The Old School Kung Fu Fest is celebrating its 10th anniversary with the largest retrospective of Taiwanese wuxia movies ever seen in New York City. Highlights include the U.S. premiere of “The King of Wuxia,” a documentary about the famous director King Hu, as well as a new digital restoration of Joseph Kuo’s “The Swordsman of All Swordsmen.”
The Taipei Cultural Center in New York is pleased to present this series in collaboration with Subway Cinema, featuring 12 in-person films on April 21-23 and April 28-30, as well as three online movies available from April 21-May 4. The program was originally curated by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute and first presented in 2022, showcasing 29 movies produced between the 1950s-2010s in order to reflect on the history of the wuxia genre in Taiwan.
Wuxia is a unique ancient martial arts-inspired genre in Chinese langue cinema. According to Wang Chun-Chi, the head curator of the program, wuxia adaptions initially thrived in Hong Kong, and filmmakers used Taiwan’s landscape as an ideal film set for shooting in the 1950s. “The Daring Gang of Nineteen from Verdun City,” a Hong Kong production starring Josephine Siao Fong-fong that will be screening virtually, serves as an example of a typical wuxia film from this time.
In addition, “Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters,” a 1968 taiyupian (Taiwanese-language film), is included in the series due to its creation of a hybrid style that mixed the wuxia genre with the traditions of Taiwanese opera. Yang Li-Hua, the decade’s biggest Taiwanese opera star and one of the most influential people in Taiwan, played one of the three leading heroic roles in this film.
Wuxia’s peak in Taiwan came after the success of King Hu’s films in the 1960s. “A Touch of Zen,” “The Valiant Ones,” and “The Fate of Lee Khan,” all of which will be featured at this program, mirror Hu’s themes regarding the philosophy of swordsmen and his use of aesthetics stemming from traditional Chinese opera.
Wang observed that a specific wuxia style, distinct from those found in Hong Kong, formed following Hu’s success. Therefore, the program also features works such as the “Tsai Ying-jie Trilogy” (named after the films’ main character): Joseph Kuo’s The Swordsman of All Swordsman, Lung Chien’s “The Bravest Revenge,” and Ting Shan-hsi’s “The Ghost Hill.”
Wang revealed that wuxia films gradually declined from the 1970s-1990s, as the genre migrated from film to TV and found massive success through primetime series. Chu Liu-Xiang, one of the popular wuxia TV dramas at that time, held the highest viewership percentage in Taiwanese TV history at 70%. It was so popular that film producers invited Adam Cheng, the drama’s leading actor, to star as the same character in its movie adaption (“Night Orchid”). The film, which co-starred Brigitte Lin Ching-Hsia, an icon of Taiwanese cinema, is also included in this program.
“It was not until Ang Lee and Hou Hsiao-Hsien returned to the genre that wuxia films were revived in Taiwan,” Wang said in an introduction provided for the program. Accordingly, “The Assassin,” directed by Hou, has been selected to present his own unique wuxia style. Hou made this film to pay tribute to the wuxia films he saw growing up in Taiwan. It won Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival as well as Best Film and Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards following its initial release in 2015.
For more information, please visit: https://www.subwaycinema.com/
【SCHEDULE】
IN-PERSON SCREENINGS AT METROGRAPH (7 Ludlow St., New York, NY 10002)
Friday, April 21
7:00pm - THE KING OF WUXIA (Theater 1)
Saturday, April 22
1:00pm - VENGEANCE OF THE PHOENIX SISTERS (Theater 1)
3:30pm - THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Theater 2)
Sunday, April 23
1:00pm - THE SWORDSMAN OF ALL SWORDSMEN (Theater 2)
3:00pm - THE GHOST HILL (Theater 2)
5:00pm - THE VALIANT ONES (Theater 1)
7:15pm - A CITY CALLED DRAGON (Theater 1)
Friday, April 28
7:15pm- THE GRAND PASSION (Theater 2)
9:15pm- LEGEND OF THE SACRED STONE (Theater 2)
Saturday, April 29
4:30pm- THE FATE OF LEE KHAN (Theater 1)
7:00pm- THE ASSASSIN (Theater 1)
Sunday, April 30
1:00pm- A TOUCH OF ZEN (Theater 1)
5:00pm- THE FATE OF LEE KHAN (Theater 1)
7:30pm- NIGHT ORCHID (Theater 2)
9:30pm- THE ASSASSIN (Theater 2)
SCREENING AT METROGRAPH AT HOME (VIRTUAL SCREENINGS ONLY)
April 21-May 4 at https://metrograph.com/at-home/
THE DARING GANG OF NINETEEN FROM VERDUN CITY
IRON MISTRESS
THE BRAVEST REVENGE