Asian Popular Genres: Ring and Drunken Master II
This is an unpublished prompt response I wrote for a class in the fall of 2023.
While popular American genres may feel universal to their audiences, the existence and standards of genres vary greatly from country to country. J-horror and kung fu comedy, from Japan and Hong Kong respectively, are deeply influenced by historical genres that are specific to their cultures.
Ring (Hideo Nakata, 1998) and Drunken Master II (Lau Kar-leung/Jackie Chan, 1994) in particular carry cultural motifs about the nature of horror and action that are unique to the places they spawned from and previous work they build upon.
Michael Crandol, a scholar on Japanese horror films, characterizes Ring as the popularizing piece of the J-horror genre that lasted from the 1980s until the early 2000s. The film and the genre’s emphasis on “atmospheric and psychological fear over graphic gore,” which is not the norm in American horror, owes its origins to the earlier kaiki eiga genre (Crandol 298, 299).
These movies centered a strange, historic ambience and usually a vengeful female ghost. The iconography of this avenging dead woman extends back to the 17th-19th century Edo period that was generally portrayed in kaiki and then in Ring. Further, Ring adapts the Dish Mansion Edo legend and kaiki film, depicting the ghost of a woman murdered in a well who rises to torment her killer.
In addition to these classic story details, Ring builds upon the practice of creating horror through implied presence and creeping figures that took hold in the 1950s.
These aspects can be seen prominently in the most famous Ring scene, where the ghost Sadako climbs out of the well she was murdered in and through the television screen to kill protagonist Ryuji. Fear is created through the nails-on-a-chalkboard music and the lingering camera that feels helpless to the threat of the past invading the present. While there is the gore of Sadako’s mutilated fingernails, the horror does not come by Ryuji’s bloodless death. It comes by the atmosphere and the camera that manifests both killer and victim — taking its time to stalk and to freeze in fear.
This differs from the usually fast-paced and graphic nature of American horror films. It is also unique in its patience; this is the monster’s big moment, and it happens near the very end of the film. Instead of Sadako being an active threat throughout, her promised presence is what terrorizes the characters. In this way, the film is allowed to focus on its themes of the obscured past coming back where other horrors may get too entrenched in action.
Conversely, Drunken Master II revels in its action, uniquely blending it with comedy. Luke White, a scholar of martial arts cinema, credits this blend, creating the genre of kung fu comedy, to Drunken Master’s star Jackie Chan.
This ‘70s genre exists within the legacy of other Hong Kong action genres, such as wuxia, Jianghu crime, and broader kung fu films. Drunken Master takes the epic scale of wuxia, highly choreographed scenes of Jianghu, and the folk hero archetype — with Bruce Lee influences — from previous kung fu movies.
Chan’s Wong Fei-Hung character, an actual historical figure that has been depicted in other films, embodies nationalist ideals such as resisting Westernization and helping those in need, which are the central plot points of Drunken Master II. The film also embodies the cultural value of martial arts fighting, depicting it with great care and style, while infusing it with a personal brand of comedy.
Chan/Fei-Hung’s first exhibition of drunken boxing highlights the importance of epic fight choreography within these genres. Where an American fight may act more as a means to an end, the fights in Drunken Master are both the means and the end. They are the main attraction — long set pieces with diverse moves, plenty of props, and seemingly invincible fighters.
The camera and editing ensure that the action is all captured, unlike the shaky camera/editing of American movies. This clarity reinforces that the fights are what is most important. It also highlights the comedy infused into the scenes, where the jokes are not pauses from the action but rather, part of it.