1905 Film Network Special Article At the 11th National Congress of the China Film Association, Wu Jing was elected as the 11th Vice Chairman of the China Film Association. As a mainstay of Chinese films, Wu Jing has always paid attention to and supported the development of the industry as a director and actor.
made an appearance at a public event earlier. Based on his own experience, he said, "Nowadays, no one watches kung fu movies, and martial arts movies have encountered difficulties in breaking through." He mentioned a low-budget action movie that tried to hit the Spring Festival schedule, but he didn't dare and could only enter the online movie market.
The movie Wu Jing mentioned may be "Defiant 2".
Douban's "Confident" with a score of 7.1 is one of the best-rated online movies in 2022. The sequel is produced in accordance with the standards of theatrical movies. It was originally scheduled to meet the audience in theaters, but in the end it was missed on the big screen and chose to be released on New Year's Day. Online streaming on the first day of the year.
The official blog statement of "Defiant 2" is full of regrets: "As a unique genre in China, martial arts movies once went global and enjoyed supreme glory. However, today they are showing signs of decline in creation and rarely seen in the market. Although we are sad, we firmly believe that The revival of martial arts is not far away, but it requires everyone's joint efforts. What we have to do is to survive first."
As Wu Jing said, the dilemma facing action movies now is that "the audience doesn't want to watch it." Especially Kung Fu movies, it seems that no good works have gained public favor for a long time. After the older generation such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li left Kung Fu movies, few new talents emerged. Kung Fu movies have been in trouble for a long time, and their future is also in trouble.
Kung Fu movie, "old"?
Kung fu movies originated in the 1920s and have a history of a hundred years. To show the main division, they are divided into martial arts kung fu movies and martial arts kung fu movies. The former emphasizes showing the essence and connotation of martial arts culture, while the latter highlights the protagonist's solid fighting skills.
In the 1970s, Bruce Lee set off a craze for kung fu movies with a series of widely influential works such as "Way of the Dragon," "Fist of Fury" and "Enter the Dragon." In the following decades, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Cheng Pei-pei, Hui Ying-hong, etc. have promoted Kung Fu movies through one masterpiece after another. Kung fu movies were once the golden signature of Chinese movies. Chinese Kung Fu is famous all over the world.
In the early 21st century, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Fearless" and "The Grandmaster" created a group of "high-strength martial arts" knights, and Kung Fu movies are still strong. But in recent years, both output and quality have declined significantly.
's last high-profile work dates back to "Ip Man 4: The Final Chapter" five years ago, with a cumulative box office of 1.181 billion, setting a new record for the highest box office of a kung fu movie in Chinese film history, and it has remained so to this day.
The reasons for the decline of kung fu movies come from many aspects.
The talent gap in Kung Fu is an unavoidable dilemma. Although action actors have "real skills", they cannot stand up to the times.
60-year-old Jet Li is in a state of retirement. The 69-year-old Jackie Chan rarely shows off his skills on the screen, but integrates kung fu feelings into "The Spirit of Dragon Horse"; Hui Yinghong, who is also 60+, switched to "I Love You!" "Literary dramas" such as "My Extraordinary Parents", Michelle Yeoh is also facing new challenges in Hollywood such as "The Universe". As far as the Mesozoic Era is concerned, Wu Jing, Zhang Jin and Wu Yue, who are nearly 50 years old, have also passed their "prime years". Xie Miao, who is about to enter his 40s, can fight but is not popular enough to make a name for himself in theater movies. .
Factors such as long training time, harsh training environment, and prone to injuries have weakened the desire of the younger generation to learn kung fu. The lack of the new generation of "martial arts students" and "beating girls" has also caused Kung Fu movies to lose the "backbone" they rely on to support them.
Not only the actors are "old", but the audience who loved Kung Fu movies back then are also "old". As the post-95s and post-00s generations have become the main moviegoers, Chinese movie audiences have gradually completed the iteration. According to the "Z Generation Movie Viewing Preference Survey Report", comedy is the favorite movie type of Generation Z, followed by science fiction and youth genres, and action movies only rank sixth among young people.
Different from those born in the 80s and 90s, Generation Z has "missed" the glorious period of Kung Fu movies and does not have many collective memories of such movies. Kung Fu IPs that focus on "emotional killing" are difficult to arouse their desire to watch movies.
World-renowned kung fu superstars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li still have a certain box office appeal in the Z era, but as mentioned above, they rarely appear in kung fu movies. Even if the other less famous kung fu actors have new works, However, it is also difficult to ignore the impact of audience changes and changes in the market environment, or due to box office pressure, it may eventually choose to abandon theaters.
For example, the series "Standing in the Way" produced by Wu Yue and the "Defiant" series starring Xie Miao are only available to audiences through streaming media.
The new era is changing with each passing day, and entertainment methods are becoming more diverse. Movies have to compete with offline entertainment such as exhibitions, performances, and secret room scripts to compete with young people. Comedies, science fiction, and youth films that are favored by young people are undoubtedly the magic weapon for "competing for favor" in the film market, and they have certain advantages in obtaining investment and grabbing the market. To some extent, this has also compressed the living space of kung fu movies.
Kung Fu movie, where is the road?
"There must be a market for Chinese Kung Fu movies!"
Wu Jing was full of confidence when he founded "Ying Wu Tang", hoping to bring together young people to explore new paths for Chinese Kung Fu movies. "Kingwutang" continues to open training camps, and a group of young students have successfully "graduated".
Previously, Wu Yue, who is also passionate about kung fu movies, also revealed that he and a group of like-minded friends formed the "Hidden Warriors", Hidden Fame, Wu Qiankun, dedicated to helping young actors complete interesting action performances. The seniors of
spared no effort to "pass on and teach", allowing us to see the hope of the new generation of kung fu actors taking over. It is reported that the Central Academy of Drama will also set up a special action performance subject class starting from the 2024 enrollment class to more systematically cultivate action film talents.
The waves behind the Yangtze River push the waves ahead. The back wave rolled forward, and the front wave did not stop.
Wu Jing plans to shoot a series of action movies "Sword, Gun, Sword and Stick Chang Nan Tai", a total of 7 movies. The script of "Knife" is already in the polishing stage. Donnie Yen announced at the Cannes International Film Festival last year that "Ip Man 5" was on the agenda. Earlier there was news that "Bruce Lee", starring Ang Lee and his son, is about to start filming. "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Man" directed by Tsui Hark is expected to be unveiled this year.
With the Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms in his left hand and the Kongming Fist in his right hand, Guo Jing in Jin Yong's works is highly skilled in martial arts and is proficient in "fighting between left and right". Fu Ruoqing revealed earlier that Xiao Zhan, who plays Guo Jing, underwent various trainings before he was confirmed to star in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Hero".
In addition, "Bruce Lee" takes the movie "Enter the Dragon" as its central axis, trying to reproduce the unique actions of a generation of superstars on the screen. In order to play the role of Bruce Lee, Li Chun has received five years of martial arts training.
We will have to wait and see whether a young actor who has not practiced martial arts since childhood can perform well in kung fu movies through acquired training.
It is worth noting that "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Greatest Hero" was born out of Jin Yong's masterpiece "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Wu Jing's "The Knife" intentionally pays tribute to Tsui Hark's film of the same name, and "Ip Man 5" is a sequel to "Ip Man 5". The continuation and expansion of the "Question" series. Currently, Kung Fu movies are mostly keen on taking root in classic themes or taking advantage of popular IPs. How to bloom new flowers in old bottles is also a question that creators need to carefully consider.
There is still a long way to go before Kung Fu movies can regain their glory. Fortunately, Chinese filmmakers have never given up. They work together and work together. I believe that kung fu movies will usher in the next "spring"!
