Martial Arts have always been a very important aspect of Asian culture. Startingin temples for self defense and often used for meditation purposes to find oneself. Thisart form began infusing into the film industry. Many martial arts movies focus on theaspects of mental and physical work and discipline. The teachings of martial artsdiscipline are showed in each movie that was viewed. Enter The Dragon(1973), TheKarate Kid(1984), and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon(2000), all have areas andfocuses on teaching the martial arts. Each is from different decades and shows theevolution of the Martial Arts film genre.Since the beginning of martial arts movie, there has been a large amount of evolution in the technology aspect. Even in 30 years, there has been a small change inthe way the actual martial arts technique and facet have changed. But in Enter TheDragon, there is just straight up martial arts. Bruce Lee and friends are just kicking assand taking names throughout the movie. When they jump and kick someone, it is justthem focusing their energy through their leg, down to their foot, and out into the ground, propelling them into the air and landing their other foot into the chest of their opponents.But in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon the characters are held up by wires throughoutthe entire movie. When a character jumps, the average jump looks to be at the least 3 feetin the air. The characters are able to more or less fly through forests, run across water,and jump up on and from roof to roof on houses. The uses of wires and “attractive”actors have been able to make martial arts movies more spectacular for audiences. Therehas been no development in the depth of story lines. There have been more martial artsmovies made into love stories and comedies. Before, for martial arts movies, martialartists came before actors. Now actors are being taught choreography for their movie inorder to perform the moves that need to be used in the movie. But there are still anumber of martial artists turned actors in the industry in recent years; Steven Segal,Chuck Norris, and Jean Claude Van Damme.Bruce Lee is probably the most well known martial arts actor on Earth. Althoughhis career was very short-lived, he is the face of the martial arts genre. His slim butextremely muscular body and his sound effects are doubtless the best known things abouthim. In Lee’s most famous film, Enter The Dragon (1973), he is conscripted by policeauthorities to go undercover in a martial arts competition to get the dirt on a man knownonly as Han. Han is made into more and more of a villain throughout the movie. He begins by being a friendly host of a tournament, welcoming everyone, and telling them toenjoy themselves while on his island. People then begin to go missing and the rules begin to become stricter as time passes. The movie escalates towards the end when Leefinally is able to infiltrate Han’s underground lair. At the end of the movie there is a largefight between the prisoners and the guards on the island. It seems like madness but if onewatches closely, they can see each single fight within the battle is a complicated martialarts choreography.The most famous scene from this movie is the final fight scene between Lee andHan. It takes place in a room in which the walls are all covered in mirrors. Lee, in theend, breaks all the mirrors after remembering some advice that his master once told him.This goes back to the teaching aspect that all of these movies have in common. Also inthe beginning of the movie, Lee is at a Shoaling Temple teaching martial arts, But is stilltaking lessons and instruction from his master.
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