One classic gun fu move consists of reloading two pistols simultaneously by releasing the empty magazines, pointing the guns to the ground, dropping two fresh magazines out of one's jacket sleeves, or strapped to one's legs, into the guns, and then carrying on shooting. The success of The Matrix helped to popularize and develop the style in the U.S. helped give the gun fu style greater visibility.
The popularity of John Woo films, and the heroic bloodshed genre in general, in the U.S. There were several heroic bloodshed films that did not feature gun fu, but opted for more realistic combat, such as Ringo Lam's City on Fire (1987). Other Hong Kong directors also began using gun fu sequences in films that were not strictly heroic bloodshed films, such as Wong Jing's God of Gamblers (1989) and its sequel God of Gamblers Returns (1994). He frequently diverted to slow motion and he specialized in shooting not merely to kill, but to riddle-his shooters often blast their opponents five and six times. He loved to send his shooters flying through the air in surprising ways, far more poetically than in any real-life scenario. Woo saw gunfights in musical terms: His primary conceit was the shootout as dance number, with great attention paid to choreography, the movement of both actors within the frame. Stephen Hunter, writing in The Washington Post wrote, There is also intimacy found in the gunplay-typically, his protagonists and antagonists will have a profound understanding of one another and will meet face-to-face, in a tense Mexican standoff where they each point their weapons at one another and trade words. Using all of the visual techniques available to him ( tracking shots, dolly-ins, slo-mo), Woo created beautifully surrealistic action sequences that were a 'guilty pleasure' to watch. What moviegoers needed was a new way to present gunplay-to show it as a skill that could be honed, integrating the acrobatics and grace of the traditional martial arts. Gunplay was not terribly popular because audiences had considered it boring, compared to fancy kung-fu moves or graceful swordplay of the wushu epics. John Woo continued to make several classic heroic bloodshed films, all featuring gun fu, and all starring leading man Chow Yun-fat.Īnthony Leong wrote of the gunfights in A Better Tomorrow, īefore 1986, Hong Kong cinema was firmly rooted in two genres: the martial arts film and the comedy. The film launched the " heroic bloodshed" genre in Hong Kong, and gun fu action sequences became a regular feature in many of the subsequent heroic bloodshed films, which combined the elegance and precision of kung fu with the brutality and violence of gangster movies. Gun fu has become a staple of modern action films due to its visual spectacle, a result of often impressive choreography and stuntwork, regardless of its unrealistic elements when compared to real-life gun warfare.ĭirector John Woo originated the style that would later be called gun fu in the 1986 Hong Kong action film A Better Tomorrow. It is often mixed with grappling maneuvers. Other moves can involve submachine guns, assault rifles, combat shotguns, rocket launchers, and just about anything else that can be worked into a cinematic shot. Shooting a gun from each hand (usually paired with jumping to the side at the same time), dual wielding, shots from behind the back, as well as the use of guns as melee weapons (usually knife fights) are all common. The focus of gun fu is both artistic style and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. It can be seen in Hong Kong action cinema and in American films influenced by it. Gun fu, a portmanteau of gun and kung fu (also known as gun kata, bullet ballet, and gymnastic gunplay), is a style of sophisticated close-quarters gunfight resembling a martial arts battle that combines firearms with hand-to-hand combat and traditional melee weapons in an approximately 50/50 ratio. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)
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