ABSTRACT
A type of film that revels excessively in scenes of action such as car chases, gun fights and other kinds of physical stunts, violence and bloodshed. For over fifty years in Chinese film history, the action film has never been a popular genre, partly because of an entrenched Chinese preference for theatricality and narrative plot, and partly because of a persistent emphasis on the moral function of entertainment throughout most of the twentieth century. If one really insists on a typically Chinese type of action in the early period, then martial arts or kungfu film may perhaps qualify as a sibling of the action film in the West. However, even that qualification begs the question, for in a majority of Chinese martial arts films up to the 1970s, the triumph of moral integrity is usually given priority over the mere spectacle of kungfu fights.
