StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Martial Arts Film - Book Report/Review Example

Cite this document
Summary
This paper “The Martial Arts Film” is review on an article written by Stephen Teo entitled “The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema” where he advances or posits his idea that Chinese filmmakers use the cinema as a way to promote Chinese nationalism…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER92.3% of users find it useful
The Martial Arts Film
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Martial Arts Film"

The Martial Arts Film This review paper is on an article written by Stephen Teo entitled “The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema: Historicism and the National” where he advances or posits his idea that Chinese filmmakers use the cinema as a way to promote Chinese nationalism, particularly by depicting specific genre called as shenguai wuxia pian (roughly translated as “demons and dragons”) to showcase ancient Chinese history and its glorious traditions. This genre survived in later form as a shortened version called wuxia only that uses swordplay, martial arts such as kung fu, and takes place in ancient historical periods but also uses fantasy, the supernatural, and the mythical to further embellish its screenplay (Teo 99).

Wuxia is the antecedent genre of the modern martial arts film and plays a significant part in channeling a sense of nationalism in Chinese diasporic audiences worldwide, together with the guzhuang (old costume) genre. The wuxia genre evolved over the years due to politics: first, when it was banned by the KMT government for portraying feudalism and superstition (Teo 100), and then secondly, by the Communists when they thought this genre was mired in the past, again ostensibly for promoting both feudalism and superstition.

The old gudao filmmakers who were experts in the wuxia films soon transferred to Hong Kong from Shanghai and continued this tradition of making wuxia films to satisfy Chinese audiences' need for a sense of nationalism. Hong Kong at this period in time became the de facto national center of Chinese cinema. Teo argues that a further evolution of the wuxia genre into the kung fu films of today reflects the injection of a new realism into this film genre. But he says in his essay that wuxia differs from kung fu films as wuxia is a legitimate Chinese national cultural form that signifies Chinese national identity through historicism because wuxia exists in history books and in popular literature (Teo 106).

The concept or ideal of xia, a knight-errant, is embedded in Chinese history and culture.Work CitedTeo, Stephen. “The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema: Historicism and the National.” Art, Politics, and Commerce in Chinese Cinema. Eds. Ying Zhu and Stanley Rosen. Aberdeen, HK: Hong Kong University Press, 2010. 99-109. Print.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The Martial Arts Film Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words”, n.d.)
The Martial Arts Film Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1689381-article-summary
(The Martial Arts Film Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words)
The Martial Arts Film Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1689381-article-summary.
“The Martial Arts Film Book Report/Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/visual-arts-film-studies/1689381-article-summary.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Martial Arts Film

Abuse in the Movie Unleashed

This research paper talks about the abuse within the film "Unleashed" particularly the kind of abuse with the utter disregard of the rights and needs of a fellow human being.... This film is a compelling reminder of the segments of society that promote abuse for their own selfish ends.... The research paper "Abuse in the Movie Unleashed" talks about the abuse within the film "Unleashed" particularly the kind of abuse with the utter disregard of the rights and needs of a fellow human being....
7 Pages (1750 words) Research Paper

Thematic Issues Arising from Samurai Warfare

Narrowing down to film arts which are a field of visual arts, it is a motion picture or still images shown on a screen.... Some of the topics that may be highlighted from watching films are love and romance, revenge, insanity drama, man-woman It is therefore required after watching a film that one drafts a film report.... This makes it critical to have an objective view of the film.... One may evaluate the happenings in that time period; evaluate what the characters represent and also the symbolic scenes in that particular film....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

An Overview of Art Historical Movements and their Effect on the Movies

There is a lot of martial arts influence in the animation, which makes it different from previous films of its kind.... Currently, American films are so much influenced by martial arts.... The presence of martial arts is, therefore, not a surprise, but it is an indication of the acceptance of martial arts, and its influence in American films.... Almost everything is a replicate of scenes as seen in other martial arts movies....
4 Pages (1000 words) Research Paper

Reading summary

The reading, ‘The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema: Historicism and the National ‘relate to the Chinese history and myths reflected in Chinese films such as The House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower (Teo 99).... The thesis indicates that most of the Chinese… They also contain unique characteristics that include actors flying thus defying the law of gravity, producing strong rays of light from their hands and invisible characters (Teo Reading Summary The reading, ‘The Martial Arts Film in Chinese Cinema: Historicism and the National ‘relate to the Chinese history and myths reflected in Chinese films such as The House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower (Teo 99)....
2 Pages (500 words) Book Report/Review

How Does Film In the U.S Influence People Perception of Chinese Culture

The idea of this research emerged from the author's interest and fascination in how does film in the U.... Kenneth Chan is an associate professor and a director of film studies in the Department of English at the University of Colorado.... This article discusses the most popular movies which depicted the Chinese culture by indulging in the themes of Wuxia and martial combat....
11 Pages (2750 words) Annotated Bibliography

Kung Fu and Wuxia Films

Wuxia films in contrast depend a lot on the inclusion of the of the Visual Art and Film Studies of the Concerned 29 May Kung Fu and Wuxia Films Kung Fu Films happen to be a genre of the martial arts films that showcases and features the martial art of Kung Fu.... Wuxia films also happen to be a sub genre of martial art films and it resorts to historical settings from the ancient Chinese martial arts traditions.... The audiences in the Western and Chinese culture did empathize a lot with the Kung Fu and Wuxia film heroes fighting against the prevalent prejudice, social marginalization and racial discrimination....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Chinese Martial Arts Cinema and House of Flying Daggers

The main focus of the paper "Chinese martial arts Cinema and House of Flying Daggers" is on presenting a review of the movie "The House of Flying Daggers" besides using it to understand the Chinese martial arts industry, on Tang Dynasty, the friendship between Leo and Jin.... The House of Flying Daggers is a Chinese film with a Wuxia storyline where a couple of themes are present.... Wuxia implies that the movie centred on a martial hero, in this case, being Mei who sacrifices her life in a bid to save Jin....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Asian Film and Media

This paper "Asian film and Media" focuses on the contribution of Chinese Fifth Generation Cinema of the 1980s and 1990s to the history, national identity, and China's future.... There are various short-film festivals and documentaries that offer a magnificent showground with which the fifth generation did not bother.... The main historical and international awards earned by the fifth generation in the 1980s and 1990s because of the generous historical, cultural allegories, and melodrama assisted Chinese cinema in the film studies curriculum especially in America (Zhen 23)....
5 Pages (1250 words) Assignment
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us