MovieChat Forums > Siu ngo gong woo (1990) Discussion > Not keen on the fight direction...

Not keen on the fight direction...


What are people's thoughts on this kind of fight direction? My main complaint about this film is the insistence on quick cuts and zany angles on the fights. I presume this is down to Tsui Hark since he does this in all of his other films that I've seen (and since he did most of the actual directing work on Swordsman after King Hu stepped down). Whilst I appreciate that some of this is necessary to hide wirework and other special effects, he seems to just do it because he likes it because it's used even when there are no effects happening. I find it annoying. As B. A Harrison commented " fights scenes become chaotic colourful whirlwinds of limbs, smoke, and clothing; whilst this looks impressive, it is also very hard to follow."

I like to be able to see what's happening in fights but in most of the fights here I was struggling to see who was who and where they were, let alone who was doing what to who? Maybe it's also partly that what IS actually happening isn't that impressive so he's compensating by bouncing the camera round like an ADD child with too many fizzy drinks. As has been pointed out, with the talent involved in the film, I was expecting more of the fights.

Films like Iron Monkey and Wing Chun, while also having quite a lot of quick cuts in the fights somehow manage to be more comprehensible. Whilst there's not quite so much wire-work, I still find Tsui Hark's direction in fights bewildering.

I was just wondering if most people are of a similar view or not, or even if there's something I'm missing, like maybe a cultural reference point that would make this more palatable to me (I've lived in England all my life).

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[deleted]

Yeah - I watched OUATIC again the other day and realised it's not a Tsui Hark thing because the action in that film is lush. I think it's just the Tsui Hark films I've watched most recently where the quick cuts have been the case - especially Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain. As you say, this may be more the action director's doing. Thanks for your reply

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