Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks

martial art

martial arts

It tells the story of martial arts films and delves into their cultural influences from the Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong to today's major Hollywood productions. A little bit of the history of Kung Fu in cinema, its introduction, prejudice, adaptation, and success, almost immediately after a meticulously rehearsed ballet in the fights that gain brilliance and take flight on movie screens that won the world... fan, but I recognize that the scenes are a spectacle apart, beautiful and demand a lot from the actor, almost an athlete, interesting the portrayal of prejudice with the eastern, the difference between films in Hong Kong and Hollywood (safety you improvise).. ..

I strongly recommend you watch this highly underrated documentary on NetFlix while you can (last chance to watch is Nov 30th, at least in the U. K). It is jam-packed with exciting fight scenes and information about the genre. It talks about the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios and stars like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan but it also mentions many other films that I haven't seen or even heard of but seem brilliant (such as 'Five Fingers of Fury', the first film where a martial artist plucks out an eyeball, later famously appearing in 'Kill Bill', which also samples this film with its siren background in the soundtrack) as well as some cult classics that aren't as famous or appreciated as they should be like such as '36 Chambers of Shaolin' and 'Snake in the Eagle's Shadow'. It's also interesting how Cheng Pei-Pei was a famous female action star in 'Come Drink With Me' in 1966 long before starring in 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', 'La Femme Nikita' in 1990, or the more recent spate of action/spy/assassin films with a female lead, the cream of he current crop being the painfully underrated 'Hanna'. They also point out that wires were used in action films in Hong Kong long before 'The Matrix'. It's also interesting to see the influence on popular culture more generally, such as on hip hop breakdancing and parkour (they interview the founder of this sport) and the black kung fu stars who based themselves on Bruce Lee and are little known outside the African-American community. I learnt from this doc that Ugandans have started making Kung Fu films, coining the term 'Wakalawood' to describe those made in the slum of Wakala (where an American martial artist plays the lead in the films and in one scene gets covered in faeces from an open sewer!). I was slightly surprised they didn't say more about Van Damme or mention the film 'Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai' or 'Kill Bill' but an excellent and entertaining programme that deserves a 10.

It doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it the influence of king fu films on modern culture? Is it influence of kung fu on black hip hop culture? Influence of kung fu on parkour? A history of kung fu films? It doesn't know. What it does remind you to watch older films and reminds you how much Cynthia rothrock was ahead of the time. It gets a 6 mainly for the clips not the structure.

Great documentary about Kung Fu. Enjoyed how each part was broken up and the links between East and West Kung Fu films and how they were made.

I am not a kung fu geek but enjoy the genre and this was pitched perfectly. I found this to be fascinating. This breaks down the history of Kung Fu movies including their origins and the major names and studios. Well worth a watch.

If you are interested in the easter movies, you probably have many reasons to watch this. But be aware that this is quite general and has a lot of opinion pieces. A lot of actors today or from the high Shaw Brothers era talk about the influence or how they made their living. One specific scene is really great, where we get to see how sound was created on set! Yes while the people were fighting, others made the noises! This was an incredible nugget to see. Apart from that there is fast paced interviews, a lot of cuts (one imagines this can be seen as "choreography" - hits after hits). and a lot of small digestable information. If that sounds good, go ahead and watch it.

IRON FISTS AND KUNG FU KICKS is a simple, straightforward clip compilation documentary exploring the world of the martial arts film, from its inception in the late 1960s through to the present day. There's a wealth of diverse clips present here, typically focusing on Hong Kong and American fare, with the occasional foray into the likes of THE RAID on the side. I was particularly pleased that both Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest are given such prominence alongside the more obvious inclusions like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Interview snippets are provided in between the footage, and there are some well-chosen stars such as Scott Adkins and Richard Norton.

So I was really liking this documentary. Getting a good history legend on the film genre. I enjoyed the documentary until they started going into strange woke segments. Some point in the during the Bruce Lee part they started going into oppressor and oppressed theory and I was kinda taken aback because this far in the film I didn't feel that wokeness in the documentary. Started noticing the females on the interview panel couldn't stop mentioning cringe stuff all the way up to the end. But the real thing that bothered me was their total glaze fly by of Jackie Chan's impact on Martial Arts movies or even just not mentioning Jean Claude Van Damn at all. Before Chan and Van Damn the genre was dead. Yet they have this entire segment of black martial arts that had very little impact at all on the film genre. Please stop with woke ideology, you are ruining the film industry.