Do you enjoy old Kung Fu films?

[El Hombre Nuclear]

Nah, it was colour and shot on video, looked late 70s. Seemed to follow a bunch of Ronin around. I never made heads or tails of it but channel choices being what they were I had to watch a lot of MTV.

MTV was "Multicultural Television" here until they changed their name to CFMT in the middle 80s. They played a lot of Chinese and Italian movies including some really dirty ones late at night. I'm pretty sure their main audience were english speaking high school boys....

Hmm, very interesting. I did a bit of poking around and think I may have found it (the clip is mostly Toyota Canada propaganda, but you can see some of the credits at the beginning and end). Pretty cool that they were showing Lone Wolf and Cub (as "Iron Samurai") with subtitles back then! That was one of the first translated manga brought over to the west, and I used to read it religiously as a teenager in the late '80s, when I was starting to study Japanese. I think Frank Miller did the covers.

[Earth 2 Chris]

I remember USA showing good schlock cinema like Commander USA's Groovy Movies and Kung Fu Theater. I recall seeing the Sentai Rangers there before they made it over here as Power Rangers.

I didn't see it on USA, but the Hammer/Shaw team-up sometimes known as Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires is a hoot.

Chris

[palitoy]

Nah, it was colour and shot on video, looked late 70s. Seemed to follow a bunch of Ronin around. I never made heads or tails of it but channel choices being what they were I had to watch a lot of MTV.

MTV was "Multicultural Television" here until they changed their name to CFMT in the middle 80s. They played a lot of Chinese and Italian movies including some really dirty ones late at night. I'm pretty sure their main audience were english speaking high school boys....

[El Hombre Nuclear]

Thanks to channel 29 and 47 I've probably forgotten more of these than I remember. Like a lot of people, they inspired me to join a dojo(s) more than a few times, although I never actually studied Kung Fu.

I used to watch a Samurai show that wasn't in English every week as well, any Toronto peeps remember that? It was cheaply made but kind of hypnotic.

Was it possibly "The Samurai" (Onmitsu Kenshi)? I know that became a big childhood phenomenon in Australia and New Zealand in the 60s and 70s, but I've never heard of it being broadcast in Canada.

The only non-dubbed Japanese language shows I remember being aired in the NYC area were a few of the jidaigeki series (including the Oda Nobunaga one) in the late 80s/early 90s on a local station.

[palitoy]

Thanks to channel 29 and 47 I've probably forgotten more of these than I remember. Like a lot of people, they inspired me to join a dojo(s) more than a few times, although I never actually studied Kung Fu.

I used to watch a Samurai show that wasn't in English every week as well, any Toronto peeps remember that? It was cheaply made but kind of hypnotic.

[El Hombre Nuclear]

My picks will be similar to others here: The Flying Guillotine movies, Five Deadly Venoms, etc.

I was a bit past my Kung Fu master phase by the time I noticed that USA was showing them, so my fondest memories lie with the early NYC area local broadcasts. I couldn't find an ad for WPIX's "Fist of Fury Theater" from the same period, but here's the classic WNEW show. That World Northal logo with the analog synth is pure nostalgia...

[HardyGirl]

The only things I remember about Kung-Fu Theatre, (yep they had it in NYC too), was that the English overdubs were really bad on most of them, and that after it was over on Saturday afternoons, the boys would all come outside trying dopey karate moves on the girls. "Waa-TAAA!"

[Mikey]

USA always used to play a biography story about Bruce Lee starring an actor named Bruce Li

I think they had Bruce being murdered by gangsters or something like that.

[Duncan]

Five Deadly Venoms. Love it.

The El Rey Network (341 on DirecTV) shows em quite often.

http://www.elreynetwork.com/

[EmergencyIan]

Thanks!!!

Very welcome!

- Ian

[Wee67]

I've mentioned it before3, but the El Rey cable network is just chock full of Kung Fu action. They just showed Flying Guillotine Pt. I & II back to back. Thurssdays and Sundays are almost Shaw Bros. marathons!

[TrekStar]

Can you get these films on DVD, in the Asian languages, with English subtitles?

all my Godzilla dvd's I bought have Japanese language, with English subtitles
so I figured the Kung Fu movies must also now have it.

[Confessional]

The USA Network was a thing of genius!

I've been on an old school kung-fu bender thanks to the non-stop goodness of the El Rey Network… taking it for a wild fist-feast of crazy action for months and months. I'm starting to hear the guttural foley sounds in my sleep just like the old days. :P

[Hector]

Thanks!!!

[EmergencyIan]

Wow...really????????

I'd love to check it out...

Links to where I might see that...or where could I buy a DVD?

Enter The Dragon Special Edition 2-DVD set (Amazon): http://www.amazon.com/Enter-Dragon-T...or%27s+journey

Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey : http://www.amazon.com/Bruce-Lee-Warr...or%27s+journey

So, the documentary "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey" contains the existing usable footage that Bruce shot of "Game of Death." Below is a review/description.

"When Bruce Lee died in 1973, he left behind the uncompleted "Game of Death", having already filmed three important scenes. Golden Harvest later incorporated 11 minutes of that fight footage into a new story created using Lee look-a-likes that became the dubious enterprise of the same name. What Harvest wasn't telling anyone was that there was a further 23 minutes of footage that they left out. Discovered by Bey Logan in 1999 (rotting away in a back yard, and covered in chicken ****) this previously unseen material has been incorporated into the part documentary, part movie that is "Bruce Lee: A Warrior's Journey".

This docu-movie is divided into five clear parts, with the first three dealing with the life of Bruce Lee. There's not much new information here for Lee fans, but the footage from a number of sources including Lee's home movies, TV interviews, and shows is well presented and paints a vivid picture of a man whose phenomenal talents were only just beginning to mature.

These archive moments are interspersed with new interviews with Linda Lee Caldwell (widow of Lee), Taky Kimura (Lee's highest rated student), Ji Han Jae (Hapkido Grandmaster), and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (co-star in "Game of Death"). In particular, it's great to see Abdul-Jabbar offer forth his thoughts on the man because he tends to be missing from other documentaries.

With the overview of Lee's life complete, "A Warrior's Journey" then moves into the final two segments. The first examines Lee's intentions with "Game of Death", with the second part devoted to showing the available (and usable) footage that Bruce shot, edited to as close as possible to the original script, and film notes.

The result is the final three levels of the five-level pagoda sequence now shown as intended. It should leave the viewer in no doubt that Lee's film would have been very different to the hokey effort that Golden Harvest cobbled together."

- Ian