The oldest film in the genre, The Adventures of Fong Sai-yuk (Part 1: 方世玉打擂台 Part 2: 方世玉二卷之胡惠乾打機房), is a 1938–39 two-part movie about the adventures of folk hero Fong Sai-yuk.
Kung fu protagonists were exemplars of chivalry akin to the ancient youxia, the knight-errants of Chinese wuxia fiction. The new genre still shared many of the traits of wuxia. The popularity of shenguai wuxia waned because of its cheap effects and fantasy cliches, paving way for the rise of the kung fu film. Producers of wuxia depended on special effects to draw in larger audiences like the use of animation in fight scenes.
The wuxia of the period, called shenguai wuxia, combined shenguai fantasy with the martial arts of wuxia. The kung fu genre was born in Hong Kong as a backlash against the supernatural tropes of wuxia.
