A brief history of martial arts movies 1. Aesthetic Nostalgia in Hu Jinquan's Woman

This is a manuscript written on 20 14, and submitted to Time.com.

The origin of film is not modern photography technology, but people's anxiety. People's anxiety should be soothed by movies. Screen is the spiritual habitat of human beings.

The anxiety of westerns is isolation. The cruelty of nature and the disorder of society are concentrated in small towns, and the values of being independent are established. Helplessness becomes a unique pride, and loneliness becomes charm. Gravel flying out of the desert hit our most primitive amygdala (the part of the brain responsible for fear).

"The Godfather" takes "Someone is the boss, who is it?" Spread out, the technique looks like a detective film, but the plot is not noticed at all. Godfather 1' s godfather just said "it's him" after he got sick. The godfather part 3 is the godfather. When he goes back to his hometown to find a friend, he will know who it is. The plot climax of the third film of The Godfather is even the detective film mode, that is, he discovers that the holy church is a triad society and says "they are a triad society". Sacredness and filth mirror each other, and praise and ridicule are combined. This is a great script of modern civilization thousands of years ago.

What really won the fans' screams in raiders of the lost ark is not the gripping plot, happy story and gripping raiders of the lost ark, but the mechanical mediocrity of urban life after industrialization. Alien and Terminator explain the fierce battle between time and space in the future, the alienation of artificial intelligence and the struggle between man and machine for the world. The most terrible thing is not that Gundam is a monster, but that human beings have lost their sense of direction.

We have our anxiety, so there are martial arts films.

Martial arts movies are indeed the earliest type of movies in China. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, martial arts films internalized the "Liantai Opera" in Shanghai-style operas into a series of films with interludes, such as Legend of Heroes of Children, Burning Red Lotus Temple, Wild River Woman, Hongxia, Kanto Hero and so on. These films, whether good or bad, all appeared at that time and made a great sensation.

But unfortunately, except for a few classics such as Burning Red Lotus Temple, most of the film products are too shoddy to describe in detail. Perhaps at the beginning of the film, the audience's requirements were too low, and people who saw the black and white flashing on the wall would be excited, so there was no need to ask for a movie story, let alone reflect the values of the people of the world. It may also be that the contemporary martial arts novels are chaotic and immature, and the traditional fantasy sword school martial arts from Shan Hai Jing is the mainstream of that era (the new martial arts that combines traditional culture and western novel writing style is far from the climate). The magical skills of flying swords against the air, the strange images that change and form, and the dazzling elements are far greater than the story narrative.

The confusion of martial arts literature projected on the screen is naturally vague, and the light is not inspiring but dazzling. People soon got tired of those boring flying places; With the emergence of new movie stars such as Cai Chusheng, Zheng and Fei Mu, people prefer realistic works that reflect the trend of the times and show more humanistic care. There is a simple reason. Yu's "A River Flows East", "Spring in a Small Town" and "Crow and Sparrow" are about the anxiety of that generation.

Understanding the anxiety of the audience is the key to the success of the film. The anxiety of people in the same era may be the sufferings of the public, the hidden worries of the minority, or even man-made (behind man-made manufacturing is actually the awakening of people's potential anxiety). But are martial arts really just adult fairy tales of China people? Popcorn in the Asian film market? Fighting and killing that have nothing to do with our real anxiety? Smart martial arts filmmakers will naturally have anxiety and hypnosis; We try to review the history of martial arts films since their birth, especially the new wave of martial arts films in Hong Kong, and sort out the anxiety mechanism of China martial arts.

The earliest and longest-lasting fear of China literati is the collapse of rites and bad music, and Confucian culture came out of the anxiety of the collapse of rites and bad music.

It was Confucius who first felt and shouted this fear. Because he was born a few years late, and because of his humble status, he didn't really experience the rites and music at the temple level of the Zhou Dynasty. What he knows is also asked all the way. The most beautiful thing in people's hearts is that they didn't catch up later, but they saw what was left behind. In the capitalist era, Luchino Visconti Luhe remembered the late aristocratic era, The Leopard and The Legend of 1900 were exactly the golden age that Confucius yearned for. In the East, the first person on the screen is Hu Jinquan, who is the first aesthetic guide of China who is as famous as Confucius.

In Hu Jinquan's films, aesthetics is not a little revelation, but a full presentation. Hu Jinquan's greatest ambition is to reproduce a world of classical beauty unique to China civilization through movies. The historical breakthrough of Come and Have a Drink with me (1966) (the first of the inn trilogy) lies in the scenery and action editing. The picture scenery is full of rich quaint atmosphere, showing a long and quiet aesthetic feeling. However, the ingenious action editing of "Mastering this Way" swept away the roughness and rigidity of the Xianjian School, and the concept of scene setting that allowed human skills to challenge space restrictions has been running through the two major types of movies in the future: Kung Fu and Martial Arts.

Come and have a drink with me, and then Longmen Inn and Nvxia all became the pioneering works of the new martial arts in the late 1960s. But in these works, the beauty of classicism is only a symbol, and it is not integrated into the story. The real model of Hu Jinquan's martial arts aesthetics is Woman (197 1), which is still the representative work of China's martial arts in the world cinema. In addition to shooting vague and distant ancient meanings, it also presents a rich sense of space with small town markets, abandoned streets and barren hills. The plot level and characters are also three feet deep, which makes the placement of heresy in the environment complicated and mysterious. Feng Hsu plays the chivalrous woman, whose image of silent Leng Yan has become a classic of martial arts films. In Hu Jinquan's handling of martial arts, the martial arts of "Woman Xia" are more wonderful than before, and the bamboo forest dance in actual combat is a classic. The monk floated down the mountain with solemn, graceful and graceful techniques, which gave people the feeling of spring breeze and an epiphany. It can be described as a stroke of genius in the history of movies.

Later, "Empty Mountain Spirit Rain" (1979) and "Legend of the Mountain" (1979) visited the ancient temples of mountains and rivers, and the scene of enlightenment was even more mysterious. "The Best in the World" (1983) is no longer a martial arts film, but a romantic film that combines the palace and the countryside. During the period, the frost and dew in the morning, the haze in the evening, the bright medicinal food, the clouds in the painting pavilion, the hairpin of Gong E, and the immature but antique drama in the court were meticulous and naturally spotless.

Later, Hu Jinquan's films became more and more beautiful, but it was more difficult to succeed in business. The picture of "The Best in the World" is as elegant and beautiful as the previous works, but it is a loss-making business; In fact, in the mid-1970s, Zhang Che, Zhang Xinyan and other new wave martial arts began to carve up the market with their excellent and grounded works. Kung Fu movies, which originated in Bruce Lee and matured in Yuan Heping and Jackie Chan, have become independent. Hu version (199 1) was barely successful, but there were not many elements belonging to Hu. Hu Jinquan's classical aesthetics is no longer the itch of people in the new era, but more his own infatuation. Today, Hu Jinquan seems to be an absolute anomaly in Hong Kong movies. Typical traditional culture and classical art are very rare in Hong Kong. Born and raised in the mainland, Hu Daosheng naturally has that kind of pious admiration. However, most Hong Kong martial arts readers or viewers actually regard martial arts as a pastime of legendary stories after a meal, and few people really regard it as a specimen of their own motherland culture.

Martial arts was silent in Hongkong, but many years later, another famous China director, Ang Lee, took over the mantle of Hu and gave birth to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), which was a long-lost elegance and tranquility. Even in action, it was as fierce and clever as a woman, but the setting and arrangement of the scene were different. However, the success of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon lies in the fact that the film directly pushes a very profound point in China's traditional culture: that is, it suppresses and restricts individuals, and at the same time shows the powerful role and necessity of this oriental social norm, as well as its conflict with human nature and the ultimate tragic reconciliation. Ang Lee's interpretation of traditional culture is more like Zhuangzi's, which is not available in Hu Jinquan's films. Hu's Confucian aesthetic nostalgia is still too thin. Martial arts films need to tap people's anxiety.