Chang cheh biography for kids pdf
Chang came to prominence in the mids with a series of wuxia pian period swordplay movies, including Heroic Three , One-Armed Swordsman and Return of the One-Armed Swordsman , where he put the male hero to the forefront in bloody fight scenes, and the focus on loyalty, honor, and camaraderie. The director brought the wuxia genre up to date by adding violence and gore, and by shooting and editing the action sequences with more modern techniques.
He also changed the gender balance of Hong Kong films, which in the s and s had favoured female heroes, with the male characters often weak. Chang brought macho heroes to the fore, and made them rebellious and angry to suit the tenor of the times. When the wuxia genre faded in the s, Chang started making kung fu films, and saw similar success there.
Chang was an unparalleled master of the martial arts film in all its forms. Chang found ways to please the crowds that also happened to afford him the opportunity to experiment with the themes and structures that meant the most to him as an artist. At the vanguard of it was director Chang Cheh.
Chang cheh biography for kids pdf: A native of Qingtian, Zhejiang Province
And more than anything, his films were always a visceral experience. Chang's cinema was primarily a world without women; a masculine brotherhood where honour and loyalty ruled supreme - but a realm where the hero didn't always win or survive. Not surprisingly, he was heavily influenced by the works of maverick directors Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah… Chang instilled a violent sensuality in his movies; young muscular bodies always glistened with sweat and training routines gave them an Adonis-like appeal.
The flipside was that such bodies were regularly beaten, stabbed and disemboweled in graphic combat sequences.