Who started watching Kung Fu in the theaters?

[Squid Lips]

The other poll got me thinking about the fans on this board and who has been following the genre back before there was actually a video player.

I was young at the time no doubt but at 9 years old I would go to see Kung Fu films with an older (13 years old) friend at the theaters. Only the coolest guy in town had a video player and they were as big as the TV. I would catch some great original subtitled films in Chinatown in San Francisco like Dragon, The Hero, Bruce's Fingers, Mad Monkey Kung Fu, Invincible Shaolin, The Real Bruce Lee (at an English theater), Rage Of The Dragon, Seven Commandments Of Kung Fu, Invincible Kung Fu Legs, The Hot, The Cool And The Vicious, etc. etc.

When VHS and beta first came out I spent $50 on Enter The Dragon and The Real Bruce Lee but later realized there was Ocean Shores videos I could rent down the street (about 15 of them) and connect VCRs with my neighbor to copy them.

So who here was around or introduced to the films back when they were actually only being shown on the big screen?

[teako170]

Saw a bunch of stuff in/around Times Square from 1978/81. Lots of Brucesploitation/ Blaxploitation stuff, some SB, GH. Can't recall any exact titles but this was my first excursion into the genre before getting hooked on Black Belt Theater around 81/82.

[rdenn]

i was to young to go to late night over here in the uk, but when i went to jamaica in 1983 i saw tiger over the wall & 2 bruce li movies, i will never ever forget that night, to see the crowd in jamaica react to kung was mindblowin

[justkungfuman]

Actually,First Kung Fu movies I saw was at a Drive-in theater.
Water Margin and Fearless Fighters. I was probably 9 or 10 years old. First Kung Fu movie I can remember seeing at a in door theater was Hero Tattoo and Nine Dragons. I saw many original dubbed Shaw Brothers movies at the same theater. Here are some of the names of movies;
Shaw Brother's;
Flag of Iron
Five Deadly Venoms
Kung Fu Instructor
Masked Avengers
Super Ninjas
Avenging Eagle
Heroes of The East
36th Chamber of Shaolin
Shaolin Mantis
Executioners From Shaolin
Shaolin Temple
The Chinese Boxer
The New One-Armed Swordsman
The Deadly Duo
Boxer From Shantung
King Boxer
Shaolin Martial Arts
Chinatown Kid
Cripple Avengers
Shaolin Rescuers
Two Champions Of Shaolin
The Kid With The Golden Arms
The Magnificient Ruffians
The Flying Guillotine
The Daredevils
Shaolin Prince
Shaolin Intruders
8 Diagram Pole Fighters
Theres more but here are some I remember.....
Non Shaw;
Snake in Eagles Shadow
Monkey Kung Fu
Snake in Monkeys Shadow
Spirtual Kung Fu
Bloody Tattoo
Raiders of Wu Tang
I'll add more later, time to go to work...

[monwobobbo]

i did. back in the day (70s) we had a couple of grindhouse style theaters that showed kung fu. i went to mostly bruceploitation films not knowing that it wasn't really bruce.

[shukocarl]

Jan 1974! Fist of Fury was my first and Kickboxer (1989?) was probably my last....:\

[dbtb]

I fall into that demographic. Being in S.F. we had 7 theatres just in the Chinatown area. I have friends that went to see 4 or 5 features every weekend. All the Shaws were shown at the Great Star, later the Golden Harvests at Palace (later Pagoda), independents at Sun Sing and Bella Union, b/w operas and cantonese films at Grandview and World, 2nd run american films at Times. Later when dubbed kung fu films came out, you had to run downtown to Market street to catch those.

[Squid Lips]

Hey Dbtb.... Remember these in San Francisco? When Bruce Le was "Asia's New Number One Superstar"?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v424/TheRanchHand/KungFuAd001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v424/TheRanchHand/KungFuAd003.jpg

[dbtb]

heh heh- nice memoribilia. Never was much of a fan of Bruce knock off films. but I recall seeing Five Fingers of Death and Triple Irons at the Warfield. I also remember a bunch of us piling into a car to ride out to serramonte to see our buddy Gary Fung in Kill Squad.

[sikmao]

i am also from this era! my first flick was "5 fingers", in Bklyn, Ny. then, a few years later, i was introduced to the scene down in Chinatown!!! it was pretty glorious, having that experince!!
then, when i came out to Cali, i saw "Sword stained" & "Opium & the Kung Fu Master", @ the Sun Sing theater, in San Fran's Chinatown. that was VERY COOL!!!

[mormovies]

My first time was GAME OF DEATH during its first run. It was double billed with Chiba's CHAMPION OF DEATH. Then I saw a reissue of FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH and I was hooked for life!

[Brigadier Chow]

There were a few theaters in Brooklyn in the late 70's to early 80's where I grew up that showed Kung Fu all day and night. I saw many Shaw Brothers (including 5 Venoms... All Men are Brothers...Five Superfighters), many Bruce Expliotations (Bruce and the Iron Finger ... Dynamo...3 Avengers), and many others ( A Hard Way to Die... Crack Shadow Boxers...Legend of a Fighter). After that faded out, I went to Times Square and Chinatown to get my fix.

[the golden dragon]

I saw my fisrts kung fu movies in Rochestor New York 1973.

Then when I lived in Boston in the 80's I visted all the theators in Chinatown.

We also had two theators in the combat zone also which set right near Chinatown.

The Pagoda and a dive that palyed triple headers.

Those were the days, you would spend four hours having your mind blown by these movies.

The crowd was raucous in the dive theator screaming and hollering at the screen espeically when things got brutal.

An amazing experiance to say the least.

GD

[iron flag]

I used to go to 42nd St with my friends a lot between 81 & 83 if I remember correctly. There was a double feature theater and a triple feature theater. We'd bring some blunts and a bottle of liquor and spend the day there...Those were the days!!!

[teako170]

I used to go to 42nd St with my friends a lot between 81 & 83 if I remember correctly. There was a double feature theater and a triple feature theater. We'd bring some blunts and a bottle of liquor and spend the day there...Those were the days!!! Times Sq was out of control back then! I was never a smoker but if you wanted a contact buzz, just go to any theater and the whole place would be like one huge bong. Nowadays, from my understanding, Times Sq is like Disneyland - my how time changes things. :rollin

Never been to the Star but I'm sure some Bay Area boys will enjoy these scans that Victor Lim sent me many years back.

http://www.teako170.com/gst1.jpg
http://www.teako170.com/gst2.jpg
http://www.teako170.com/gst3.jpg
http://www.teako170.com/gst4.jpg
http://www.teako170.com/gst5.jpg

[Squid Lips]

Very nice!

The Great Star is where I saw The Dragon, The Hero, Seven Commandments Of Kung Fu and Mad Monkey Kung Fu.

[edher08]

I started watching Kung fu movies in theaters, drive in, etc when i was a little kid. Sp many good memories of my Uncle taking me and my 4 cousins to the Drive in and after we watched the movie, we cameback home to try to emulate the moves we saw on screen.
Some of the movies i saw: Enter the Dragon, Return of the Dragon, Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, Master with Cracked Fingers, Return to the 36th Chamber, Dragon Lord and some others who hooked me into Kung Fu from that day until now.

[dbtb]

Thx for sharing those teako. I posted these before but here they are again

http://img296.imageshack.us/img296/1916/ncflyereo3.jpg

http://img463.imageshack.us/img463/7262/smaflyerib1.jpg