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Snake in late nights shadow

A brief journey back to spotlight the forgotten era of Late Night kung Fu Cinema.

The martial arts choreography in a typical modern day Hollywood action movie can seem generic in nature to the trained eye,American film directors have wasted no time in an attempt to repackage martial arts into instant kung fu noodles.

Chinese Blockbusters like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon,Moon Warriors, Barefoot Kid and Once upon a time in China,are upstaging Hollywood. Hollywood, not to be upstaged have bought in.

The rise in popularity of a new era in Asian cinema have made international Superstars out of Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.

There  now are many pretenders to the martial arts throne.Ong Bak star Tony Jaa, is re-igniting hardcore fans love of original fast moving martial arts action for the 21st century. Transporter and Crank action man Jason Statham is Hollywoods latest psudeu kung fu king for hire.

Hollywood’s fascination with kung fu took it to center stage in the high octane action movie The Matrix.Keano Reeves and co star Lawrence Fishburne were crash coursed in Wu Shu (a popular Chinese performing art) by Woo Ping Yeun,world renowned actor.kung fu choreographer and director.His movies have gone down in the kung fu hall of fame…One Armed Swordsman, Drunken Tai Chi,Drunken Master, IronMonkey, Broken Oath, Tai Chi master, Wing Chun. Born Invincible, Snuff Bottle Connection,The Invinclible Armour, Once Upon A Time In China, and Jet Li’s Fearless,all involved Woo Ping Yuen.

Woo Ping applied His kung fu expertise to Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill.Tarantino took an unashamed massive bite out of kung fu classic Fist of the White Lotus,Tarantino appeased true Kung Fu movie fans by casting White Lotus Star and Kung Fu legend Gorden Liu (Santa),as the White Lotus Priest.

Gordon Liu ‘the priest Santay’

In the 80′s Hollywood Put the power of martial arts action in the hands of Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Vandamme.

Martial arts screen giants, Liu Chai Liang , Gordon Liu,Casanova Wong, Fu Sheng, Yuen Biao, Hwang Jang Lee,Frankie Chan, and Leung Kar Yan waited in the wings for their time of worldwide recognition to come.

Only a few gained Hollywood superstardom, Jackie Chan became a one man film industry, as actor, director, and stuntman Chan occupied martial arts number one spot in many fans eyes. Other fans lost interest as Chan became more diluted and mainstream orientated.

Samo Hung, star and director of over 130 movies had some Hollywood success in the 90′s with CBS tv series Martial Law, which ran for 44 episodes over two seasons.

We would have to do some research,to discover a time when names like Gordon Liu and Casanova Wong were achieving cult status to the first generation of kung fu movie fans in the U.K. It’s Impossible to start unless we go back to the very beginning. Back in the 70′s a young British kid’s 1st taste of ‘Kung fu’ would have come from 3 sources:
1.David Carradine
2.The Water Margin
3.Monkey
The generation we refer to were too young to have witnessed Bruce Lee ‘s first screen appearance in the American tv series The Green Hornet, for the time being fans settled for lesser hero’s.

David Carradine fueled youngster’s initial interest in Martial arts with his part in the epic tv western series Kung Fu. Kung Fu was based on the tale of half Chinese runaway monk Cain and his misadventures in America.

Chinese and American bounty killers spelled trouble for Cain and trouble spelled KUNG FU FIGHTS!

“Kung fu is the ancient oriental art of self defence, if practiced by the untrained it could be dangerous Was the warning, Obviously the warning fell on deaf ears.

The swordplay of Lin Chun and Hu san-niang in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin inspired kids once again.

The ABC in Brixton ,which later became the Ace home of Late Night.

Masaaki Sakai the star of another Japanese tv series Monkey had children fascinated with his monkey magic and his comical pole fighting. Equally as fascinating was the overdubbed voices of Monkey Pigsy  and Sandy. These historic TV moments are the prequel to the genre known only to inside fans as LATE NIGHT.

30 years ago there was a buzz in school playgrounds amongst young black kids, their older brothers were already going to late night kung fu cinemas. Hearing about films  like Kung Fu vs Yoga, seemed too incredible to be for real. Kung fu films were not yet  available on VHS format.

One of the very first films on VHS was Sun Dragon, this legendary movie starred Billy Chong, a star of many late night classic’s. Sun Dragon also featured black kung fu actor Carl Scott, a hero to black kids well before the arrival of Billy Blanks (China O’brien) and his Taebo workouts.

To a lot of late night regulars, Bruce Lee was not just a legend  of the movie screen.Even though Lee was somewhat of a mainstream phenomenon, he was the pioneer of the martial arts Genre. His international success with films like Fist Of Fury ,The Big Boss,Way Of The Dragon, and Enter The Dragon increasd fans hunger for martial arts movies, and fuelled the surge of kung fu films flooding out of Hong Kong and China.

Before Bruce Lee things were pretty luke warm in the form of Warner Brothers ‘b’ rated karate mishaps, after Bruce Lee an unstoppable movement exploded! It is also widely recognised that Lee deserves credit for originating idea of the tv series Kung Fu, which was eventually starred by the late David Carradine.

There was a new breed of kung fu movie on the horizon, based on raw incredible action, taken much further than even Bruce Lee could have imagined, this kind of action had never seen before on screen, anywhere in the world. Films like Warriors Two, 18 Fatal Strikes, Rebellious Reign, Magnificent Butcher,  and Odd Couple represented this new era.

The new Late night audience swapped Bruce Lee for Beardy, Jackie Chan,and Sammo Hung,now the talk was Flash Legs, Silver Fox, Santa and SAM SEED THE DRUNKEN MASTER!

Odean Shepards Bush 1983 Home of Late Night.

Friday nights at The Odean Cinema on Shepards Bush was usually packed by 11.15pm,the young fans(mainly West Indian)waiting in anticipation for a double helping of kung fu film action.These were brand new films that you could not see anywhere else apart from late night film clubs, the cream of these films would not appear on video cassettes until 10 years later.

The Odean Shepards Bush, Odean Cinema Streatham,Ace Cinema Brixton Coronet Cinema Elephant and Castle, STUDIO 6&7 Cinema Lewisham,were some of the places that showed these legendary films, Shaolin Plot,Mad Monkey KungFu, Dreadnaught, 8 diagram pole 36th Chamber, Iron Bridge Kung Fu,Knockabout, Born Invincible, 18 Bronze men, Snake In The Monkeys Shadow, Iron Monkey , Invincible Iron Armour…this incredible list  goes on and on

The coronet as it is today…once home of LateNight.

Those who couldn’t keep up with the pace and fell asleep during film two were always woken up to shouts and cheers to an epic last fight scene.

It was when Golden Harvest’s PRODIGAL SON graced the screen the full impact of what was being shown really hit home. This was the pinnacle of kung fu motion picture artistery, the like’s of which had never been seen before.The virtuoso acting and martial arts genius of the late Chin-Ying Lam, the ferociousness of Frankie Chan, the all round  brilliant acting and acrobatic kung fu skills of Yuen Biao as Leung Chang the street brawler. These amazing combination of actors, along with the direction acting and choreographical skills of the legendary Samo Hung make this film number one all time late night classic second to none.

Leung Yee Tai and Leung Chang the street brawler

Odean Stretham home of Late Night

3:30 AM and the cinema would quickly empty, young people buzzing and talking about  what they’ve just seen as they poured out into the streets of Sheperds Bush Roundabout, sure enough as regular as clockwork the same guys perform early morning reenactments of the shaking eagle, sleeping fist, drunken mantis,and snake fist as the nights final curtain call, then its kebabs then night busses or the long walk home.

Of course all good things must come to an end and by 1987 these nights had their time and were over.

A retrospective view of Late night cinema happened briefly during the 90′s bringing kung fu to the hiphop generation schooled on Wu Tang Clan, but the golden era was well and truly over.

The posters featured have been kindly donated by Sifu Jack Kontou master of the Wing Chun style of kung fu and student of 30 years.He is also an avid kung fu film collector,and was a regular member of late night film clubs at the Coronet Cinema Elephant and Castle and the Odeon Shepards Bush in the 80′s.Most of the posters here represent the showing the cult movies for the very first time in the UK.Real cult history worth sharing.These seminal nights remain in the minds of many as PRICELESS!

written by Shottsmann

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