Border-Crossing Actions Films

The spaghetti Western boom continued. On Nov. 12 of the same year, Django directed by Sergio Corbucci was released as a sequel to A Fistful of Dollars and attracted 170,000 viewers. Following this movie, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, Blood for a Silver Dollar, The Return of Ringo, Minnesota Clay, and many other spaghetti Westerns were released in 1967. Words such as ‘wilderness, duel, and outlaw’ were added to Korean titles of these films.

In Female Bandits (1968), the 2nd installment of the Mounted Bandits series made by Shin Sang-ok and Run Run Shaw of Hong Kong, Hong Kong actress Li Li-hua holds a pistol. The bandits led by her join forces with the Korean Independence Army to attack the Japanese army throughout northern Manchuria. The Oriental Western was a genre that could appeal ‘internationally’ at the time to the extent that it became a major material for Korea-Hong Kong co-production.

Another trace left by the boom of martial arts films in Korea during this period is the symbol of a ‘one-armed man.’ Chang Cheh's One-Armed Swordsman was an object of enthusiasm that shined exclusively amidst the boom of martial arts films. Chang’s one-armed man played a role in incorporating a hero with physical defects into Korean action movies. Soon after, many Korean-styled one-armed men appeared in and out of the martial arts genre.

Another popular hero in the 1960s was Zatoichi, a blind swordsman. Japanese film, Zatoichi was the most popular series not only in Japan but also in the 'free world' throughout Asia. This series had a huge influence on martial arts in Hong Kong, represented by One-Armed Swordsman. The two heroes, a one-armed man and a blind man, dominated Asian film market at the time. That is why the meeting between the two was something close to ‘the inevitable.’

In 1971, the Hong Kong version of Zatoichi and the One-Armed Swordsman was released in Korea under the title of One-Armed Swordsman and Blind Swordsman. Perhaps thanks to the popularity of Jimmy Wang Yu, who became the first Hong Kong movie ‘star’ in Korea with One-Armed Man, this film was a box-office hit, attracting 180,000 viewers in Seoul alone.

Seize the Precious Sword is a representative example of the successful adaptation of a global trend. By choosing the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, an international war that shook East Asia, as the background, the film introduces the heroes of the three kingdoms. But the blind swordsman in this film is not Zatoichi himself. It is a Korean 'adaptation.' A one-armed man is also 'adapted' rather than duplicated from One-Armed Swordsman.

Twin Dragon Sword, which is a film adaptation of "Jeonghyeopji", which is said to be Korea's first martial arts novel, shows how the Korean cinema appealed to the international market through martial arts. Amid the martial arts boom, Korea's Jeil Film Company joined hands with Hong Kong's Jade Alliance Film Company to produce this film based on the martial arts novel, "Jeonghyeopji."

Fist of Fury, which was released in Korea after Bruce Lee's death, attracted attention to be called an 'irrational exuberance.' As this film can be said to be an anti-Japanese text, the enemy in this film incurred the anger of Korean audiences. While the close relationship between Korea and Hong Kong has been established since the martial arts movie boom in the late 1960s, the Korean audiences have received this film as if almost half of it was a Korean one.

Lee Doo-yong hired Charlie Shell to make six Taekwondo films in 1974 alone. In the same year, the Motion Picture Promotion Corporation(current KOFIC) established a strategy to ‘encourage Taekwondo films’ in overseas markets. Another star was Bobby Kim from US. According to the press at the time, “a U.S. film company tried to present him as Bruce Lee’s successor. But he returned to Korea as he wished to star in Taekwondo films made in Korea.”

From Spaghetti Westerns to martial arts films and Kung-fu films, these genre films, which were born as a response to international trends, were loved domestically as well as trying to gain international appeal. And at this point, the questions these films posed still seem valid; ‘What is transnationality in film?’; or ‘What is commonality across borders?’ In other words, these films question the ‘Asian commonality’ contained in these films.