Dale: The guy got into a little, you know, stance. And I'd just seen that movie,
Crouching Tiger or whatever, and I thought...
Judge Frasier: You thought he could fly?
Chop Sockey, assisted by the fact that the actor is tethered to the ceiling.
A (comparatively) easy way to make a fight scene more impressive is to use fine wires to support the actor during acrobatics that would not be possible for a normal human: long lateral jumps, jumping "off the air", being thrown back by an explosion, or even hanging suspended. Wires can also be used to slow down an actor's movement without the undesirable side effects of
Overcranking.
Wire Fu is an important device of the entire
Toku genre and of
Wuxia.
Also called "Wirework" (though that term is more general; "
Wire Fu" usually refers only to the use of wirework for fight scenes).
Expensive and time-consuming, it is often now replaced by computer-generated effects. (which continue to look really fake)
Examples:
- Power Rangers, in every episode. Surprisingly, Super Sentai (and sister franchise Kamen Rider) use very little Wire Fu in comparison.
- Wuxia films use Wire Fu to perform exaggerated feats of qingqong. For example, the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers demonstrate perhaps the ultimate achievement in Wire Fu that Western audiences have seen.
- Wire Fu is noticeably absent in Jackie Chan films; Chan insists on doing all his own stunts and eschews this technique. This may end in the near future, however: Jackie Chan is getting older.
- Jackie has also expressed his distaste of Hollywood films, because in Hollywood, Jackie is forced to wait a very long time just to complete ONE stunt due to the bureaucratic hurdle of insurance coverage required to get the stunt started. Jackie is used to using real hazards such as hot coals or thicker glass in lieu of props in his native films. So because of his age and VERY battered body, the Wire Fu is easier to get green lighted by insurance companies. However, Jackie and his troupe are already blacklisted by nearly all Hollywood insurance companies anyways.
- The Matrix popularised it in the west.
- Just about every single Jet Li film. His training just makes it look really good.
- The Pili series from Taiwan. Wire-fu puppets. Very awesome wire-fu puppets.
- Spoofed in one of the Wayne's World movies, during a fight between Wayne and Cassandra's father featuring leaps and flips with curiously flat trajectories.
- Never one to leave a dead horse unbeaten, Mike Meyers used this in Austin Powers: Goldmember'' with Fat Bastard, who—to make sure he was ready to fight Austin—shouted "I hope my wire-fightin' team's r-r-r-r-ready!"
- Spoofed in this comic
◊ by Chewri.
- The Munchkin card game set "Munchkin Fu" has a style card literally called Wire Fu. It gives a +6.
