samurai films and kung fu films are not necessarily mutually exclusive

There has been a longstanding rich exchange between the two genres. At the least many martial arts filmmakers (most notably Chang Cheh) borrowed heavily, or were heavily influenced by samurai movies. That's why the heroes in Chang Cheh's movies continue to fight on after being mortally wounded. This is something that samurai were supposed to be able to do (as described in the Hagakure), where even if you are killed (speaking to the samurai), you should have enough to deliver one last killer blow. **warning potential spoiler** Consider the scene in Dreadnaught by Yuen Wo-ping, when Ah Fu (Wong Fei Hung's disciple) pops up one last time to deliver a blow to the face, though he's essentially dead. Jimmy Wang Yu also makes a lot out of this as he claims he was heavily influenced by samurai movies (although he was speaking to a Japanese audience at the time, and several of his post-Shaw movies were funded by Japanese, most notably the silly Master of the Flying Guillotine).

Obviously Chang Cheh took the concept of "delivering one final blow" and really ran with it, taking it to new levels of "continue fighting on for another 20 minutes drenched in blood and gore, screaming like a stuck pig."


"Give me the strength never to disown the poor or bend my knees before insolent might." R. Tagore