Gun fu

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Gun fu is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen in Hong Kong action cinema[1] and in Western films influenced by it. It often resembles a martial arts battle played out with firearms instead of traditional weapons. It may also be described by other terms such as bullet ballet or gymnastic gunplay.[2]

The focus of gun fu is style, and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. Shooting a gun from each hand, shots from behind the back, as well as the use of guns as melee weapons are all common. Other moves can involve shotguns, Uzis, rocket launchers, and just about anything else that can be worked into a cinematic shot. It is often mixed with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers.

"Gun fu" has become a staple factor in modern action films due to its visually appealing nature (regardless of its actual practicality in a real-life combat situation). This is a contrast to American action movies of the 1980s which focused more on heavy weaponry and outright brute-force in firearm-based combat.

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[edit] Heroic bloodshed and gun fu

Director John Woo originated the style in the Hong Kong film A Better Tomorrow in 1986. The film launched the "Heroic bloodshed" genre in Hong Kong, and "gun fu" action sequences became a regular feature in many of the subsequent heroic bloodshed films. John Woo continued to make several classic heroic bloodshed films, all featuring gun fu, and all starring leading man Chow Yun Fat. Chow wielding a gun in each hand became an iconic cinema image around the world.

Anthony Leong wrote of the gunfights in A Better Tomorrow,[3]

“ Before 1986, Hong Kong cinema was firmly rooted in two genres: the martial arts film and the comedy. Gunplay was not terribly popular because audiences had considered it boring, compared to fancy kung-fu moves or graceful swordplay of the wu shu epics. What moviegoers needed was a new way to present gunplay-- to show it as a skill that could be honed, integrating the acrobatics and grace of the traditional martial arts. And that's exactly what John Woo did. Using all of the visual techniques available to him (tracking shots, dolly-ins, slo-mo), Woo created beautifully surrealistic action sequences that were a 'guilty pleasure' to watch. There is also intimacy found in the gunplay-- typically, his protagonists and antagonists will have a profound understanding of one another and will meet face-to-face, in a tense Mexican standoff where they each point their weapons at one another and trade words. ”

Stephen Hunter, writing in The Washington Post wrote,[4]

“ Woo saw gunfights in musical terms: His primary conceit was the shootout as dance number, with great attention paid to choreography, the movement of both actors within the frame. He loved to send his shooters flying through the air in surprising ways, far more poetically than in any real-life scenario. He frequently diverted to slow motion and he specialized in shooting not merely to kill, but to riddle -- his shooters often blast their opponents five and six times. ”

Other Hong Kong directors also began using gun fu sequences in films that were not strictly heroic bloodshed films, such as Wong Jing's God of Gamblers (1989). And there were several heroic bloodshed films that did not feature gun fu, but opted for more realistic combat, such as Ringo Lam's City on Fire (1987).

[edit] Spread to the West

The popularity of John Woo's films, and the heroic bloodshed genre in general, in the West helped give the gun fu style greater visibility. Film-makers like Robert Rodriguez were inspired to create action sequences modelled on the Hong Kong style. One of the first to demonstrate this was Desperado (1995). The Matrix, especially the infamous "lobby scene" played a part in making "gun fu" the most popular form of firearm-based combat in cinema worldwide. Since then, the style has become a staple of modern Western action films.

For example, a classic gun fu move consists of reloading two pistols simultaneously by releasing the empty magazines, pointing the guns to the ground, dropping two fresh magazines out of one's jacket sleeves, or strapped to one's legs, into the guns, and then carrying on shooting. In the film Bulletproof Monk, Chow Yun Fat empties two pistols, ejects the magazines and spins to kick the empty magazines at his assailants. In The Rundown, the character played by Dwayne Johnson fires two shotguns, flips both to be up-side down and pointing backwards, and snaps them between his arms and torso to reload them in an instant. The style is also featured (albeit in a small way and with the assistance of gadgets) in the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movies starring Angelina Jolie. In the 2008 film Wanted, a practice amongst members of the Fraternity, possibly descended from gun fu is making a bullet's trajectory "bend" around an obstacle on its way towards the intended target. In a gunfight early in the movie, one assassin knocks another bullet out of the air with his own round. In the 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Agent Zero reloads his handguns by throwing them into the air and catching them with the magazines he's holding in his hands.

[edit] Gun Kata

Gun Kata is part of a fictional firearm-based martial art invented by Kurt Wimmer and developed by fight choreographer Jim Vickers for the 2002 movie Equilibrium. It involves the rapid use of firearms (generally pistols) against opponents with emphasis on memorized probabilities, resulting in an athletic and visually engaging form of combat.

Vice councillor DuPont (Angus Macfadyen) in Equilibrium describes the concept thus:

Four examples of Gun Kata techniques

Through analysis of thousands of recorded gunfights, the Cleric has determined that the geometric distribution of antagonists in any gun battle is a statistically-predictable element. The Gun Kata treats the gun as a total weapon, each fluid position representing a maximum kill zone, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum number of opponents, while keeping the defender clear of the statistically-traditional trajectories of return fire. By the rote mastery of this art, your firing efficiency will rise by no less than 120%. The difference of a 63% increased lethal proficiency makes the master of the Gun Katas an adversary not to be taken lightly.

Gun Kata, place emphasis on two tenets: shooting the enemy as efficiently as possible, and avoiding return fire. Hitting targets is a matter of knowing where enemy fighters are likely to be located in relation to the user, which removes the problem of aiming (especially at close ranges) and allows the user to defeat foes with pre-emptive fire before they can present a true threat. Avoiding return fire is also a matter of statistical probability avoiding the enemy's most likely lines of fire. In short, Gun Kata is the art of shooting where the enemy is most likely to be, while not being where the enemy is most likely to shoot. It is effective enough that the protagonist of Equilibrium, Grammaton Cleric First Class John Preston (Christian Bale) is able to defeat more than 30 enemies in under a minute. However, this is noted to be an exceptional display of Gun Kata, and even Preston himself was uncertain of his ability to do so prior to the fight.

Another, less commonly seen technique of the Gun Kata involves dueling with a single opponent at a very close range. This often includes mêlée combat with both opponents trying to point a gun at the other and pull the trigger, while at the same time, preventing the enemy from doing the same thing. This technique is only used if both adversaries are skilled in it. The style is very reminiscent of Wing Chun’s Chi Sau training, where the combatant “feels and dissipates” his opponent, rather than seeing and then reacting. The most striking difference of such duels to the rest of hand-to-hand martial arts is that an enemy shot cannot be blocked or parried as in unarmed combat and fencing and can thus be only avoided by constantly knocking off the enemy's aim and leaving him or her no time to shoot in your direction. This technique is shown in the last scene of Equilibrium, In which the protagonist and antagonist perform a final duel solely using this variation.

Yet another technique involves using a pistol as a normal mêlée weapon, particularly using spiked projections on the pistol butt, to hit the close range opponents without wasting ammunition. Since the technique is frequently used against multiple enemies equipped with firearms, the basic rules of avoiding their most likely shooting trajectories also apply, as well as hitting each enemy in a way to prevent them from shooting at all.

Equilibrium also shows techniques for rapid reloading: gun fu-style reloading of two pistols simultaneously using spare magazines that drop from sleeve holsters, and throwing special magazines (weighted to stand upright) to an anticipated location for immediate use when the combatant reaches there.

The art of which the Gun kata are a part is a cinematic martial art constructed to create visually appealing gunfights and not to reflect reality. Gun battles in the real world revolve around cover, concealment, and lines of fire, which are dictated by terrain and environment conditions, as opposed to statistically predictable positions and lines of fire that can be exploited by rote memorization, as depicted in Equilibrium.[5][6]

[edit] Videogames

Main article: Dual wield

"Gun fu" moves appear in the video game Max Payne, along with dual-wielding various weapons, including Berettas, and machine pistols such as Uzis, and the Ingram MAC-10. As well as in the Shadow Hearts series were the character Natan's special skill is labeled "Gun Fu" and is designed to resemble the martial art.

Also Dante, from the Devil May Cry series features the "gun fu" with a variety of weapons, being dual pistol wielding his main firearms.

In 2007, Stranglehold, a game sequel to John Woo's cult film 'Hard Boiled' was released, which featured the protagonist 'Police Inspector Tequila' on another blood driven conquest. With 'slo-mo' action sequences precision sniping in areas such as the crotch and face and persistent use of two hand guns and Uzis; this game is the latest in the Gun Fu world.

[edit] Other media

Gun Fu is also the name of a series of comic books by Howard M. Shum and Joey Mason about a Hong Kong police officer in the 1930s who employs a combination of gun-play and martial arts.[7]. In the Iron Fist comic books, the character Orson Randall uses his Iron Fist power with his two fire-arms, which a colleague jokingly refers to as "Gun-Fu".

In the Buffyverse role-playing games, gun fu is the name for the firearms skill, but this is more likely meant to be humorous rather than to imply characters practice an actual firearm-based martial art.

In the Ninjas and Superspies supplement Mystic China Gun Fu is referred to as the Triad Assassin Training and is a martial arts skill that can be available to player characters. It primarily emphasizes the use of paired 9mm pistols.

[edit] List of Gun fu films

[edit] Anime

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lisa Morton (2001). The Cinema of Tsui Hark. McFarland. p. 203. ISBN 0786409908. http://books.google.com/books?id=Hv3yJ6MaoYsC. 
  2. ^ Sean Axmaker (Friday, December 6, 2002), Just saying no to drugs in the fascist future, Seattle Post Intelligencer, http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/98610_equilibrium06q.shtml 
  3. ^ Leong, Anthony (1998). "The Films of John Woo and the Art of Heroic Bloodshed". Archived from the original on November 30, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20071130095951/http://members.aol.com/aleong1631/johnwoo.html. Retrieved on February 19, 2009. 
  4. ^ Hunter, Stephen (April 20, 2007). "Cinematic Clues To Understand The Slaughter". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/19/AR2007041901817.html?hpid=sec-artsliving. Retrieved on February 19, 2009. 
  5. ^ United States Department of the Army. "FM 3-22.9 RIFLE MARKSMANSHIP M16A1, M16A2/3, M16A4 and M4 CARBINE". http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/3-22-9/index.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-20. 
  6. ^ THE SOVIET ARMY: Troops, Organization and Tactics: Field Manual No. 100-2-3. United States Department of the Army. 1984. 
  7. ^ Comic book series

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_fu"
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