Comedy and Kung-Fu: The Impact of Jackie Chan and Stephen Chow

The Hong Kong Film industry has been one of the biggest non Hollywood industries around for more than half a century. After the Chinese takeover in the 90s it saw a sharp decrease in output and productivity as many of the executives headed overseas, but the results are still perfectly Hong Kong in nature, and they make for some of the funniest, most entertaining films around.

The reason for the Hong Kong film's intensely unique nature is the manner in which it is born. The kung fu genre is so engrained into the pathos of filmmaking here that it's bound to show up in almost every film made. The beginnings of the industry were with the Shaw Brothers and their Kung Fu epics, followed by the globalization of the market by Bruce Lee and the money that soon followed.

But comedy is more than equally as profitable, especially in light of comedic martial artists like Jackie Chan managing to utilize both to reach a vast worldwide audience. That said, there is a long running tradition of comedic martial arts films in Hong Kong like none other in the world. The ability to mix amazing, climactic fight scenes with slapstick comedy is almost impossible save on the Hong Kong film set.

There have been many masters over the years, first and foremost Jackie Chan. With the release of Drunken Master in the 1970s, he began his career as amazing martial artist/comedic front man. His style starkly contrasted that of the previous big name in Hong Kong action, Bruce Lee, a conscious decision he's said to not try and be the "next" Bruce Lee. The result was two decades of films in Hong Kong that made him a worldwide star.

Even serious outings like Police Story and Operation Condor, were always undernoted by the trademark Jackie Chan wit in the choreography. The working man only trying to survive the ridiculous situation he's been thrust into. That working man just so happened to be an amazing martial artist with the survival instinct of a cockroach.