The History of Chinese Martial Arts Film: The 7 Essential Titles

[mpm74]

New Feature at City on Fire....

These are the trendsetters, the shapers of an art form… the films which are the essence of their type....

http://cityonfire.com/the-history-of-chinese-martial-arts-film-the-7-essential-titles/

(thanks for looking)

[masterofoneinchpunch]

Quote

the Chinese fighting arts, wu de, or the martial code of conduct, is of vital importance: the character wu literally means “stop fighting”.

Some thoughts on this.  Wu (武) itself means martial/military/a surname.  Now the character is comprised of 止 (which means stop/only) and 戈 which means a spear/a surname/general weapons.  Several books state it as "stop fighting" (though technically the second character refers to a weapon/lance/generic weapon term) and possibly the origin of this is from Spring and Autumn Annals (circa 481 BC) with that definition in mind (even this is debatable).  It is possible to mean defensive oriented combat.  It could have meant both.  But like most words/phrases there are always different definitions/idiomatic usage (this can be especially frustrating with ideograms) as time goes on.  

Here is how to write the character:

[ShawAngela]

2 hours ago, mpm74 said:

http://cityonfire.com/the-history-of-chinese-martial-arts-film-the-7-essential-titles/

Thank you very much for sharing, good comments.

[masterofoneinchpunch]

This is one of those lists I want to comment on but the more I think about it the more I start finding exceptions, other films to possibly add, etc...  Though The Story of Wong Fei-hung, Part 1 would be on my list as well as Drunken Master (though I would have mentioned the slightly earlier Snake in the Eagles Shadow and the one-two punch those films did for Chan), and Shaolin Temple.  Come Drink with Me seems to me the biggest missing film especially in its combination of still high critic reception and its importance for helping push the wuxia trend of Shaw Brothers.  But it has me thinking on which Chang Cheh film to pick (not the one on that list), same with Bruce Lee.

Given the thesis: "The History of Chinese Martial Arts Film: The ... Essential Titles" I would want to think critically, popularity and of course seminal (trend-starters of historical importance).  Of course, using the word Essential allows you to eschew firsts if you do not consider them subjectively "essential" which allows a lot of leeway.