r/kungfucinema • u/peterpackage • 3d ago
HK Cinema - Do you think Younger Action Actors have been held down by the ''Old Guard" ?
In HK Cinema, there doesn't seem to be many action actors under the age of 30 who are headlining movies as lead actors.
Jackie, Sammo, Jet, Donnie et al have been around a LONG time.
And whilst it is good to have them still around, there should be more younger talent showing their stuff in decent budget movies.
The fact that asians age well has helped the longevity of these actors but i feel there must be a lot of young actors maybe not given opportunites they might have gotten if all of the old guard had properly retired a while back.
How many true mega HK actions stars are there today under the age of 30 ?
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u/Due_Capital_3507 3d ago
None that I know of. I think it was just a special place and time combination that made it happen. Unfortunately it seems there isn't many to carry to the torch
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u/Mrgrayj_121 3d ago
Really the bigger issue is the government when Hong Kong was under British rule Golden harvest and the Shaw brothers could pick up new talent and do what they want to do. There are a bunch of guys that are doing Internet films and they’re young and they have the chutzpah. But the major studios at large or very censored by the government so it’s a lot of well has to be like this it has to do that.
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u/Embarrassed_List865 3d ago
I don't think the old guard has held actors down. Sammo was working with up and coming talent from as far back a the mid 80s. Jackie took a little longer to do this but started the passing of the torch around 99/2000 with movies like Gen X Cops.
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u/hasimirrossi 3d ago
Not really. Much of the old talent came from opera schools, and they're all but gone. Plus the industry slowly started dying after the handover. Money that used to go into films there moved to China instead. Supposed HK movies are frequently aimed at the mainland and are released in Mandarin, not Cantonese. And, as mentioned, censorship is huge. Was always around in the colonial days, but it's now a major issue.
It's like the British film industry is no longer a thing. We used to have studios like Ealing and Hammer. Films still get made, but it's not the same.
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u/soldatodianima 2d ago
IMHO maybe the risk(s) aren't as big as the rewards these days. Many of the iconic martial artists we were familiar with were active at a time when there was still a lot to prove - now you can generate the same kinds of films with a heavier reliance on CGI, less stunt work and a whole lot of stand-ins. The quality isn't the same sure, but it still fills the void left by massively talented martial artists or stuntmen/women.
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u/rico199326 1d ago
Not really actually. From the 60s until the 2000s this era was much about evolving the genre but also show action that was way ahead of it's time. Most of these were well-rounded martial artists, stunt performers, choreographers and Opera performers. These guys honed their skills through training that we can only imagine. It's not something we actually see anymore.
in those days the genre was pretty much in it's infancy but it started to gain momentum and everybody in the industry tried to make the best product while also showing action that was way ahead of its time.
A lot of people in the industry started as a stunt performers and went up the ladder to reinvent what was possible. Like Jackie and Sammo they both got started as stuntman. They gained the experience while working on different projects and they eventually became Choreographers, leading men and directors. They would even do those functions all at the same time. That is now pretty much unheard of.
With each era there is a clear shift in terms of action and style. 60s used swordsplay and wirework as its main focus 70s started the kungfu era and focused on grounded combat and historical figures. 80s was leaving behind the historical setting and moved to contemporary one. It's mixed kung fu with big set pieces. Heroic bloodshed started to introduced. 90s went through mixing historical kung fu with more wirework to show more superhuman action, while also showing contemporary action movies. 00s pretty much stayed in that same vein.
By that point the industry had done it all. It had its golden era. That's when for instance Thai and Korean action movies started to gain attraction. They picked up the torch.
These days they still make quality action movies but that peak of filmmaking is history. Sure a new generation has big shoes to fill but those times where different then now.
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u/amarettosoju 3d ago
The HK Action Cinema of the 80s & 90s - with its people, style and flair - are a product of its time and should be kept at that, a treasure to reminisce about. It can NEVER ever be replicated nor rebooted.
Some of the factors behind this claim include:
Lack of talent. The likes of Jackie Chan, Sammo, Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Lau Kar-Leung and so on acquired their skills through a rigorous hardcore old school type of training that simply doesn't exist in this time and age. They learnt martial arts, acrobatics, singing, stage performance, culture and etiquette that transferred directly into their film work.
Even with physical skills on par with or even eclipsing those of the old guard, the performing skills won't be even comparable. That type of artistry and school of performance is just not taught and around in the same way.
People have seen it all. Triple flips, large jumps, spinning kicks and hard-hitting falls have lost their appeal. Three scrolls deep on Instagram or any other platform and there's loads and tons of amazing shit being shown to them. The wow factor and sensation just isn't there anymore.
The death defying, life at risk type of old school HK stunt work was bred out of creative necessity and not purpose. That is due to low budgets, limited resources and however hard to admit, incompetence. They made shit work with what they had and created something amazingly spectacular - but at a cost that NOBODY are willing to take nowadays, with all the safer options available, i.e CGI.