Four Schools of Martial Art choreography

[Ian_Lee]

Martial art cheographer is the soul of any action movie. But does anyone notice the difference among various martial art choreography in those movies?

Here are the 4 predominant schools and their styles (in my opinion):

(1) Jackie Chan and his team:

Products -- Most of Jackie's movies except the early films like "Drunken Master".

Style -- acrobatic, high risk but minimal violence.

(2) Yuen Wo Ping and his team:

Products -- "Crouching Tiger Hidder Dragon", "Matrix 1 & 2", "Charlie's Angels", "Iron Monkey",...etc.

Style -- longest history (since '70s and most well-known in Hollywood). Action tend to be arranged neatly all in a sequence and actors/actresses need to undertake long term physical training before filming. Some uses of wire-fu.

(3) Tony Ching and his team:

Products -- "Swordsman I & II", "Hero",...etc.

Style -- heavy emphasis on wire-fu and the aid of cinematography to focus on certain aspects of fighting. Actors/actresses require less rigid training.

(4) Corey Yuen and his team:

Products -- "The Legend (Fong Sai Yuk)", "So close",...etc.

Style -- a combination of Yuen Wo Ping and Tony Ching.

Of course, there are a lot of other second-tier martial art choreographers like Lau Ka Leung and his brothers (they were very liked by Quentin Tarantino), Sammo Hung, Tung Wei,....etc.

[skylee]

Donnie Yen (甄子丹) is another.

[Ian_Lee]

Actually martial art cheography has been "stolen" by Hollywood and adapted into many movies.

Even the recently released Disney movies like "Pirates of Caribbean" has tried to emulate the martial art fighting scene.

But somehow they (with the exception of those recruiting HK choreographer) are somewhat different and seem to lack the essential ingredients.

Actually even those action films made in Mainland and Taiwan seem to lag behind in this aspect.

But in Hong Kong, the martial art choreography has been perfected after 40 years' evolution since Shaw Brothers started to produce the "new-style"

Kung Fu movies starting from mid-'60s.