When the debut album for the legendary Staten Island hip-hop
group Wu-Tang Clan, Enter The Wu-Tang(36 Chambers) dropped
onto the scene on November 9th, 1993, the shockwaves it sent through
popular culture was akin to those felt when the Krakatoa volcano had
its violent eruption some 110 years earlier. The album was a gritty,
soulful and unabashed declaration of a new day in hip-hop across the
board. For years, the influence of 36 Chambers has been dissected
and debated at length. But one aspect of influence that hasn’t been
fully explored ironically finds its roots in a major source of inspiration
for the Wu. And as a result, popular culture as we know it wound up
being changed dramatically. That influence? Helping to bolster the
rise of Asian cinema in the United States and other Western nations.
To begin, you have to recapture a certain time period in New York City.
The late 1970’s saw a city reeling from economic struggles to the point
where then President Gerald Ford effectively told the mayor and the
city to ‘drop dead’. The blackout of 1977 left some neighborhoods reeling,
most notably the South Bronx. This would be notable in the sense that
hip-hop as we know it today was born in the Bronx, art and ingenuity
sprung from the rubble of burned-out buildings and welcoming spaces
of city parks. Times Square wasn’t the pristine tourist hub that it is
today. The area was full of triple-X movie theaters, sex shops and peep
shows. Not to mention countless prostitutes, pimps and johns. The
theaters had begun to run other movies however in triple feature bills.
First run films, usually horror flicks would lead off, followed by two
kung-fu movies. Among these films were two that would heavily
influence The RZA once he saw them: The 36th Chamber of Shaolin
(Master Killer) and Shaolin & Wu-Tang. These two movies led to the
inception of the Wu-Tang Clan as we know it today.
These two films among others wound up being highly important
to the Wu’s birth, but they represented the last jewels of a
dwindling movie empire in Hong Kong at the time. The Shaw
Brothers Studios are the most recognizable movie production
company in the world from Asia, having first made movies in 1934.
Their movies thrilled audiences from Hong Kong & Taiwan to
enclaves of Chinese emigrants in San Francisco and other
U.S. cities. They even had a bit of broad art-house movie success
with ‘Come Drink With Me’ in 1966, starring Chang Pei-Pei.
The movie was popular due to it being wuxia, a grand ballet of
action and drama involving martial arts. Due to that film’s success,
Shaw began to invest heavily into the genre. Other studios followed
suit, most notably a brand new studio created in 1970 known as
Golden Harvest. They would prove to be rivals to Shaw, and
landed Bruce Lee just as he began his meteoric rise to stardom.
Lee’s films for Golden Harvest gave him a triumphant return to
America after a successful run as Kato in ABC’s ‘The Green
Hornet’ TV series ended in disappointment with Lee getting no
other gigs in Hollywood. His tragic death made him legendary,
and sparked acraze for everything kung-fu stateside. Which
brings us back to those 42nd Street theaters for a bit.
By this time, the theaters were slowly being down,
thanks in part to newly-elected Mayor Edward Koch.
But the kung-fu flicks that captured The RZA and his cousin
Ol’ Dirty Bastard wound up being shown on television via
syndication. Before Fox 5 came to be in New York City, it
was a locally owned network known as WNEW. Every
Saturday at 3 P.M. back in the 1980’s, you stopped whatever
you were doing to get in front of the TV to catch the Drive-In
Movie. This was THE place to catch all of the Asian martial
arts movies in their chopped-up, badly dubbed glory. In two
books by The RZA,’ The Wu-Tang Manual’ and ‘The Tao Of
Wu’, he speaks to how struck he was by the particular airing
date of The 36th Chamber. That date? June 6th. Numbers that
figure heavily into the philosophy of the Wu. He and the rest
of the Clan got their fix like many of us did back then, via
videotapes. By 1989, classics like Shaolin & Wu-Tang could
be had on tapes sold at different spots like Albee Square Mall
and video stores in Times Square to name a couple. These
were the same versions that were seen on TV back then. (Side
note: I had one movie that literally STILL had a piece of the
commercial break lead-in on tape. Cracks me up to this day,)
So when Enter The Wu-Tang dropped, chock full of sound
bites from Shaolin & Wu-Tang, heads understandbly flipped.
The album’s wild success saw a great demand for martial arts
films just like these Shaw Brothers classics. “The Thirty-Sixth
Chamber of Shaolin” as a film was widely viewed in Hong Kong as a
watershed moment for both its star and director. The fictionalized
account of the story of legendary Shaolin monk San Te brought
Gordon Liu Chia Hui to superstar status, and forever dubbed him
‘the Master Killer’(which is what the film was marketed in the US as
and also what gave Masta Killa his Wu name). The director, the late
Lau-Kar Leung was a pre-eminent actor, writer and fight director
who is a direct descendant of one of China’s greatest heroes, Wong
Fei Hung. The two’s joint success led them to be sworn brothers
and work together on other great Shaw films in later years. Eventually,
the success of these films led to interest in other martial arts films,
spurred on in part by the Wu-Tang Clan’s outspoken affection for
them. Having included sound clips on their debut album, The RZA
then proceeded to do the same on other Wu members’ solo efforts.
Only Built For Cuban Linx, otherwise known as the ‘purple tape’,
is the most outstanding example because of their choice of film
for sound samples: ‘The Killer’, by John Woo. That album would
do for Woo in an indirect way what the Wu’s first album did for
Shaw movies.
John Woo had enjoyed a full career in Hong Kong, refining his
director’s skills with Shaw as well as other independent studios.
‘Last Hurrah For Chivalry’, done in 1979, was a critical if not
commercial success. But he had experienced burnout, which
affected his work. It wasn’t until 1986 when another director/producer,
Tsui Hark helped him get funding to do a pet project, ‘A Better
Tomorrow’. The film about two brothers, one a cop and the
other a criminal was a smash success in Hong Kong. He followed
that up with a sequel, and then ‘The Killer’ in 1989. This film,
featuring veteran Shaw actor Danny Lee and the renowned
Chow Yun-Fat as cop and assassin at odds was the movie that
announced him to the West. Bloody, exceedingly violent with
heavy gunplay as the motif, it had a lot of appeal for cats in
various ‘hoods Stateside. The demand for all of his films led
to greater buzz which got Hollywood’s attention. Woo took the
opportunity to then move to the United States in 1993. After
directing Jean-Claude Van Damme in the action piece, Hard
Target, Woo found some difficulty working with Hollywood.
He then found footing with Broken Arrow, featuring John
Travolta & Christian Slater, and cemented his position as the
first Asian director to have a mainstream commercial base
with Face/Off in 1997.
Meanwhile, the same martial arts movies that had inspired
the Wu were popping up on VHS, and subsequently DVD
thanks to distribution companies like Black Belt Theatre,
PanMedia, and others. Even Dolomite, the Blaxploitation
icon himself had a kung-fu series he hosted. The quality of
the movies were getting better, and in a more important
twist, fans were getting to see the uncut versions with
subtitles. Of course, there were cheap companies out there
who rushed to capitalize on the indirect influence the Wu-Tang
had with bringing these movies to the forefront. (Raise your
hand if you remember the Brooklyn Zoo line. Don’t front.) But
what this onslaught brought was a cult following that had
transformed itself into a knowledgeable fan base. That fan base
began to seek out original prints, complete with subtitles. People
went and copped video compact discs of rare films. Film festivals
and retrospectives flourished in abundance. While this was going
on, two companies took notice: Fortune Star, who owned the film
libraries of Golden Harvest and D&B Films among others, and
Celestial Pictures, who had recently acquired the entire Shaw
Brothers film library in a merger. Both companies began massive
restoration efforts of these older films to satisfy the demands
of this surging fan base. And so, a new generation of martial
arts movie fans are getting the chance to see these films as
they were initially shown. Hip-hop, always the trailblazing culture,
showed love to these films well after the Wu. Examples include
Jeru The Damaja’s remarkable video for ‘Ya Playin’ Yourself’
set in Hong Kong, as well as superstar Jet Li’s rise in Hollywood
thanks to ‘Romeo Must Die’ with DMX as a co-star.
Enter The Wu-Tang deserves not only some mention but
should be well-regarded as a major influence in the rise of
Asian cinema and its relative influence on the current climate
of popular culture. Think of it like this: the inclusion of movie
samples is now a current staple in today’s hip-hop. The RZA,
Method Man, Raekwon and other Wu members have made
their presence known in Hollywood, most recently with The
RZA joining forces with Quentin Tarantino to produce and
film ‘The Man With The Iron Fists’. Tarantino himself arguably
wouldn’t have been so emboldened to make the ‘Kill Bill’ films
without that fire unleashed by the Wu’s debut. Thanks to ‘The Killer’
being a part of OB4L, Chow Yun Fat got a bit of notoriety
in the ‘hood which helped bolster US appeal to see him in films
here. Gordon Liu still enjoys great acclaim as the ‘Master Killer’
thanks in part to that always-superb skit between Rae and Meth
at the beginning of ‘Wu-Tang:7th Chamber.’Make no mistake,
that first album is a prime example of just how subliminal and
powerful ideas and inspiration can be when applied right. And the
world has the Wu to thank for this chamber of thought brought
forth twenty years ago.