Wushu

Ever wonder that for one success story like Jet Li, how many potential martial art stars in China end up leading not-so-glamorous lives as instructors, cops, bodyguards, stuntman, movie action designers and, in some unfortunate cases, using their skills for criminal activities? This maybe a good reason for watching Wushu. One way of looking at this movie is as a semi-documentary. Wushu, or martial arts, is more an art than anything else, explains widowed martial art school teacher Lee (Sammo Hung, the only professional movie actor in the entire cast). But it is a lot more than just an art. It is a competitive sport just like in the Olympics, with most of what we see in the format of gymnastic floor exercise, plus a free-combat event that could be similar to boxing, judo, wrestling or taekwondo. Indeed, there has long been talk that Chinese martial arts would become Olympic events, but the main obstacle is the lacking of a universally accepted scoring system. But I digress. Another angle is a coming-of-age story of five buddies (4 guys and a girl) whom we see initially as kids and then ten years later as young men and women competing to represent their school in the provincial competition, in various events. The plot line is familiar, what you would have seen in movie about different fields of endeavour – music, dance, sports. There is also family sentiment as two of the five are Lee's own sons, and light romance in two generations – adolescents inevitably, as well as what remains of a triangle after Lee's wife had died. But everything is refreshingly down-to-earth. The cast, except for Hung, comprises real-life martial students, and it is quite obvious that they are champions in their own field. As mentioned, except for the free-combat event, all other competitions we see are one-person demonstrations very much along the line of floor exercises in gymnastics. Exhilarating as they are to watch, they may not satisfy hard-core kungfu movie fans looking for the kind of action they expect. For this, there is a subplot involving a child-kidnapper gang (one of whom is an old, expelled student, and skill-wise the best of them all, I'm sure you would not have guessed!). This is not your usual kungfu action movie. Ironically, its lack of sophistication may well be a reason that makes it more enjoyable than otherwise.