Helen Shen
Professor Elizabeth Parke
EAS 394H1
Film Analysis #1
21 May 2014
Guns and Fists: The Depiction of Chinese Struggles Against Foreign Aggression and Injustice Director Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China was pivotal to the recognition of martial arts and Wuxia films as a medium that was highly capable of conveying an emotionally moving, artistic and politically relevant story. The climactic and tragic fight scene between Huang Feihong and the Westerners at the opera house, resulting in the deaths of countless innocent Chinese, not only infuriates Huang Feihong, but emotionally moves viewers as well. It illustrates the jarring contrast of the high calibre fighting skills of the Chinese and the ruthless use of guns by the Westerners and portrays the hopelessness of the Chinese people to symbolic Western guns. Through low angle shots, close-up shots, pace, sounds and other cinematic features to mark the importance of the powerful and well planned fight sequences, Tsui Hark shows the complex struggles of the Chinese people against growing foreigner influence and presence in their home and shows the contrast and conflict between the Chinese and the foreigners through the stark contrast of Chinese and Western combat styles. A key element to showing the importance of this scene was the use of low camera angles, especially on Huang Feihong and the Chinese audience being killed. The low camera angles on Huang Feihong highlighted his superiority and importance in fighting and defending his country, not only from foreigners, but also from negative and violent influences among the Chinese. The low camera angles on the innocent opera audience made their deaths more dramatic and emphasized. The angle mimicked the point of view of a fallen dead person on the ground, watching the chaos at the opera, especially in the full shot where the father holds his dead son. This makes the sequence more heart-wrenching and emotional to viewers as Western soldiers indiscriminately shoot at the audience and effectively portrays how powerless the Chinese were against lethal modern Western technologies such as guns. The threat of guns to Chinese martial arts is a metaphor to the larger problem of aggressive Western influence in China. Another type of shot that emphasizes the emotional pain of the Chinese people is the use of close-up shots. To contrast the close-ups of Huang Feihong's strikes when he lands a hit, which highlight the power of Chinese martial arts, Tsui Hark also uses the same technique when Western guns hit their target. However, the result is very different. In the close-ups of Huang Feihong's highly skilled hits, there is no visible damage, perhaps only dust or air shifted in the close-up as a result of the power and force. Most viewers would assume the victims are not dead. In contrast, the force of Western guns is shown in the close-ups of bullet wounds, blood splatters and the gun barrels themselves, making the use of Western guns appear much more ruthless and deadly. This also shows the contrast between traditional Chinese martial arts fighting and Western influence of guns in China and the tragic result on innocent citizens. Close-up shots also show the intense emotions during the fight sequence through characters' facial expressions. Viewers see the panic and pain of the people shot at. When Auntie 13 sees the bloodshed, the close-up on her facial reaction completely expresses the confusion, shock, pain and hopelessness of the situation, catching many of the emotions viewers may feel. This also reflects the emotions of the people at the time when it came to modern Western influence and traditional Chinese values, especially through the character of Auntie 13, who, after a couple of years of education in England, is more willing to except the modern Western ways. The close-up of Huang Feihong's reaction to the ruthless gunning down of his people reflect another range of expressions of the people at the time: rising anger and an desire for vengeance. These close-ups are also slight freeze frames, where almost all movement on screen stops, just to focus on the expressions. In contrast, the mid-shot of the Western soldiers standing at a attention in a linear style, shows the unmoving and emotionless state of the killers, providing a sharp contrast to the broad emotions portrayed by the Chinese characters. The emotions show the complexity of the situation, especially to the Chinese who faced foreign aggression, brought out especially through a tragic fight sequence. The pace and sounds of the fight sequence are also significant to the presentation of contrasting Western and Chinese fighting and conflict as it draws attention to important elements in the sequence. The slow motion effect and exaggerated sound effects of the hits in the fight add an epic and dramatic feel to Chinese martial arts fighting and to the deaths of the opera audience. One notable slow motion shot was where Huang Feihong kicks the gun out of the American leader's hand and catches it himself, marking the importance of the reversal of gun power. Another notable use of speed is when the camera zooms in to the close-up low shot of Huang Feihong's facial expression as mentioned before which kinesthetically mirrors his rising temper and allows audiences to also follow the motion. Sound is also important to marking reality. As Huang Feihong executes flawless and superhuman like martial arts abilities, traditional Chinese fighting music is played non-diagetically. Dramatic music is played in the full wide shot as Westerners prepare to fire into the Chinese opera house audience. However, the film returns to the diagetic sounds of only the cries of panicked people and gunshots. Whenever guns fire in the film, there is no music or non-diagetic sounds and viewers are transported back to the reality of the film. This provides a contrast to the ruthless and unfeeling roar of guns that instantaneously shatters the romantic-heroism of martial arts combat. It is in this emotional and conflicted fight sequence directed by Tsui Hark that Huang Feihong must fight not only to save his people, but also to find balance between the idealistic and heroic Chinese warrior in an increasingly dangerous and Westernized world. Although he is portrayed as a real life superhero, his struggles are very real and were faced by all of China with the foreign invasion and colonization of China in the late 19th century. Through it's fight scenes, Once Upon a Time in China portrays the complex struggles of the Chinese at this time with emotional depth, highly skilled martial arts and appropriate cinematic features.