A few words on the Wǔxiá genre
The literary and movie genre known as “swashbuckler” (in Italian we call it “cappa e spada”), never goes out of fashion. Salient features of the genre are undoubtedly the presence of heroes who act inspired by chivalric values, coming to the aid of the weak, the historical setting, mostly medieval times, and the essential element of sword fighting and generally emphasizing the warrior characteristics of the protagonist. As I have mentioned other times in these articles, this is genre literature (and cinema). Genre literature is specially created with recurring elements that characterize it and contribute to its specific language and atmosphere. Traditionally, it is considered “popular” literature in the sense that it does not have great artistic pretensions, but aims more at entertainment. Several times I have challenged this definition, since genre literature has often produced masterpieces. The same argument applies to cinema. It is good to know that the “swashbuckler” genre also has its counterpart in the Asian sphere, particularly in Chinese lands: the wǔxiá (武侠), a genre featuring martial arts warriors in stories set in traditional China. To give an example known to all, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon of 2000 directed by Ang Lee can be considered of the wǔxiá genre. Incidentally, it seems that the genre, which was born in the 20th century, is actually firmly rooted in and harkens back to precedents in classical Chinese literature.
In the warm autumn evenings of my stay in Tokyo, I would roam the web looking for historical movies in the wǔxiá genre, mindful also of my childhood fascination with these settings. In Italy, unfortunately, many movies from the 1970s, considered by critics to be of good quality, were distributed with altered titles. Often the word “Bruce Lee” or others reminiscent of the famous Hong Kong martial artist and actor were forced into the new titles. This distorted the market for those movies, which were often judged to be merely imitations wishing to ride the wave of Bruce Lee’s success.
Such is the case of a 1971 movie, distributed in Italy with the ridiculous title Chen’s Scream Terrorizes All Continents, (“L’urlo di Chen terrorizza tutti i continenti”) tracing already a similar title that had been used for the movie The Way of the Dragon ( in Chinese: 猛龙过江 Měng lóngguò jiāng, known in Italian as “L’urlo di Chen terrorizza anche l’Occidente, Chen’s Scream Terrorizes Even the West).
It is a film produced in Taiwan under the title Wàn lǐ xióng fēng (萬里雄風) directed by Ting Wu Hsiung. Despite all the weaknesses of the genre and the means of cinema at the time, it is a fine, evocative and enjoyable movie, also considered a successful example of the wǔxiá genre. Nothing to do, then, with the Bruce Lee movies, as film-distributors in Europe tried to make us believe in the 1970s.
The story is the classic one, a redemption adventure. The terrible bandit Tian Fu is broken out by a gang of criminals interested in seizing his enormous treasure. But they are not the only ones interested in the bandit: the fearsome prefect’s daughter, a martial arts expert, and two adventurers, moved at heart by noble motives, also seek the bandit. The story is punctuated by chases and fights, with a rather eventful plot and a bittersweet ending.
Generally speaking, it is interesting to note that under the cultural “guise” of Chinese customs and era, the messages do not deviate much from those of the swashbuckler genre. For some this might seem like a simplification of realities, but certainly rendering ideas and values (whatever they may be) in an iconic and simplified way is one of the great powers of art.
If native English readers find any part of the text unclear, please let me know. The article has been translated from Italian.
Davide Donadio 