What Was Your Gateway into Kung Fu Movies? Mine was Kill Bill

[Kwok Choi]

On 7/30/2020 at 3:33 PM, Duel to the Death said:

For me Bruce Lee wasn't my Gateway but more of an early introduction. I had seen the Bruce Lee movies, a handful of Bruceploitation films and a few other random lesser films when i was younger but that was it. I had never seen any of the Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest (minus Bruce) classics. Years and years went by before i seen any more. So for me Kill Bill was my gateway. It was because of it i seen Lady Snowblood, some Zatoichi films, 36th Chamber, 5 Deadly Venoms, and then that led to more and more like Prodigal Son, Knockabout, Master of the Flying Guillotine, Duel to the Death etc etc etc.

I know some people don't like Tarantino, and i have no idea what people think of RZA, but if it wasn't for them i have no idea if i would of seen the movies i did. They told me what to see. 

For a while i said Kill Bill was my favorite movie of all time. For a while anyway. 

"I changed the topic to this thread a few posts in"

A week or two before Kill Bill Vol 1 went on general release in London, A request was made for projection duties of a special Q&A screening of Kill Bill with Quentin Tarantino for budding UK film directors and other distinguished guests at the Screen on the Green Cinema in the London Borough of Islington.

The venue was specifically chosen by Tarantino himself because it had supported all his films to date,he was thankful for that; secondly the cinema had a Grindhouse appeal. About an hour before the guests started arriving Julie Dreyfus was first on the scene. She appeared very very humble, casually dressed in jeans with hardly any makeup yet very good looking,warm and polite. A little while later Michael Madsen showed up looking very badass as in character. I wanted to engage in some conversation but boy! Michael was Budd man! he just stood there very modest, silent, he just listened and made observations. I wanted to break the ice by asking about Virginia Madsen but on second thoughts.......eh....eh.......I decided against it  It was cool though all part of the show 

Quentin arrived about half an hour later very chatty he was dressed in a specially designed Bride track suit with red strips rather that black. It fitted well. He walked around unfazed observing the marquee, the lettering, the display making comments here and there. He was very approachable, super chilled, not animated at all, really interesting guy cracking a lot of jokes. There was only me, Harve the manager and those three members of the Kill Bill crew in the  cinema foyer at the time before the doors opened.

After the screening and the Q&A hosted by a film critic from Time Out magazine Quentin and I met for the last time in the foyer before leaving. He said he will make an edited version of Vol 1 and 2 together and give me a copy as an appreciation for my contribution to the event. Next time we meet, I hope to receive this dvd.

That was my experience meeting Quentin Tarantino for the first time and as they say, first impressions are lasting impressions.

I took notes of the Q&A session at the time and asked for permission before posting the details on our original KFF Ezboard forum before it became KFC. Sadly that post has been lost and I can't recall a lot about what was discussed but overall it was a successful event.

[Duel to the Death]

23 hours ago, Kwok Choi said:

A week or two before Kill Bill Vol 1 went on general release in London, A request was made for projection duties of a special Q&A screening of Kill Bill with Quentin Tarantino for budding UK film directors and other distinguished guests at the Screen on the Green Cinema in the London Borough of Islington.

The venue was specifically chosen by Tarantino himself because it had supported all his films to date,he was thankful for that; secondly the cinema had a Grindhouse appeal. About an hour before the guests started arriving Julie Dreyfus was first on the scene. She appeared very very humble, casually dressed in jeans with hardly any makeup yet very good looking,warm and polite. A little while later Michael Madsen showed up looking very badass as in character. I wanted to engage in some conversation but boy! Michael was Budd man! he just stood there very modest, silent, he just listened and made observations. I wanted to break the ice by asking about Virginia Madsen but on second thoughts.......eh....eh.......I decided against it  It was cool though all part of the show 

Quentin arrived about half an hour later very chatty he was dressed in a specially designed Bride track suit with red strips rather that black. It fitted well. He walked around unfazed observing the marquee, the lettering, the display making comments here and there. He was very approachable, super chilled, not animated at all, really interesting guy cracking a lot of jokes. There was only me, Harve the manager and those three members of the Kill Bill crew in the  cinema foyer at the time before the doors opened.

After the screening and the Q&A hosted by a film critic from Time Out magazine Quentin and I met for the last time in the foyer before leaving. He said he will make an edited version of Vol 1 and 2 together and give me a copy as an appreciation for my contribution to the event. Next time we meet, I hope to receive this dvd.

That was my experience meeting Quentin Tarantino for the first time and as they say, first impressions are lasting impressions.

I took notes of the Q&A session at the time and asked for permission before posting the details on our original KFF Ezboard forum before it became KFC. Sadly that post has been lost and I can't recall a lot about what was discussed but overall it was a successful event.

I bet that was amazing meeting Quentin. Maybe you will get that dvd someday.

[NinjaX]

My gateway was king boxer. Me and my friend used to watch it nearly everyday. We would also act it out in the front garden, happy times.

[J.J. Hayden]

Similar to @HyperDrive, I was a big fan of TMNT, though he might not be referring to the same series. Being a kid in the 90s was quite easy to get into martial arts, as we had many US films with the likes of JCVD; video games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat and Tekken (the best); and even kids shows were into MA like TMNT and Power Rangers.

These things were all popular where I grew up, but what took me to the next level was when I saw the Bruce Lee films my parents had taped, I'm not sure which precise order I saw them but The Big Boss was my favourite and got me hooked.

[ironfistedmonk]

Watched the Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies growing up as all 80s kids did and loved them but never got the bug, I caught the Mark Dacascos movie Drive on TV one night in my early 20's I think it would be by then and enjoyed it so much I bought the VHS, on there were a couple of trailers for SITES and Drunken Master and they had me intrigued, I'd only seen the more modern day Jackie movies up till then so I thought I'd check them out. 

Where I live there was a small VHS/DVD store in town and they had a martial arts section with all these exotic sounding films I'd never heard of alongside the usual Jackie Chan films so as well as picking up SITES and DM I took a chance on a film called Eagles Claw and I wasn't prepared for what was about to come, I'd never seen anything like it!  White hair foxes, dragon suits, WTF was this slice of gold!  

So I think the love was always there thanks to Bruce and Jackie but the real reason I got in to these movies was Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison 

[Yggdrasil]

I grew up with Monkey magic. That dubbed Japanese series which they copied from Chinese water margin. 

Grew up with Shogun Assassin which I forgot about really until I had visions of some weird graphic slayings and a baby in a wooden cart. It wasn't until the DVD came out that I realised Shogun was spliced from Lone Wolf & Cub.

Then came Bruce Lee and I started a few lessons of martial arts at boarding school but my father soon put a stop to that and said boarding school was for my dyslexia and nothing else. Not to mention mum told me not to kick, only horses kick. So didn't do anything after that.

Then Jean Claude Van Damme came along with Cyborg, kickboxer, AWOL and a few of the others, as well as Steven Segal.

Then in my early 20s I befriended this Chinese bloke at our first Chinese restaurant in town and I watched Chinese kung fu and got interested through that. That was the time Eastern Heroes and HKL released their stuff, as well as the ultra obsure Fight Among The Supers on HJL video. Was also introduced to some Sammo Hung films, so followed him basically, then Lam Ching Ying with the Mr Vampire series. 

In all I prefer the magic taoism in Chinese films, like Fight among the supers, Mr Vampire series and Miracle Fighters. No films past the 90's or at least until the 2000's. 

I've got Stormriders and Legend of a Hero which are both based on Chinese comics, but the CGI would look absolutely shocking if I was to look at it now. So prefer the old skool. 

Recently got back into again as a mate from work asked me for some Chinese kung-fu movies from my collection, so been ripping them.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Yggdrasil

[J.J. Hayden]

6 minutes ago, Yggdrasil said:

I grew up with Monkey magic. That dubbed Japanese series which they copied from Chinese water margin.

LOL, I remember taping a few episode of that too, I think it was on super late on Channel 4 or something, action wasn't great, but when you're in a desert you take what you can get, and the Asian stuff was so different and interesting. Plus the outro theme was catchy as hell.

[Yggdrasil]

3 minutes ago, J.J. Hayden said:

LOL, I remember taping a few episode of that too, I think it was on super late on Channel 4 or something, action wasn't great, but when you're in a desert you take what you can get, and the Asian stuff was so different and interesting. Plus the outro theme was catchy as hell.

When you're only 8 years old in the late 70's and Monkey comes on TV, you forget what you were watching by the time you're into your 20s. All I remembered from Monkey, was the intro. A ball of mud going down a muddy hillside in the rain. But I had no idea what it was called until Fabulous Films started promoting the DVD box sets. I snapped them up as soon as they were released. Definitely had goosebumps. I was instantly transported back to 1979. Brilliant stuff.

[DrNgor]

Although I watched TMNT back when in the early seasons, it was my brother taping Kickboxer off of HBO circa 1991 that got me into martial arts films. Watching The Big Boss at school got me curious about Bruce Lee. But it was a second rental of Rumble in the Bronx, watching Jackie Chan's First Strike at the dollar theater and renting Crime Story in late '96/early '97 that led to me catching the HK movie collecting bug.

[DarthKato]

When I was little, my brother used to tell me of how he used to watch old martial arts movies on tv during the weekend. He told me about the amazing acrobatics, the cool weapons, and even about a one-legged man who beat the crap out of a bunch of guys(I still have no idea what movie that was). Well, this got me very interested in seeing these films. So Me and my family were in a K-Mart looking around one Sunday(I couldn't have been no more that 6-7 years old), and I came across a Bruce Lee movie collection. It had The Big Boss (Called Fist of Fury on the box) and Fist of Fury(Called The Chinese Connection. Confusing. lol). I took it off the shelf and started to look at it. My brother saw me looking at it and told me that it was like the movies he had watched. I immediately had to have to have it. This was my chance to finally witness the legendary films that he had told me about. So I took it over to my dad and I asked as nicely as I could, just short of begging, if he would buy it for me. It was only, I think, 10$, so he said yes. I almost screamed out with joy right there in the store. When I got home, I popped that sucker in the VHS and for the next 3-4 hours my little mind was blown away. Bruce Lee was like a god of fighting, whose kicks seemed to move so fast you couldn't see them. It was violent, it was cool, and it had the first nudity I ever saw(The sight of those tits still have a home in my mind. lol). From there, I began picking up other MA films. I think Rumble in the Bronx was the next one I watched. I still love all those films to this day. And that was my gateway to the wonderful world of MA films. 

Here is the collection I was referring to. Its not my copy, but its the same thing:

Bruce Lee Collection

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

Ric Meyers was my gateway 😜✌️

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

2 hours ago, OpiumKungFuCracker said:

Ric Meyers was my gateway 😜✌️

Oh, that's why you chose a pic of him as your avatar.

[Karateclaws]

As a kid I got into Van damme movies and american martial arts movies, then randomly on TV saw enter the dragon, got into bruce lee and started taping his HK flicks, then got into Jackie chan and spiralled down the rabbit hole from there.

[Karateclaws]

And luckily in the early 00s when I was a teen HK cinema was enjoying quite the boom on DVD etc so there was endless stuff for me to enjoy

[Omni Dragon]

On 12/16/2022 at 2:40 PM, J.J. Hayden said:

The Big Boss was my favourite and got me hooked.

Getting people hooked was The Big Boss's plan.

 

On 12/18/2022 at 10:34 PM, DrNgor said:

Watching The Big Boss at school got me curious about Bruce Lee.

So you watched The Big Boss at school? That seems like an unusual place to watch it, would you mind adding some more context?

[J.J. Hayden]

9 minutes ago, Omni Dragon said:

Getting people hooked was The Big Boss's plan.

Obviously that plot point was lost on me as a lil kid, for me it was "why are they putting bags in the ice and bodies? Are the going to eat them up?" quite a different film that would've been.

 

10 minutes ago, Omni Dragon said:

So you watched The Big Boss at school? That seems like an unusual place to watch it, would you mind adding some more context?

I'm curious about this too, I need to know the location so I can send my kids there for a "proper" education.

[DrNgor]

12 minutes ago, Omni Dragon said:

So you watched The Big Boss at school? That seems like an unusual place to watch it, would you mind adding some more context?

 

Just now, J.J. Hayden said:

I'm curious about this too, I need to know the location so I can send my kids there for a "proper" education.

 

[Omni Dragon]

Welcome to the forums, @Karateclaws.

[danthemandmv]

Welcome , @Karateclaws !

[thekfc]

welcome to the forum @Karateclaws

[dionbrother]

SNAKE FIST FIGHTER when it aired on Showtime in 1982. 

[Cognoscente]

The Victim when it aired on the U.K. Bravo channel in April 1999.

[Jesse Smooth]

I was born into it.

[CaldoTheKid]

Way Of The Dragon and Delta Fprce