wire-fu
n. A cinematic technique in which actors perform kung-fu moves while attached to wires and pulleys that make them appear to fly, run up walls, and so on.
Etymology
Examples
2001
Cinematographer Peter Pau and fight choreographer Yuen Woo Ping use the technique of 'wire-fu,' or kung-fu aided by wires and pulleys to give the characters on screen superhuman techniques.
—Michael Ferrara, “'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' may clean up at Oscars,” East Carolinian, March 08, 2001
1997 (earliest)
If you need to take a kid in that difficult post-Disney-but-pre-teen demographic to the movies you could do significantly worse than Warriors of Virtue, which stitches together kid-pic bits and pieces from The Neverending Story to The Karate Kid, all the while giving it a wire-fu spin.
—Gary Dauphin, “Warriors of Virtue,” The Village Voice, May 13, 1997
Notes
Not that actor Stan Shaw, 25, a second-degree black belt in karate, was having trouble getting work. He got to play bone-crushers on TV cop shows, a martial arts maestro in a chopsocky melodrama called 'TNT Jackson,' a Jackie Robinson character in 'The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars and Motor Kings.'
—Art Harris, “One of Company C's Troops Takes a Big Step Forward,” The Washington Post, February 10, 1978
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