What’s Gun Fu and How is it Impacting the Action Genre?
What’s Gun Fu and How is it Impacting the Action Genre?
Modern American culture has been affected in so many ways by Kung Fu, and nothing has been more influenced than American cinema.
The action genre is more alive than ever thanks to innovative directors like John Woo and their innovative visions to create more fantastical fight scenes on screen. It has even led to the creation of a term called “Gun Fu”.
But what is Gun Fu, and how is this new term affecting the action genre and our modern American silver screen?
If you want to know how blockbusters like John Wick get to be so great, here’s your chance to find out.
The Term: Gun Fu
Everyone these days knows the terms of martial arts and especially Kung Fu, a coined term made famous by Hong Kong and Chinese action movie stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and so many others over the latter half of the 20th century.
But Gun Fu, also known as Gun Kata, is now widely recognized as well. Gun Fu is a portmanteau word that fuses the term Kung Fu with Gun. But it has a meaning that is a bit deeper than just the term
The Meaning
Where Kung Fu focuses on the techniques and mostly unarmed combat of individuals using Chinese martial arts, Gun Fu mixes the elements of graceful, ballet-like martial arts combat with the blood and brutality of firearms.
It is intentionally choreographed to look almost superhuman. So there isn’t much difference in realism of Gun Fu between movies like John Wick or The Matrix.
The Impact
You can find Gun Fu and its influences all over the entertainment industry these days. Since its introduction as the “Heroic Bloodshed” genre by directors like Ringo Lam and John Woo, it hasn’t been uncommon to see our action stars running around dual-wielding an STI Staccato R, kicking ass and taking names.
Many that pioneered this genre in Hong Kong were also attached to the American movies that made the Gun Fu genre famous.
Some came on as choreographers, such as the acclaimed Yuen Woo-Ping who was the mastermind behind many of the Gun Fu hits that we know and love today.
The Future
With Gun Fu firmly planted in the entertainment industry, it is only reaching astronomical heights. John Wick and all its Gun Fu, gory splendor went from being a standalone film to an entire franchise with a cult following.
You even see glimpses of Gun Fu in the superhero genre. Characters such as the Winter Soldier and Deadpool could not exist on the big screen, nor could movies like X-Men Origins: Wolverine or the Underworld series have been possible without Gun Fu.
“Yeah, I’m Thinking I’m Back”
Action movies have always been interesting, but Gun Fu has made watching American action movies fun again. It may be unrealistic, it may be bloody, but there is a certain appreciation to be had when watching them.
We know you’ll probably never see this in real life. But who cares? Watching Gun Fu movies allow you to appreciate how far cinema has come and how far it’s willing to go. And you can only imagine where it’ll be headed next.
So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show because Gun Fu is here to stay. Go ahead and get in on the action!
