Kung Fu - The Complete Third Season
by Gordon Hessler, Robert Totten, Alex Beaton, Lee Philips, Walter Doniger
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DVD Cover Information
Director: Alex Beaton, Gordon Hessler, Lee Philips, Robert Totten, Walter DonigerBrand: Warner Brothers
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 1221 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of Kung Fu - The Complete Third Season
Movie Review: A Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
The first season was good, the second was great, and the third and final season made the show a legend.
If you start at the beginning of this season, and I know you will, you'll be disappointed for a few episodes. They had to get their groove back or something. And then, with no gradual transition whatsoever, the writing will leap into the stratosphere and remind you why you love this show. It is simply awesome, and it isn't dated.
One thing they did at the start of this season was try to raise the level of menace on the martial arts, but it was already there.
At times, the verbal sparring was even better than the kung fu, and you know how great that was.
I've written before that you should use superlatives sparingly, and one memorable essay mentioned car horns in China. I could have instead mentioned Kwai Chang Caine's gold silks. When he puts those on, it's clobberin time!
In my review of the second season, I realized that I'd never seen Caine eat with chopsticks. And just to remain so petty, he does it here, and he eats just fine. Hey, I lived in China for 6 years. I notice these things.
When I ordered these DVDs, I envisioned using them in my class, encouraging my students to point out the inaccuracies because they'd be hyper-motivated to do so. In English, which is what I was teaching. But the timing was a little off, as I quit teaching that class a few weeks before I got these DVDs.
Oh well. Looking over it myself, the inaccuracies are minor. Master Kan should in fact be called Master Chen, for example. But the big details, which are why we love this show and why it's timeless, are absolutely spot on. KUNG FU remains a rare classic that, to the best of my knowledge, American TV hasn't equaled and probably never will.
Summary of Kung Fu - The Complete Third Season
While it may not rank with Richard Kimble's fateful meeting with the One-Armed Man in the series finale of The Fugitive, Caine's reunion with his long-lost brother, Danny, brings Kung Fu, to quote the title of the four-episode story arc's conclusion, "Full Circle." The series' rich iconography and episodes featuring returning characters may make this final season heady going for newcomers. But those who have faithfully followed Caine (David Carradine in his iconic role) on his nomadic adventures will be richly rewarded with some of the series' best episodes. The season begins with a stellar two-parter, "Blood of the Dragon," in which Caine seeks the truth about his grandfather's murder, while Imperial assassins are dispatched to kill Caine. The venerable Patricia Neal guest-stars as the grandfather's iron-willed, cold-hearted former lover. Eddie Albert also stars as a doctor who sides with Caine. Other memorable guest stars this season include William Shatner broguing it up, Scotty-style, as a sea captain who arrives with an Imperial pardon for Caine (but at what cost?) in "A Small Beheading." Barbara Hershey portrays an aspiring Shoalin priest in the two-parter, "Besieged." In "The Brothers Caine," a pre-Airplane Leslie Nielsen is a ruthless magnate who puts a $10,000 price on Danny's head, making for an awkward reunion when Danny thinks that Caine is a bounty hunter. David's father, John, returns as blind preacher Serenity Johnson in "Ambush."This season was distinguished by innovative episodes set in China during Caine's "Grasshopper" tutelage. In "The Demon God," the youth, poisoned by a prince, experiences mystical visions of his older, wandering self, who is stung by a scorpion. In "The Thief of Chendo," young Caine's Master imagines an adventure for the aspiring priest. Two Carradine commentaries, and a near-hour long chronicle of Carradine's 30-years-on visit to a Shoalin monastery in China (an incredible journey that ends with Carradine's soulful rendition of "America the Beautiful") help to give Kung Fu a worthy DVD send-off. --Donald Liebenson
He is a man of peace in a violent land. He is Kwai Chang Caine schooled in the spirit-mind-body ways of the Shaolin priesthood by the blind avuncular Master Po and the stern yet loving Master Kan. Caine speaks softly but he hits hard. He lives humbly yet knows great contentment. He is the Old West's most unusual hero.System Requirements:Running Time 1221 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 012569681477 Manufacturer No: 68147
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