Glossary of Terms
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"Relax, buddy, I'll explain everything once we get home..." |
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"Relax, buddy, I'll explain everything once we get home..." |
Hurt/comfort - a fan-fiction genre wherein one character suffers tremendously (physically, emotionally, however you want) and another character provides comfort. Pretty simple, eh? Can sometimes morph into hurt/hurt/hurt/hurt 'em some more, sans comfort, which pretty much seems to be the HK cinema standard...
Lo Wei - a really awful old school director who is responsible for a lot of dreck out there featuring some otherwise capable actors. He had Jackie Chan under contract for much of the late 70s--and is even said to have put Triad pressure on JC when got an offer to work for Golden Harvest studios instead!
New school - the later (80s to 90s) period of kung fu films, more often set in modern times than ancient period pieces. Stars of new school films include the "3 Brothers" (Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao), Jet Li, Donnie Yen.
Old school - term for those 70s period-piece kung fu movies. Full of bad dubbing, bad wigs, half-naked men in lovely silk costumes, violent and bloody action...and often lots of slashy potential. The kind of kung fu movies you may remember watching on Saturday afternoon on TV or in a sleazy movie theater sandwiched between porno and blacksploitation flicks. Bruce Lee was of course the king of old school, but you can't forget those great Shaw Brothers stars like Ti Lung, Fu Sheng, the Venoms, Gordon Liu...
Shaw Brothers - a legendary and prolific Hong Kong film studio well known for their enjoyable martial arts movies of the 70s and 80s. From the gorgeous costuming to the gorgeous guys, the creative martial arts sequences and the funky music, you'll know when you're watching one of their movies. You'll also, unfortunately, know by the poor image quality--most of these movies are only available in poor-generation bootlegs as they have never officially been released on video.
Squick/squicky - fannish term meaning a personal turn-off. Something that just makes you go "Ewwwww!" as soon as you see it or think about it.
Wire-fu - Thin wires invisible to the camera are quite often used to exaggerate flips, kicks, and jumps in HK movies. Some action directors and stars use wire to such an extent that they literally fight in the air, turning around and walking on heads in ways that entirely defy the laws of gravity and physics. "Wire-fu" is often used to describe kung-fu sequences that are dominated by such wirework. Some people love it, some people hate it.