Wuxia had been revitalized in the newspaper serials of the 1950s and its popularity spread to cinemas in the 1960s. It overtook the popularity of the new school ( xinpai) wuxia films that prevailed in Hong Kong throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The kung fu genre reached its height in the 1970s, coinciding with Hong Kong's economic boom.
Jet Li played Wong in a later revival of the series in 1990s, Tsui Hark's Once Upon a Time in China, and also Fong in the movie Fong Sai-yuk. The fights were still choreographed, but were designed to be more believable. The major innovation of the Wong Fei-hung films was its focus on realistic fighting or zhen gongfu, a departure from earlier wuxia films. The first two films of the Wong series, directed by Wu Pang and starring Kwan Tak-hing, were released in 1949. A series of films that dramatized the life of Wong Fei-hung, a historical Cantonese martial artist, was another early pioneer of the genre. 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. On December 22, 2018, Yang Mi and Hawick Lau announced their divorce together through Jaywalk Studio.The kung fu genre was born in Hong Kong as a backlash against the supernatural tropes of wuxia. She gave birth to her daughter on June 1, 2014, in a Hong Kong hospital. Yang Mi and Hawick Lau were married in Bali, Indonesia on January 8, 2014. Then on November 11, 2013, she announced their engagement. In the early 2012, Yang Mi revealed her relationship with a Hong Kong actor-singer Hawick Lau through her Weibo. In 2012, Yang Mi has established her own agency by the name of Jaywalk Studio in collaboration with H&R Century Pictures. Later she starred in the series "Eternal love" which is the most viewed series in China with over 50 billion views. In 2017, she went on to win the Best Actress award at the WorldFest Houston International Festival and Best Action Movie Actress at the Jackie Chan Action Movie Week for her performance in the 2017 film "Reset". The theme song of the series, which was sung by her, topped China music portals and won the Best Theme Song award. Her performance in the 2011 series "Palace" earned her the Most Popular Actress award at the 17th Shanghai Television Festival.
She started her acting career at the age of four in the TV series "Tang Ming Huang" in 1990. Yang Mi is a Chinese actress and singer referred to as one of the "New Four Dan Actresses" by the Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis Daily.