I love Kung Fu, Kung Fu movies, and communism. So how come these things aren't generally combined? I feel like the themes of Kung Fu movies are ripe for communist adaptation.
There are lots of common tropes and archetypes in these movies that often overlap. I'll list some here and then explain how each of them easily relate to communism.
- Stories of national identity. In these stories, China asserts its national character and strength to repel a foreign threat.
- Stories of the common people. Stories where poor communities come under threat by an oppressive force and fight as underdogs for their liberation.
- Stories of discipline. The hero heals a spiritual wound through personal discipline and often a devotion to selflessness.
- Wuxia. Stories of mythical figures and folk heroes.
So how could these be used to tell communist stories?
- Well, the CPC liberated the country from the hands of imperialists, so it seems obvious that this kind of story could be told. It's interesting to me that the most obvious national propaganda are the Ip Man films which aren't really political at all.
- This should really be obvious.
- One of the tenets of being part of an organization is discipline. It's a no brained that a movie could cover the themes of selflessness and healing the self through discipline and public service.
- Stories like this were actually popular from the fifties to the seventies. Small comic books were circulated widely that features socialist supermen traveling the countryside and fighting against injustice.
So where are they? Kung Fu seems like THE perfect genre to express communist ideas in a fun and accessible way.
If I missed any, please let me know!
Are they actually communist or just nationalist? Because I agree there are so many movies about throwing out the Japanese or British with Kung Fu lol
What do you mean? They’re usually anti-Japanese period dramas where the communists and nationalists (KMT) fought the Japanese together.
I mean that all of movies I've seen about throwing out colonizers have to do with a non- politically affeliated person. Ip Man is not a member of the KMT or CPC. The Shaolin fighters are never associated with a political party or ideology outside of asserting national identity. But nationalism and decolonization are not communism.
I'm not saying these movies don't exist. I'm just saying I haven't seen them. I'll see if I can translate the article you linked.
I think it was the 2nd one, wasn't it? Ip Man kind of threaded the needle between being too nationalist and not showing the party at all, while being a solid "China hell yeah" movie.
I think so, it was the one in which he's in totally not occupied Nanjing and beats the shit out of the local Japanese garrison leader (or kills him? I forget)
I'd guess the reason they haven't is because most kung fu movies came out of Hong Kong (at least that's my impression) which suffered under imperialism/colonialism but wasn't part of the communist revolution
Yeah, I was thinking that the market solution was probably the most valid.
But now that the mainland movie industry has surpassed HK's, I hope to see that change.
Huh, you know now that I think about it. It is REALLY weird that Kung Fu Hustle has the slim lords be accidentally misunderstood good guys.
Still love the movie tho.
Tbf if I understand correctly the whole thing is a parody/satire of a bunch of tropes and such, like the names of the slum lords are a reference to a couple of notably young and beautiful lovers in a wuxia novel, while here they are middle age and shabby looking.
I thought those characters were fun because they never stopped being cruel, they only stepped in when their property was at stake.
Sure they healed and backed up Sing, but that was because they realized they were out of their league and saw that he was the chosen one type and needed to make sure he could fight. Especially after all the other masters living in the building were killed.
There's some French situationist film where they dub over an Kung Fu film with all political shit. It's kind of funny, but a bit impenetrable like a lot of French New Wave cinema.
The PLA's and Mao's revolution kinda synthesized both the radical lagacy of the Tiapang Rebellion, landless Hakka people who sought a Christian communal heavenly kingdom and the anti imperial anti Christian (somewhat reactionary) proto nationalism of the Boxer rebellion (Boxers actually did kung fu) this was 1850 to 1900 roughly. 30 years later the Mukden incident would trigger Japan to invade Manchuria and create the rump state Manchukuo which really started the Japanese occupation going through WW2 and the Chinese Civil War and revolution. Through all of this are deep viens of tearing down entrenched corrupt empire, radical emancipatory horizons, anti imperialism, political violence and repression, civil war, AND KUNG FU! Penty of sources for good kung-fu movies.
It's not exactly communist but the first Ip Man film has the hero beat up a Japanese Imperialist officer, so it might scratch a bit of that itch.
He beats up lots of them!
All four of the Ip Man movies have him beating up some foreign aggressor haha.
Which is cool, but I want that hot ideology.
First Ip Man movie def hits on the national liberation theme and iirc shows unity of the proles and the national bourgeoisie against Japanese imperialism. But its not really communist.
In fact, it's actually anti-communist - the martial artists of the "northern school" are meant to represent the communists, which is why they're shown robbing the poor textile businessman and constantly opposing all other traditional forms of martial arts.
I bunch of Kung Fu movies hit these themes, Bruce Lee's film Fist of Fury comes to mind. I think martial arts cinema in general is pretty revolutionary even if it rarely calls out communism by name.
Literally watching rn. Obviously it's not "Communist", but it's anti imperialist and still great.
I love Kung Fu, Kung Fu movies, and communism
AnarchoKungFu
Wushu with Commuist characistics
Wuxia Lefist thought.
This reminded me that people are apparently extremely mad at that movie "Hero" cause it ends with the unification of China as a positive thing or something.
Like there are so many libs who are angry that their martial arts slop with no historical or political content ended with "Chinese state propaganda."
unpopular popular opinion: gundam series based on the long march with just a bunch of zaku variants blowing each other up and korean war as sequel
There's a reason she's called the RED witch from Mars
(i have not actually watched that series)
instead of having my MCs attend a megacorp feeder school, i will simply have them all die of stupid mundane shit to illustrate nothing in particular
gundams are bourgeois decadence, jerry rigged industrial zakus are true instruments of the people
I thought the point of newtypes is they were the next evolutionary step born to bring piece and we immediately weaponized them.
Isn’t Wolf Warrior 2 kinda like this? I still haven’t actually seen it, but it sounds explicitly anti-imperialist from what I’ve read about it.
I haven't seen the Wolf Warrior movies or Battle of Lake Changjin. From what I understand, these are on the range of 80's action movies and military thrillers. While they are anti imperialist (China produces lots of anti imperialist flicks), they don't seem to qualify as Kung Fu on their face.
If you mean capoeira, it was slaves vs slavers & colonial soldiers.
Usually the basis is either self-defense from criminals/gangs (Wing Chun, BJJ, Aikido, 52 Blocks) or a weapon of last resort for the military (Krav Maga, Systema, Taekwondo precursors, Jujutsu, various forms of Kung Fu). I've never heard of a martial art other than capoeira that was meant to be used against the warrior caste or anything of the sort, though obviously such things can be done and have occurred in some form during colonial occupations (like the Boxer Rebellion).
Also sport styles like boxing, sumo, pankration, etc.
But there are a ton of martial arts so maybe I just happen to know about the wrong ones.
This is correct.
This theme is still present throughout modern Kung Fu movies, too.
I think the main reason is simply that martial arts are typically given a fantasy setting whereas communism is a modern thing. The two are viewed as anachronistic together.
No way!
A majority of Kung Fu stuff out of Hong Kong was based on the modern world of the time.
The most famous martial arts movie, Enter the Dragon, was based in the modern era. Kung Fu Hustle, too. Most of Jacky Chan's movies.
For an example of a really modern one, you can check out The Raid, set in 2010s.
Chinese Kung Fu freedom fighters VS Imperialiest Japanese soldiers doing karate would be cool.
This reminds me that the Karate Kid movie with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan should have been called The Kung Fu Kid. Fucking Hollywood.
There are MANY Kung Fu movies with this plot actually. The Japanese are like the most common adversary.
You can check out Ip Man if you're interested. Fist of Legend, too.
Railroad Tigers is more of an action movie than a kung fu movie but it still stars Jackie Chan.
