If anyone cares to elaborate on their answer, please do so.

I have chosen " I like them but..".
Almost all martial arts movies use wires.
Great martial arts movies were made owing to wires, but I don't mind it provided that it's not too unrealistic. For instance, "Hidden Dragon, Crouching Tiger" is not a martial art movie in my opinion because the use of wires makes it too unrealistic.It should rather be classified as a 'fantasy' movie.It's not my kind of movie anyway.

If wires were used only to 'improve' the fights then it's fine for me.Very few can do what Tony does in Ong Bak.So, wires are there to allow actors to be able to do what Jackie Chan or Jet Li were able to do in their best movies.
What should be added about martial arts movies is :"use or no use of wires".Each time I watch a movie , I'd like to know if it's a real martail art movie without wires or if that movie has mislead the audience by using them.

Plenty of people are as skilled, if not more skilled, than Tony Jaa. He just happens to have a new element to add to MA Cinema: Muay Thai (not the ballerina crap Van Damme was doing in Bloodsport, either), and a lot of screen presence to go along with it.

I hate it!!!

hi TartanPajamas welcome to the forum! hope you enjoy your stay!

Thank you, Thawan.

I only like the use of wires if it's for a stunt, not a martial arts move. Like in the old HK movies where they kick a guy and he flies back and crashes to a wall or something. Now that's cool. But when they take Zhang Ziyi and try to lift her up in the air so she has enough time to do the kick and land, it's pathetic. It looks sloppy and i hate it when people start respecting them thinking they're the real deal.

Depends on the genre of the movie. I am able to accept things like a guy jumping 50 ft in the air or a guy hitting someone and sending him flying to China if the story calls for it. ie, Superhero, Science Fiction and Fantasy.

I am not a huge fan of wire-fu but the only exception is The Matrix, only because it needed it because it is in a computer realm where they can't "bend" the rules.

One of my favorite fighting movies is "Gorgeous" starring JC(Jackie Chan), his last fight scene against Allan is very fast paced and expertly choreographed, to me the best JC fight scene.

Ong-Bak to me was an amazing display of skill since there was no wires used, but the true stars of the film were the stunt men, they had to go through a lot of stuff for the film. If you have ever seen "Born to fight", one stuntman almost got his head crushed by a semi during a stunt that almost went horribly wrong. His head landed about 6-10" from the tire.

But in the older HK flicks wire-fu was widely accepted since everyone was doing it. Two of my favorite flicks were "Return of the Master Killer" and "Fists of the White Lotus" both starring Gordon Liu.

Sorry I am just babbling now.

hi XianXi, welcome to the forum! hope you enjoy your stay!

I like wire-fu when you don't know that you're watching one. The very first "Once Upon a Time in China" was well-done. Yuen Woo Ping did an excellent job choreographing the fight scenes. The fight with the wooden ladders is very memorable (It was badly copied in the forgettable remake of The Musketeer). This series illustrated the life and martial prowess of real life and legend Wong Fei Hung during the Boxer Rebellion. Obviously wire-fu was used to elaborate on his extraordinary skills. Simply using traditional Wushu and Hung Gar would have been considered less acrobatic and not as entertaining.

Jackie Chan added wires to his movies to add extra Ummph! to his kicks and falls. "Drunken Master 2" ( or "The Legend of Drunken Master" as it was released in the U.S.) would not be quite the same. The scene where he posed in the classical drunken stance at an impossible 30+ degree angle comes to mind) And for a long time, I wasn't aware that he had used wires for some of the more difficult scenes. So in my opinion, Jackie used just it cleverly and miminally.

Obviously, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "House of Flying Daggers" make no apologies with its wire work, since this is a heroic Wu Xia movie which depict a whole different level and type of martial arts skills, often associated with flying or air feats, and lost hand-me-down arts. I have no problems with Wu Xia movies using wire-fu.

Various Shaw Brothers movies, including those featuring the inimitable Gordon Liu use wire-fu. "Fists of the White Lotus" and "The 36th Chambers of Shaolin" (aka "Shaolin Master Killer") are classic mixes of traditional and wire works. Other well-known movies that I've seen include "The Prodigal Boxer" and "The Flying Guillotine" series. I enjoy watching wire-fu with this series of classic movies. They have become identifiable with this movie era.

It's the sleuth of new movies, many of those from Hollywood and the UK, in recent years that have tained the credits of wire works of aging masters like Yuen Woo Ping. All of a sudden, everyone (see Keanu Reeves in the Matrix series, and the Charlie Angels series), just about every comic book superheroes (see XMen, Daredevil, Elektra) and animated CGI characters (see Shrek) and their pets (can't recall movie example), can now do amazing Kung Fu feats, thanks to wire-fu and digital effects. It's these poorly used excuses to use wire works that have made me tired of the mediocre wire-fu movies.

I agree, I don't mind the use of wires, as long it suits within the context of the movie. I also don't mind if its use for safety reasons such as creating the effect of powerful backfire bodyblow shots, as long it looks convincing. I seen some movies with poor wire work.

Wires r dominating too much. ALot of ppl I know rekon Ong Bak is full of wires and cg becos they dont know any better. They just go oh Keanu Reeves is such a good fighter, bloody hell.

I just wanna say that I hated the wire work in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, also in Hero. But I loved House of Flying Daggers.

i like wire movies when you dont know their not using them. although, movies like the matrix where wires are used is great. however, movies like ong bak where no wires are used are wonderful as they showcase the natural ability of the actor.

I love it, depending on whether it suits the movie. In say 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', or 'House of Flying Daggers' I think it works beautifully. In films like those with a fantasy element it helps to propell you into the belief that they really can make their bodies weightless through kung-fu.

However, in say 'Unleashed', it just ruined it for me. Unleashed is set in a real environment, and when someone gets hit and they go flying horizontally through the air, it detracts from the realism. To me they just used it for the sake of using it in that film.

I just don't like it when they don't explain why people are flying through the air. In movies like Arahan it was fine and looked really good because they've explained that it's chi force. But trying to imply that people can jump three stories because they do kung fu is just stupid, and that's what I hated about Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (aside from the boring, laggy storyline).

I can say that majority of Tony Jaa fans will not be keen on wires.

Any joe with or without skills can use this trick to fly or jump high, the sad thing is, wires can easily give away the jump sequence.The jump animation is more beautiful to be captured with one own strength rather than the effect of swinging.

Imagine Bruce Lee using wires, i think he will be fast forgotten.People like Bruce Lee and Tony Jaa show the world the beauty of stunts without wires but skills and strength, Bravo to them!

I hate such films.... I hope Tony Jaa never makes such films! You are then so unrealistic and think not so much ernsthaftest including! and what is true then "performance" and what "Gedrahtet"? Further in the text of these martial stars like Tony Jaa which have with "Wire ropes" absolutely not necessary! But I think it good that it was made this survey!

I believe that for any work of art, whether movies, theater and television, has gone through production of poor quality until you reach the hands of a good producer, director> Prachya and develop a good work.

Tony told us about the beginning of his career in an interview on Thai television. This interview is a topic here. I do not know which.


Full life and peace!

Are you movies against "Wire"? And what Tony Jaa said in an interview?