Are wuxia (kung-fu) stories on-topic?

Question

Wuxia is a genre of Chinese fiction about ancient martial arts heroes. The martial arts as depicted in these stories often allow their masters to achieve superhuman abilities. The most famous example (at least in the U.S.) is probably Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which features characters effectively flying, and fighting while standing on the thin top branches of trees. Other films released internationally include Hero, which shows people fighting on the surface of a lake, and House of Flying Daggers, where assassins can throw knives with impossible trajectories.

Are these abilities amazing enough to be considered "fantastic"? And, perhaps more importantly, are they a "central conceit" of the story, meaning the stories are off-topic, or a fantasy element, making them on-topic?

Answer 1

These sorts of stories are definitely a grey area. While the hyper-velocity martial artistry we see in wuxia films is definitely unnatural in our universe, that's pretty much the only difference between that and our own experience. Whether this is, in and of itself sufficient to make a story a "work of fantasy" isn't especially clear.

My gut instinct is that

• If the question is about the unrealistic combat (or something that relates to it) then the answer would be yes, it is on-topic.

• If the question was merely asking for an explanation of a plot point that was wholly unrelated to any unreal elements, then I'd say no, take it to Movies:SE.

Answer 2

Wuxia in General

Simply being 'visually fantastic' should not (and does not to me) qualify a work as Fantasy. I am going to argue that while the visuals of these movies defy the laws of physics, the intent is not to show that these warriors have supernatural powers, but instead to imply that they are skilled enough to make it appear they are acting supernaturally. Its a form of visual hyperbole.

I am not excluding the possibility that there are such movies which are in fact fantasy, but just walking on air should not qualify them as on topic. I would go on to say that the visual hyperbole itself should be off topic, as it is not intended to be taken as fantastical.

Wuxia with a Sole Bona Fide Fantastic Element

To allow questions about a work with a limited scope of what about that work can be discussed (in the comments, the bamboo fighting scene from Crouching Tiger is used as an example), puts us in a paradoxical position. A question that may or may not be related to a fantasy or scifi element would be moved to another site if it was not obviously directly related to a fantastical element - before an answer could make that clear. A question apparently about a fantastical element would be allowed to stay even if it turns out it wasn't.

We also do not move questions with answers that prove not to contain any scifi or fantasy element.

To clear that paradox we either need to classify any work with a fantastic or scifi element as wholly on topic, or limit the works we accept as on topic to only those works that are intrinsically scifi or fantasy.

Conclusion

My position is that wuxia is not intrinsically fantasy (though a particular story MAY be), so should be considered off-topic. Crouching Tiger out, Kung-Fu In Space (a hypothetical film) in.