Assimilating Hong Kong Style for the Hollywood Action Woman

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Lisa Funnell is a doctoral candidate in the Department of English and Film Studies at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. Her research interests include the representation of women in the Hong Kong and Hollywood action cinemas, European Art Film Movements of the 1920s and 1930s, and Hitchcock's British Film Phase (1927–1939).

Notes

1. See Mulvey's “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.”

2. These videogame-inspired action women appear to be visual hybrids of androgyny and hyperfemininity. They downplay the impossible bodies of their avatars by appearing quite boyish while costumed in shorts, tank tops and lace-up combats. However, their costumes are also formfitting and emphasize their slender frames while accessories like calf-high boots and thigh-strapped pistols convey a tough yet fetishistic image (O’Day 213).

3. Prior to the gunplay film, Hong Kong action films in the wuxia pian (1960s) and kung fu (1970s) genres typically featured hand-to-hand martial arts combat, rural landscapes and were often set in the past (Bordwell 99).

4. Gates writes that “beneath the scenes of hypermasculinity and violence lie the more profound thematic concerns with male heroism, emotionality and bonding that except through the moment of excess and give Woo's films a complexity and intensity most often lacking in the Hollywood action genre” (“Man” 73–74).

5. Jackie Chan starred in Rush Hour (Dir. Brett Ratner, 1998), Shanghai Noon (Dir. Tom Dey, 2000), Rush Hour 2 (Dir. Brett Ratner, 2001), The Tuxedo (Dir. Kevin Donovan, 2002), Shanghai Knights (Dir. David Dobkin, 2003), and Rush Hour 3 (Dir. Brett Ratner, 2007). Chow Yun-Fat was featured in The Replacement Killers (Dir. Antoine Fuqua 1998), The Corruptor (Dir. James Foley, 1999), and Bulletproof Monk (Dir. Paul Hunter, 2003). Jet Li was cast in Lethal Weapon 4 (Dir. Richard Donner, 1998), Romeo Must Die (Dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak, 2000), The One (Dir. James Wong, 2001), Kiss of the Dragon (Dir. Chris Nahon, 2001), Cradle 2 the Grave (Dir. Andrzej Bartkowiak, 2003), and Unleashed (Dir. Louis Leterrier, 2005).

6. Chow Yun-Fat has been partnered with Mira Sorvino (Replacement Killers) and Mark Whalberg (The Corruptor). Jackie Chan has been paired with Chris Tucker (in the Rush Hour series, 1998, 2001, 2007), Owen Wilson (Shanghai Noon and Shanghai Knights), and Jennifer Love Hewitt (The Tuxedo). Some of Jet Li's partners include Aalyiah (Romeo Must Die); Bridget Fonda (Kiss of the Dragon 2001); Carla Gugino (The One); Anthony Anderson, DMX and Gabrielle Union (Cradle 2 the Grave); and Morgan Freeman (Unleashed).

7. The cinematic interrogation of race and racism is not the prerogative of commercial-minded Hollywood; but rather, it is explored through Asian American, as well as black, independent cinema.

8. Woo Ping is regarded as one of the greatest choreographers of the Hong Kong action cinema. His body of work includes Drunken Master (Dir. Woo-ping Yuen, 1978), Yes Madam! 4 (Dir. Woo-ping Yuen, 1989), Once Upon a Time in China (Dir. Tsui Hark, 1991), Once Upon a Time in China II (Dir. Tsui Hark, 1992), Fist of Legend (Dir. Gordon Chan, 1994), The Matrix series (1999, 2003, 2003), Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2, and The Forbidden Kingdom (Dir. Rob Minkoff, 2008). Cheung-Yan has enjoyed a long career in acting, stunt work and action choreography. He has worked on a number of projects with Woo Ping including Drunken Master, Once Upon a Time in China, Fist of Legend and The Matrix series.

9. Longhu is the Cantonese Opera term describing the martial arts choreographer (Hunt, Kung 10).

10. Yuen Woo Ping worked as the action choreographer on The Matrix series, Kill Bill Volumes 1 and 2, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Woo Ping's creative agency in his film projects might account for O’Day's observation of similarities across heroic portrayals.

11. The Matrix series earned more than $1.6 billion in worldwide box-office sales while the Charlie's Angels films grossed over $500 million worldwide. See http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com/.

12. Trinity warrior films not only transcribe the “girls with guns” heroic model, but also maintain broader connections with the Hong Kong gunplay genre. For instance, Bulletproof Monk features gunplay star Chow Yun-Fat mentoring and passing the martial arts torch to white actors Jaimie King and Seann William Scott. Yuen Cheung-Yan worked as the action choreographer on Daredevil, starring Jennifer Garner and Ben Affleck. Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a remake of the John Woo gunplay film The Killer (1989); the male homosocial bonding and conflict featured in Woo's film is replaced by the heterosexual coupling of, and gendered conflict between, protagonists Jane and John Smith (Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt).

13. Neo's costuming mirrors that of Trinity. He is dressed in black pants, a black t-shirt and a long black trench coat.

14. Neo participates in virtually simulated fighting tutorials through which his mind and not his body are trained to fight effectively.

15. In her discussion of Terminator 2: Judgement Day, Jeffords notes that in order for Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) to protect her son John (Edward Furlong), she switches domestic and heroic positions with the Terminator who become a surrogate mother to her child. Having relinquished her maternal obligations, Connor takes on the more masculine role of solider, and distances herself physically and emotionally from her son (162–163). Moreover, during the mid-to-late 1990s, Tasker argues that the maternal body in action was considered symptomatic (Working 71). In The Long Kiss Goodnight (Dir. Renny Harlin, 1997), actor Geena Davis plays both mother and assassin. Although Davis embodies both identities, her character suffers from amnesia and multiple personality disorder. Personalities Samantha Caine (mother) and Charly Baltimore (assassin) are presented as two distinct, if not opposite, people, each complete with her own set of memories, imaging conventions, and mannerisms. Moreover, in the Species series and Alien Resurrection (1997), which all feature hyperfeminine protagonists, the maternal body is depicted as alien and “other,” a foreign and dangerous entity that should be feared, controlled and/or destroyed.