At the 11th National Congress of the China Film Association, Wu Jing was elected as the 11th vice chairman of the China Film Association. As the mainstay of Chinese films, Wu Jing has always been concerned about and supported the development of the industry as a director and actor.
Earlier at a public event, he combined his own experience and said, "Now no one watches kung fu movies, and the breakthrough of martial arts movies has encountered problems." He mentioned a small-budget action movie that tried to hit the Spring Festival file, but he didn't dare, so he could only enter the online movie market.
The movie mentioned by Wu Jing may be "No One in My Eyes 2".
Douban 7The 1-point "No One in My Eyes" is one of the best online movies in 2022, and the sequel is produced according to the standards of theatrical films, and was originally scheduled to meet the audience in theaters, but in the end it still missed the big screen and chose to stream online on the first day of the Lunar New Year**.
The official blog statement of "No One in My Eyes 2" is full of regrets: "As a unique genre in China, martial arts movies once went to the world and enjoyed supreme glory, but today they show a scene of withering creation and rare in the market. In addition to sighing, we firmly believe that the revival of martial arts is not far away, but this requires everyone's joint efforts. What we have to do is to survive first. ”
As Wu Jing said, the dilemma facing action movies now is that "the audience is unwilling to watch it". Especially kung fu movies, it seems that there has been no good work for a long time to be favored by the public. After Jackie Chan, Jet Li and other older generations left kung fu films, few new forces emerged. Kung fu movies have been in trouble for a long time, and their future is clouded with dust.
Kung Fu movies, "old"?
Kung fu films originated in the 20s of the last century and have a history of 100 years, and are divided into martial arts kung fu films and martial arts kung fu films to show the main body. The former emphasizes the essence and connotation of martial arts culture, while the latter highlights the protagonist's solid fighting skills.
In the 70s of the last century, Bruce Lee set off a boom in kung fu films with a series of widely influential works such as "Raptors Across the River", "Jingwumen" and "Enter the Dragon". In the following decades, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Zheng Peipei, Hui Yinghong, etc. carried forward kung fu films through one masterpiece after another. Kung fu movies were once the golden lacquer signboard of Chinese films. Chinese kung fu is famous all over the world.
At the beginning of the 21st century, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Huo Yuanjia", "The Grandmaster" and so on created a group of chivalrous images of "strong martial arts", and the momentum of kung fu movies is still strong. However, in recent years, the output and quality have not been as good as before.
The last work that attracted much attention was back to "Ip Man 4: The End" five years ago, with a cumulative box office of 118.1 billion, which refreshed the highest box office record for kung fu movies in Chinese film history, has been maintained to this day.
The reasons for the decline of kung fu movies come from a number of sources.
The Kung Fu talent fault line is an unavoidable dilemma. Although the action actor has "real skills", he can't stand the years and forgive people.
60-year-old Jet Li is in a state of retirement. The 69-year-old Jackie Chan has rarely shown his skills on the screen, but has integrated his kung fu feelings into "Dragon Horse Spirit"; Hui Yinghong, who is also 60+, switched to "I Love You! "My Extraordinary Parents" and other "literary dramas", Michelle Yeoh is also ushering in new challenges such as "Instant Universe" in Hollywood. In the Mesozoic Era, Wu Jing, Zhang Jin and Wu Yue, who are nearly 50 years old, have also passed the "year of fighting", and Xie Miao, who is about to enter his 40s, can fight but is not hot enough to play in theatrical movies.
Factors such as long training time, harsh training environment, and easy injuries have weakened the desire of the younger generation to learn kung fu. The lack of the new generation of "martial arts" and "beating women" has also made kung fu movies lose the "backbone" on which they depend.
Not only are the actors "old", but the audience who loved kung fu movies back then is also "old". With the post-95s and post-00s becoming the main force of movie-watching, Chinese moviegoers have gradually completed iterations. According to the "Gen Z Movie Preference Survey Report", comedy is Gen Z's favorite movie genre, followed by sci-fi and youth genres, and action movies are only ranked sixth among young people.
Different from the post-80s and post-90s, Generation Z "missed" the glorious period of kung fu movies, and did not have much collective memories of such movies, and the kung fu IP that focuses on "feeling killing" is difficult to arouse their desire to watch movies.
World-renowned kung fu superstars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li still have a certain box office appeal in the Z era, but as mentioned above, they rarely show their faces in kung fu films, and the rest of the slightly less famous kung fu actors even if they have new works, it is difficult to ignore the impact of audience changes and changes in the market environment, or due to box office pressure, they finally choose to give up the theater.
For example, Wu Yue's "Blocking the Horse and Grabbing the Knife" and the "No One in My Eyes" series starring Xie Miao are only in the stream to meet the audience.
The new era is changing with each passing day, and the entertainment methods are more diverse, and movies have to "grab" the young people with offline entertainment such as exhibitions, performances, and secret room script killing. Comedy, science fiction, and youth movies that are favored by young people are undoubtedly the magic weapons of the film market to "compete for favor", and they have certain advantages in obtaining investment and grabbing the market. To a certain extent, this also compresses the living space of kung fu movies.
Kung fu movies, where is the road?
Chinese kung fu movies, there must still be a market! ”
Wu Jing was full of confidence when he founded "Yingwutang", hoping to gather young people and explore a new path for Chinese kung fu films. "Yingwutang" has continuously held training camps, and a group of young students have successfully "graduated".
Previously, Wu Yue, who is also passionate about kung fu movies, also revealed that he and a group of like-minded friends formed the "Tibetan Warrior", Tibetan Martial Arts, Wu Qiankun, and is committed to helping young actors complete interesting action performances.
The seniors spared no effort to "pass on the help", which gave us the hope of the new generation of kung fu actors to take over. It is reported that starting from the enrollment of the 2024 class, the ** School of Drama will also set up a special action performance class to cultivate action film talents more systematically.
The back waves of the Yangtze River push the front waves. The back wave rolls forward, and the front wave does not stagnate.
Wu Jing plans to shoot a series of action movies "Swords, Guns, Swords, Sticks and Sticks Chang Nantai", a total of 7 films, and the script of "Knife" is already in the polishing stage. Donnie Yen announced at the Cannes International Film Festival last year that "Ip Man 5" was on the agenda. "Bruce Lee", which was put on by Ang Lee and his son, was rumored to be launched earlier. Tsui Hark's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" is expected to be unveiled this year.
Eighteen palms of the dragon in the left hand, empty fist in the right hand, Jin Yong's Guo Jing's martial arts are strong, and he is proficient in "fighting left and right". Fu Ruoqing revealed earlier that Xiao Zhan, who played Guo Jing, underwent various training before he decided to star in "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero".
In addition, "Bruce Lee" takes the movie "Enter the Dragon" as the central axis, trying to bring the unique actions of a generation of superstars to the screen. In order to play the role of Bruce Lee, Li Chun has received 5 years of martial arts training.
It remains to be seen whether young actors who have not practiced martial arts since childhood can perform kung fu movies well through acquired training.
It is worth noting that "The Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Great Hero" was born from Jin Yong's famous novel "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", Wu Jing's "Knife" is intended to pay tribute to Tsui Hark's movie of the same name, and "Ip Man 5" is the continuation and expansion of the "Ip Man" series.
There is still a long way to go for kung fu movies to regain their glory. Fortunately, Chinese filmmakers have never given up, united and cooperated, and worked together, believing that kung fu movies will still usher in the next "spring"!