The first ever martial arts film was a Chinese film released in 1928,
The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (also translated as "The Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery"), a silent film directed by Chinese film director
Zhang Shichuan and produced by the
Mingxing Film Company. The film pioneered the martial arts film genre, and was the first kung fu action film ever created. The film is based on the popular Chinese novel "The Romance of the Red Lotus Temple", which is set in the Qing Dynasty and tells the story of a group of martial artists who band together to defend their temple from raiders. The film is notable for its action sequences and fight scenes, which were groundbreaking for the time and helped establish the martial arts film genre. Beginning in 1950 with
Akira Kurosawa's
Rashomon, starring
Toshiro Mifune,
Japanese cinema produced a number of
samurai films. These films influenced the subsequent Hong Kong kung fu films of Bruce Lee. Asian films are known to have a more minimalist approach to film based on their culture. Some martial arts films have only a minimal plot and amount of character development and focus almost exclusively on the action, while others have more creative and complex plots and characters along with action scenes. Films of the latter type are generally considered to be artistically superior films, but many films of the former type are commercially successful and well received by fans of the genre. One of the earliest Hollywood movies to employ the use of martial arts was the 1955 film
Bad Day at Black Rock, though the scenes of
Spencer Tracy performed barely any realistic fight sequences, but composed mostly of soft
knifehand strikes. Martial arts films contain many characters who are martial artists and these roles are often played by actors who are real martial artists. If not, actors frequently train in preparation for their roles or the action director may rely more on stylized action or film making tricks like
camera angles,
editing,
doubles,
undercranking,
wire work and
computer-generated imagery.
Trampolines and springboards used to be used to increase the height of jumps. The minimalist style employs smaller sets and little space for improvised but explosive fight scenes, as seen by
Jackie Chan's films. These techniques are sometimes used by real martial artists as well, depending on the style of action in the film. During the 1970s and 1980s, the most visible presence of martial arts films was the hundreds of English-dubbed kung fu and
ninja films produced by the
Shaw Brothers,
Godfrey Ho and other Hong Kong producers. These films were widely broadcast on North American television on weekend timeslots that were often colloquially known as
Kung Fu Theater,
Black Belt Theater or variations thereof. Inclusive in this list of films are commercial classics like
The Big Boss (1971),
Drunken Master (1978) and
One Armed Boxer (1972). Those films had a large impact on the spread of practice of traditional Chinese and Japanese martial arts in English-speaking countries. Martial arts films have been produced all over the world, but the genre has been dominated by
Hong Kong action cinema, peaking from 1971 with the rise of Bruce Lee until the mid-1990s with a general decline in the industry, until it was revived close to the 2000s. Other notable figures in the genre include Jackie Chan,
Jet Li,
Sammo Hung,
Yuen Biao,
Donnie Yen, and
Hwang Jang-lee.
Sonny Chiba,
Etsuko Shihomi, and
Hiroyuki Sanada starred in numerous
karate and
jidaigeki films from Japan during the 1970s and early 1980s.
Hollywood has also participated in the genre with actors such as
Chuck Norris,
Sho Kosugi,
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Steven Seagal,
Brandon Lee (son of Bruce Lee),
Wesley Snipes,
Gary Daniels,
Mark Dacascos, and
Jason Statham. According to the
American Film Institute, the success of
Bloodsport (1988), starring Van Damme, helped the resurgence of the martial arts film genre in the United States. According to Van Damme, the film "helped give the martial arts genre a boost but also foretold certain things like the
Ultimate Fighting Championship and the idea of pitting different styles against each other." In the 2000s,
Thailand's film industry became an international force in the genre with the films of
Tony Jaa and the
cinema of Vietnam followed suit with
The Rebel (2007) and
Clash (2009). In more recent years, the
Indonesian film industry has offered
Merantau (2009) and
The Raid: Redemption (2011). The
Middle East has also participated in the genre with actors such as
Youssef Mansour who became famous in the 1990s for his Egyptian films that relied on martial arts. Women have also played key roles in the genre, including such actresses as
Cheng Pei-pei,
Michelle Yeoh,
Angela Mao,
Zhang Ziyi,
Josephine Siao,
Cynthia Rothrock, and Kuo Hsiao-Chuang. In addition, western animation has ventured into the genre with the most successful effort being the internationally hailed
DreamWorks Animation film franchise
Kung Fu Panda, starring
Jack Black and
Angelina Jolie.
The Matrix (1999), whose fight scenes were choreographed by Hong Kong fight choreographer
Yuen Woo-ping, is considered revolutionary in American cinema for raising the standard of fight scenes in Western cinema. ==Subgenres==