Martial Arts Cinema in Civil Society of Postcolonial Hong Kong: Kung Fu Hustle and The Grandmaster

Martial arts cinema has been a vehicle for Hong Kong to communicate itself to the world. Among a plethora of martial arts hits in the new millennium, Stephen Chow's hilarious Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Kar-wai Wong's nostalgic The Grandmaster (2013) stand out for constructing warriors caught in a state of flux. From the motley crew of anonymous martial artists struggling to survive at the edge of the city, to the biographical account of Ip Man and his migration to Hong Kong, both films refashion the classic genre to address to postcolonial realities. Against realignments of geopolitical power and various crises that have ravaged Hong Kong society, the two films evoke cultural memory to cope with new challenges from within and outside the local-national-global context. By situating Kung Fu Hustle and The Grandmaster in the evolution of martial arts cinema, the paper explores the significance of building civil society in negotiation with Chinese convention and global amalgamation.