Long Hu Wu Shi (Kung Fu Stuntmen). 2020. Directed by Wei Junzi, 92 minutes. Hong Kong and Beijing, China: Hong Kong Stuntman Association and Acme Image (Beijing) Film Cultural Co.

Abstract

Introduction Long Hu Wu Shi (Kung Fu Stuntmen) is a documentary about the stunt industry in Hong Kong-made action movies. Released in 2021 in the People’s Republic of China, it was co-produced by the Hong Kong Stuntman Association (HKSA) and Acme Image (Beijing) Film Cultural Co., Ltd.. The director, Wei Junzi (b.1978), is a film expert in mainland China with special interest inHong Kong cinema. A first-time director,Wei has published several books on Hong Kong cinema. In 2016, he read an article on the closure of the last rooftop martial arts school in Hong Kong that inspired him to express his resentment in writing. Eric Tsang Chi-wai (b. 1953), a filmmaker and former stuntman in Hong Kong, really liked his essay and introduced him to Chin Kar-lok (b. 1965), the HKSA president and later the producer of this film. Chin invited Wei to the 2017 spring festival dinner of the association, where he met many famous and unknown action film heroes and then decided to make this documentary to tell their stories (Ka 2021). Wei chose a fresh perspective—that of stunt stars rather than directors—to narrate a history of Hong Kong action film. He highly values the interviewees’ own voices and more than thirty interviewees appear in the film. In fact, the film is filled with mostly interview footage with no voice-over narration and little use of intertitles. Most of the interviewees were born in the 1950s and became active in the stunt industry between the mid-1960s and early 1990s. While the film presents a large amount of information, a few dominant themes emerge: transmedia cultural production, histories of Chinese opera and action movies in Hong Kong, masculinity, and transnationality.