Kung fu stars of the future?

[Jimbo]

In the past ('70s) there seemed a much larger base to draw young, upcoming talent for kung fu movies. A lot came from a Beijing (Peking) Opera background. Many others came from a traditional kung fu background. Yet others were not trained until they attended the Shaw Brothers acting course and basically learned martial arts and acting on the job. This was also the period of great choreographers coming into their own (Liu Chia-Liang, Yuen Woo-ping, Sammo Hung, etc.).

It seems ironic that, nowadays, with much more people having been exposed to all types of MA, including kung fu, that the up and coming stars do not seem to have the same ability to both act and perform kung fu onscreen without some special effect tricks. Jackie Chan is currently the only '70s kung fu movie star still actively appearing in films. Jet Li and Donnie Yen may be considered old-school (about 22 years and 20 years in the business, respectively). But I still feel a nostalgia for the real old-school stars, like Ti Lung, Hwang Jang Lee, Wang Lung-Wei, the late Fu Sheng, Billy Chong, Yasuaki Kurata, Gordon Liu, etc., etc. There was a spirit and creativeness (and enthusiasm) no longer present in martial arts movies today.

There is a very real fear among moviemakers of making a period kung fu movie with an emphasis on traditional (non-wushu inspired) kung fu. There are no more training sequences, where a hero must actually improve his ability. Nowadays, the hero is as good as he's gonna get from the movie's start. Filmmakers are afraid to say that kung fu plays any important part in the film, which contributes to the flatness of today's MA films compared to the older days.
Jim

[Chang Style Novice]

I agree completely. The worm has turned and the good ol' days are over, possibly never to return. There's still a cult sized audience for the 'old fashioned' stuff, though, and it's conceivable that a new generation of direct-to-video stuff produced by amatuers could revive the industry to some degree.

If I had the talent and resources, I'd love to give it a whirl.