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How Many Kung Fu Movies are there??


jackpot

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I've thoroughly read Kung Fu Culth Masters, Kung Fu Cinema of Vengeance, Hong Kong Cinema, Once upon a time in china, and Hong Kong Babylon... and according to the authors there were roughly 2100 "kung fu" movies made between the 50's and the late 80's early 90's. Production of kung fu movies rapidly declined after 1987.

Hong Kong movie production almost stopped in 1993 due in part to the release of the American movie Jurassic Park. If i remember correctly, less than 40 films were produced between 1993 and 1996.

This number of kung fu movies made can be disputed. What defines a kung fu movie? Do we count the movies prior/during the Japanese invasion of shanghai? What about the lost silent pictures of those days?

The largest collection of kung fu movies (only kung fu movies) i have ever seen was about 1500, and that was Saint360's collection.

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kungfusamurai

There are kung fu movies from Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, even Korea, Thailand, and The Philippines, so my guess is even if HK had 2100 there are way more than that if you count kf flicks from other countries. Also, would Sonny Chiba films be put under the KF category, even though they're japanese karate flicks?

KFS

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Righteous Master

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? How many kung fu movies have ever been made? The world may never know.

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Righteous Master

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop

Well lets see!! Ah One Ah Two Ah Three Crunch!! Ah Three!!!:D

I have around 1500 Kung Fu movies, I think the question should be how many good Kung Fu movies are there...Because out of the 1500 movies I own maybe 1/2 are actually worth keeping and watching again.:cool:

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I recommend for a cheap starter to a collection the 50 Martial Arts Movie Pack. I got mine for about 10 bucks and has a bunch of great Kung Fu movies. If you can try to get a hold of the 1st release with the generic artwork of a guy working out, because the newer release, which has Bruce Lee on the cover, cuts out about 5-8 Hong Kong films for Fred Williamson films (not all Martial Arts related).

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I think there was less than 800 Spaghetti Westerns made... As for traditional kung fu films: anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 I reckon. Modern ones don't really count imo..

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SamuraiDana

Hong Kong movie production almost stopped in 1993 due in part to the release of the American movie Jurassic Park. If i remember correctly, less than 40 films were produced between 1993 and 1996.

Begging your pardon, but you're way off there. Actors like Andy Lau and Joey Wong practically made 40 movies APIECE during that period. I have over 65 HK movies in my collection from that period ('93-96) alone, according to my last inventory (which hasn't been updated in three years!). And that was just the tip of the iceberg. I don't know where you got that figure, but if you go through the filmographies on IMDB of just about any Hong Kong star/director active in that period you'll count a lot more movies than that.

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SamuraiDana

Replying to Jackpot:

"thanks for the replies. wow 3000 movies, that means I have 2940 to go lol."

You really don't have to see all of them. You don't want to torture yourself. Just watching the good ones will keep you busy for a long time. There are plenty of ways on the web to look up the classics, including forums like this. Start with the ones you can find reviews of and then go from there. You live in Toronto, so there must be Chinatown shops there you can visit to find new HK import DVDs and VCDs of classic kung fu titles.

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As per research for my fanzine, about 1315 martial arts films were produced worldwide from 1970 to 1979--give or take a dozen Korean films that I probably haven't accounted for.

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