo, who worked in all major styles, both the more free old style verse ( gutishi ) as well as the tonally regulated new style verse ( jintishi ). Regardless of genre, Tang poets notably strove to perfect a style in which poetic subjects are exposed and evident, often without directly referring to the emotional thrust at hand. The poet Du Fu (712–770) excelled at regulated verse and use of

4200-432: Is Eileen Chang. Though often said to be less successful than their counterparts in fiction writing, poets also experimented with the vernacular in new poetic forms, such as free verse and the sonnet. Given that there was no tradition of writing poetry in the vernacular, these experiments were more radical than those in fiction writing and also less easily accepted by the reading public. Modern poetry flourished especially in

4340-608: Is a wealth of early Chinese literature dating from the Hundred Schools of Thought that occurred during the Eastern Zhou dynasty (770–256 BC). The most important of these include the Classics of Confucianism , of Daoism , of Mohism , of Legalism , as well as works of military science and Chinese history . Note that, except for the books of poems and songs, most of this literature is philosophical and didactic; there

Zodiac Killers - Misplaced Pages Continue

4480-421: Is also from Hong Kong and in order to elevate his social status, he becomes involved with a bar hostess and owner Yuriko, hoping to become Yakuza leader Yamada Ishikawa's brother in-law. In Yuriko's bar, Ben encounters Chinese student Mang Tit-lan, who is there to earn some extra money, and falls in love with her at first sight but is not favored. Tit-lan and her friend Mei-mei live with their guarantor and suffers

4620-539: Is in doubt. Another early text was the political strategy book of the Zhan Guo Ce , compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, with partial amounts of the text found amongst the 2nd century BC tomb site at Mawangdui . The oldest extant dictionary in China is the Erya , dated to the 3rd century BC, anonymously written but with later commentary by the historian Guo Pu (276–324). Other early dictionaries include

4760-543: Is little in the way of fiction. However, these texts maintained their significance through both their ideas and their prose style. The Confucian works in particular have been of high importance to Chinese culture and history, as a set of works known as the Four Books and Five Classics were, in the 12th century AD, chosen as the basis for the Imperial examination for any government post. These nine books therefore became

4900-427: Is strikingly concerned with the contemporary: social problems, historical upheaval, changing ethical values, etc. In this sense, late Qing fiction is modern. Important novelists of the period include Wu Woyao (吳沃堯) (1866–1910), Li Boyuan (李伯元) (1867–1906), Liu E (劉鶚) (1857–1909), and Zeng Pu (曾樸) (1872–1935). The late Qing also saw a "revolution in poetry" (詩界革命), which promoted experimentation with new forms and

5040-460: Is traditionally credited with editing the Shijing . Its stately verses are usually composed of couplets with lines of four characters each (or four syllables, as Chinese characters are monosyllabic), and a formal structure of end rhymes. Many of these early poems establish the later tradition of starting with a description of nature that leads into emotionally expressive statements, known as bi , xing , or sometime bixing . Associated with what

5180-499: Is widely credited with launching the kung fu boom. But remaining at the vanguard, at least initially, were Shaw Brothers and director Chang Cheh. Chang's Vengeance (1970) was another of the first trendsetters and his dozens of contributions included The Boxer from Shantung (1972), Heroes Two (1974), Five Deadly Venoms (1978) and Crippled Avengers (1979). Kung fu cinema was particularly influenced by Chang's concern with his vision of masculine values and male friendship;

5320-597: The Chicago Reader wrote, "As an action movie, this is just fine [..] But as a portrait of cultural displacement, this is evocative and sometimes very moving." Hong Kong action cinema The first Hong Kong action films favoured the wuxia style, emphasizing mysticism and swordplay, but this trend was politically suppressed in the 1930s and replaced by kung fu films that depicted more down-to-earth unarmed martial arts, often featuring folk heroes such as Wong Fei Hung . Post-war cultural upheavals led to

5460-606: The Dao De Jing , the Zhuangzi , and the Liezi . Later authors combined Daoism with Confucianism and Legalism, such as Liu An (2nd century BC), whose Huainanzi ( The Philosophers of Huai-nan ) also added to the fields of geography and topography . Among the classics of military science, The Art of War by Sun Tzu (6th century BC) was perhaps the first to outline guidelines for effective international diplomacy . It

5600-655: The Fangyan by Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD) and the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen (58–147 AD). One of the largest was the Kangxi Dictionary compiled by 1716 under the auspices of the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1661–1722); it provides definitions for over 47,000 characters. Although court records and other independent records existed beforehand, the definitive work in early Chinese historical writing

5740-669: The Taiping Yulan (983), the Wenyuan Yinghua (986), and the Cefu Yuangui (1013). Although these Song dynasty Chinese encyclopedias featured millions of written Chinese characters each, their aggregate size paled in comparison to the later Yongle Encyclopedia (1408) of the Ming dynasty, which contained a total of 50 million Chinese characters. Even this size was trumped by later Qing dynasty encyclopedias, such as

Zodiac Killers - Misplaced Pages Continue

5880-667: The Zizhi Tongjian , presented to Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1084 AD. The overall scope of the historiographical tradition in China is termed the Twenty-Four Histories , created for each successive Chinese dynasty up until the Ming dynasty (1368–1644); China's last dynasty, the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), is not included. Large encyclopedias were also produced in China through the ages. The Yiwen Leiju encyclopedia

6020-692: The sanqu form of individual poems based on it. Classical Chinese poetry composition became a conventional skill of the well-educated throughout the Ming (1368–1644) and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties. Over a million poems have been preserved, including those by women, such as Dong Xiaowan and Liu Rushi , and by many other diverse voices. Painter-poets, such as Shen Zhou (1427–1509), Tang Yin (1470–1524), Wen Zhengming (1470–1559), and Yun Shouping (1633–1690), created worthy conspicuous poems as they combined art, poetry and calligraphy with brush on paper. Poetry composition competitions were socially common, as depicted in novels, for example over dessert after

6160-606: The Chinese Civil War , and the victory of the Chinese Communist Party —had shifted the centre of Chinese language filmmaking to Hong Kong. The industry continued the wuxia tradition in Cantonese B movies and serials, although the more prestigious Mandarin -language cinema generally ignored the genre. Animation and special effects drawn directly on the film by hand were used to simulate the flying abilities and other preternatural powers of characters; later titles in

6300-421: The Hundred Schools of Thought (770–221 BC). The works of Mozi , Mencius , and Zhuang Zhou contain well-reasoned, carefully developed discourses that reveal much stronger organization and style than their predecessors. Mozi's polemic prose was built on solid and effective methodological reasoning. Mencius contributed elegant diction and, like Zhuang Zhou, relied on comparisons, anecdotes, and allegories. By

6440-645: The Kuomintang government, who saw it as promoting superstition and violent anarchy. Wuxia filmmaking was picked up in Hong Kong, at the time a British colony with a highly liberal economy and culture and a developing film industry. The first martial arts film in Cantonese , the dominant Chinese spoken language of Hong Kong, was The Adorned Pavilion (1938). By the late 1940s, upheavals in mainland China —the Second Sino-Japanese War ,

6580-637: The Netherlands , and sometimes in Cantonese (2004's New Police Story and 2006's Rob-B-Hood ). Because of his enormous U.S. popularity, these films are usually released in the U.S., a rarity for Hong Kong films, and generally attract respectable audience numbers. Jet Li has reduced his Hong Kong output since 1998's Hitman concentrating on Hollywood instead. After a minor role in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998), he has gone on to star in several Hollywood films which have performed respectably and made

6720-518: The Yan'an Rectification Movement . The Yan'an Talks articulated the view that socialist literature should not merely reflect existing culture, but should help culturally produce the consciousness of a new society. Mao articulated five independent although related categories of creative consideration for socialist cultural production: (1) class stand, (2) attitude, (3) audience, (4) work style, and (5) popularization/massification. The Yan'an Talks would become

6860-569: The novel as early as the Song dynasty . The novel as an extended prose narrative which realistically creates a believable world of its own evolved in China and in Europe from the 14th–18th centuries, though a little earlier in China. Chinese audiences were more interested in history and Chinese authors generally did not present their works as fictional. Readers appreciated relative optimism, moral humanism, relative emphasis on group behavior, and welfare of

7000-478: The 1930s, in the hands of poets like Zhu Xiang (朱湘), Dai Wangshu , Li Jinfa (李金發), Wen Yiduo , and Ge Xiao (葛蕭). Other poets, even those among the May Fourth radicals (e.g., Yu Dafu ), continued to write poetry in classical styles. May Fourth radicalism, combined with changes in the education system, made possible the emergence of a large group of women writers. While there had been women writers in

7140-583: The 1980s had not only established Hong Kong as the dominant cinema in East Asia , but reawakened Western interest. By the 1990s, there was a second "Asian invasion" from Hong Kong action cinema, heavily influencing and revitalizing Hollywood action cinema. There was a significant crossover of Hong Kong stars, filmmakers and action choreographers from Hong Kong to Hollywood, in addition to the wide adoption of Hong Kong action filmmaking techniques in Hollywood. The wide adoption of Hong Kong action film conventions

SECTION 50

#1732783082809

7280-518: The 1980s, combining cops, kung fu and all the body-breaking potential of the modern city with its glass, metal and speeding vehicles. Chan's move towards larger-scale action films was paralleled by work coming out of Cinema City , the production company established in 1980 by comedians Raymond Wong , Karl Maka and Dean Shek . With movies like the spy spoof Aces Go Places (1982) and its sequels, Cinema City helped make modern special effects, James Bond -type gadgets and big vehicular stunts part of

7420-546: The 1990s, reshaping the way Hollywood action films were made. Lam's City on Fire (1987) inspired Quentin Tarantino 's Reservoir Dogs (1992); Tarantino was an admirer of the heroic bloodshed genre. The Killer also heavily influenced Luc Besson 's Léon: The Professional (1994). Eventually, John Woo himself introduced his brand of heroic bloodshed to Hollywood in the 1990s. By the late 1990s, Woo's style of cinema had become firmly established in Hollywood. Due to

7560-410: The 1990s. Bollywood action scenes emulated Hong Kong rather than Hollywood, emphasising acrobatics and stunts and combining kung fu (as perceived by Indians) with Indian martial arts such as pehlwani . Hong Kong martial arts films such as Enter the Dragon were the foundation for fighting games . The Street Fighter video game franchise (1987 debut) was inspired by Enter the Dragon , with

7700-616: The 3rd century BC, these writers had developed a simple, concise and economical style that served as a model literary form for over two millennia. These were written in Classical Chinese , which mostly represented the spoken language during the Spring and Autumn period . During the Tang dynasty , the ornate, artificial style of prose developed in previous periods was replaced by a simple, direct, and forceful prose based on examples from

7840-586: The Communists gradually nationalized the publishing industry, centralized the book distribution system, and brought writers under institutional control through the Writers Union. A system of strict censorship was implemented, with Mao's Yan'an Talks as the guiding force. Periodic literary campaigns targeted figures such as Hu Shih and other figures from the New Culture period, especially Hu Feng ,

7980-498: The Dragon as being influential for the way they pitched "an elemental story of good against evil in such a spectacle-saturated way". In Japan, the manga and anime franchises Fist of the North Star (1983–1988) and Dragon Ball (1984–1995) were influenced by Hong Kong martial arts films, particularly 1970s kung fu films such as Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon and Jackie Chan's Drunken Master (1978). In turn, Fist of

8120-473: The Eagle's Shadow . The resulting blend of physical comedy and kung fu action provided Chan with his first hit and the rudiments of what would become his signature style. Chan's follow-up movie with Yuen, Drunken Master (also 1978), and his directorial debut, The Fearless Hyena (1979), were also giant hits and cemented his popularity. Although these films were not the first kung fu comedies, they launched

8260-492: The English phrase low-brow fiction. In the late 1920s and 1930s, literary journals and societies espousing various artistic theories proliferated. Among the major writers of the period were Guo Moruo (1892–1978), a poet, historian, essayist, and critic; Mao Dun (1896–1981), the first of the novelists to emerge from the League of Left-Wing Writers and one whose work reflected the revolutionary struggle and disillusionment of

8400-496: The Fat Dragon (1978). Chan's clowning may have helped extend the life of the kung fu wave for several years. Nevertheless, he became a star towards the end of the boom, and would soon help move the colony towards a new type of action. In the 1980s, he and many colleagues would forge a slicker, more spectacular Hong Kong pop cinema that would successfully compete with the post- Star Wars summer blockbusters from America. In

8540-650: The Hong Kong practice of training in martial arts and performing their own stunts, such as Keanu Reeves , Uma Thurman and Jason Statham . Martin Scorsese 's crime film The Departed (2006) was a remake of the Infernal Affairs trilogy (2002–2003) by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak . The heroic bloodshed genre had a considerable impact on world cinema , especially Hollywood . The action, style, tropes and mannerisms established in 1980s Hong Kong heroic bloodshed films were later widely adopted by Hollywood in

SECTION 60

#1732783082809

8680-518: The Hundred Schools and the Han dynasty , the period in which the great historical works of Sima Tan and Sima Qian were published. This neoclassical style dominated prose writing for the next 800 years. It was exemplified in the work of Han Yu (768–824), a master essayist and strong advocate of a return to Confucian orthodoxy; Han Yu was later listed as one of the "Eight Great Prose Masters of

8820-603: The King (1999) and Bulletproof Monk (2003). He returned to China for 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and 2006's Curse of the Golden Flower . The Hong Kong film industry has been in a severe slump since the mid-1990s. The number of local films produced, and their box office takings, are dramatically reduced; American imports now dominate in a way they had not for decades, or perhaps ever. This crisis and increased contact with Western cinema have probably been

8960-514: The North American box office. King Boxer ( Five Fingers of Death ) starring Indonesian -born actor Lo Lieh was the first Hong Kong film to top the US box office, paving the way for Bruce Lee's breakthrough with The Big Boss ( Fists of Fury ) topping the US box office. In May 1973, Hong Kong action cinema made US box office history, with three foreign films holding the top three spots for

9100-500: The North Star and especially Dragon Ball are credited with setting the trends for popular shōnen manga and anime from the 1980s onwards. Similarly in India, Hong Kong martial arts films had an influence on Bollywood masala films . After the success of Bruce Lee films (such as Enter the Dragon ) in India, Deewaar (1975) and later Bollywood films incorporated fight scenes inspired by 1970s Hong Kong martial arts films up until

9240-556: The Red Chamber . Many of these writers became important as administrators of artistic and literary policy after 1949. Most of those authors who were still alive during the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) were either purged or forced to submit to public humiliation. The League of Left-Wing Writers founded in 1930 included Lu Xun among its leadership. By 1932 it had adopted the Soviet doctrine of socialist realism ; that is,

9380-533: The Republican era, Butterfly fiction would reach many more readers than its "progressive" counterpart. In the course of the New Culture Movement during the 1910s and 1920s decades, the vernacular language largely displaced the classical in all areas of literature and writing. Literary reformers Hu Shih (1891–1962) and Chen Duxiu (1880–1942) declared the classical language "dead" and promoted

9520-552: The Shaws' prolific star director into the early 1980s. The early 1970s saw wuxia giving way to a new, grittier and more graphic (and Mandarin -speaking) iteration of the kung fu movie, which came to dominate through the decade and into the early 1980s. Seriously trained martial artists such as Ti Lung and Gordon Liu became some of the top stars as increasing proportions of running times were devoted to combat set-pieces. Chinese Boxer (1970), starring and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu,

9660-667: The Snowy Forest (Lin Hai Xue Yuan 林海雪原) by Qu Bo , Keep the Red Flag Flying (Hong Qi Pu 紅旗譜) by Liang Bin 梁斌, The Red Sun (Hong Ri 紅日) by Wu Qiang 吳強, and Red Crag by Luo Guangbin 羅廣斌 and Yang Yiyan (楊益言). During the 1960s, the Maoist view of class struggle focused on challenging revisionism within society through the socialist education movement , and, motivated by concerns that Party bureaucrats might become

9800-537: The Tang and Song". The Song dynasty saw the rise in popularity of "travel record literature" ( youji wenxue ). Travel literature combined both diary and narrative prose formats, it was practised by seasoned travellers like Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and Xu Xiake (1587–1641), and can be seen in the example of Su Shi 's Record of Stone Bell Mountain . After the 14th century, vernacular fiction became popular, at least outside of court circles. Vernacular fiction covered

9940-555: The West, kung fu imports, dubbed and often recut and retitled, shown as "B" films in urban theaters and on television, made Hong Kong film widely noticed, although not widely respected, for the first time. African-Americans particularly embraced the genre (as exemplified by the popular hip-hop group, the Wu-Tang Clan ) perhaps as an almost unprecedented source of adventure stories with non-white heroes, who furthermore often displayed

10080-660: The World of Letters , a 10th-century compilation of earlier works; Great Tang Records on the Western Regions completed by a pilgrim to India named Xuanzang in 646; Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang , the best known collection of Literary Chinese chuanqi from the Tang dynasty; and the Taiping Guangji , which preserved the corpus of these Tang dynasty tales. There was a range of less formal works either oral or using oral conventions, such as bianwen , pingshu , and huaben , which formed background to

10220-576: The anonymous 19 Old Poems . This collection reflects the emergence of a distinctive five-character line that later became shi poetry's most common line length. From the Jian'an reign period (196 – 220 AD) onward, the five-character line became a focus for innovations in style and theme. The Cao family, rulers of the Wei dynasty (220 – 265 AD) during the post-Han Three Kingdoms period, distinguished themselves as poets by writing poems filled with sympathy for

10360-481: The biggest recent influences on Hong Kong action cinema. Luring local and regional youth audiences away from Hollywood is a constant concern. Action movies are now generally headlined by babyfaced Cantonese pop music idols, such as Ekin Cheng and Nicholas Tse , enhanced with wires and digital effects – a trend also driven by the waning of a previous generation of martial arts-trained stars. The late 1990s witnessed

10500-573: The center of the educational system. They have been grouped into two categories: the Five Classics , allegedly commented and edited by Confucius , and the Four Books . The Five Classics are: The Four Books are: Other important philosophical works include the Mohist Mozi , which taught "inclusive love" as both an ethical and social principle, and Hanfeizi , one of the central Legalist texts. Important Daoist classics include

10640-399: The concept of mixed martial arts (MMA) in the West via his Jeet Kune Do system. In 2004, Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) founder Dana White called Lee the "father of mixed martial arts". Parkour was also influenced by the acrobatic antics of Jackie Chan in his Hong Kong action films, as well as the philosophy of Bruce Lee. Hong Kong action cinema's innovative developments in

10780-505: The concept of youmo (humor), which he used in trenchant criticism of China's political and cultural situation before leaving for the United States. Themes of "revolution plus love" became a left-wing literary fashion during the 1930s, although it was also criticized from the left including by Mao Dun. In this narrative formula, the story begins with conflict between the revolutionary mission and romantic love, followed by calls for

10920-566: The concept of martial arts heroes as exponents of Confucian ethics. In the second half of the 1960s, the era's biggest studio, Shaw Brothers , inaugurated a new generation of wuxia films, starting with Xu Zenghong's Temple of the Red Lotus (1965), a remake of the 1928 classic. These Mandarin productions were more lavish and in colour; their style was less fantastical and more intense, with stronger and more acrobatic violence. They were influenced by imported samurai movies from Japan and by

11060-426: The contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han while retaining an objective and non-biased standpoint. This was often difficult for the official dynastic historians, who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty. He influenced the written works of many Chinese historians, including the works of Ban Gu and Ban Zhao in the 1st and 2nd centuries, and even Sima Guang 's 11th-century compilation of

11200-501: The cycle included The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (1965) and Sacred Fire, Heroic Wind (1966). A counter-tradition to the wuxia films emerged in the kung fu movies that were also produced at this time. These movies emphasized more "authentic", down-to-earth and unarmed combat over the swordplay and mysticism of wuxia . The most famous exemplar was real-life martial artist Kwan Tak Hing ; he became an avuncular hero figure to at least

11340-468: The day, Chan came out of training in Peking opera and started in film as a stuntman , notably in some of Lee's vehicles. He was groomed for a while by The Big Boss and Fist of Fury director Lo Wei as another Lee clone, in several movies including New Fist of Fury (1976), with little success. But in 1978, Chan teamed up with action choreographer Yuen Woo Ping on Yuen's directorial debut, Snake in

11480-419: The day-to-day struggles of soldiery and the common people. Taoist philosophy became a different, common theme for other poets, and a genre emphasizing true feeling emerged led by Ruan Ji (210–263). The landscape genre of Chinese nature poetry emerged under the brush of Xie Lingyun (385–433), as he innovated distinctively descriptive and complementary couplets composed of five-character lines. A farmland genre

11620-528: The description of objects. Reunified China's Tang dynasty (618–907) high culture set a high point for many things, including poetry. Various schools of Buddhism (a religion from India) flourished as represented by the Chan (or Zen) beliefs of Wang Wei (701–761). His quatrains ( jueju ) describing natural scenes are world-famous examples of excellence, each couplet conventionally containing about two distinct images or thoughts per line. Tang poetry's big star

11760-477: The earliest layer of Chinese literature was influenced by oral traditions of different social and professional provenance: cult and lay musical practices ( Shijing ), divination ( Yi jing ), astronomy, exorcism. An attempt at tracing the genealogy of Chinese literature to religious spells and incantations (the six zhu 六祝, as presented in the "Da zhu" chapter of the Rites of Zhou ) was made by Liu Shipei. There

11900-538: The earliest recorded inscriptions, court archives, building to the major works of philosophy and history written during the Axial Age . The Han (202 BC – 220 AD) and Tang (618–907 AD) dynasties were considered golden ages of poetry, while the Song (960–1279) and Yuan (1271–1368) were notable for their lyrics ( ci ), essays, dramas, and plays. During the Ming and Qing , mature novels were written in written vernacular Chinese , an evolution from

12040-410: The early 1980s, Jackie Chan began experimenting with elaborate stunt action sequences in films such as The Young Master (1980) and especially Dragon Lord (1982), which featured a pyramid fight scene that holds the record for the most takes required for a single scene, with 2900 takes, and the final fight scene in which he performs various stunts, including one where he does a back flip off

12180-422: The emergence of spoken drama. Most outstanding among playwrights of the day are Ouyang Yuqian , Hong Shen , Tian Han , and Cao Yu . More popular than this Western-style drama, however, was Peking opera, raised to new artistic heights by the likes of Mei Lanfang . In these decades, mass-appeal fiction which elites deemed culturally insignificant became known as "butterfly fiction," a label largely equivalent to

12320-513: The female warrior figures who had been prominent in late 1960s wuxia work were sidelined, with prominent exceptions such as the popular Angela Mao . Chang's only competitor as the genre's most influential filmmaker was his long-time action choreographer , Lau Kar Leung (a.k.a. Liu Chia Liang in Mandarin). Lau began directing his own movies for the Shaw brothers in 1975 with The Spiritual Boxer ,

12460-561: The film business was notorious. As the triad films petered out in the early 1990s, period martial arts returned as the favored action genre. But this was a new martial arts cinema that took full advantage of technical strides as well the higher budgets that came with Hong Kong's dominance of the region's screens. These lavish productions were often adapted from the more fantastical wuxia novels, which featured flying warriors in mid-air combat. Performers were raised up on ultrathin wires to allow them to conduct gravity-defying action sequences,

12600-545: The films became more available in the mainstream video market and even occasionally in mainstream theaters. Western critics and film scholars also began to take Hong Kong action cinema seriously and made many key figures and films part of their canon of world cinema. From here, Hong Kong came to define a new vocabulary for worldwide action cinema, with the aid of a new generation of North American filmmakers. Quentin Tarantino 's Reservoir Dogs (1992) drew inspiration from City on Fire and his two-part Kill Bill (2003–04)

12740-492: The first time: Fists of Fury , Lady Whirlwind ( Deep Thrust ), and Five Fingers of Death . Lee continued his success with Fist of Fury ( The Chinese Connection ), which also topped the US box office the following month. Kung fu film releases in the United States initially targeted Asian American audiences, before becoming a breakout success among larger African-American and Hispanic audiences, and then among white working-class Americans . Kung fu films also became

12880-421: The form of martial arts films , especially 1970s kung fu films and most notably those of Bruce Lee . His earliest attempts at introducing his brand of Hong Kong martial arts cinema to the West came in the form of American television shows , such as The Green Hornet (1966 debut) and Kung Fu (1972 debut). The "kung fu craze" began in 1973, with the unprecedented success of Hong Kong martial arts films at

13020-453: The gameplay centered around an international fighting tournament, and each character having a unique combination of ethnicity, nationality and fighting style. Street Fighter went on to set the template for all fighting games that followed. The early beat 'em up game Kung-Fu Master (1984) was also based on Bruce Lee's Game of Death (1972) and Jackie Chan's Wheels on Meals (1984). The success of Bruce Lee's films helped popularize

13160-706: The incorporation of new registers of language. However, the poetry scene was still dominated by the adherents to the Tongguang School (named after the Tongzhi and Guangxu reigns of the Qing), whose leaders— Chen Yan (陳衍), Chen Sanli (陳三立), Zheng Xiaoxu (鄭孝胥), and Shen Zengzhi (沈曾植)—promoted a Song style in the manner of Huang Tingjian. These poets would become the objects of scorn by New Culturalists like Hu Shih , who saw their work as overly allusive, artificial, and divorced from contemporary reality. In drama,

13300-541: The industry vernacular. Director/producer Tsui Hark had a hand in shaping the Cinema City style while employed there from 1981–1983 but went on to make an even bigger impact after leaving. In such movies as Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983) and A Chinese Ghost Story (1987, directed by Ching Siu-tung ), he kept pushing the boundaries of Hong Kong special effects. He led the way in replacing

13440-560: The insistence that art must concentrate on contemporary events in a realistic way, exposing the ills of nonsocialist society and promoting a glorious future under communism . Other styles of literature were at odds with the highly-political literature being promoted by the League. The " New Sensationists " (新感覺派)—a group of writers based in Shanghai who were influenced, to varying degrees, by Western and Japanese modernism—wrote fiction that

13580-470: The late 1920s; satirist and novelist Lao She (1899–1966); and Ba Jin (1904–2005), a novelist whose work was influenced by Ivan Turgenev and other Russian writers. In the 1930s Ba Jin produced a trilogy that depicted the struggle of modern youth against the age-old dominance of the Confucian family system. Comparison often is made between Jia (Family), one of the novels in the trilogy, and Dream of

13720-679: The late Qing saw the emergence of the new "civilized drama" (文明戲), a hybrid of Chinese operatic drama with Western-style spoken drama. Peking opera and "reformed Peking opera" were also popular at the time. The literary scene in the first few years before the collapse of the Qing in 1911 was dominated by popular love stories, some written in the classical language and some in the vernacular. This entertainment fiction would later be labeled " Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies " fiction by New Culturalists, who despised its lack of social engagement. Throughout much of

13860-462: The late imperial period and the late Qing, they had been few in number. These writers generally tackled domestic issues, such as relations between the sexes, family, friendship and war, Eileen Chang's writing uses the spatial specificities of the modern apartment as essential to the construction of a vision of life in wartime. But they were revolutionary in giving direct expression to female subjectivity. Ding Ling 's story Miss Sophia's Diary exposes

14000-641: The latest date for the writing of the Guodian Chu Slips unearthed in a Hubei tomb in 1993. The Book of Documents included early information on geography in the Yu Gong chapter. The Bamboo Annals found in 281 AD in the tomb of the King of Wei, who was interred in 296 BC, provide another example; however, unlike the Zuo Zhuan , the authenticity of the early date of the Bamboo Annals

14140-528: The minor scholar-official Song Yingxing (1587–1666) and his Tiangong Kaiwu . The rich tradition of Chinese poetry began with two influential collections. In northern China, the Shijing or Classic of Poetry (approx. 11th–7th century BC) comprises over 300 poems in a variety of styles ranging from those with a strong suggestion of folk music to ceremonial hymns. The word shi has the basic meaning of poem or poetry, as well as its use in criticism to describe one of China's lyrical poetic genres. Confucius

14280-515: The more general integration of Asian martial arts into Western action films and television shows by the 1990s. Sascha Matuszak of Vice said Enter the Dragon "is referenced in all manner of media, the plot line and characters continue to influence storytellers today, and the impact was particularly felt in the revolutionizing way the film portrayed African-Americans , Asians and traditional martial arts." Kuan-Hsing Chen and Beng Huat Chua cited fight scenes in Hong Kong films such as Enter

14420-489: The most internationally successful film from the region. Furthermore, his decision at the outset to work for young, upstart studio Golden Harvest , rather than accept the Shaws' notoriously tightfisted standard contract, was a factor in Golden Harvest's meteoric rise and Shaw's eventual decline. The only Chinese performer who has ever rivalled Bruce Lee's global fame is Jackie Chan . Like many kung fu performers of

14560-495: The national guideline for culture after the establishment of the People's Republic of China. Consistent with political goals of mobilizing the masses, literary depictions of Party cadres became important. Literature of the period represented good cadres as those who took the lead on the road to socialism while adopting a theme of antibureaucratism to criticize cadres who sought special privileges. After coming to power in 1949,

14700-401: The new-found international awareness of Hong Kong films during the 1980s and early 1990s and a downturn in the industry as the 1990s progressed, many of the leading lights of Hong Kong cinema left for Hollywood , which offered budgets and pay which could not be equalled by Hong Kong production companies. John Woo left for Hollywood after his 1992 film Hard Boiled . His 1997 film Face/Off

14840-545: The people" to mount attacks on " petty bourgeois idealism" and "humanitarianism". This conflict came to a head in the Hundred Flowers Campaign (1956–57). Mao Zedong initially encouraged writers to speak out against problems in the new society. Having learned the lessons of the anti-Hu Feng campaign, they were reluctant, but then a flurry of newspaper articles, films, and literary works drew attention to such problems as bureaucratism and authoritarianism within

14980-564: The period were Chang Cheh with One-Armed Swordsman (1967) and Golden Swallow (1968) and King Hu with Come Drink with Me (1966). Hu soon left Shaw Brothers to pursue his own vision of wuxia with independent productions in Taiwan , such as the enormously successful Dragon Inn (1967, a.k.a. Dragon Gate Inn ) and A Touch of Zen which was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival . Chang stayed on and remained

15120-554: The preeminence of Literary Chinese patterned off the language of the Chinese classics . The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051) during the Song rapidly spread written knowledge throughout China. Around the turn of the 20th century, the author Lu Xun (1881–1936) is considered an influential voice of vernacular Chinese literature. Formation of

15260-468: The present day... developing his own fighting style... and possessing superhuman charisma". His first three movies broke local box office records and were successful in much of the world. Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon went on to gross an estimated US$ 100 million and US$ 130 million worldwide, respectively. The English-language Enter the Dragon , the first-ever US-Hong Kong co-production, grossed an estimated US$ 350 million worldwide, making it

15400-522: The printed the Complete Classics Collection of Ancient China (1726), which featured over 100 million written Chinese characters in over 800,000 pages, printed in 60 different copies using copper -metal Chinese movable type printing. Other great encyclopedic writers include the polymath scientist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) and his Dream Pool Essays , the agronomist and inventor Wang Zhen ( fl. 1290–1333) and his Nongshu , and

15540-402: The protagonists to devote themselves to revolution and set aside their personal feelings, and ultimately results in the couple working together for the revolution in a form of love itself. As described by academic David Der-Wei Wang , "[R]evolution plus love functioned both as a literary trope, titillating and sustaining a society's desire for self-reform, and as a political mandate, calling for

15680-472: The ranks of the party. Shocked at the level of discontent, Mao's Anti-Rightist Movement put large numbers of intellectuals through "thought reform" or sent them to labor camps. At the time of the Great Leap Forward (1957–59), the government increased its insistence on the use of socialist realism and combined with it so-called revolutionary realism and revolutionary romanticism. Class struggle

15820-536: The redisposition of the social body in both public and personal spheres." During the Second Sino-Japanese War , there was a revival of writing classical-style poetry. The Chinese Communist Party had established a base after the Long March in Yan'an . In 1942, Mao Zedong gave a series of lectures called " Talks at the Yan'an Forum on Art and Literature " that clearly made literature subservient to politics via

15960-463: The rough and ready camera style of 1970s kung fu with glossier and more sophisticated visuals and ever more furious editing. As a producer, Tsui Hark facilitated the creation of John Woo 's epoch-making heroic bloodshed movie A Better Tomorrow (1986). Woo's saga of cops and the triads (Chinese gangsters) combined fancifully choreographed (and extremely violent) gunplay (called gun fu ) with heightened emotional melodrama, sometimes resembling

16100-605: The seven-character line also contributed to the emerging posthumous fame of Du Fu, now ranked alongside Li Bai. The distinctively different ci poetry form began its development during the Tang as Central Asian and other musical influences flowed through its cosmopolitan society. China's Song dynasty (960–1279), another reunification era after a brief period of disunity, initiated a fresh high culture. Several of its greatest poets were capable government officials as well including Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072), Su Shi (1037–1101), and Wang Anshi (1021–1086). The ci form flourished as

16240-466: The seven-character line, writing denser poems with more allusions as he aged, experiencing hardship and writing about it. A parade of great Tang poets also includes Chen Zi'ang (661–702), Wang Zhihuan (688–742), Meng Haoran (689–740), Bai Juyi (772–846), Li He (790–816), Du Mu (803–852), Wen Tingyun (812–870), (listed chronologically) and Li Shangyin (813–858), whose poetry delights in allusions that often remain obscure, and whose emphasis on

16380-440: The society. With the rise of monetary economy and urbanization beginning in the Song dynasty, there was a growing professionalization of entertainment fostered by the spread of printing, the rise of literacy and education. In both China and Europe, the novel gradually became more autobiographical and serious in exploration of social, moral, and philosophical problems. Chinese fiction of the late Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty

16520-549: The struggle women confronted in establishing their voices in a changing China. These Modern Girls were sometimes disillusioned with modernity. Male-authored works often portrayed the Modern Girl as a femme fatale who rejected chastity in favor of bodily pleasure and consumerism. The "New Woman" frequently emphasized nationalistic themes. Both of these archetypes appeared in literature dealing with debates over birth control and abortion in China . The 1920s and 1930s saw

16660-633: The supernatural. However, an exodus by many leading figures to Hollywood in the 1990s coincided with a downturn in the industry. The signature contribution to action cinema from the Chinese -speaking world is the martial arts film , the most famous of which were developed in Hong Kong. The genre emerged first in Chinese popular literature . The early 20th century saw an explosion of what were called wuxia novels (often translated as "martial chivalry"), generally published in serialized form in newspapers. These were tales of heroic, sword-wielding warriors, often featuring mystical or fantasy elements. This genre

16800-421: The thoughts and feelings of its female diarist in all their complexity. In the Republican period, the female literary archetypes of the "New Woman" and the "Modern Girl" developed as a response to the Confucian ideal of "good wives" and "wise mothers." Depictions of these new feminine archetypes often varied significantly between female and male writers. In literature written by women, the Modern Girl represented

16940-403: The top of a clock tower through a series of fabric canopies). The new formula helped Project A gross over HK$ 19 million in Hong Kong, and significantly more in other Asian countries such as Japan, where it grossed ¥ 2.95 billion and became one of the highest-grossing films of 1984. Winners and Sinners (1983) also featured an elaborate action sequence that involves Chan skating along

17080-520: The translations of Yan Fu (嚴復) (1864–1921) and Lin Shu (林紓) (1852–1924). In this climate, a boom in the writing of fiction occurred, especially after the 1905 abolition of the civil service examination when literati struggled to fill new social and cultural roles for themselves. Stylistically, this fiction shows signs of both the Chinese novelistic tradition and Western narrative modes. In subject matter, it

17220-406: The vibrant vernacular in its stead. Hu Shih once said, "A dead language can never produce a living literature." In terms of literary practice, Lu Xun (1881–1936) is usually said to be the first major stylist in the new vernacular prose that Hu Shih and Chen Duxiu were promoting. Another female writer who, in the words of scholar Nicole Huang, "persistently experimented with new literary language"

17360-611: The wave of "New School" wuxia novels by authors like Jin Yong and Liang Yusheng that started in the 1950s. The New School wuxia wave marked the move of male-oriented action films to the centre of Hong Kong cinema, which had long been dominated by female stars and genres aimed at female audiences, such as romances and musicals . Even so, during the 1960s female action stars like Cheng Pei-pei and Connie Chan Po-chu were prominent alongside male stars, such as former swimming champion Jimmy Wang Yu , and they continued an old tradition of female warriors in wuxia storyte directors of

17500-590: The year 841 BC, at the beginning of the Gonghe Regency of the Western Zhou dynasty . The earliest known narrative history of China was the Zuo Zhuan , which was compiled no later than 389 BC, and attributed to the blind 5th-century BC historian Zuo Qiuming . The Book of Documents is thought to have been compiled as far back as the 6th century BC, and was certainly compiled by the 4th century BC,

17640-625: Was a frequent narrative structure and political mode of expression in literature of the late 1950s. These narratives depicted class struggle as a way to resolve social conflict, usually through the protagonists uncovering a conspiracy between new and old class enemies. Despite the literary control and strictures to limit subjects to contemporary China and the glories of the revolution, writers produced widely read novels of energy and commitment. Examples of this new socialist literature include The Builder (Chuangye Shi 創業史) by Liu Qing 柳青, The Song of Youth (Qing Chun Zhi Ge 青春之歌) by Yang Mo , Tracks in

17780-505: Was a significant departure from the kung fu films the studio was known for. The Brothers was an action crime-drama, about two brothers on opposing sides of the law. It was a remake of the Indian crime drama Deewaar (1975), written by Salim–Javed . In turn, The Brothers laid the foundations for the heroic bloodshed genre of 1980s Hong Kong cinema, inspiring John Woo 's breakthrough film A Better Tomorrow (1986). No single figure

17920-626: Was also the first in a tradition of Chinese military treatises, such as the Wujing Zongyao ( Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques , 1044 AD) and the Huolongjing ( Fire Dragon Manual , 14th century AD). The Chinese kept consistent and accurate court records, and although their calendars varied from court to court, these disparate records could be aligned without evident contradiction by

18060-535: Was born in obscurity by Tao Qian (365–427) also known as Tao Yuanming as he labored in his fields and then wrote extolling the influence of wine. Toward the close of this period in which many later-developed themes were first experimented with, the Xiao family of the Southern Liang dynasty (502–557) engaged in highly refined and often denigrated court-style poetry lushly describing sensual delights as well as

18200-494: Was completed by Ouyang Xun in 624 during the Tang dynasty , with aid from scholars Linghu Defen and Chen Shuda . During the Song dynasty , the compilation of the Four Great Books of Song (10th century – 11th century), begun by Li Fang and completed by Cefu Yuangui , represented a massive undertaking of written material covering a wide range of different subjects. This included the Taiping Guangji (978),

18340-482: Was detained by her guarantor, Ben had to help her sneak out of Japan on a boat, but the thugs arrive right after hearing the news. Ben and Tit-lan attempt to leave the oppressing country. Considering its large budget for this commercial film compared to Ann Hui 's other art films, Zodiac Killers grossed a disappointing HK$ 9,081,083 during its theatrical run from 20 July to 8 August 1991 in Hong Kong . Ben Sachs of

18480-505: Was in large part a martial arts homage, borrowing Yuen Woo-Ping as fight choreographer and actor. Robert Rodriguez 's Desperado (1995) and its 2003 sequel Once Upon a Time in Mexico aped Woo's visual mannerisms. The Wachowski sisters ' The Matrix trilogy (1999–2003) of science-fiction-action blockbusters borrowed from Woo and wire fu movies, and also employed Yuen behind the scenes. A number of Hollywood action stars also adopted

18620-484: Was more concerned with the unconscious and with aesthetics than with politics or social problems. Most important among these writers were Mu Shiying , Liu Na'ou (劉吶鷗), and Shi Zhecun . Other writers, including Shen Congwen and Fei Ming (廢名), balked at the utilitarian role for literature by writing lyrical, almost nostalgic, depictions of the countryside. Lin Yutang , who had studied at Harvard and Leipzig, introduced

18760-417: Was more responsible for this international profile than Bruce Lee , an American-born, Hong Kong-raised martial artist and actor. Lee completed just four movies before his death at the age of 32: The Big Boss (1971), Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon (both 1972), and Enter the Dragon (1973). Eastern film historian Patrick Macias ascribes his success to "(bringing) the warrior spirit of old into

18900-526: Was quickly seized on by early Chinese films , particularly in the movie capital of the time, Shanghai . Starting in the 1920s, wuxia titles, often adapted from novels (for example, 1928's The Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery and its eighteen sequels) were hugely popular and the genre dominated Chinese film for several years. The boom came to an end in the 1930s, caused by official opposition from cultural and political elites, especially

19040-535: Was referred to as the "Hong Kongification" of Hollywood. Building on the reduced but enduring kung fu movie subculture, Jackie Chan and films like Tsui Hark's Peking Opera Blues (1986) were already building a cult following when Woo's The Killer (1989) had a limited but successful release in the U.S. and opened the floodgates. In the 1990s, Westerners with an eye on "alternative" culture became common sights in Chinatown video shops and theaters, and gradually

19180-609: Was the Shiji , or Records of the Grand Historian written by Han dynasty court historian Sima Qian (145 BC – 90 BC). This groundbreaking text laid the foundation for Chinese historiography and the many official Chinese historical texts compiled for each dynasty thereafter. Sima Qian is often compared to the Greek Herodotus in scope and method, because he covered Chinese history from the mythical Xia dynasty until

19320-413: Was the breakthrough that established his unique style in Hollywood. This effort was immensely popular with both critics and public alike (it grossed over US$ 240 million worldwide). Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) grossed over US$ 560 million worldwide. Since these two films, Woo has struggled to revisit his successes of the 1980s and early 1990s. After over fifteen years of success in Hong Kong cinema and

19460-503: Was then considered to be southern China, the Chuci is ascribed to Qu Yuan (c. 340–278 BC) and his follower Song Yu (fl. 3rd century BC) and is distinguished by its more emotionally intense affect, often full of despair and descriptions of the fantastic. In some of its sections, the Chu Ci uses a six-character per line meter, dividing these lines into couplets separated in the middle by

19600-648: Was varied, self-conscious, and experimental. Scholars now tend to agree that modern Chinese literature did not erupt suddenly in the New Culture Movement (1910s–1920s). Instead, they trace its origins back at least to the late Qing period (1895–1911) and at most to the 17th century. The late Qing was a period of intellectual ferment sparked by a sense of national crisis. Intellectuals began to seek solutions to China's problems outside of its own tradition. They translated works of Western expository writing and literature, which enthralled readers with new ideas and opened up windows onto new exotic cultures. Most outstanding were

#808191