The 1993 biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story has a scene that depicts Lee finishing a complicated set of moves with no regard to camera angles and other film techniques for fragmented shooting. (Of course, this must have been apocryphal because Lee was a child actor before he became a kung fu legend and surely knew the requirements of filming.)
Movie action is designed to not only look good but also sound good. The ubiquitous punching sound for physical contact is obviously enhanced. What kind of body will yield such a slightly hollow and wildly amplified sound when hit - other than a puffed-up pillow?
The most fascinating thing about martial arts as exhibited on the Chinese screen is the tendency to venture into the fantasyland.
Hollywood action flicks are not realistic in their action scenes either, but they usually adhere to a logic that makes sense of the action. If the action is humanly impossible, Hollywood will provide a "scientific" justification, so that Spiderman, Batman or Superman will function without audiences collectively scratching their heads.
In a Chinese movie, a hero may catch flying arrows with bare hands, but the audience is rarely told how this craft became plausible.
Chinese wuxia films fly in and out of the fantasy realm as if it's taken for granted. However, audience reception depends on how dexterously the film treats such details. How much the action scenes are heightened, so to speak, should have an inner logic.
In Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, flying starts with fast running - so fast the feet on the roof are increasingly floating on thin air. Only in the second half does full-force flying take place.
Suppose the two scenes are reversed. I can guarantee the second one will not have the impact it was designed for. In a sense, flying is the ultimate test for wuxia movies that depict supernatural skills. If the audience laughs, it means it is rendered ridiculous; if there is a gasp of wow, it has sent the heart palpitating.
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