Martial arts has a long branching history and the stories of its practitioners have continued to entertain the public both from the East to the West. In this paper, I will be reviewing two films that focus on the famous external southern style, Wing Chun. The films are “Wing Chun” (1994) and “Ip Man” (2008).
Before analyzing the films, we should briefly look at the directors and actors, and description of the film franchise. The first film is “Wing Chun” which came out in 1994, after the television series of the same name, was directed by Woo-Ping Yuen. He was born in Guangzhou China on January 1, 1945, and his father is also a martial arts director. He is a renowned action choreographer, “The Matrix” and “Kill Bill” to name a few, and
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He saved Charmy from being harassed by Flying Monkey and mistakes her for Wing Chun. Charmy was later on kidnapped by the bandits and Wing Chun, with the help of Leung Pok To saved her. However, Wing Chun had not defeated the Flying Chimpanzee in their match, so, she travelled to find her master, the Buddhist nun, Ng Miu. After some wise words from her master and clearing the misunderstanding with Leung Pok To, she returned to the mountains and eventually defeated the leader of the bandits. The movie ended with the marriage of childhood sweethearts, Wing Chun and Leung Pok To.
The film did not allude to a lot of historical events which mirrors what we know about the origin of Wing Chun as they mostly consisted of stories passed down by word of mouth. The most popular legend states that Yim Wing Chun learned martial arts from a Buddhist nun from the Shaolin temple to escape marriage from a thug, and passed the practice on to her husband. The film focused on retelling Wing Chun’s various victories. The storytelling style used in the film matches the style of “old legends”, which means that the film placed emphasis on the incredulous fights, impossible jumps and supernatural abilities and pills. It also portrayed cliché story lines with a group of bandits wreaking havoc and saving a damsel in distress (Charmy). All of this sums up to an epic story of a hero, with martial arts just as an additional part of the story.
The second film to be analyzed is Wilson Yip’s
Te Wei’s Conceited General (1955) was exceptional in being one of the first Chinese animations to have color. Under Mao’s reign, the film was a stepping stone towards a more cohesive style of animation that was distinctly Chinese. With a strong moral and nationalistic aspect, Conceited General was an example of an attack on the values of the old system of feudalism and the integration of the values of Mao’s talk at the Yunan Forum (1946).
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Chi Chuan, which is a series of exercises and moves carried out in slow motion.
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