Gun fu is the style of sophisticated close-quarters gunplay seen in Hong Kong action cinema and in Western films influenced by it. It often resembles a martial arts battle played out with firearms instead of traditional weapons.
The focus of gun fu is style, and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. Shooting a gun from each hand, shots from behind the back, as well as the use of guns as melee weapons are all common. Other moves can involve shotguns, Uzis, rocket launchers, and just about anything else that can be worked into a cinematic shot. It is often mixed with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers.
"Gun fu" has become a staple factor in modern action films due to its visually appealing nature (regardless of its actual practicality in a real-life combat situation). This is a contrast to American action movies of the 1980s which focused more on heavy weaponry and outright brute-force in firearm-based combat.
The focus of gun fu is style, and the usage of firearms in ways that they were not designed to be used. Shooting a gun from each hand, shots from behind the back, as well as the use of guns as melee weapons are all common. Other moves can involve shotguns, Uzis, rocket launchers, and just about anything else that can be worked into a cinematic shot. It is often mixed with hand-to-hand combat maneuvers.
"Gun fu" has become a staple factor in modern action films due to its visually appealing nature (regardless of its actual practicality in a real-life combat situation). This is a contrast to American action movies of the 1980s which focused more on heavy weaponry and outright brute-force in firearm-based combat.
Before 1986, Hong Kong cinema was firmly rooted in two genres: the martial arts film and the comedy. Gunplay was not terribly popular because audiences had considered it boring, compared to fancy kung-fu moves or graceful swordplay of the wu shu epics. What moviegoers needed was a new way to present gunplay-- to show it as a skill that could be honed, integrating the acrobatics and grace of the traditional martial arts. And that's exactly what John Woo did. Using all of the visual techniques available to him (tracking shots, dolly-ins, slo-mo), Woo created beautifully surrealistic action sequences that were a 'guilty pleasure' to watch. There is also intimacy found in the gunplay-- typically, his protagonists and antagonists will have a profound understanding of one another and will meet face-to-face, in a tense Mexican standoff where they each point their weapons at one another and trade words.
The popularity of John Woo's films, and the heroic bloodshed genre in general, in the West helped give the gun fu style greater visibility. Film-makers like Robert Rodriguez were inspired to create action sequences modelled on the Hong Kong style. One of the first to demonstrate this was Rodriguez's Desperado (1995). The Matrix (1999) played a part in making "gun fu" the most popular form of firearm-based combat in cinema worldwide; since then, the style has become a staple of modern Western action films.
The popularity of John Woo's films, and the heroic bloodshed genre in general, in the West helped give the gun fu style greater visibility. Film-makers like Robert Rodriguez were inspired to create action sequences modelled on the Hong Kong style. One of the first to demonstrate this was Rodriguez's Desperado (1995). The Matrix (1999) played a part in making "gun fu" the most popular form of firearm-based combat in cinema worldwide; since then, the style has become a staple of modern Western action films.
by Miskatonic Jack 2 September 02, 2010
Get the Gun Fu mug.♦ Where people live who drive an hour to a well paying job.
♦ Where your neighbor's house is 100 ft from your own and both are 50 meters (164.041 feet) from the road.
♦ Where gated communities are built with 2 acre lots and the homeowners association is constantly in fear of non-conformity and people using that land to grow their own food as well as any landscape which is reverting to it's natural state.
♦ Where your neighborhood centers around a golf course and the closest retail is 4 miles (6.43737 km) away
♦ Where your zip code's tallest building rises 2 storeys and the population density never goes beyond 1,000 people per square mile.
♦ Where rich white people go in order to avoid ethnic minorities, same thing with their country clubs.
♦ Where the water table is irreversibly contaminated by all the lawn chemicals the residents use.
♦ Where the treeless lawn surrounding one's ranch house is used for parking, sports, and an area where one's many dogs and children can run wild and wreck havoc.
♦ Areas idealized by people like Frank Lloyd Wright and Joel Garreau (writer of Edge Cities).
♦ Areas reviled by people such as Paolo Soleri and James Howard Kunstler.
♦ Where your neighbor's house is 100 ft from your own and both are 50 meters (164.041 feet) from the road.
♦ Where gated communities are built with 2 acre lots and the homeowners association is constantly in fear of non-conformity and people using that land to grow their own food as well as any landscape which is reverting to it's natural state.
♦ Where your neighborhood centers around a golf course and the closest retail is 4 miles (6.43737 km) away
♦ Where your zip code's tallest building rises 2 storeys and the population density never goes beyond 1,000 people per square mile.
♦ Where rich white people go in order to avoid ethnic minorities, same thing with their country clubs.
♦ Where the water table is irreversibly contaminated by all the lawn chemicals the residents use.
♦ Where the treeless lawn surrounding one's ranch house is used for parking, sports, and an area where one's many dogs and children can run wild and wreck havoc.
♦ Areas idealized by people like Frank Lloyd Wright and Joel Garreau (writer of Edge Cities).
♦ Areas reviled by people such as Paolo Soleri and James Howard Kunstler.
Land in exurban areas is used in the most wasteful, unsustainable and impractical ways. It's not at all uncommon for property owners to have a half acre of their spread paved over. I've even heard of aviation enthusiasts
by Miskatonic Jack 2 November 23, 2010
Get the exurban mug.See Two-Thousands AKA the 2XXXs
A thousand year period.
Not to be confused with the Third Millenium, which begins and ends exactly a year later.
A thousand year period.
Not to be confused with the Third Millenium, which begins and ends exactly a year later.
The 2000s begin on January 1st of the year 2000 and end on December 31st of the year 2999 @ 11:59 P.M.
Source: Miskatonic Jack 2, The Ohio River Valley
Source: Miskatonic Jack 2, The Ohio River Valley
by Miskatonic Jack 2 November 10, 2008
Get the 2000s mug.A particular area within an MSA but outside the central city where a particular ethnic group (nearly always an immigrant group) has decided to settle.
An ethnoburb is a suburban residential and business area in North America with a notable cluster of a particular ethnic minority population. The term was first coined in 1997 by Dr. Wei Li, then assistant professor of Geography and Asian American Studies at the University of Connecticut, in a paper examining the suburban Chinese population in Los Angeles (County,) California.1 Ethnoburbs emerge for a variety on reasons, in combination or as separate entities. These include significant changes in world politics and economy, policy changes in the United States' national policies, and demographic shifts in individual or in local connecting neighborhoods. These communities have substantial external connections to the globalised mainstream economy, leading to higher socioeconomic levels in its residents. An ethnoburb functions as a social hub and a place where immigrants may work and do business within their own networks. The formation of ethnoburbs also have an effect on the cultural and political characteristics of a city. In (MSA)s such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Vancouver, and Toronto, and in the San Gabriel Valley in California, for example, Chinese immigrants have built large houses and malls catering to Chinese businesses, changing the landscape of these and a significant number of smaller communities throughout the USA
-Wikipedia
-Wikipedia
by Miskatonic Jack 2 January 07, 2011
Get the ethnoburb mug.Nickname for Indianapolis IN as well as it's vicinity in many cases. Birthplace of writer, humanist, environmentalist satirist and wit Kurt Vonnegut, writer of such acclaimed science fiction novels as Slaughterhouse Five & Galapagos, and one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century.
by Miskatonic Jack 2 November 17, 2010
Get the Vonnegut City mug.High priest of the great "Old Ones," alien super-beings who came to earth many millions of years ago during the Paleozoic era that were eventually worshiped as gods by the johnny come lately human race.
His name is unpronounceable by human mouths.
A rough description of Cthulhu goes as:
A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings ... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence ...
His name is unpronounceable by human mouths.
A rough description of Cthulhu goes as:
A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings ... It represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind. This thing, which seemed instinct with a fearsome and unnatural malignancy, was of a somewhat bloated corpulence ...
by Miskatonic Jack 2 June 28, 2010
Get the Cthulhu mug.A variety of place and geographic identity within a relatively small area.
When a "neighborhood" is thought of to have a much smaller area and than is designated by most newspapers, other publications, travel websites, as well as philistines, that is geographic diversity.
While metropolitan areas are usually the antithesis of geographic diversity, such metropolitan areas as the San Fransisco Bay area, Hampton Roads VA, the Tampa Bay Area FLA, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton PA/NJ, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/etcetera PA, the North Carolina Research triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Cary/Chapel Hill/Wake Forest), as well as any "tri-cities," "quad-cities or any other metropolitan area domminated by multiple cities are good examples of metropolitan areas which contain geographic diversity. Any smaller or average sized county which contains multiple towns with their own identities contains geographic diversity (on the other end, merged city/county governments such as Louisville KY are geograpically homogenous). Any state, provence or small country which is domminated by multiple cities, or at least may lack one single primate city (and the identityless sprawl surrounding it) are also geographically Diverse.
Geographic diversity means being able to go from one town or city to another and then another while travelling just a short distance.
In a large border city, one will often find geographic diversity on the other side of the said boudary.
When a "neighborhood" is thought of to have a much smaller area and than is designated by most newspapers, other publications, travel websites, as well as philistines, that is geographic diversity.
While metropolitan areas are usually the antithesis of geographic diversity, such metropolitan areas as the San Fransisco Bay area, Hampton Roads VA, the Tampa Bay Area FLA, Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton PA/NJ, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/etcetera PA, the North Carolina Research triangle (Raleigh/Durham/Cary/Chapel Hill/Wake Forest), as well as any "tri-cities," "quad-cities or any other metropolitan area domminated by multiple cities are good examples of metropolitan areas which contain geographic diversity. Any smaller or average sized county which contains multiple towns with their own identities contains geographic diversity (on the other end, merged city/county governments such as Louisville KY are geograpically homogenous). Any state, provence or small country which is domminated by multiple cities, or at least may lack one single primate city (and the identityless sprawl surrounding it) are also geographically Diverse.
Geographic diversity means being able to go from one town or city to another and then another while travelling just a short distance.
In a large border city, one will often find geographic diversity on the other side of the said boudary.
Thanks to suburban sprawl, the accompanying horizontal expansion of metropolitan areas (as well as the increased identification within one), the consolidation of post offices, far-flung airports containing the name of a major city 2 miles away, and all the job growth moving to the boondocks right outside major cities, we're going to see less and less geographic diversity in the time yet to come.
People simply don't start towns anymore, just suburbs.
There are no suburbs, only sprawl, edge cities, and towns that have been imperialized.
People simply don't start towns anymore, just suburbs.
There are no suburbs, only sprawl, edge cities, and towns that have been imperialized.
by Miskatonic Jack 2 December 12, 2008
Get the geographic diversity mug.