THE KUNG FU MASTER & REVENGE OF THE KUNG FU MASTER Starring Donnie Yen [GeekJuiceMedia] Miniseries

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During the mid-90s, martial arts star Donnie Yen made two highly popular period dramas with Hong Kong television studio ATV. The first is 1994's The Kung Fu Master , and the second is Fist of Fury , a 1995 television remake of Bruce Lee's classic film. The Kung Fu Master set a new standard for television at the time with its high production values, China location shooting, and of course, stunning action. Donnie Yen stars as popular folk hero Hung Hei Koon, the founder of the Hung Gar school of martial arts. The popular folk hero's exploits have been liberally dramatized in films like Jet Li's The New Legend of Shaolin and Chen Kuan Tai's Executioners from Shaolin , and Donnie Yen brings his own intense spin to the character. Nick Cheung ( Election ), who started his acting career with ATV, portrays another familiar name, Fong Sai Yuk. Young and impulsive, Hung Hei Koon (Donnie Yen) is always getting into fights in his eagerness to defend other people. His father (Poon Chi Man) serves as an official in the Qing court, but he is actually the leader of a revolutionary group aiming to overthrow the Qing Dynasty. A tragic end awaits his family when Hung Hei Koon's father's double identity is revealed. Determined to take revenge, Hung decides to go to Shaolin to undergo advanced martial arts training, befriending Fong Sai Yuk (Nick Cheung) along the way. A treacherous betrayal from a fellow disciple, however, brings Qing troops to the doors of Shaolin. The Kung Fu Master is another of Tai Seng Entertainments attempts to introduce Martial Arts television series to the west. Just like with The Master Swordsman and Assassin Swordsman they took a full series and edited it down into an extended movie. They did a much better job with The Kung Fu Master than they did with the previous two mentioned titles as The Kung Fu Master is more coherent as a movie. The original series is around twenty-two and a half hours long where both The Kung Fu Master and its sequel Revenge of the Kung Fu Master is just seven hours long. The Flying Guillotine makes an appearance in this series as does the Sun Moon Sect which is a popular fictional Wuxia Sect found in his novel The Smiling, Proud Wanderer Which also features heavily in the Swordsman Trilogy in the 90’s produced by Tsui Hark. The Kung Fu Master takes place during Qing Dynasty and is loosely based on the story of folk hero and legend Hung Hei-gun. It tells the tale of how he begins his rebellion to restore Han (Ming) over Manchurian (Ching) rule. Other famous folk legends make an appearance such as Wing Chun and the Shaolin Priest Sam Tak (or San Te) who was popularised by Gordon Liu in the 36 Chambers of Shaolin movies. The series is very fun to watch, the Tai Seng version offers original Cantonese Language as well as English Dubbed and English Subtitles. Despite having 16 hours chopped off of it the movie is still watchable and doesn’t leave that many unanswered questions unlike The Assassin Swordsman and The Master Swordsman where you could tell there are chunks missing from the story. It’s a fun series and you can definitely tell it was made in the 90’s with all the white powder flying about, but I’m a fan of 90’s martial arts so it was nostalgia for me. I can only hope that someday I will be able to watch the series in its entirety. During the mid-Nineties Hong Kong's ATV produced two episodic TV series, starring and choreographed by the inimitable Donnie Yen, The Kung Fu Master and Fist Of Fury. These have now been edited down from their original running times of 30-plus hours for the DVD market by Tai Seng and presented with English subtitles and audio for the first time. This two-disc set, running some 217 minutes, represents the latter two-thirds of The Kung Fu Master series, with the first instalment, running two hours, having been released by Tai Seng under its original name. Set against the familiar backdrop of conflict between the Ming and Ching/Qing dynasties, the series re-tells the well-known story of Hung Hei Kwun, the founder of the Hung Gar style of kung fu, while also mixing in several other legendary figures and events from its broad historical period, including Fong Sai Yuk (The Legend/Fong Sai Yuk), Pa Mai (Executioners From Shaolin, Fists Of The White Lotus, Kill Bill, etc) and the destruction of the Shaolin Temple (Burning Of The Red Lotus Monastery, Shaolin Temple, Burning Paradise, etc). The Kung Fu Master saw Hei Kwun return home after many years absence with the intention of joining the Sun Moon Sect, a patriotic group dedicated to the overthrow of the Ching and the restoration of the Ming, whose leader, the Red Dragon, turns out to be his father, Hung Tin Nam. Unfortunately the sect's attempt to assassinate the Ching emperor failed, with the Red Dragon being killed. Revenge Of The Kung Fu Master thus picks up the action, with Hei Kwun out for revenge. Along with his friends Ko Chun Chung and Chi Gun, Hei Kwun seeks entry to the Shaolin Temple. The