With the development of technology, audiences no longer favour films that follow only the traditional rules and aesthetics of representation as they once did, but prefer films that give them intense sensations. This is why science fiction and action films are becoming increasingly popular with audiences, and more and more films are focusing on the use of digital technology. Matthias Stork has coined a new word for this type of action film that presses compelling visuals into the narrative – chaos cinema. Steven Shaviro continues his research based on Matthias Stork’s ideas and summarises the characteristics of this ‘chaos’ – rapid scene changes, interlacing, jumpy editing and discrete sound – as ‘post-continuity’ (Shaviro, 2011).

Although Matthias Stork’s view is based on Steven Shaviro’s research, there is a slight difference in their views. In Matthias Stork’s video essay Chaos Cinema Parts I and II (2012), Stork argues that the former classical rules have been completely abandoned and replaced by a series of ‘high voltage’ scenes. Steven Shaviro, however, argues that the new action film is more than just hollow, arguing that post-continuity films not only inherit the traditional rules of continuity, but also further develop the use of continuity and post-continuity rules, For example, expressive, used to build emotional structures which meaning that narrative is not abandoned (Shaviro, 2016).

My view of contemporary action filmmaking is more towards Shaviro’s, and to further prove it I will use CZ12: Chinese Zodiac as an example to analyse. CZ12: Chinese Zodiac is a 2012 action-adventure film. This film was co-written and directed by Jackie Chan, who also starred in the play. The film follows Jackie Chan’s Jack as he goes on a quest to find the last four lost animal heads from the Yuanmingyuan zodiac in order to collect a huge prize offered by international heritage dealer Lawrence. During the treasure hunt, they go through a series of dangerous situations, which Jack solves one by one. After receiving the animal heads, Jack is moved by the patriotism of Professor Guan and his daughter, and at the last minute he gives up his bonus to help Coco save the national treasure and eventually return the heads to China.

Many of the scenes in this film have quick scene transitions to give the scenes more dimension. For example, images 1 and 2, which are from the same clip, both show the protagonist navigating between vehicles, but the camera angle shifts. The angle of the first shot is parallel to the actors, giving the audience a sense of immersion, while the second overhead shot allows the audience to experience the menace the protagonist is experiencing at the time. The continuous footage plunges the viewer into a chaotic, fast-paced, thrilling chase. This clip also won the film the award for Best Action Design at the Golden Horse Awards, one of the most influential and iconic film awards in the Chinese film industry.

figure 1

Figure 2

Although the film features intense fight scenes and a constantly shifting trajectory of action for the main character, the action of the protagonists is still portrayed in a continuous manner. Each action of the protagonist is well-documented rather than haphazardly pieced together. For example, the protagonist gives up his prize at the end to return the national treasure left behind to the country, a move that is not abrupt because the narrative structure of the whole film is very fluid.

Therefore, I believe that most action films nowadays follow the structure of post-continuity films – the focus is on the visuals but the narrative is not completely abandoned and the plot is generally smooth.

References

Shaviro, S. (2011) Post Cinematic Affect. John Hunt Publishing.

Shaviro, S., & Åkervall, L. (2016). Post-Continuity: An introduction’. In Screen (London) (Vol. 59, Issue 1, pp. 51–64). REFRAME Books, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjy008

Stork, dir. M. (2012). Chaos Cinema. https://vimeo.com/metafilm

Image References

filmdump (2015). Film Review No.355: Chinese Zodiac (CZ12). filmdump. Available at: https://filmdump.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/film-review-no-355-chinese-zodiac-cz12/.

Tomasi, R. (2013). CZ12 / CHINESE ZODIAC (2012) Movie Trailer 2: Jackie Chan in Action. film-book. Available at: https://film-book.com/cz12-chinese-zodiac-2012-movie-trailer-2-jackie-chan-in-action/.

Video Reference

Rotten Tomatoes Trailers (2013). CZ12 Official Trailer #1 (2013) – Jackie Chan Movie HD. [online] http://www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEODcDGhz9I [Accessed 28 Nov. 2022].

YARUI XIAO