Kung Fu - The Complete First Season
starring: David Carradine, Brandon Cruz, Lara Parker, John Saxon, Philip Ahn
directed by: Alex Beaton, Allen Reisner, Barry Crane, Charles S. Dubin, Gordon Hessler
directed by: Alex Beaton, Allen Reisner, Barry Crane, Charles S. Dubin, Gordon Hessler
List Price: $39.98
Prices subject to change.
Price: $15.99
You Save: $23.99 (60%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Product Description:
Movie DVD
Amazon.com:
Everybody was kung-fu fighting after the 1972 premiere of this mystic western starring David Carradine (snatching the role from Bruce Lee) in his signature, Emmy-nominated role as Caine, a stoic Shaolin monk forced to flee China after killing the royal family member who slew his Master. Our wandering hero roams the west in search of his long-lost brother, while eluding American and Imperial bounty hunters, and imparting his ancient wisdom on those he encounters and is compelled to aid. Kung-Fu was never a ratings force, but its cult status was assured long before Samuel L. Jackson referenced it in Pulp Fiction. Along with the inaugural 15 episodes, this three-disc set contains the feature-length pilot that establishes the series' iconography: the inscrutable aphorisms ("When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding"); the flashbacks to Caine's youth, where the orphaned half-American and half-Chinese boy served as disciple ("Grasshopper") to the Old Man; and, of course, the anticipated moments when the peaceful Caine, like Billy Jack, is reluctantly compelled by some frontier bigot to use his fighting skills. Look for appearances by father John Carradine and brothers Keith and Robert in the episode, "Dark Angel." That's 11-year-old future Oscar-winner Jodie Foster in "Althea." Other notable episodes include the Emmy-winning "An Eye for an Eye" and "Chains," featuring an Emmy-nominated turn by Michael Greene as a not-so-gentle giant to whom an imprisoned Caine is chained. "With each ending," Caine observes in the episode, "The Third Man," comes a new beginning." Kung Fu's new beginning comes on DVD. Thanks to the timeless frontier setting and the uniqueness of its genre-bending concept, Kung Fu dates better than other '70s series. As these episodes demonstrate, the show still has plenty of kick. --Donald Liebenson
Movie DVD
Amazon.com:
Everybody was kung-fu fighting after the 1972 premiere of this mystic western starring David Carradine (snatching the role from Bruce Lee) in his signature, Emmy-nominated role as Caine, a stoic Shaolin monk forced to flee China after killing the royal family member who slew his Master. Our wandering hero roams the west in search of his long-lost brother, while eluding American and Imperial bounty hunters, and imparting his ancient wisdom on those he encounters and is compelled to aid. Kung-Fu was never a ratings force, but its cult status was assured long before Samuel L. Jackson referenced it in Pulp Fiction. Along with the inaugural 15 episodes, this three-disc set contains the feature-length pilot that establishes the series' iconography: the inscrutable aphorisms ("When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding"); the flashbacks to Caine's youth, where the orphaned half-American and half-Chinese boy served as disciple ("Grasshopper") to the Old Man; and, of course, the anticipated moments when the peaceful Caine, like Billy Jack, is reluctantly compelled by some frontier bigot to use his fighting skills. Look for appearances by father John Carradine and brothers Keith and Robert in the episode, "Dark Angel." That's 11-year-old future Oscar-winner Jodie Foster in "Althea." Other notable episodes include the Emmy-winning "An Eye for an Eye" and "Chains," featuring an Emmy-nominated turn by Michael Greene as a not-so-gentle giant to whom an imprisoned Caine is chained. "With each ending," Caine observes in the episode, "The Third Man," comes a new beginning." Kung Fu's new beginning comes on DVD. Thanks to the timeless frontier setting and the uniqueness of its genre-bending concept, Kung Fu dates better than other '70s series. As these episodes demonstrate, the show still has plenty of kick. --Donald Liebenson
Related Items:
Browse for similar items by category:
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Action & Adventure » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Drama » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Drama » Television » General AAS
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Television » General
- VHS » DVD » Genres » Television » TV Series By Letter » K » Kung Fu
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Timeless lessons for new generations
The series Kung Fu has been in my mind since I watched it as a boy in the 1970's. It has never been re-run here to my knowledge, and so I am so happy to be able to purchase the entire series to share with my own children. For me the stories are also new so we all have the joy of walking with Caine and reflecting on lifes lessons with wise counsel.
While I hear the criticisms of shortening and cropping, and one of my discs arrived with a scratch on it, for me the messages in the stories are ... Read More
Rating: 
- Good series, but wrong image framing
Unfortunately, the image framing is not original, and severely impacts the content of this memorable work.
Whoever decided to alter the aspect ratio, basically missed the point of restoring and reissuing this or any other television series.
Please reissue on Blue Ray at the original aspect ratio. Don't damage the work this way.
Rating: 
- Strange Treasures These Episodes
In the basement of my parents house on a Thursday night in 1972 I was flipping through TV channels when I a sunburst appeared on the screen, and some vaguely Oriental sounding music boomed out of the TV, and a far off figure of a man trudged across the sand dune in a desert. I watched the pilot episode of Kung-Fu, and the mixture of fighting and philosophy was food for an 11 year old seeker.
Kung-Fu is the story of how a Shaolin priest comes to be in the post-Civil War American west. ... Read More
Rating: - Enter the Fugitive Priest....
"Kung Fu", featuring David Carradine as the fugitive Shaolin priest Kwai Chang Caine, was a TV phenomenon of the early 1970's and its martial arts craze.If the fighting scenes look less dramatic to audiences used to the high skills and special effects of today's martial arts movies, the gentle message of stoic tolerance holds up extremely with time.This DVD set contains the pilot TV movie and the 15 episodes which comprised the first season, along with a few extra features on the production of ... Read More
Rating: - The Price of Bigotry
Bruce Lee, the original choice for this series star, would have been so much better.Not only was Lee first pick, he was the mind behind the series!But in 1972, an Asian star on television?Unthinkable.And so we get this all too clearly American actor who fakes his Chinese-American origins with painfully slow speech, though he spouts genuine Buddhist philosophy.Granted, Carradine did later become a grand master, but his moves for the television had to be slowed, and his notorious arrogance ... Read More
- Timeless lessons for new generationsThe series Kung Fu has been in my mind since I watched it as a boy in the 1970's. It has never been re-run here to my knowledge, and so I am so happy to be able to purchase the entire series to share with my own children. For me the stories are also new so we all have the joy of walking with Caine and reflecting on lifes lessons with wise counsel.
While I hear the criticisms of shortening and cropping, and one of my discs arrived with a scratch on it, for me the messages in the stories are ... Read More
- Good series, but wrong image framingUnfortunately, the image framing is not original, and severely impacts the content of this memorable work.
Whoever decided to alter the aspect ratio, basically missed the point of restoring and reissuing this or any other television series.
Please reissue on Blue Ray at the original aspect ratio. Don't damage the work this way.
- Strange Treasures These EpisodesIn the basement of my parents house on a Thursday night in 1972 I was flipping through TV channels when I a sunburst appeared on the screen, and some vaguely Oriental sounding music boomed out of the TV, and a far off figure of a man trudged across the sand dune in a desert. I watched the pilot episode of Kung-Fu, and the mixture of fighting and philosophy was food for an 11 year old seeker.
Kung-Fu is the story of how a Shaolin priest comes to be in the post-Civil War American west. ... Read More
- Enter the Fugitive Priest...."Kung Fu", featuring David Carradine as the fugitive Shaolin priest Kwai Chang Caine, was a TV phenomenon of the early 1970's and its martial arts craze.If the fighting scenes look less dramatic to audiences used to the high skills and special effects of today's martial arts movies, the gentle message of stoic tolerance holds up extremely with time.This DVD set contains the pilot TV movie and the 15 episodes which comprised the first season, along with a few extra features on the production of ... Read More
- The Price of BigotryBruce Lee, the original choice for this series star, would have been so much better.Not only was Lee first pick, he was the mind behind the series!But in 1972, an Asian star on television?Unthinkable.And so we get this all too clearly American actor who fakes his Chinese-American origins with painfully slow speech, though he spouts genuine Buddhist philosophy.Granted, Carradine did later become a grand master, but his moves for the television had to be slowed, and his notorious arrogance ... Read More
