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Wire fu is an element or style of Hong Kong action cinema used in fight scenes. It is a combination of two terms: "wire work" and "kung fu".
Wire fu is used to describe a subgenre of kung fu films where the stuntmen's or actor's skill is augmented with the use of wires and pulleys, as well as other stage techniques, usually to perform fight-scene stunts and give the illusion of super-human ability (or qinggong).[1] It is exemplified by the work of Tsui Hark, Yuen Woo-ping, and Jet Li. Hollywood has subsequently adopted the style for the American film industry.[2] Almost all modern wuxia films fall in this category. Not all martial arts films use wire work.[3]