Martial arts films have a long and rich history, beginning primarily in Hong Kong and the studios of Golden Harvest and Shaw Brothers.
Early masters such as Bruce Lee and Gordon Liu honed their craft and set the template for modern martial arts films today. Roger Garcia, executive director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival, was in Dublin to promote DIFFPIX's Hong Kong Kicks at Lighthouse Cinema, a series of screenings of martial arts films from the '80s. Curated by Roger himself, the films included Bruce Lee's Way of the Dragon, Once Upon A Time In China II, The Young Master and the action-comedy Spooky Encounters.
Roger's also served as a consultant on Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill and is a respected author, producer and director in the area of martial arts films. During our discussion, we talked to him about the history of martial arts films, Bruce Lee's short-lived career and what it might have looked like if he lived on, the difference between wire-work martial arts and the future of Hong Kong's film industry in comparison to China's growing film industry.
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