Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently featured in training scenes and other sequences in addition to fights. Martial arts films commonly include hand-to-hand combat along with other types of action, such as stuntwork, chases, and gunfights. Sub-genres of martial arts films include kung fu films, wuxia, karate films, and martial arts action comedy films, while related genres include gun fu, jidaigeki and samurai films.
Chan Kong-sang, known professionally as Jackie Chan, is a Hong Kong actor, director, writer, producer, martial artist, and stuntman known for his slapstick acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, and innovative stunts, which he typically performs himself. Before entering the film industry, he was one of the Seven Little Fortunes from the China Drama Academy at the Peking Opera School, where he studied acrobatics, martial arts, and acting. Chan has been acting since the 1960s, performing in more than 150 films. He is one of the most influential action film stars of all time.
Twins are a Hong Kong Cantopop duo that was created in the summer of 2001 by Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG). Twins are made up of two girls, Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung. They are a popular group in Hong Kong and a top band in mainland China. Their fanbase have included Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, United States, Vietnam and Philippines. Their music was generally targeted at young teens, but in 2004 they began to attract a wider audience by venturing into different styles of music. In February 2008 the duo temporarily separated after the Edison Chen photo scandal involving Gillian Chung. The group reunited two years later in 2010.
Leon Lai MingSBS BBS MH, is a Hong Kong actor, film director, businessman, and Cantopop singer. He is one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Hong Kong pop music. He uses his Chinese name "Li Ming" or "Lai Ming", which literally means "dawn".
Drunken Master and also known as Drunken Master The Beginning Chinese: 醉拳; lit. 'Drunken Fist and Jui Kuen' is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping. The film features much of the same crew as Yuen's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow released earlier the same year, including lead actors Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, and Hwang Jang-lee; although narratively unrelated, Drunken Master bears similarities to Snake in the Eagle's Shadow in its story and style.
Boy'z is a Hong Kong Cantopop duo produced by EEG consisting of members Kenny Kwan and Steven Cheung. Kwan left the group in 2005, and was replaced with Dennis Mak in 2005. In 2006, William Chan joined the group, forming the trio Sun Boy'z. The trio disbanded in 2008, but Kwan and Cheung came back together as a duo in 2010.
Armour of God is a 1986 Hong Kong action-comedy written and directed by Jackie Chan, who also starred in the film in the lead role. The film co-stars Alan Tam, Lola Forner and Rosamund Kwan.
Asian Kung-Fu Generation is a Japanese alternative rock band formed in Yokohama in 1996. For its entire career, the band has consisted of vocalist Masafumi Gotoh, guitarist Kensuke Kita, bassist Takahiro Yamada, and drummer Kiyoshi Ijichi. Starting out as a college band, Asian Kung-Fu Generation released a series of independent EPs featuring lyrics mostly sung in English. In 2002, they released their major-label EP debut Hōkai Amplifier, from that point singing their lyrics in Japanese. The band's musical style is influenced by seminal Western alternative rock acts as well as their own local Japanese indie rock and punk scene. Their songs incorporate various aspects of the genres, most typically expressing fast tempos and prominent power chord guitar riffs in addition to rhythmic groove and emotional lyrics. Despite the indie nature of their music, the band has enjoyed worldwide commercial success in addition to critical acclaim. Asian Kung-Fu Generation has been cited as one of the best, most balanced modern rock bands to emerge from Japan in the 2000s.
Kung Fu Hustle is a 2004 martial arts action comedy film directed, produced and co-written by Stephen Chow, who also stars in the leading role, alongside Huang Shengyi, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu, Danny Chan Kwok-kwan and Leung Siu-lung in prominent roles. The story revolves around a murderous neighbourhood gang, a poor village with unlikely heroes and an aspiring gangster's fierce journey to find his true self. The martial arts choreography is supervised by Yuen Woo-ping.
The Young Master is a 1980 Hong Kong martial arts film written and directed by Jackie Chan, who also starred in the lead role. The film co-stars Yuen Biao, Fung Fung and Shih Kien. The film was released on 9 February 1980.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Daniel Wu Neh-Tsu is an American-born and raised Hong Kong actor, director, producer, and racing driver, born in California, United States. He is known as a "flexible and distinctive" leading actor in the Chinese language film industry. Since his film debut in 1998, he has been featured in over 60 films. He also starred in the AMC martial arts drama series Into the Badlands and the Disney+ wuxia action comedy American Born Chinese.
Janice M. Vidal is a Hong Kong Cantopop singer and actress. Vidal was first discovered by music producer Mark Lui and initially began her career as a back-up singer for Leon Lai. She debuted as a solo artist in 2004 under Lai's label, Amusic, where she remained until signing with Warner Music in 2015.
Lo Wei was a Hong Kong film director and film actor best known for launching the martial arts film careers of both Bruce Lee, in The Big Boss and Fist of Fury, and Jackie Chan, in New Fist of Fury.
Emme Wong Yee-Man is a Cantopop singer and actress based in Hong Kong.
Harlem Yu is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, television host and businessman. He is particularly well-known for singing the theme song, Qing Fei De Yi, for the 2001 television drama, Meteor Garden. He made a cameo in both that version and the 2018 remake, Meteor Garden performing Qing Fei De Yi (情非得已). He has been hosting television shows in Taiwan since 1994 and in China since 2011, and served as a coach for three seasons of The Voice of China and three seasons of Sing! China.
Jackie Chan began his film career as an extra child actor in the 1962 film Big and Little Wong Tin Bar. Ten years later, he was a stuntman opposite Bruce Lee in 1972's Fist of Fury and 1973's Enter the Dragon. He then had starring roles in several kung fu films, such as 1973's Little Tiger of Canton and 1976's New Fist of Fury. His first major breakthrough was the 1978 kung fu action comedy film Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was shot while he was loaned to Seasonal Film Corporation under a two-picture deal. He then enjoyed huge success with similar kung fu action comedy films such as 1978's Drunken Master and 1980's The Young Master. Jackie Chan began experimenting with elaborate stunt action sequences in The Young Master and especially Dragon Lord (1982).
The Master is a 1980 martial arts film produced in Hong Kong. It was directed by Lu Chin Ku and produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. While The Master was Lu's attempt at kung fu comedy similar to Jackie Chan movies of the time, he continued on to create films with a more fantastical flair.
Jason Chan Pak-Yu is a Hong Kong-Canadian singer. He debuted under Sony Music in 2006 and released his debut album First Experience in 2007 and has since released more than 10 albums. He has been dubbed by the Hong Kong media as the music industry's "hidden master" (樂壇隱世高手). Chan has also ventured into film and television, and business, owning two bars in Hong Kong.
The Karate Kid is a 2010 martial arts drama film directed by Harald Zwart and produced by Jerry Weintraub, Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, James Lassiter, and Ken Stovitz, from a screenplay written by Christopher Murphey, based on a story conceived by Robert Mark Kamen, the writer of the first three Karate Kid films. It serves as the fifth film in The Karate Kid franchise, and stars Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan in the lead roles, with Taraji P. Henson, Wenwen Han, Zhenwei Wang, Luke Carberry, Zhensu Wu, Zhiheng Wang, and Yu Rongguang in supporting roles. While serving as a remake and following a similar narrative as the original The Karate Kid film from 1984, with the setting moved to China, and the martial art changed from karate to kung fu, the film is set in the same fictional universe as the previous films, retroactively serving as a standalone sequel to The Next Karate Kid (1994).
