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Sep 6, 2020 · Disney's live-action Mulan is an original film that leans into the wuxia genre, but still has some things in common with the 1998 animated classic.
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Sep 3, 2020 · It’s steeped in traditional cultural locales and details, yet feels bracingly modern with the help of dazzling special effects and innovative action sequences. You want gravity-defying, wuxia-inspired aerial work, and elaborately choreographed martial arts battles and horse stunts? You got ‘em all.
- Come Drink with Me
- Dragon Inn
- One Armed Swordsman
- Last Hurrah For Chivalry
- Green Snake
- Ashes of Time
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Hero
- House of Flying Daggers
- The Assassin
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video A film that could perhaps be considered the forefather of the genre, Come Drink With Me sparked a monumental change for cinematic kung fu. Come Drink With Me was revolutionary in more ways than one, rejecting the typical roles found for women in historical epics and placing them at the centre of the action, wit...
Where to watch it: Criterion Channel (US only) Made immediately after his debut Come Drink With Me, King Hu’s Dragon Inn rippled throughout Chinese cinema – its influence not just limited to the confines of wuxia, either. Despite starting his career as a set designer for the Shaw Brothers, Hu leaves behind interior spaces for sweeping natural vista...
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video Released in the same year as Dragon Inn, director Chang Cheh’s One-Armed Swordsman also helped revolutionise martial arts cinema, and help establish the basic template for the more rough and tumble features – teahouse brawls, vendettas between students, game-changing weapons as nasty as they are elaborate. Styl...
Where to watch it: Criterion Channel (US Only) Though his “heroic bloodshed” bullet ballets are the films for which he is best known, it was actually in wuxia that legendary director John Woo made his start. Despite the difference in setting, his directorial debutLast Hurrah for Chivalrystill embodies much of the same thematic material as his later...
Where to watch it: Fandor (US Only) First coming up as part of a new wave of iconoclastic Chinese directors, Tsui Hark is one of the most popular and influential figures of Chinese cinema. Tsui became known for his genre revisionism – tackling everything from murder mysteries to Peking opera. In the midst of his his immensely popular Once Upon a Ti...
Where to watch it: Home video only Made over the course of a legendarily long shoot, Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time reframed the characters of Louis Cha’s novel The Legend of the Condor Heroesin his own traditions – heartache breeding cynicism, unrequited love and missed opportunities, all told elliptically and tinged with regret. The story follows O...
Where to watch it: Various streaming services Taiwanese-American director Ang Lee’s homage to the films of King Hu remains to this day the highest-grossing foreign language film in US box office history. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one of the most popular wuxia films amongst Western audiences thanks to its perfect distillation of the genre, m...
Where to watch it: Home video only Mainland director Zhang Yimou took the pictorial nature of wuxia to new heights with Hero. A stylised retelling of the story of Ying Zheng, the King of the State of Qin (later to become the first Emperor of China), and his would-be assassins in 227 BC, its immense power is almost wholly contained in Zhang’s breath...
Where to watch it: Amazon Prime Video Zhang Yimou followed up the historical tragedy of Hero with another wuxia epic,House of Flying Daggers. Flying Daggers took a different track from Hero, opting instead for a story of pure romantic melodrama, and a visual palette dominated by some of the most vivid greens ever filmed. Flying Daggers’ plot doesn’...
Where to watch it: Various streaming services Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s long-anticipated 2015 film is a near-perfect melding of his idiosyncratic style, both visual and narrative, and the traditions of the wuxia genre. Told in long, lush and languid takes and shot in a narrow aspect ratio rather than the widescreen scope of the epics tha...
- Kambole Campbell
Sep 3, 2020 · Mulan is a film bolstered by a series of jaw-dropping, wuxia-inflected fighting sequences that are genuinely thrilling… a true action epic. – Kate Erbland, IndieWire Some of the early...
Sep 10, 2020 · For what Mulan lacks in songs, it makes up for in action sequences. Caro brought in the big guns of Wuxia cinema to help produce the battle sequences and fight choreography.
- Hanna Flint
Sep 3, 2020 · A stirring and majestic adaptation of the cherished 1998 animated movie with spectacular action and remarkable visuals, for all its dazzling bravura, the most disarming qualities of 2020’s live-action “Mulan” might still be its surprising emotional depth.
What is wuxia, and how did it help Disney's live-action version of 'Mulan' stay true to the original while infusing more elements of Chinese culture? Like most wuxia stories, Mulan is a tale of honour, duty, courage and pride.
