What One Movie Got You Into This Genre

[justkungfuman]

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...

[fabhui]

Big Boss and Enter The Dragon....Watched them both pretty much back to back when I was 5yrs old thanks to my Grandad!
:hat

[Squid Lips]

I had seen Enter The Dragon and the Chinese Connection a few times in theaters but all I really cared about was Bruce at that time. Then at 13 years old, I saw in San Francisco there was a double bill of The Young Dragon (Bruce's Fingers) and Seven Commandments Of Kung Fu. I thought I was seeing a new Bruce Lee film but instead found a whole new genre....

[peringaten]

Encounters Of The Spooky kind on the telly box back in the early '90s.

[ironfistedmonk2003]

I had seen the Bruce Lee movies and the odd 80's Jackie Chan film on TV as a kid but I have to thank the makers of the film Drive with Mark Dacascos for getting me into this. I saw it on TV here in the UK and thought it was pretty good so I bought the VHS, on there were trailers for Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagles Shadow and New Dragon Gate Inn and I was blown away by the action so I tracked down those films and the rest is history.

[FiveSwords]

It would have to be "Enter The Dragon" in the late 70s/early 80s. I remember a group of 8-12 year olds standing around talking about how cool "kung fu movies" were and how stupid you were if you never saw ETD. Needless to say, I had to go home and ask mom to rent the VHS immediately. :)

[Chen Zhen]

The Big Boss

[morgoth]

Ninja Hunter

[Egocentrik1]

The crush....my very first kung film

[morgoth]

Alicia Silverstone?

[Markgway]

Sorry to be boring, but... Enter the Dragon.

[morgoth]

Boring!

[stormybman]

Five Fingers of Death! The title alone just screams violence, man!!! This was my intro into the genre and I'm ever so thankful. Shaw Bros. in international releases gave me that and Sacred Knives of Vengeance, (aka The Killer). :hat


"Will you tell me what Teacher died of?..."

[GwaiLoMoFo]

"Fist Of Fury" ... first fu flick I watched.

[Hellswindstaff]

Fist of Fury!!

HWS.

[mpm74]

Staying Alive!

[vengeanceofhumanlanterns]

Five Fingers Of Death and Seven Blows Of The Dragon.

[killer meteor]

Game Of Death

[monwobobbo]

seeing ENTER THE DRAGON at the theater when it came out. that was the coolest movie i'd seen for action at the time.

[theportlykicker]

Way of the Dragon- I watched it everyday for like 2 weeks after I bought it. I was hooked.

[academy]

Prodigal Son

[dragon herb]

Big Boss

[Chinatown Kid]

I first started watching these movies when I was about 11 or 12 on tv on the weekly Blackbelt Theatre feature, can't remember the first one I saw but think it might have been The Savage Five. They showed a wide variety of films from Shaw, Bruce Li, Billy Chong, even a German made movie shot in Madrid starring Christian Anders titled Roots of Evil. Then I got a VCR and saw all of Bruce's films(Even bought Enter the Dragon which was expensive as hell back then, had a Beta vcr) and from then on I was off and running!

[kungfusamurai]

I don't remember. Just a whole bunch of Shaw Bros and Bruce Li films were playing on a Saturday afternoon back in the day, and I got hooked.

What got me back in the genre hardcore wasn't watching all of the Jackie Chan flicks they started showing here, like Rumble In The Bronx. And it wasn't the Five Venoms & Five Fingers of Death releases either, although I snatched those up quickly when I saw them.

It was the Ground Zero releases of those venoms films, plus Shaolin Vs Lama. I didn't realize the Venoms actors had made so many movies as a group. After that, there was no turning back.

KFS

[JustAFan]

Back in the late 80's an uncle and cousin let me stay up late and watch Five Fighters From Shaolin. Still love that movie.

[moviegyrl]

Although I probably saw a couple of Bruce's flicks as a toddler, the one film that "got me into this genre" was an old Polly Shang Kuan pic, RETURN OF THE KUNG FU DRAGON (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075133/). 'Watched it on Saturday late-night TV, "Martial Arts Theater," hosted by a local radio DJ who portrayed a less-than-politically-correct character named "Charlie Lumm." Seeing Jackie's films, on this program, cemented my interest in the genre!

[morgoth]

Haha, you kinda sound like me moviegyrl. I don't remember the name of the first kung fu movie I saw but I remember it was all outdoor locations and all the guys had their shirts off every fight. The fights were good and brutal and I remember everybody was always very dirty. The next saturday night I had my VCR ready and I watched and taped Ninja Hunter. That was the greatest movie that I had ever seen and it only took about a year for that tape to break.

[falkor]

followed by Born Invincible!

[raider yang]

Boxer Rebellion!

[the golden dragon]

1973 Rochester New York. My ex wife and I thought we would see some kung fu movies having never seen one we had no idea what to expect.

Holy Kung Fu Movies Batman.

We were both BLOWN AWAY!!!!!:D

The rest is history.

The three movies we saw were.

1. The Big Boss.........Bruce Lee

2. A Dragon Lee period piece. Don't no the title.

3. Five Fingers Of Death............Lo Lie

GD

:rollin

[killer meteor]

A Dragon Lee film in 1973? I don't think he was around then - was the name being used that far back?

[Mr Dragula]

Like many here, my initial introduction to Martial Arts films was Enter the Dragon in the mid 80's. Yet it wasn't till some years later when stumbling upon an old beat up vhs of 36th Chamber of Shaolin that I became completely enamored with the genre.

[Barsader]

Well my first views were Bruce films, then Bruce Li,but that
did not get me hooked.I was just thinking Bruce Lee movies
in a basic manner.

Then along came the costumes,sets,familiar faces, and of course awesome action in the likes of the Venoms and
"That bald headed monk"(Gordon Liu) that got me truy hooked.

[monwobobbo]

golden dragon i think you got the year wrong. no dragon lee til later in the 70s. i'm from rochester as well and went to the same show you mentioned. the movie was THE REAL BRUCE LEE so it has to be later.

[the golden dragon]

I checked Hong Kong Cinemagic Dragon Lee's first film they listed was in 1976.

This makes me wonder what on earth I saw.

Oh well. Thanks for the clarification Killer.

GD

[Le Peril Jaune]

Young Dragons.

[Iron Boat]

5 Masters of Death...aka...5 Shaolin Masters, saw it as a kid in the 70s and never forgot it....

[TheDrunkenRabbit]

Yup, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon. These just sparked my interest, but Sho Kosugi and Enter the Ninja created the Monster.

[Cesare]

I suppose that "Hong Kil Dong" has lit the very first spark... It was one of my most beloved flicks when I was a small kid.
But it was "The Five Venoms" that really made me a fan - y'know, the kind of person who actively searches for all this stuff. Haven't got much further than a little bit of Chang Cheh so far (not that I complain, I've loved those Chang Cheh films I have seen - just got to adore that high homosocial factor in them), but I'm working on it...;-)

[Dahnamics]

Master of the Flying Guillotine

also affectionately known on this site as "MOTFG"

[WalkOn]

I was actually hooked before I actually watch my first kf flic. With all the buz about Chinese Professional (One Armed Boxer), Five Fingers of Death (King Boxer), Fists of Fury (Big Boss) and Chinese Connection (Fist of Fury) I knew I'd be hooked!

My first movie was Duel of the Iron Fist and I never looked back....

[jrcma]

Well alot of non-film reasons as well if we're talking about the Martial Arts genre as a whole then i'm not sure cos i saw MA in hollywood films as well also i'm nt sure what got me in2 MA.
But 4 asian MA films it's some like this i got in2 Jackie Chan from his cartoon but i was only like 7 so i was a Chan fan & watched Rush hour was 1st & then some others when i was 11 or 12 Jackie's Police story was on tv which i record but i didn't know where i could get these films so it wasn't until the HKL magazine with Drunken Master came out. So i would say Police story & Drunken Master.

[thedirtytiger]

Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin - especially the opening credits !

[jkl]

The Big Boss !! :)

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

No ONE movie...! But the earliest I can remember watching, was WHEELS ON MEALS, KING BOXER and THE 36th CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN!

[Kaal]

It started with Mr Nice Guy when it was shown on tv, like 7 years ago. After i saw that one i watched more and more Jackie Chan movies and i began to like his old ones like Snake In The Eagles Shadow. When i saw that one i wanted to find more movies with Hwang Jang Lee and Yuen Siu Tien etc and that's how i got into the genre :)

[Yi-Long]

I think it was Kickboxer, which I saw at a sleepover at my nephew's birthday. After that I got interested in martial arts, and also martial arts movies. My chinese neighbours next door often had kung fu movies, so occasionally I could borrow a tape, plus a turkish neighbour introduced me to Bruce Lee movies (Fist of Fury and Game of Death).

[The Dragon]

Five Fingers of Death (King Boxer).

:nerd:

After that, I lost it.

[Gaijin84]

John Woo's "The Killer" opened the door to the entire genre of Hong Kong film, 36th Chamber locked me in.

[DeathShrike]

Rumble in the Bronx when I was 15.

[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.

[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!

[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.

:nerd:

[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.:ooh:

[The Silver Fox]

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

[thehangman]

enter the dragon

[MonkeyPlanet]

The Big Boss, Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon.

[Fang Shih-yu]

My first, period, was "Enter the Dragon".... My first Shaw Brothers was "Come Drink with Me".... My first Fu Sheng was "Heroes Two".... My first Jackie Chan was "Rumble in the Bronx".... My first Sammo Hung was "Warriors Two".... I could go on, but then, I'd wouldn't have time to watch more martial arts movies! :nerd:

[IronFist]

Probably 1 or 2 movies that I can remember as a kid seeing at the Drive-in
Hot,Cool and the Vicious
Five Fingers of Death aka King Boxer

:squigglemouth:

[sysifos]

My first MA movie was probably Enter the Dragon when I was maybe 11-12 years old. However I didn't really get hooked on the genre until last year when I discovered the Shaw Brothers films with 36th Chamber of Shaolin.

[danthemandmv]

I'd have to say''THE DELINQUENT''aka''STREET GANGS OF HONG KONG''(first saw it back in the spring of '82 on HBO.)

[Winfred]

Jimmy Wang Yu's Tiger Boy started it all for me. I remember going to watch it for Margaret Tu Chuan but Jimmy Wang Yu impressed me the most in it.

[sigis1]

Seeing Bruce Lee in Fists of Fury (Big Boss) at the Melba Theater in the Bronx NYC.

[kungpowmaster]

Hmm.... I've always liked martial arts films, and watched them as a kid, but I think what more recently got me "into" it was the advent of DVDs, and a Tang/Ho ninja film, I got on some cheap Kung Fu set, which set into motion my greater interest and collection.

[SunChien]

For me it was 5 Fingers of Death, saw it for the first time in 1992, my cousin gave me a tape with some cartoons,wrestling and this was on the last part of it. Me and my brother watched that film almost every day.