Kung Fu

Martial arts movies are full of great action and well choreographed fights, from the days of Bruce Lee to the stunning visuals we have with todays wire work and cgi. But Kung Fu is not a martial arts movie/series.....

Kung Fu is about a shaolin monk; Kwai Chang Caine. He travels around the wild west, seeking to help others and avoiding bounty hunters. The amazing thing about kung fu is that the flashbacks show Caine's past, we see that he has been trained to use kung fu, but he is a monk and would not harm a fly if it wasn't necessary. Caine chooses not to fight but when he has no other choice he proves that he can take anyone. The character is really brought to life by David Carradine, it would have been great to use Bruce Lee (Another of my idols) but I don't think the energetic Bruce would have been able to pull of the calmness of Caine.

I was expecting to see a martial arts series in the wild west but kung fu is its own genre. The teachings of Masters Po and Khan are wonderful and make you think about life. Apparently after seeing the series people seeked more information because they wanted to raise their children under the same morals.

It doesn't matter if you don't like martial arts or westerns, you need to see this. It has changed my life and the way I think about life.

While the show had some clever action and martial arts scenes, it was the integration of western and eastern culture that made Kung Fu such a good show. The pilot was especially brilliant, the cinematography, action and David Carridine's amazing acting and dialogue made it worthy of being a full length cinema feature. Caine actually appeared to be more of an honest biblical wanderer than a half chinese-half american mystic. The series was excellent too, but a bit repetitive. My favorite episodes were The Sign of the Dragon, The Way of the Tiger (the pilot) King of the Mountain (especially the final combat scene) The Well (one of the few hour long dramas to authentically depict the plight of blacks in frontier america), and The Squaw Man. Watch for many of your favorite tv and movie actors (including Harrison Ford, Jodie Foster, Don Johnson, and William Shatner) in their early careers and note the fine music (especially in the opening and closing credits).

David Caradine plays Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest wandering the 19th century American west in search of his half-brother while being sought by the Chinese government on a charge of murder back in China. He mostly does his wandering barefooted, but carries his shoes just in case he has to enter a saloon with a "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service" policy. Generally Caine is a magnet for trouble, and although he'd rather resolve the conflicts through peaceful means, he inevitability relies on his highly developed martial arts skills. When I was a kid enjoyed watching hippie Carradine beat the crap out of red necks. As an adult I favor the Shaolin temple flashbacks and the words of wisdom offered up by the priests. The music, the cinematography (love the lens flare), direction, acting and overall production all contribute to making "Kung Fu" an excellent television classic.

It's a shame that the martial arts craze that this show created (in conjunction with the ascendant popularity of Bruce Lee in the early 1970s), in conjunction with the somewhat cheesy '90s spinoff, has served to somewhat obscure what a gem it truly was.

It's heartbreaking to think that a lot of people who haven't seen the show lump it in as old, campy action television, like "The A-Team" or "Charlie's Angels" or something like that. The fact is, any given hour-long episode of "Kung Fu" probably contained about 45 to 60 seconds of actual action--if not less. The fact is, David Carradine was as good a leading man as any TV drama has ever had.

And the fact is, far from being a cheap exploitation of martial arts and Eastern philosophy, "Kung Fu" was created and written in true reverance to those concepts. Meticulous research was conducted, and the lessons that Masters Kan and Po (wonderfully rendered by Philip Ahn and Keye Luke, respectively) teach Caine, and that Caine in turn teaches those he encounters, are routed in authentic Shaolin philosophy.

Nor was the show cheesily made. It involved lush cinematography by televisual standards and innovative use of devices such as forced perspective and slow motion (this was the first show or movie to use different gradations of speed within a single take--the shot would move at normal speed until Caine made contact with an elbow or a fist, and then suddenly switch to delicate, poetic slow motion).

Caine was a true archetype of television--a complete reversal of basically every American screen hero that went before. Not just peaceful--but passive and serene. As Caine described it--"Kung Fu" was an "anti-revenge television show"--an amazing concept when you think about it.

Remember, the American public was not even acquainted with the phrase "kung fu" before this show. Zen Buddhism was gaining popularity in the late '60s and early '70s, but no one had ever heard of Shaolin monks. The creators of this show took a big risk on an untested concept and came up with TV gold.

I hope that the DVD release will serve to remind us all what a special show this was, and of the lessons it has to teach us.

Just finished watching disc 1. This show still holds up today. OK more modern technology would make the shots appear better but the story, acting, editing...all awesome. I loved this series it was a major influence in my life as a child. I can't wait to finish the rest of Season 1. The "Extras" on the disc are sort of lame. I guess if you never saw the show or aren't really a fan then they serve a purpose but I know all this stuff already. I'd love to have a version with running commentary from David Carradine underneath. Carradine has allegedly been requesting more interesting "extras" for the season 2 disc like a taped dinner party of some key participants and others speaking to how the series influenced their lives, like Tarintino and his Kill Bill films. I adore David Carradine as an actor I'd listen to him talk about just about anything.

So when is Season 2 released?