Hong Kong Action
Bruce Lee's run as a leading man was shorter than people tend to think — a little over two years, 1971 to 1973, before he died at thirty-two. That alone was enough to stay in the world's memory. A young actor was then cast as 'the next Bruce Lee.' It didn't work. The strategy changed, and in 1978 he finally got a production built around what he could actually do — the directing debut of Yuen Woo-ping. That same year's 'Drunken Master' earned more than double its predecessor, and the kung fu comedy became its own form. The actor was Jackie Chan. What's interesting about this band is how the craft traveled. The people who made 'The Matrix' (1999) didn't imitate Hong Kong action. They flew Yuen Woo-ping himself to Los Angeles and had him train the actors to move like real martial artists. Not a copy — they brought the person over. This map has a few lines of exchange, but this might be the most direct one. When John Woo's 'A Better Tomorrow' (1986) opened, Chow Yun-fat later recalled that audiences applauding in the theater was unusual for a Hong Kong film. It's often said that Hong Kong cinema in this run-up to the handover carried a sense of having nowhere to land. I couldn't find the filmmakers themselves saying so directly, but it's true that many of them moved to Hollywood afterward. Wong Kar-wai's 'In the Mood for Love' (2000) won Tony Leung the Best Actor award at Cannes (not the top prize). This film's reputation has only grown with time.