Kung Fu (TV series)

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Television series
German title Kung fu
Original title Kung fu
Country of production United States
original language English
Year (s) 1972-1975
length 48 minutes
Episodes 62 in 3 seasons ( list )
genre Western , drama , action
idea Ed Spielman
production Jerry Thorpe ,
Alex Beaton
music Jim Helms
First broadcast October 14, 1972 (USA) on ABC
German-language
first broadcast		 September 27, 1975 on ZDF
occupation

Kung Fu is the name of a television series from the 1970s and its follow-up series from the 1990s. In both cases the series is about a Shaolin monk (in both series David Carradine ) who lives in the United States of America and has various adventures there with the help of Shaolin Kung Fu , his Buddhist philosophy and his other skills.

Kung Fu - The original series

David Carradine, cast member of Kwai Chang Caine

action

The television series Kung Fu (1972–1975) is about the adventures of a (half) Chinese Shaolin monk named Kwai Chang Caine in the second half of the 19th century. Caine killed a member of the imperial family in combat during an altercation that he did not cause and is therefore forced to leave China. He goes to the western United States to avoid his capture and to look for his half-brother there, roaming the Wild West alone . In doing so, he always tries to reconcile the coarse, western way of life of the cowboys that he encounters with the values ​​of peacefulness and non-violence that are internalized in the Buddhist monastery. An integral part of each episode are Caines flashback memories of his youth in a Buddhist temple in China.

The open hostility towards Chinese immigrants in the western states of the United States has been the subject of many episodes. For example, Caine once succeeds in solving a hushed up murder of a Chinese man in a small town, while in another episode ( Caine and the girl with the mandolin , season 1, episode 10), despite thin evidence, he himself is charged with murder.

The series obviously hit the zeitgeist . Numerous well-known actors were seen in guest roles. Individual episodes of the series have received awards, such as the Emmy Award and the Writers Guild of America Award . Although the martial art shown in the series can hardly be called outstanding, the series contributed to the popularity of the Chinese martial arts , but also to the misuse of the term Kung Fu in the West.

There are reports that the series was originally conceived by Bruce Lee under the name The Warrior and that he discussed the idea with the later producers of the series. However, the producers of the series deny this. Jerry Thorpe (director) actually wanted Bruce Lee, who was still relatively unknown at the time, to be cast for the lead role, but after the interview, the producers ultimately decided against him because of his strong accent.

Others

  • The Shaolin Temple, which appears in the flashbacks, was originally from the set of the film Camelot - At the court of King Arthur , which was filmed in 1967.
  • In the German version of the series, the hit Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas is played as the title music and in the credits , while the title melody is reused in the English original.

actor

Radio plays

In 1976, three radio plays with Horst Frank as spokesman for Lon Dsi (who replaced the role of Kwai Chang Caine in order to prevent copyright infringements ) were set to music by the record label Europa :

  • The tiger from Apache Creek
  • Revenge for Doc Sunshine
  • Assault on Mountain City

Two more radio plays were released in 1975/1976 on the label Bunny / WEA Musik GmbH ( WEA Records ) on MusiCassette and LP. They are more directly based on the television series and use the original names of the characters. The covers are each provided with five original photos from the series, one of which is a large-format cover image. The title music is the intro from the pop song Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas (just like Europe ) . The title role Caine was voiced by Lutz Mackensy in adulthood and by Lutz Schnell in childhood flashbacks . (Radio play author: Peter Lach, sound: Hans-Joachim Herwald , director: Michael Weckler , production: Proton, Hamburg)

  • The secret of the Kwai Chang Caine
  • The curse of gold

comics

The TV series was adapted in comic form by Martin Asbury . These comics appeared in German in the ZACK magazine of Koralle-Verlag , as well as as a separate album edition with the signet "ZACK presented". As such, however, only volume 1 was released, a second album was then released as volume 20 within the ZACK Box series . Both volumes carried the series title Caine, the master of Kung-Fu .

Kung Fu - The Movie

Between the two series, shortly before the start of the series Kung Fu - In the Sign of the Dragon , a television film in which David Carradine plays the original (aged) Kwai Chang Caine was produced. Synopsis: Caine meets his son - embodied by Brandon Lee (quasi the father of KC Caine from the "Sign of the Dragon" series, so the grandfather Peter Caines).

The main part of this film is based on the father-son conflict between the two, as Caine Junior wants to kill his father because he believes that Kwai Chang left him and his mother intentionally or abandoned him. Ultimately, however, the two of them can "pull themselves together" in a double sense, and Caine senior still has the opportunity to increase his abilities through meditation into the supernatural. B. able to float in the lotus position .

Kung Fu - Under the sign of the dragon

action

The offshoot Kung Fu - In the Sign of the Dragon (original title: Kung Fu - The Legend Continues), which plays in the present and was produced from 1993 to 1997, deals with the fate of Caine's grandson, a widowed Shaolin monk, who also goes by the name of Kwai Chang Caine wearing. The monk (who is played again by the aged David Carradine ) supports his son Peter Caine in solving crimes with the help of Asian martial arts and Chinese mysticism . Peter was raised as a Shaolin monk under the care of his father; but the fifteen-year separation from his father after the temple was destroyed has influenced him in the West, so that he initially strongly rejects the spirituality and constant interference of his father in police work and in his private life.

Much more than in the original series, ghosts, amulets and the mystical belief in Qi play a decisive role in clearing up the crimes. Peter initially considers the handed-down traditions of his father to be humbug, until he realizes in the course of his own development that these mystical powers also influence him and, in order to fulfill his mission as a police officer and spiritual fighter, he uses these hidden, acquired by his father in the Shaolin Temple Lessons can fall back on.

Others

actor

DVD release

Warner Home Video released the three full seasons of the original series from the 1970s for Region 1 ( USA and Canada ) in 2004 and 2005 . The first two seasons of the German dubbed version (with the original opening and closing credits) were released in 2005. The third and final season has not yet appeared in German ( regional code 2 ). The German version of the first season of Kung Fu - In the Sign of the Dragon was released in October 2009. It is currently unknown whether the remaining seasons will be released.

literature

  • Yvonne Tasker: KUNG FU: re-orienting the television Western , in: Bill Osgerby / Anna Gough-Yates (eds.): Action TV. Tough Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks , London / New York (Routledge) 2001, pp. 115-126. ISBN 0-415-22621-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Linda Lee (Bruce Lee's wife) in the movie Bruce Lee: The Way of a Fighter
  2. ↑ Interview with Tom Kuhn in The Tao of Kwai Chang Caine: Production and Beyond on the DVD collection The Complete First Season: Kung Fu