 |
Along the way, pulp writers eschewed actual historical or folkloric references
for pure fiction, whilst still retaining the spirit - kind of like spaghetti
(noodle) wu xia for lack of a better term. These flicks are no less great for
the lack thereof and flashed the same slick moves, although with minimalist
plotlines centred around a sole vendetta or infighting among the renown clans
of Shaolin, Ming, Wu Tang - yes, that's where the Hip Hop group got their name
from. They made up most of the Shaw Brothers oeuvre when the classic novels
had all been interpreted, with directors like Chang
Cheh, Chu
Yuan and Sun
Chung making films like "One
Armed Swordsman", "The
Five Venoms", etc. with actors like Jimmy
Wang Yu, David
Chiang, Ti
Lung and Fu
Sheng. King
Hu brought the genre to international award winning acclaim with "Come
Drink With Me", "Dragon
Inn" and "A
Touch Of Zen". Much as the 70's are derided as a time when pop culture fed
on its own excesses, this was the period when the swordplay drama came into
its very own. Fortunately, much of this Shaw
Brothers catalogue, which has been out of print are currently available
again. The 90's unleashed a series of remakes as martial arts gripped HK filmdom
again with its wire-fu taken to hyperbole. |
