Monday, March 23, 2009

kung fu theater

For some reason, I got to thinking about the old Kung Fu flicks that I used to watch religiously on Saturday afternoons ("Kung Fu Theater," anyone?). One of the productions I most enjoyed was the Run Run Shaw flicks. Any Tarantino fan would have noticed the opening of Kill Bill to reflect Q. understood his predecessors very well.

The most famous of them is "The Five Deadly Venoms" mostly because the characters are very iconic: The Toad, The Snake, The Lizard, The Scorpion, and The Centipede. I love it all, but for overall story and great characters, I'd choose "The Kid with the Golden Arm" first.

I miss seeing my favorite Kuo Chui (aka Philip Kwok) in snazzy costumes but the action is more unrelenting and everyone has a cool and unique "style." There is even a hierarchy of the villains based on precious metals.

Yes, the fight scenes are more balletic than rough but it's done well. It's hokey and the English dubs are done poorly and by the same crew of voice actors for nearly every HK flick that came to the US, but all this just added to the brillance of this genre in the States and to my Saturday afternoons.

Too bad 99.9% of all the female characters were so lame. Typical. But I still love it all.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_with_the_Golden_Arm
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