You know they exist, you've either seen or heard about them for several years but you haven't given it a second thought, they've been there for quite a while now, but now they're giving Hollywood the kiss of death. Asian cinema is about to catch the total attention of the mainstream audience. 

Hardcore movie-fanatics will say that they saw this coming a mile away; they've been buying import videos of action from Japan and China since the early 80s and have always known what there is to offer from that market. The movement started mainly in the 70s and blew out of proportions in the 80s thanks the introduction of the VCR.

The Dragon and his legacy

Martial arts has traditionally been the main focus in "Hong-Kong-movies", if it's a love story, thriller or even a horror, they would spit in a healthy amount of breath taking fights. Although we can't pinpoint the exact year when the love for Hong-Kong began, we can however mention a certain Mr. Lee who dropkicked himself into the business, taking the rest China with him. The Big Boss and Fists of Fury established the legendary Bruce Lee as a force to reckon with. The fascination went from his persona to his form of art; martial arts had found the very best poster child. There was something special about him; he was almost like a asian James Dean, a rebel without a cause or a Dragon. Movie audiences couldn't get enough of him, neither could Hollywood, stars were lining up to have even a small part in his movies. This was topped off with the appearance of Kareem Abdul Jabbar in The Way of the Dragon.

Hollywood did try to fight back with some productions of its own, but little or nothing during the 70s that would even get close to the movies that were being made overseas. The oriental influence was found everywhere; even Blaxplotation flicks took advantage of it in movies like Black belt Jones which coincidentally starred Jim Kelly who worked alongside Bruce Lee in Enter The Dragon. Sadly Bruce Lee would never live to see the true value of his work, but his legacy and spirit would pass through a whole generation, lighting the spark that was missing from Asian movies.

Before we go on, it's important to note that a lot of great movies were made in China and Japan before Bruce Lee came on the market so to say. Fantastic movies like Shichinin no samurai and One-Armed Swordsman were made as early as in the 60s, while Ogami Itto had drawn his bloodsword in the early 70s. The only problem was that these movies were mostly viewed by its national audience, elsewhere in the world they would fall into a "special interest" category. So Bruce Lee didn't create the martial arts genre, nor did he introduce any new aspects into the existing movie culture, but I did shine the light so that the rest of the world could open their eyes for it.

Taking it to the next level

During the mid 80s, the interest for martial arts movies had taken a stronghold on the viewers. New forms of the art were being introduced, some real some bogus, ninjas were big at the time, and the industry was on the lookout for the next big karate-action-star. At the height of the VHS-revolution, we saw a burst of B-movies with highflying kicks and punches; Shô Kosugi and Michael Dudikoff held a high profile in ninjaflicks, while a trio from an Opera Academy were making a name for themselves in kung-fu movies.

The Karate Kid did, to the frustration of many martial arts fans, start a new fad for the genre and for Asian movies in general. The action in the movie wasn't even close to its origins, but it clicked with the audience because it came at a time when Teen-movies were in an upstream. A lot of movies followed up in its wave, No retreat, No surrender was a fairly good production that gave us a taste of Van Dammes talent. Hollywood did however never see the full potential of the influence from China and Japan; producers took a piece of the pie, but didn't explore the possibilities. The entrance of the sleek and stylish Van Damme in the late 80s left little room for new contenders in the American-asian movies, when Steven Seagal came along the genre was full and didn't want or need more actionstars.

Luckily a lot of die hard fans took it upon themselves to backtrack into the Asian movie market, hidden gems were to be found for everyone who needed something special and not "made in Hollywood". Some would argue that Jackie Chan made some of his best work during the late 70s into the mid 80s, that's a discussion that we won't look at right now, but it's worth mentioning titles like Snake in the Eagles Shadow and of course The Drunken Master. Both these movies are masterpieces in their own right, and although Jackie Chan became the symbol for Hong-Kong films, a lot of other great productions were made with a more unknown cast that were in fact better than their commercialised counterparts. Check out 36th Chamber of Shaolin and you will understand.

This is probably where the problem started; upfront Asian movies were identified as only being martial arts and Jackie Chan. Most people had in other hands only touched the hard surface, but some discovered Manga/Animé and could celebrate the birth of Akira, while others drew away from the whole action theme and looked into other pieces of the puzzle.

While all this was happening, Hollywood was still in status quo with more of a "Nothing to see here, please move along" mentality. There was no apparent threat from the east; they did their thing and western cinema did its own. The only problem was that directors in the east were in the interest of revitalizing movies that had a stronger tie to the traditional action, comedy or horror genre. At the same time Hollywood was only taking small shots of the Asian influence, licking on an occasional title when someone had the time.

Dim-mak

Jackie Chan tried in 1980 to launch himself into the western market with The Big Brawl, this was sadly a poor attempt where he ended up falling nose first. On his next try he used Supercop in 1996, which was nothing more than a dubbed version of one of his Police story from 1993, it was a fairly good success which gave him the opportunity to work himself up the ranks in Hollywood. It didn't take long before Rush Hour was made and we could finally buy Jackie-Chan-Kung-Fu-Lunchboxes, can I get a "Woo woo woo!"

The silent movement became more upfront after movies like Hard Boiled, Once a Thief and The story of Ricky, R-rated action flicks from the continent gave us something different and raw, the plots and the directing stunned the viewers. The first two titles mentioned above, were directed by John Woo and were modern day crime movies that not necessarily needed a happy ending. The Story of Ricky was and still is, to say the least, a strange little movie. Let's just leave it at that.

There is sure enough another fascinating and liberating fact about these Asian flicks, women are usually on the same balance beam as men, meaning that there are a lot of female actionstars in Hong-Kong. We're not talking about women who star in action movies where their character becomes a crazy killers after being raped or having to undergo a tragic event, no, "over there" they have women in regular roles like cops, average-Jane, or pureblood "bad guys". We've seen Cynthia Khan, Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh kick ass since the mid 80s; a good reference is the "In the line of duty"-series, which always had a female cop as the main character.

Nowadays the influence is here to stay, John Woo has taken his experience from his home country and converted it into blockbuster Hollywood movies like Mission Impossible, and Quentin Tarentino gave us the death touch with Kill Bill. We're now seeing what we saw in the 80s, a new generation of viewers who are backtracking into the Asian market in the lookout for movie gems, like my neighbour who wanted to introduce me to Shogun Assassin a couple of months ago…

The success of these movies has surely opened the eyes of producers in The States and elsewhere in the western movie community. Hong-Kong has shifted into overdrive in making surreal movies in every category and genre, and we're again seeing a general interest for Asian movies and remakes. The same fans that were banging their heads into walls at the release Karate Kid are now experiencing the same frustration as mediocre remakes of horror classics are taking over the market. Many would also say that there's something wrong with Sarah Michelle Gellar starring in The Grudge which is a remake of Ju-on from 2003, but that's just the way of commercialisation.

Despite the success of The Ring and The Grudge, Hollywood has luckily not tried to remake epic movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero, instead we're seeing a massive launch of Asian movies on the American market. The newest member of the family is Kung-fu Hustle.

It's only healthy that directors are embracing other movie cultures; we should only hope that "Hong-Kong" doesn't stray away from the track in the process. I would personally like to see Hollywood interpretations of either Ichi the killer or The Returner.