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Abstract
This essay is driven by foregrounding the performing body in Asian martial arts films. This focus leads to the emergence of three simple but important categories of performing body within the genre: the martial-artist-as-actor, the actor-as-martial-artist and the ‘enhanced’ martial-artist-as-actor. These emergent categories are then explored by focusing on a few celebrated Asian martial arts films and martial artists/actors. The analysis draws upon a range of sociological perspectives of the body including the construction of body charisma, ideas of a martial habitus as legitimate schemes of dispositions, modes of body usage and the positioning of forms of masculinity within the global gender order that the predominantly male bodies in Asian martial arts films must negotiate. It is concluded that the charismatic performing body provides a fertile yet hitherto under explored point of departure for the study of martial arts films, martial culture and the gendered bodies that inhabit them.
Acknowledgements
A version of this essay was presented at the ISSA Word Congress, Copenhagen in August 2007. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the editors, all our colleagues of the Qualitative Research Unit in the School of Sport and Health Sciences at University of Exeter for their very constructive comments at various stages of the development of this essay and to Mark Wilson for his helpful discussions on the topic.
Notes
1 For example in a recent ‘100 greatest films’ survey by Film 4, (http://www.channel4.com/film/newsfeatures/microsites/G/greatest/index.jsp) (accessed 15 July 2007) Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger was rated the best ‘sports’ film at no.18, at 54 was Kurosawa's, Seven Samurai, and Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon was rated no.85. Indeed, all of the films discussed here have been major box office hits and in addition many of these films have achieved ‘cult’ status that sees their popularity continue over time.
2 Given the limitations of space, the focus of this essay is upon Asian martial arts films specifically. We readily acknowledge that the analysis we undertake here could be broadened to include Western martial arts, artists and films as well.
3 CitationAnderson, ‘Action in Motion’. A number of analyses have been conducted on the symbolic representationalist dimension of martial arts movies. See, for example, CitationNeedham, Asian Cinemas, 63; CitationHunt, Kung Fu Cult Masters, 24.
4 Our choice of Asian martial artists and martial arts films thus agrees with, but stands in interesting contrast to, CitationTierney's analysis of mainstream American films and white martial artists in his article, ‘Themes of Whiteness in Bulletproof Monk, Kill Bill, and The Last Samurai’.
5 CitationEisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building.
6 For this model, CitationParkin, Max Weber, 77 provides the main quotes definitions underneath taken from Weber in Eisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building, 46.
7 CitationSaeki, ‘The Conflict between Tradition and Modernization in a Sport Organization’.
8 CitationVillamón, et al. ‘Reflexive Modernization and the Disembedding of Judo from 1946 to the 2000 Sydney Olympics’.
9 Parkin, Max Weber, 84.
10 Ibid., 86.
11 With the obvious exception being CitationTurner, ‘Warrior Charisma and the Spiritualization of Violence’.
12 Eisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building, 19.
13 Ibid., 22.
14 Ibid., 20.
15 Parkin, Max Weber, 82.
16 Ibid., 79.
17 CitationBourdieu, Distinction, 562 footnote 2, cited in CitationTomlinson, ‘Pierre Bourdieu and the Sociology of Sport’, 166.
18 The term Synopticon was coined by CitationMathiesen, ‘The Viewer Society’,who used it in contrast to Foucault's ideas of Panopticon and has since been developed by many thinkers, perhaps most notably by CitationBauman, Globalization. It is used here to refer to the cultural mechanisms including, especially, the media, in which social regulation occurs through the many watching the few.
19 CitationFrank, ‘For a Sociology of the Body’.
20 Ibid., 53–4.
21 CitationConnell, Masculinities.
22 Ibid., 67–81.
23 CitationKaplan, ‘Problematizing Cross-Cultural Analysis’, 157.
24 See CitationSaid, Orientalism; CitationClarke, Oriental Enlightenment.
25 CitationMintz, The Martial Arts Films, 21.
26 CitationChan, ‘Figures of Hope’, 492.
27 CitationLee, The Tao of Jeet Kune Do.
28 Needham, Asian Cinemas, 63.
29 CitationThomas, Citation Bruce Lee : Fighting Spirit.
30 Lee's functional training is not only very well documented but part of his charismatic appeal. See CitationLee and Uyehara, Bruce Lee's Fighting Method; Little, Bruce Lee; Thomas, Bruce Lee: Fighting Spirit.
31 See CitationClarke, Taoism in the West.
32 CitationLi, ‘Kung fu: Negotiating nationalism and modernity’, 100.
33 CitationTasker, ‘Fists of Fury’, 144.
34 CitationChan, ‘Bruce Lee's Fictional Models of Masculinity’, 375.
35 Ibid., 384.
36 Ibid., 376.
37 Connell, Masculinities.
38 Libido dominandi refers to the culturally engrained ‘need to dominate’ that seems a consistent configuration of Western hegemonic masculinities. See Bourdieu, Masculine Domination.
39 Eleftheriotis and Needham, ‘BruceLee: Stardom and Identity’.
40 CitationEleftheriotis and Needham, ‘Bruce Lee: Stardom and Identity’, 409.
41 It is important to note that Norris was a 65 fight winning champion competitive martial artist and held black belts in Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo and Shito Ryu Karate. He later created his own art form know as Chun Kuk Do. In the film Norris, draws mainly on his Karate techniques.
42 CitationChan, I am Jackie Chan: My Life in Action.
43 Anderson, ‘Action in Motion’.
44 Needham, 63.
45 See also Chan, I am Jackie Chan: My life in Action.
46 Dolby, 1979, cited in CitationHolcombe, ‘Theater of Combat’.
47 CitationWitterstaetter, Dying for Action, 38. Athough it is tempting to align actors like Chan with the iconic masculine muscular ‘action heroes’ such as Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Van Damme, on closer inspection, his body performances have more in common with the male actors and dancers such as Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd and Fairbanks, whose on screen body performances were driven by movement artistry achieved through tightly choreographed scenes and stunts. These were often performed with a ‘lightness of being’ that permitted humour and self parody not available to the heroic dominant masculine Western male actor.
48 CitationStokes and Hoover, City on fire, 115.
49 Witterstaetter, Dying for Action, 38.
50 Chan's charisma constructed in his films do interleave with other forms of authority in order to increase the call for legitimacy. For example, in all of his films Chan's characters are almost always respectful of tradition and in particular of the chivalric code. In his films in modern settings he also draws on legal-rational forms of authority to legitimate his actions such as ‘upholding the law’. While these are weak, in comparison to his personal body charismatic authority, they do open his appeal to a broader range of audiences, who may more readily accept this more Westernized ‘normalized’ leader with charismatic qualities.
51 Tasker, ‘Fists of Fury’, 144.
52 Witterstaetter, Dying for Action, 38.
53 CitationHunt, ‘Ong-Bak: New Thai Cinema’, 70.
54 Jaa, http://www.tonyjaa.org/biography.shtml (accessed 10 July 2007).
55 Hunt, ‘Ong-Bak: New Thai Cinema’, 71.
56 Jaa grew up in a rural village with elephants (like his character in Warrior King) and trained himself in stunts and martial arts movements, following his heroes Lee and Chan. He eventually became a successful stuntman, and was taken on by a well-known Thai action director as his protégé. He then trained seriously in the ancient Muay Boran style of Muay Thai, but is also skilled in modern Muay Thai and a range of other athletic martial arts. In this sense, he is quite different from Lee and Chan, as he didn't undergo rigorous structured schooling as a child. See Jaa, http://www.tonyjaa.org/biography.shtml (accessed 10 July 2007).
57 Hunt, ‘Ong-Bak: New Thai Cinema’. 73.
58 Chan, ‘Figures of Hope’.
59 CitationWhissel, ‘Tales of Upward Mobility’.
60 Needham, Asian Cinemas, 65.
61 While we do not have space to explore this issue in the detail it merits, the digital revolution in martial arts films has seen the rise of actresses-as-martial-artists. In this sense the mystical and almost magical powers that technology can give the performing body does in certain ways democratize who can become a martial arts expert on screen. However, it should be noted that with a few exceptions the actresses still tend to fulfil very typical gender roles and positions with the film's narrative. And most are also depicted as having subordinate level skills in comparison to the male martial arts master at key moments in these films. Films such as Crouching Tiger, House of Flying Daggers and Hero all follow this pattern.
62 Some of the many examples here would include; Chow's Shaolin Soccer (2001); Kung Fu Hustle (2005); Kill Bill 1 and 2 (2003 and 2004).
63 A more accurate history is provided in the text CitationGee, Meng and Lowenheiger, Mastering Kung Fu.
64 Hunt, ‘Ong-Bak: New Thai Cinema’, 71.
65 CitationYeh and Davis, Taiwan Film Directors, 183.
66 CitationPidduck, ‘The Transnational Cinema of Ang Lee’.
67 Yeh and Davis, Taiwan Film Directors, 182.
68 Holcombe, ‘Theater of Combat’.
69 Ibid.
70 Li, ‘Jet Li on the Problems with Martial Arts Films’, http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id = 605f743ab1aab1243a190a4cf28c819f (accessed 27 February 2007).
71 Hunt, Kung Fu Cult Masters, 24.
72 Ibid., 17.
73 A death waiver is a signed paper that allowed participants to fight to the death with legal impunity.
74 Extract taken from dialogue of the film Fearless (2006).
75 For more on chivalric codes see CitationFields, The Code of the Warrior.
76 Parkin, Max Weber, 82.
77 Ibid., 79.
78 Ibid.