The Origins of Kung Fu Cinema, Part 1: Shanghai Dawn

Due to the new format here at Kung Fu Cinema, I’ll be re-posting my old blog entries one by one, right along with the new posts. Although I wasn’t following any particular order for the original posts, I’m going to try to organize them in a roughly chronological sequence now. For that reason, I’m starting with my survey of the earliest history of martial arts movies. This first article was originally posted on June 1, 2007.

Although kung fu movies may seem to be very much a phenomenon of the late 20th century, the earliest martial arts films appeared in China around the same time the first film studios were established in that country. Despite a handful of pre-World War I short films that were made partly with assistance from foreign entrepreneurs, local filmmaking didn’t really flourish until the war’s end, which ensured a steady supply of film stock and equipment to Asia. The cosmopolitan treaty port of Shanghai had already proven to be a ready market for the new “shadow plays” from the West, which were among the many attractions featured in massive entertainment complexes that offered music and dancing, Chinese opera and acrobatics, puppet shows, gambling, and all manner of exotic forms of recreation.

After the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, China went through a period of intense political and intellectual ferment. Reformers advocated the modernization of Chinese society along democratic and scientific principles. Writers pushed for an end to the formal literary style of composition that required a classical education to comprehend. Vernacular literature, including journalism and theater, was modeled on the more natural styles of Europe and the US. Shanghai newspapers, journals, and publishing companies were in the forefront of the latest trends.

One of the biggest and most successful of the Shanghai publishers was the Commercial Press (Shangwu Yinshu Guan). Around 1918, the Press bought out a failed foreign filmmaker who was returning home – legend has it that he sold his camera for the price of a steamship ticket – and opened a film production division. A young employee of the Press named Ren Pengnian transferred to the new department, and by 1919 was directing a series of short films. One of these, ROBBERY ON A TRAIN, may have been the first kung fu movie ever made. Unlike the filmed opera scenes that had already been recorded on screen, ROBBERY featured martial arts-inspired fight scenes that were choreographed and integrated into the contemporary plot. Ren went on to direct the first Chinese feature film in 1921, a true-crime drama called YAN RUISHENG, and he continued to make action films until the 1960s, first in Shanghai and then in Hong Kong.

Another early film with martial arts-style fight scenes that was produced by the Commercial Press was RED BEAUTY AND SKELETON (aka THE VAMPIRES), directed by Guan Haifeng in 1922. Both YAN RUISHENG and RED BEAUTY were quite profitable for the company, but pointed to a dilemma posed for the reformers. With the new vernacular literature and related mass media now accessible to large audiences, producers realized that sensationalism sells. Kung fu novels serialized in newspapers pulled in readers and fight scenes in movies pumped up box office receipts. Although martial arts films tended to be made by small companies on lower budgets, they were reliable moneymakers, especially as distribution networks were formed to ship the Shanghai films to both rural areas and overseas. To the dismay of high-minded intellectuals, audiences showed a marked preference for films with flying swordfighters and magic spirits (the so-called wuxia shenguai genre).

By 1925, about 40 to 60 small studios were making martial arts films in Shanghai, and certain performers specialized in fighting roles. Zhang Huichong was a former sailor turned actor who began to make swordplay films for the Commercial Press in 1922. Chin Tse-ang (grandmother of Hong Kong kung fu ace Sammo Hung!) was a martial artist recruited to star in SWORDSWOMAN OF JIANGNAN, made in 1925. Ren Pengnian continued to incorporate fight scenes into the dramas he made during the mid-1920s, and Guan Haifeng followed up the success of RED BEAUTY AND SKELETON with REVENGE OF THE FILIAL DAUGHTER in 1925, starring an actress named Wu Suxin. In 1927, the Minxin Film Company adapted a classic novel called ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER for the screen, but pared away most of the romantic and historical aspects of the plot, essentially reducing the story to a series of kung fu battles.

As the profits continued to roll in, the number of production companies devoted to wuxia films and the related genres of action/adventure and historical fantasies increased to the point where about one in three Shanghai studios were devoted to turning out action films. By 1927, many of the early pioneers set up their own production houses. Ren Pengnian founded Yueming studio, and married his favorite leading lady, a wuxia actress named Wu Lizhu. Chin Tsi-ang and her husband Hung Chung-ho started the Jinlong Film Company, and Zhang Huichong launched the Huichong studio. His brother Zhang Huimin, partnered both professionally and romantically with actress Wu Suxin, founded the Huaju film company. One of their releases, LUSTROUS PEARLS (1927), has survived; a film historian recently described it as an “action-packed film” where “athletic male and female characters stage adventurous acts in a wild landscape.”* And the Shaw brothers (yes, those Shaw Brothers) first make their appearance in the film industry at this time, with the Tianyi production company.

The scene was set for the appearance of the first martial arts blockbuster, the film that made it impossible for the gentry to ignore this new low-brow craze any longer. In 1928, a wuxia film was released by the one of Shanghai’s biggest and most prestigious studios, the Mingxing Film Company. THE BURNING OF RED LOTUS TEMPLE broke box office records, selling out every showing for 23 straight days and inspiring 17 sequels.

*An Amorous History of the Silver Screen, by Zhang Zhen. University of Chicago Press, 2005.

I’ve posted a clip from ROMANCE OF THE WESTERN CHAMBER below. This 1927 production was directed by Hou Yao, and it’s fascinating to see how far Chinese stage combat has already progressed in a cinematic direction. The action is opened up by setting it outdoors and on horseback. Long and medium shots of the fight between the bandit chief (using a long-handled broadsword or dai do) and the general (armed with spear and straight sword) are intercut with overhead shots of their troops battling each other. Notice that the number of combatants has been increased by using a double exposure. The battle scenes are further intercut with impressionistic close-ups of the weapons clashing in an ever-accelerating rhythm. As the duel between the leaders reaches its climax, the camera moves in for a slow menacing close-up of the bandit advancing, followed by a reverse shot of the general’s reaction. It’s no wonder audiences of the time were swept up in the excitement of these earliest kung fu movies.