Citation

Salazar MA. Perspect. China World 2004; 5(4): 58-64.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, Overseas Young Chinese Forum)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Zhang’s forage into Wuxia can only be called a success, regardless of misgivings about the movies’ lack of substance. While the box office of “Hero” and “Daggers” is still short of “Crouching Tiger” standards, these two movies have certainly helped raise the profile of wuxia movies in the West, and their stylistic explorations should be useful starting points for other directors. Zhang Yimou’s credentials and artsy approach to martial art movies may be a useful source of legitimacy for the genre in the US, allowing other wuxia films to be treated more seriously by American critics. Moreover, Zhang has achieved the desirable mix of commercial success and critical acclaim that Ang Lee achieved, and this instance of lightning striking twice may well put the wuxia genre in (the margins of) the quality mainstream. Zhang’s success should also provide a (small) chance for wider releases of promising commercial fare.

What does all these apparently trivial exchanges of forms of popular entertainment amount to, in the end? The effectiveness of popular culture exchanges in furthering peace and understanding is dubious at best. Nevertheless, sharing a common repository of tropes and images does give people a commonality of experience, and a commonality of tales to tell. Mutual familiarity of each other’s stories will not make instant friends out of strangers, but it does give them something pleasant to talk about while they get to know each other.