#wuxia cinema

[maggiecheungs]

sword beneath the flowers • 花下劍

Five Elements Ninjas (五遁忍術) dir. Chang Cheh, 1982

[theersatzcowboy]

Hero / 英雄 (2002)

Director: Zhang Yimou

Cinematographer: Christopher Doyle

Starring: Jet Li, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen, and Chen Daoming

[boardsdonthitback]

Donnie Yen - Sakra (2023)

[fuforthought]

Stumbled across the stunning little wuxia short film today. This is the best example of martial arts swordplay I’ve seen in ages.

[tinnchan]

House of Flying Daggers (2004)

[mademoiselle-red]

If you like GL and lesbian-coded martial arts fantasy c-dramas, check out this Hong Kong film from 1993:

Swordsman III 東方不敗 - 風雲再起

“Xue Qianxun, let’s start again from the beginning.”

In the prequel to this film, Dongfang Bubai, a trans woman and leader of the Sun and Moon Sect, the most powerful sect in the martial arts world, makes a heroic sacrifice to save her beloved boyfriend, seemingly at the cost of her life. Everyone, including the boyfriend, assumes she’s dead.

However, Xue Qianxun, one of her wives from when she lived as man, refuses to believe she is dead. Our film begins with Qianxun searching far and wide for Dongfang Bubai but failing to find her. In the meantime Dongfang Bubai’s disappearance has left a power vacuum in the martial arts world, and many impersonators attempt to steal her identity in order to assume her power and control over the Sun and Moon Sect.

Xue Qianxun decides to become another impersonator by dressing as Dongfang Bubai and taking on her identity in hope that the real Dongfang Bubai will come out of hiding to confront her impersonators. Dongfang Bubai is, in the meantime, living as a wandering musician / entertainer. She soon becomes aware of impersonators using her identity to control her old sect. She returns to the martial arts world and is particularly furious to find Xue Qianxun, her wife, among the impersonators. She attacks Xue Qianxun and fatally wounds her. But as Xue Qianxun dies in her arms, they finally clear up their misunderstanding. Dongfang Bubai is heartbroken and decides to retire from the martial arts world forever.

Come for: the two gorgeous actresses Brigitte Lin and Joey Wong, widely considered the most beautiful and successful of their generation.

Stay for: Xue Qianxun’s love for Dongfang Bubai. It is passionate, obsessive, and all consuming. She’s willing to put her life, her identity, everything on the line just to get her wife to come see her one more time. And Dongfang Bubai’s fury and sense of betrayal when she sees her wife dressed as her and assuming her name is equally compelling as their misunderstanding is tragic. She thought her former companions and subordinates had abandoned her after her “death”, and in her pursuit of revenge, she kills the person who Ioved her most. But Qianxun doesn’t blame her: she dies with a smile, content that her beloved has finally returned.

And if you still aren’t convinced: there’s a very hot lesbian make-out scene 👀

[baddawg94]

Michelle Yeoh

Tony Leung

1993’s “Butterfly Swords”

[zheezy]

Kung Fu Hustle

[theblindninja]

Norman Chui as Hashimoto in Duel To The Death

[soulsanitarium]

Painted Skin (Chinese: 畫皮) is a 2008 supernatural-fantasy film directed by Gordon Chan, starring Donnie Yen, Chen Kun, Zhou Xun, Zhao Wei, Sun Li and Qi Yuwu.

In 🇨🇳 there are not so many witchcraft movies, but you might think that even our witches are originated in European folklore. In Chinese folklore there are few different goddesses (demons) that are like our succubus creatures.

🦊There are some similarities between Kitsune 🇯🇵& Gumiho 🇰🇷but 🇨🇳fox demon is called Húlijīng 狐狸精.

Typically fox spirits were seen as dangerous, but some of the stories in the Qing dynasty book Liaozhai Zhiyi by Pu Songling are love stories between a fox appearing as a beautiful girl and a young human male.

📕The story was originally titled "Huapi" 畫皮 (1740). The words “painted skin” have become a synonym for duplicity that wears an outwardly human face but is inwardly demonic. It can be used to that something is Fake. Húlijīng can also be a temptress (or vice versa).

🎥The film is saved by its famous cast, but its plot is sometimes tedious in places and a few special effects have remained of poor quality. One of my favorite actresses ZhaoWei is once again the best. Painted Skin was filmed also earlier but this version is maby easier to find.

This is a Wuxia Fantasy Film so don’t expect realistic fights or rational explanations. Original text is about Man's "blind admiration" of it can lead to his dire downfall.

🦊Belief in fox spirits Is still alive & well in some areas of Asia. Demons are part of nature, even where there is no fox demon, no village can be established.

👹From the psychoanalytic point of view, fox demon is in all truth a castrating threat, a monstrous feminine. Usually it is after your 🫀and will eat it, as in the movie. But it can also use poison or suck out your life force. Fox demon can also help people.

A young fox can appear as a young woman. An older one can take either form. The millennial fox becomes a celestial being. 💫

[kungfuwushuworld]

Wuxia Lady  Zhao Liying 

[maggiecheungs]

“I learned that the best way to avoid rejection is to reject others first…”

LESLIE CHEUNG as Ouyang Feng in ASHES OF TIME | 東邪西毒 (1994) dir. Wong Kar-wai

[theersatzcowboy]

Green Snake / 青蛇 (1993)

Director: Tsui Hark

Cinematographer: Chiu-Lam Ko

Production Design: Bill Lui

Costume Designer: Bo-Ling Ng

Starring: Maggie Cheung, Joey Wong, Vincent Zhao, Nagma, Sridevi, and Wu Hsing-kuo.

[boardsdonthitback]

Donnie Yen - Sakra (2023)

[fuforthought]

A quick dose of swordplay from the TVB series, Poetic Sword Li Pai.

The swordsman in white is Damian Lau (from Duel to the Death) and the swordswoman is Candy Man aka the real life sister of Yuen Qiu )the landlady from Kung Fu Hustle).