Why I Like Kung Fu Movies
I’m not totally sure why I like kung fu movies. Most of these flicks have absurd plots. Most of the action you see in these movies is ridiculous and impossible. A kung fu movie is about the most violent thing you can imagine. There is no way one person can defeat an army of hundreds, except in a martial arts movie. Why do I like watching these movies so much?
I guess it’s the fantasy element to kung fu that draws my interest. Plus it’s the absurdity of the things. There is no way your iron monkey fist technique can defeat a man with a sword, unless that man is a complete idiot. Yet, iron monkey fist wins every time. There is no way you can be punched in the face twenty times and not even have a slight bruise. You can not have a person kick you in the chest until you cough up blood, then turn around and drop kick them through a wall. That whole scene is just comical.
I guess what I like about kung fu flicks is that they are so absurd. The whole genre is surreal. I like the exotic locations, the forests of bamboo, the mountains, and the ornate costumes. Most martial arts movies have some sort of a plot you can follow. They go from a wayward student learning how to fight to a hero who saves the village from the evil hordes of gangsters. I know it shows me as a simpleton, but I like movies with interesting plots. I watched the entire “Laughing in the Wind” Hong Kong TV series on DVD because it was so interesting.
You might think a person could get disturbed by all the violence in a kung fu movie. For me, the violence in these films is more like some kind of stylized dance. There is no way a person can leap thirty feet into the air and land on his feet on a clay tile roof. Yet, through the magic of wires, you see this a lot in such movies. There is no way you are going to beat somebody to death in the streets in front of all kinds of witnesses and not have the law asking you questions. These things happen in martial arts movies all the time. It’s the ridiculous nature of the action in these movies that makes them entertaining to me. Perhaps it’s warped to laugh at violence, but when the action is so absurd, how else can a person react?
