I’ve been on a Kung Fu kick (gosh, look at me with the clever word play, thank you) lately. Between the great Shaw Bros sets (and some Golden Harvest titles) that Arrow Video and Shout Factory have been releasing recently; along with Region A-friendly individual Shaw Bros titles from 88 Films; a surprising handful of releases from the Criterion Collection; the upcoming Bruceploitation box sets from Severin (can’t wait!); and Eureka Entertainment soon-to-be releasing Region A-friendly titles from their catalog (there better be a Region A-friendly release of Duel to the Death!!!), it’s been pretty great getting back into a genre of films I’ve enjoyed since first discovering them in my youth on TV’s Kung Fu Theater in the early/mid-1980’s. At that time, ninjas and The Karate Kid (my all-time favorite martial arts-related film – but it’s not Kung Fu!) were big deals to 10-year olds like me – but little did I know back then, those were Japanese-influenced martial arts – whereas Kung Fu is China-based. Not that any of that really matters to me, because, regardless of their origins, they’re both kickass to watch.
So, like I said, there are various boutique labels putting
out great, restored, blu-rays now for those of us who prefer physical media
(like myself). However, there are so
many more great Kung Fu films from the 1970’s and 80’s that deserve to be
preserved for future generations with proper restorations in their original
aspect ratios. I say that because One –
it’s a fact, Jack; and Two – though there are plenty of vintage Kung Fu films readily
available on streaming services such as Tubi,
PlutoTV, Plex, GoogleTV, and
perhaps my favorite – the Wu Tang CollectionYouTube channel (seriously, whoever the person or persons are who run that
channel, they are truly doing the Lord’s work in making so many rare Kung Fu
gems available to view again) – sadly, the vast majority of the films available
on these streaming services are just old, unrestored, pan-and-scan versions –
similar to how they were seen on TV, back in the 80’s, on shows like Kung Fu Theater. On the one hand, it adds a little nostalgia
to the viewing experience for those of us who were around in the 80’s; on the
other hand, it just shows that we’re only getting to see roughly 55% of what we
really should be seeing (most Kung Fu films were shot in the wide 2:35 aspect
ratio…even the shitty ones), and at a far inferior image and sound quality to
what these films deserve. (UPDATE: March 29, 2024...I recently found an amazing TV show called Dracula's Kung Fu Theatre...the host of the show is the funniest damn Dracula ever and he shows an old school Kung Fu movie every week on VHS - it's like Svengoolie, but this guy is a million times funnier. The "Glamour Shot" T-shirt for sale on the site will be mine - it's so damn funny! Though I'm not on Facebook, I did find that the show also has a public Facebook page...funny videos on there too. Ok, end of Update.)
That ranting and rambling aside, I’d like to share what are currently my Top 10 favorite Kung Fu movies. Granted, I haven’t even come close to seeing every Kung Fu movie ever made, so this list could very well change in the future…will I take the time to update this list if it does change?...meh, probably not – so this will be a snapshot in time.
