could be wrong but i think Shaw Brothers is building a new $180 million studio where they will focus on making quality films to revive the Hong Kong film industry. Something like that, i think i read it right. Sounds sweet though!
I heard about that, too. I hope they will start making martial arts movies like in the old days. HK martial arts movie industry is pretty much dead right now. Zhang Yimou and Tsui Hark have done a couple of wuxia films lately, but that’s it.
btw, there was an extremely unreliable rumor about Tarantino’s upcoming (?) kung-fu film being produced by the new Shaw Bros. studio.
yeah but the big deal with this studio is that it will revive HK in particular, because Zhang Yimou’s films are from mainland China. HK isn’t really doing enough these days. it is dying.
i always did kind of prefer Cantonese Wuxia to Mandarin Wuxia, but the cold hard truth is that how much of the mass audience wants to see people who fly for miles and shoot lightning from their hands? That is why Mandarin Wuxia gets made now and we dont see Cantonese Wuxia.
I always forget that Yimou’s movies aren’t really HK films. So, no martial arts masterpieces have come out from Hong Kong since the mid 90’s.
people are into the graceful beautifully shot madarin wuxia nowadays, like crouching tiger, hero and house of flying daggers. But i would be interested if they could update some good Cantonese Wuxia. I mean, that is all the good cult stuff!
i remember i did a talk at school on Wuxia and i showed a scene from Zu warriors from the magic mountain, and people in my class were like “do actually watch this at home?”. i was like, "it is one of my favourite films!"
recently, tsui hark has done stuff like the blade, but even he is moving into a more realistic mandarin style. i think we wont be seeing much good cantonese wuxia nowadays without serious CGI effects. its a shame.
Boys, there is no difference between Cantonese wuxia and Mandarin wuxia. But there is a difference between wuxia and kung fu films.
Actually Run Run Shaw, one of the SB brothers has a TV station called TVB. I don’t think Run is gonna do anything to revive the SB heydays cus TV makes more money than films nowadays.Plus he’s almost like 100 years old and lacks the energy of producing massive films like in his youth days. His wife Mona Fong produces feature films outside TVB once in a while and so there are a few post SB era films made like Steven Chow’s The Mad Monk.
Sounds interesting.
I hope this is for real because HK Kung Fu flicks need to be rejuvenated into doing some less wuxia based films. I remeber when Crouching Tiger came out over here, and people were in absolute love with the film only becuse they hadn’t seen people moiving like that. Now all those years gone by PERSONALLY its getting a little tiresome seeing almost every action film having ott wuxia. When I was watching Flying daggers the scene where Zhang is gliding over the drums had me a little peeved off. But thats just me right?! A film that I like that had a fair bit of wuxia but wasn’t too much was called Sha Ren Zhe Tang Zhan aka ‘The Assasin’ and that was good in action and more believable wuxia
I think if The Shaws do get their studio built it will be interesting to see the film outcome of this action. hopefully Mr Tarantino can write and co-direct one or two more grindhouse kung fu films with R.Rodriguez’s familiar quick paced directing.
This is a story I’ll stay tuned in for 
The Shaws are already creating a monopoly in the Hong Kong TV industry and it sucks to see them create one in the film industry. They have many new stars in TVB but they’re all under contract and so they’re not allowed to be in feature films or appear in other TV stations. They allow one/two exceptions like letting Gordon Liu to play in Kill Bill. Gordon could have participated other films but he’s under contract with TVB so it’s hard. Last summer in Hong Kong I was watching a TVB drama series and I saw Gordon playing a kung fu master who steals women underwear.
[quote=“Buck”]
Boys, there is no difference between Cantonese wuxia and Mandarin wuxia. But there is a difference between wuxia and kung fu films.
[/quote]
Wuxia and Kung fu are indeed different (but that is obvious), but i am surprised that a Chinese man can’t even find the difference between Cantonese Wuxia and Mandarin Wuxia.
Cantonese Wuxia: they went and created Xia warriors who would use their Shengong “powers” and would fly for miles and shoot lightning from their fingertips, sometimes they were impervious to swords (iron skin).
Mandarin Wuxia: they strived for more realism, creating Warriors that did not fly endlessly, but used lightfoot kung fu to float and leap far, they also leant towards techniques that hardened the skin as opposed to invincibility. More emphasis was put on the belief that these were techniques that were possible and did exist, but were lost.
Trust me, there is a difference. It isn’t a defined difference. They are not two different genres, but there is definitely a difference.
Oh ok I see what your definition is. Your were talking about the fantasy genre for the Cantonese Wuxia in the 1950’s.
Yeah, i realise that because you are Chinese you may not see any real difference (because you were brought up with Wuxia), but to the Western world there is a really big difference between Cantonese and Mandarin. It isn’t a different genre, they just handle it differently.
A lot of people say fantasy, but to me Wuxia is very well defined. To me, Wuxia is the same as Western or Chambara. Chambara films centre on the samurai, Westerns centre on the lone gunslinger and Wuxia centres on the Xia, like the knight-errant of China. I could go on forever, but, being Chinese, you would probably know it already.
yeah boy Steven Chow paid homage to the 50’s fantasy genre in Kung Fu Hustle