Here at the frontier, the leaves fall like rain. Although my neighbors are all barbarians, and you, you are a thousand miles away, there are still two cups at my table.
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life.
~ Wu-men ~
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Who Needs Fiction: David Carradine's Kung Fu Workout
It's no wonder the Order of the Avenging Dragon of the Imperial Guards of the Dragon Throne had it out for him ...
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Hi Rick,
Pretty goofy... imparting so many secrets at once.
I remember really enjoying the Kung Fu television series as a kid. Its popularity kind of went to his head, I guess, or maybe he just decided to take advantage of people's gullibility and make some bucks.
I have read that at first, he didn't know nothing but the name of kung fu. Eventually, he loved it, and went to China and learned from real masters the real deal.
He doesn't say much in the video. It's goofy, with no accuracy at all. Just basic moves and positions, very high, by the way. In the horse stance, your thighs are almost horizontal.
I can point to the made for tv movie which was the pilot for rhe original series, "Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon" as starting me down a path I've been following for almost 40 years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that that movie changed my life.
Yes Carradine's Kung Fu did suck, but like Rick said at the time he was trying to make ends meet like everyone. There were sometimes in the course of things he did do some real training.
@ Pancho It would have happened anyway. Carradine was riding on the coat tails of Bruce Lee ... Regardless of the times, someone who would have came along and created that TV show, sooner or later.
@Zen At the expense of who?
q: What is real training? The stuff that is being shown on TV and on the web Or the stuff that is taught behind closed doors?
Historically, the real training was the stuff that was used in the military battlefield. It either worked or it didn't.
@ Rick Kam Yuen took over for David Chan (or Chin).
Total bollocks. Carradine never had a clue and was fleecing tv fans who thought he was real. He never undertook serious practice ever and in teh end was a drunk and a deviant. He was nothing at all like a shaolin in any way shape or form. Just a crappuy ham actor who happened to make a hippy hit tv show.
13 comments:
Hi Rick,
Pretty goofy... imparting so many secrets at once.
I remember really enjoying the Kung Fu television series as a kid. Its popularity kind of went to his head, I guess, or maybe he just decided to take advantage of people's gullibility and make some bucks.
Regards
Like the rest of us, he was trying to make a living.
I have read that at first, he didn't know nothing but the name of kung fu. Eventually, he loved it, and went to China and learned from real masters the real deal.
He doesn't say much in the video. It's goofy, with no accuracy at all. Just basic moves and positions, very high, by the way. In the horse stance, your thighs are almost horizontal.
As I recall, after the original series, he tried to distance himself from martial arts. "I'm just a dancer."
His career didn't go much of anywhere except when he was associated with kung fu. He decided to go with the flow I guess.
To some, Carradine's was a freaky disgrace to the martial arts community.
... But still a person whose loved ones miss.
Compass Architect: However, he encouraged a lot of young people to practice chinese martial arts and the philosophy involved.
I think that that is very valuable.
I can point to the made for tv movie which was the pilot for rhe original series, "Kung Fu: The Way of the Tiger, the Sign of the Dragon" as starting me down a path I've been following for almost 40 years. It would not be an exaggeration to say that that movie changed my life.
:-)
I recall the Star trek Kung Fu suits.
Shifu hated those and complained alot!
Yes Carradine's Kung Fu did suck, but like Rick said at the time he was trying to make ends meet like everyone. There were sometimes in the course of things he did do some real training.
Zen: isn't Kam Yuen, the second fight coordinator for the original series, a senior teacher in your style of Mantis kung fu?
@ Pancho
It would have happened anyway. Carradine was riding on the coat tails of Bruce Lee ... Regardless of the times, someone who would have came along and created that TV show, sooner or later.
@Zen
At the expense of who?
q: What is real training? The stuff that is being shown on TV and on the web Or the stuff that is taught behind closed doors?
Historically, the real training was the stuff that was used in the military battlefield. It either worked or it didn't.
@ Rick
Kam Yuen took over for David Chan (or Chin).
Total bollocks. Carradine never had a clue and was fleecing tv fans who thought he was real. He never undertook serious practice ever and in teh end was a drunk and a deviant. He was nothing at all like a shaolin in any way shape or form. Just a crappuy ham actor who happened to make a hippy hit tv show.
I prefer my memories of the show to watching the occassional reruns that pop up from time to time. He's just too painful to watch.
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