Today is Wednesday and the perfect time to kick-off a semi regular Wednesday feature: Kung-Fu lessons! Now, before you start thinking that I’m Chuck Norris and can kill unicorns by clinching my butt cheeks, let me assure you that I’m not and, as far as I can tell, I can’t.

No, I’m not here to teach you Kung-Fu in the physical sense, but rather I’m going to help the uninitiated who have always wanted to deeply dive into the genre learn to watch Kung-Fu movies the right way and make recommendations as to what they should watch. Additionally perhaps learned fans of the genre can get the perspective of another fan and teach me a thing or two as well.

A note to those fans and to general deconstructionists out there – I am going to use Kung-Fu as a catch all term. I know that it properly refers to wushu style Chinese Martial Arts, but I will include Karate, Bushido, and anything else as I see fit. I guess one could call these entries Asian Martial Arts in Pop Culture Featuring Styles from China, Japan, Thailand, Korea, & More. But frankly that does not sound as sweet to my ears as. . .

Kung-Fu Wednesday

canstock1038972 Introducing Kung Fu Wednesday Probably the number one complaint when watching martial arts films from someone not already a fan of the genre is quality. When I was growing up, various incarnations of Kung-fu theater would show old heavily edited Shaw Bros. movies with a terrible English dialogue dub. So the first lesson in watching Kung-fu movies:

Obtain A Quality Transfer

This is easy these days with services like Netflix (which has a better selection of undubbed martial arts films than Blockbuster). One will want to make sure that the film has an option for original language audio and English subtitles. Sometimes it can be confusing because the DVD (Chinese film for instance) will offer English (no) Mandarin (?) and Cantonese (??) options. With no other resources to reference, one can try using the first language option available other than English. Alternatively, a quick IMDb reference should reveal the original language.

And Know What You’re Getting Into

It’s also very important to understand the type of martial arts film one is about to watch. Modern epics like Jet Li’s FEARLESS or Donnie Yen’s IP MAN are generally very accessible to Western audiences. They have been made with some consideration to being cross-overs and Asian cinema has, for better or worse, been heavily influenced by Hollywood filmmaking.

On the other hand some of the early Shaw Bros. films or a personal favorite of mine, A CHINESE GHOST STORY, will probably require some degree of genre understanding and a desire to see roots genre stories that belong in sub-sub genres of their own. Many of the high appreciation assigned to these latter types of movies by Western fans is due to their bizarre nature or the development of a mythos that became traditional in film making.

Movie Recommendation

In step one I will suggest a movie that has enough traditional elements so one will be able to start getting familiar with stylistic qualities of the genre, but will not be turned off by heavy traditional mythos references or the need for dense cultural understanding. Therefore, may I present to you:

ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA I & II

Yes, that is two movies, but they are both relatively short and can be viewed as an arc of their own. Both movies star a jetli Introducing Kung Fu Wednesday Western-familiar actor in Jet Li as Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-hung (many, many Kung-fu films are about Wong Fei-hung). Both movies also feature brilliant wireless martial arts, socially nationalistic story lines, and the right blend of seriousness, action, and an important genre staple: Humor. The second movie is by far one of the best pre-wire martial arts films ever showing off the rich culture with brilliant cinematography and Jet Li at his jaw-dropping best.

If the theme song, MAN OF DETERMINATION, gets stuck in your head, you’ll be well on your way to Kung-fu geekhood. I love that song. It’s like hearing the opening to the STAR WARS theme.