'Kung Fu' reboot looks great

Originally published at: 'Kung Fu' reboot looks great | Boing Boing

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Well, he did kill the emperor’s nephew (although it was because his guards killed Master Po)… so, his temple didn’t kick him out, the Chinese government did… and for the first… 2 seasons?.. he had a price on his head as he wandered around the old west.

Sorry. I recently watched the whole series…

Anyways, Master Po rules.

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Part of the appeal of the original for me was the idea of the wanderer in a strange land looking to find his roots there while always finding a connection to where he came from. This looks like a very different approach, but it looks like it has a lot going for it.

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I think Warrior, that was based on Bruce Lee’s version was a very good adaptation

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I knew it was Lee’s idea originally. At least, I think I learned that from “Dragon”. But I never knew they finally realised it. Did it last more than a season?
I loved the original series as a kid, long before I even knew Bruce Lee existed.

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I admit to loving the original series as a kid, even if it always bothered me that it starred a white dude - something which bugged me doubly when I found out it should have been Bruce Lee in the role. The '90s sequel series was just… inexplicable. Carradine playing his previous character’s grandson, also a Shaolin monk, who’s the unofficial partner of his son, a cop. (Making the cop, what?, a descendant of three generations of celibate monks? For some reason the show never went into that.) Starting with that awkward premise, the show became super weird. I recollect there was this whole backstory about this warlord dude with ninjas who thought the Shaolin monks should be warriors, who ends up burning down the temple and killing everyone but the protagonists, but instead of taking place in, say, 18th century China, it was supposed to take place in 1970s California. Also, at some point the show became about the protagonists fighting… the (Christian) devil. Yeah. Somehow that shit lasted for four seasons, until the producer went out of business.

So this show can only be a huge improvement.

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He wasn’t celibate in the show? He had plenty of encounters with women in the show and family was an important component of the show…

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I have to say that wasn’t an element of the original show that stuck with me. But yeah, I guess the original character, essentially no longer a monk, having children made sense - Carradine as the grandmaster grandson having a son… not so much.

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Captain Kangaroo did kung fu? :see_no_evil:

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I did watch the original run rather recently, so… that’s why I’m remembering it.

But are Shaolin monks celibate? I didn’t think that was a common feature of East Asian Buddhist monastic culture like it is now in Catholic monastic culture?

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Buddhist monks are not generally celibate as I recall, although I don’t know about Shaolin specifically.

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Did anyone else spend every episode of the original trying to figure out why Caine is white? Was there ever any explanation or back story that I missed?

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The final words of the ad: “only on the CW app.

So it still exists . . . as an app.

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Still around as a broadcast channel, too.

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Huh. You’re right. And there’s one in my area too.

And if they start broadcasting this show I may even watch.

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scheduled to start airing on CW television on April 7, 2021.
followed by season 2 of Nancy Drew.

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If only the solution to all of life’s complex problems was violence.

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18 Out the Door

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his reward was to be kicked out of his home and forced to live on the road.

My kids struggle with that one too… although the only mastery we require here is “High School”… clock’s ticking there, children…

I had a Swiss intern who showed up with a shaved head like mine; he was confused when all the British contractors started calling him “grasshopper”. Maybe now he’ll finally figure it out… :slightly_smiling_face:

And I’ve used the “when you can snatch the pebble from the master’s hand” line with lots of young wanna-be IT masters… :grin:

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