VID: Uptown Funk [Wuxia]

[jetpack_monkey]

Title: Uptown Funk
Song: Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars
Source: Wuxia cinema from Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan, 1966-present
Length: 3:06
Warnings: Violence. Gore. Potentially some physical triggers (flashing lights, exceptionally quick cutting)
Made for: Club Vivid 2017 at Vividcon

Summary: Flying swordspeople. Don't believe me? Just watch.

Password: wuxia

Watch on Vimeo

47.9MB MP4 Download (right/ctrl-click and "Save link as...")

Notes: This is a vid a year in the making. It's another case where I said, "I know nothing about this particular area of media that seems really interesting," and the obvious next step was then to make a massively multisource vid encompassing the history of that area of media (see: black and white space sources, cliffhanger serials). In this case, I wanted to look into wuxia cinema made in Hong Kong, China, and Taiwan in the last 50+ years.

Wuxia means "martial heroes" and in this context refers to action films based in Chinese history (or an idea of Chinese history) involving a heightened sense of reality. Here, the rule of cool operates. If it would be more interesting for someone to run up the wall than climb it, than you can run up that effing wall. Jumps are done in huge, wire-assisted bounds.  Swords move with grace and power that would not be possible without a dedicated choreographer (in fact, in Chinese cinema, fight choreographers are called action directors, because they basically take over the production during the filming of action sequences).

The genre has a long history in literature. As a cinematic genre, it began during the silent era. However, I wasn't able to find sufficient footage from early wuxia, so the earliest source here is King Hu's Come Drink With Me from 1966. This is, in many ways, the beginning of the modern era of wuxia, so hey, I'll take what I can get.

How these vids come together is that I gather information on what the main cornerposts of the genre are -- not necessarily the best films, but the films that had the most influence. I then do full clipping on those films and figure out what the tropes of the genre are. From there, I put together the structure of the vid and I start looking for sources that are going to help me fill in the blanks there. Sometimes one primary source will end up not being as important and a secondary source will rise to a primary source.

Thanks to kuwdora, elipie, and everyone else who I threw a vid draft at for cheerleading!

The following are the sources I can remember as being in the vid. When I get home, I'll revise it for accuracy:

Come Drink With Me (1966)
Dragon Gate Inn (1967)
One-Armed Swordsman (1967)
Black Butterfly (1968)
Golden Swallow (1968)
Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969)
Have Sword Will Travel (1969)
Vengeance is a Golden Blade (1969)
Heads for Sale (1970)
The Heroic Ones (1970)
The Wandering Swordsman (1970)
A Touch of Zen (1971)
The Shadow Whip (1971)
The Deadly Duo (1971)
14 Amazons (1972)
Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)
The Fate of Lee Khan (1973)
The Flying Guillotine (1975)
Killer Clans (1976)
The Sentimental Swordsman (1977)
Battle Wizard (1977)
Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre (1978)
Last Hurrah for Chivalry (1979)
Masked Avengers (1981)
Buddha's Palm (1982)
The Miracle Fighters (1982)
House of Traps (1982)
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
Holy Flame of the Martial World (1983)
Shaolin Prince (1983)
The Weird Man (1983)
Swordsman (1990)
Swordsman II (1992)
New Dragon Gate Inn (1992)
Butterfly Sword (1993)
The Bride with White Hair (1993)
Holy Weapon (1993)
Ashes of Time (1994)
Wing Chun (1994)
The Blade (1995)
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)
Hero (2002)
House of Flying Daggers (2004)
14 Blades (2010)

Comments

[aurumcalendula]

This is really fun to watch! Also, I’m kinda in awe of your massive multisource vids.

[jetpack_monkey]

Aw shucks, thanks. 90% of making them is just so I can learn stuff.

[caramarie]

This is lots of fun – so much spectacle! Your action editing is great, and it really works on a moment-by-moment level, as well as the scale being seriously impressive. Awesome stuff ♥

[aurumcalendula]

This is especially fun to rewatch now that I’ve seen more of the movies! (as a side note, I think you forgot to list A Touch of Zen (1971) in the sources)

[jetpack_monkey]

Good catch! Yup, left that one off. To be honest, that one was a little disappointing. Some great sequences, but it overall didn't work for me.

[aurumcalendula]

I get that. Like it's super pretty and has a number of cool sequences, but it's not one I would rewatch a bunch.

[mekare]

What a massive project! And I love your approach of just deep diving into a new genre and figuring out how it works. I‘m very grateful for the list of films at the end, I‘m definitly going to watch some of those.