What One Movie Got You Into This Genre

[bolofan]

Not the greatest martial arts flicks ever but it went in this order -

1) Kid at school keeps raving about his dads Bruce Lee tapes so about a week later I go to a second hand shop and buy my first Bruce Lee tape - Fist of Fury 2 (easy mistake to make as a ten year old, he's on the cover for crying out loud)

2) I become addicted to this film and watch it every day because as a ten year old, anything with loads of fighting is just awesome. So it was either this tape or my WWF videos.

3) Then I get Enter the Dragon and this shit starts evolving.

4) Followed by Twin Dragons which again absolutely amazed me at that age.

5) For some reason, I didn't buy any more tapes for like 5 years and then for some unexplainable reason I just became re-obsessed.

I now have about 250/300 VHS/DVD/DVDR's.

6) No turning back.

[TripMasterMunky]

While I don't remember what my earliest martial art flick was or anything (probably Ninja Turtles lol), the 1978 Drunken Master was the first film that got me real interested in old school kung fu and stuff like that.

[Asmo]

I first saw Rumble in the Bronx at the cinema (snuck in with my older brother), then watched it on tv. Sometime after that I caught Project A on tv and it all went from there. Discovered older kung fu films (outside of Drunken Master) when I first got the internet. The rest is history.

[Guest WuxiaFan]

36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN

When I was a teenager, I knew the movie as MASTER KILLER. Then I started watching Kung Fu Theater on Saturday mornings. I was always amazed with how long the fight scenes lasted in the old school classics. I somewhat got away from the genre in my 30's, but then in 2000 when I saw a trailer for CROUCHING TIGER, I was stunned. Then I saw the movie and was in awe. I probably saw CTHD 10-15 times in the theater. It was actually the first DVD I bought, and I bought it before I even had a DVD player! I had to go out and buy a DVD player so I could watch the movie that night!

[spearman lo tat]

i remember initially trying to watch movies from drive in theater on ch 5 in NYC with my older brother and sister but being afraid of death scenes. i finally broke out of that when, in about '83, i saw "Cantonen Iron Kung Fu" on ch 11 WPIX at 1 pm on a saturday afternoon. i stopped being a chicken that day, and i haven't been right since.

[mark187]

Fist of Fury

[Tantheman]

First one for me was Enter the Dragon in about 1990. Still remember how cool it was when he snapped Jackie's neck! Then at my Grandad's local video store spotted Project A, and that was me hooked. Watched a lot of the early video releases from Imperial entertainment, who remembers 'em?

First VHS I bought was Above the Law ( Righting Wrongs), must've watched that video about 30 times. It got to the point where I could (and still can)replay the fights in my head I had watched it so much! The video still has pride of place in my collection and miraculously still works! Then got into the Made in Hong Kong series of VHS releases such as Encounters of the Spooky Kind, Prodigal Son, Magnificent Butcher etc. And thats my story!

[cooksandkungfoodle]

Mine was back in 87 when my brother rented armour of god from the local video store..never heard of jackie chan but before i went to school that morning i watched it and was just blown away..i then started asking for more jackie chan which led onto his lo wei films(just loved all the old artwork on the old vhs boxes)

then i started watching all of vpd's videos which consisted all of the old school kung fu films..then led onto all of the warner brothers/shaw brothers releases on video..then onto labels such as made in hong kong,eastern heroes plus many more..always remember being blown away by invincible armour which is still one of my all time faves!!!

22 years later and i am still watching kung fu movies!!!

[hkpyanfar]

Supercop. Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh got me started.

[jiujitsu77]

bruce lee in return of the dragon on channel 9 wgn chicago

then it was samurai sunday on wgbo 66 in the 80's. i was hooked at 5 years old

[Poelie]

Saviour of the Soul. Back then I worked in a comic book store and loaned the video from a customer (if memory serves a Dutch/Chinese guy who of course also worked in the Chinese restaurant of his parents). I had never seen Hong Kong Action and couldn't believe what happened on screen. I think I then went on to Once upon a time in China and the tapes from Made in Hong Kong. Buying the stuff was difficult and expensive, so I started a little pool where a group of customers each paid part of the price and we took turns ordering and then loaning to each other (and copying the tapes...). Siren in Australia was a favorite (Fist of legend!). After all the period/wire-fu stuff I reluctantly tried some Shaw Brothers, which up until then I thought was just cheap chopsocky stuff. I was so wrong!

[KUNG FU BOB]

I worked for this cool hippie dude when I was a teen, and when he found out I never saw a Bruce Lee movie he insisted I rent one. He promised that if I didn't think it was "the shit" that he would reimburse me for the rental. That night I rented ENTER THE DRAGON and I've been hooked since. Thanks Carl!

[Guest WuxiaFan]

I worked for this cool hippie dude when I was a teen, and when he found out I never saw a Bruce Lee movie he insisted I rent one. He promised that if I didn't think it was "the shit" that he would reimburse me for the rental. That night I rented ENTER THE DRAGON and I've been hooked since. Thanks Carl!

LOL!! XD

YES, ENTER THE DRAGON is some "good shit!"

[KyFi]

Although I had seen some onscreen martial arts via the movie "Billy Jack", and I think Chuck Norris' first couple (Good Guys wear Black and Force of One), the first Hong Kong movie I saw, even before any Bruce Lee, was "Executioners from Shaolin" on a New York cable station in the early 80's. I had never seen anything like that, where there were REALLY LONG fights, and the story was ABOUT the fighting styles! And of course the great look of the Shaw sets and costumes. Then within the next few months on that channel I saw 36th Chamber, Boxer Rebellion, Five Venoms, etc., I've been hooked ever since. And I think that's why I've always preferred Shaws to Bruce and the Golden Harvest bunch, although I've grown to appreciate those more in the last couple of years.

[Mark Pollard]

jrcxma, nice revival of a nearly two-year old thread. Kudos to you.

I watched a lot of classic kung fu on TV in the early '80s but I cannot remember a single title since I was about nine at the time. Lord, those were good times. My memory of that time is filled with watching kung fu, Japanese monster movies and Hammer horror films.

What really caught my attention was watching the first DRUNKEN MASTER in 1993 on a third or fourth-generation VHS tape that a co-worker from Trinidad loaned me. Within a couple years I was being fed from another friend by a steady supply of second-hand VHS tapes of '80s and '90s-era Hong Kong action films. I made frequent trips to Scarecrow Video, a fabulous video store in Seattle that had loads of Asian imports and out-of-print genre classics. I would sometimes have to put down a $150 deposit on a credit card just to rent out some obscure film on a degrading VHS tape. That always made me nervous.

I'll always be grateful to that co-worker who introduced me to Jackie Chan.

[The Dragon]

Those fourth generation VHS' were something, right Mark? I still have a few in my collection, and held on to them simply because the differences when comparing the "remastered" transfers, then later DVD's... WOW.

[Topgun]

Well, guys.

Personally, living and growing up (now in late 30's) as refugee in Thailand for nearly seyeven years from 1980 to 1987, there wasn't much to do because you know -- no one was allowed to go outside the camp, except going school for 5 days and then...watching movies on paid local Thai TV theaters.

Every Saturday and Sunday, the whole TV theaters were packed and there were about 10 of them for a population of almost 46,000 people. The audience came from all ranges of ages from 7 to 50. Five titles were shown each day on the weekend while only 2 titles were shown during the weekdays because of fewer audience.

Now, living in the US, I have the privillege to have collected more than 200+ titles, which most of them are dubbed in Thai.

Any questions for me?

Topgun

[AlbertV]

THE BIG BOSS was my first taste of the kung fu film. Back in 1983, Channel 5 New York's Bruce Lee week played BIG BOSS (Fists of Fury) on Monday, FIST OF FURY (Chinese Connection) Tuesday, WAY OF THE DRAGON (Return of the Dragon) Wednesday, GAME OF DEATH Thursday and BRUCE LEE: THE LEGEND (1983 Golden Harvest documentary) on Friday. My dad got us all sitting in the living room at 8pm to watch them each day and that began my journey and destiny with the kung fu film

[butcher wing]

five fighters from shaolin. It is kinda corny but the long brothers (can't remember if they are brother in real life or not) you gotta love them.

[Tosh]

I watched a lot of classic kung fu on TV in the early '80s but I cannot remember a single title since I was about nine at the time. Lord, those were good times. My memory of that time is filled with watching kung fu, Japanese monster movies and Hammer horror films.

Yeah this is how I got into it though I started more in the late 70's, Godzilla-Gamera movies Saturday afternoons, Black Belt theater, then there was a show in Cleveland called Big Chuck and Little John on Friday nights after the news, you never what they were going to play, they had a clay King Kong climbing up the tv station and destroying a satellite tower while they hid under the table, stuff falling all over the place at the beginning of the show, they use to do these dumb sketches with the same laugh track.

Pfft, cable and dish, all these channels and you still can't get an old b/w horror movie on.

I had a vhs of 36th Chamber of Shoalin we watched a thousand times, I probably have that movie burned in to memory.

[MattC]

Bruce Lee got me interested in Kung-Fu and Sho Kosugi got me interested in the Ninja craze

[prinnysquad]

Snake in the Eagle's Shadow got me interested, Duel of the Seven Tigers got me hooked.

[BATTLE AXE 45]

although im a bruce lee fan,the movies that got me into this were chinese professionals(one-armed boxer)and

7 blows of the dragon(water margin)chikichikichow its young dragon!

[WhiteTiger1]

Hero Tattoo and Nine Dragons

Can't remember for sure if it was my first but after watching it 20 to 30 times at the theater it's the one that got me into this Genre.

I helped work projector at Theater when I was a kid...

I started this thread 2007

Great Moments, I was 16

I'll be 48

Looking back I'd also add 5 Fingers Of Death-( aka King Boxer) to my list.

[The Silver Fox]

Invincible Armour and Enter The Dragon got me hooked on the genre.