After a day of piano teaching there is nothing more enjoyable than coming home and watching a movie. Not the brainy type that I usually go for, but something that has a good kick, literally and metaphorically, to release all the stress and anxiety that build up from hours of beating time.
Black and white Kung Fu movies in the 1960’s incorporated fighting, fantasy, magic and romance. Many of the actors and actresses did fight scenes utilizing their Chinese opera training. In the cinema, the audience would snicker at the main characters who were obviously hired because of their pretty faces and not their fighting ability. Even as a child I could tell if someone was doing a proper horse stance.
Special effects were the magic. With a push of the hand a snake or a sword would rush out in a stream of air. They could travel in the sky or enter a chamber to poison an enemy. I remember especially a woman’s floating head, bopping from house to house in the deep of night, trying to avenge the person who severed her body.
Because of their popularity, many Kung Fu movies were cheaply and quickly made with shallow plots and bad acting. Although some good ones have come out in recent years. The two Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen took time to explore the characters and the background of the story. But the fighting is brutal and much faster now. The catastrophe is more than epic. The stuns are incredible with each scene outdoing the previous ones. After all the blood and gore I usually get a second wind, and turn my attention back to writing a poem.
