Discussion Wuxia - The Chinese Hero Tales

[eni]

A absolute unique form of Chinese folklore and media sure is the wuxia genre, commonly known from movies like House of the Flying Dagger or Hero. We all know the scenes of martial artists doing nearly impossible stunts, e.g. flying at each other or running up walls.

Read here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuxia

A very typical manhua that contains wuxia elements is Storm Riders, which I very much recommend to everyone. It also has a cool movie and TV series adaption. Do you know others? Any favorites you have?

What do you think of Western media importing this genre? The Matrix trilogy is the best known example for using wuxia in a modern, westernized (Hollywood) context.

And maybe a bit unrelated, but I was told that parkour, the sports, kinda includes the dream of making wuxia possible. Another term for parkour sportsmen is "urban ninja". When I was little, the wuxia movies seemed less impossible to me than today, to be honest. I didn't see the big deal on running up a house wall to fight flying on the roof

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[ProGoddess]

The only "wuxia" stories authors that I know are 金庸 (Jin Yong) and 古龍 (Gu Long). They are the popular novelists who have written many books based on martial arts stories. Gu Long is also a film producer and director which I have watched some of his movies.

I have not read any manhua/manhwa/manga (or even anime) that has a setting and plot on ancient Chinese martial arts. The closest one I know is The Three Kingdom that follows a historical story of ancient China. But there isn't any 轻功 (qing gong), running on walls or flying around in sword fighting. Perhaps it may be worth a try in picking one of this genre. I'm not sure how is the story and plot like for Storm Riders but I will check it out.

Thanks for your recommendation.


PS: I have just recalled the movies of Gongfu Panda which have such genre.