"The Invincible Kung Fu Guy" International Theatrical Poster
Director: Will Martin
Writer: Will Martin
Cast: Elise Beller, Dee Chilcote, Randy Foster, Rohana Kenin, Ralf Langenheim, Will Martin, Dave Matucha, Rip Reed, Nick Ridge, Ethan Schutz, David Swagerty, Julie Yoon
Running Time: 23 min.
By JJ Hatfield
Everyone who has seen old school martial art movies must see this film! In fact the more old movies you have watched you will find this very funny or fall down laughing. It’s damn near perfect – now how can you go wrong with that?
Do not expect any grand performers or great acting but it is good enough. One aspect that really adds to the movie is the attention to detail. These people show a great knowledge of these movie classics and sincere fondness for the genre. This is not a work of art but they know the routine! There are so many gag jokes I lost count!
The plot is timeless. A good young man trying to perform a heroic duty is stopped by a villain trying to obtain medicine for the dreaded Tiger Fever for his own evil purposes. The young man is told if he will give over the Tiger Fever cure he will be allowed to live. He won’t be killed. The Hero fights bravely but is beaten by the villain who steals the Tiger Fever cure and there is only one batch left!
Meanwhile the older brother is also ambushed by those who think he has the Tiger Fever cure. He fights fiercely and beats them all. Suddenly younger brother appears dragging his wounded body to reach his brother and tell him the truth about the Tiger Fever and who killed their… aaggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Well maybe not.
The new Hero swears intensely he will get the Tiger Fever cure to the village where millions of lives are at stake!
The movie is played as a complete spoof of the basic old school plots. I In fact I have seen films that were meant to be straight forward that are worse than this deliberate spoof! People die, someone swears revenge, trains, does a huge community service, fights villains with plenty of twists and betrayals.
It even has out takes!
Think of it as the movie you never made but were going to once and had all the plans ready but lack of numbers of even semi skilled fighters much less actors and you could only come up with $800.00.
And speaking of fighters this group did a damn good job. It was intended to be old school moves but these are not stunt people. It’s one thing to know martial arts and another not to accidentally make contact or full contact. All things considered the fighting came across just as it should in this kind of movie.
This is a truly hilarious film!!!
The movie itself runs about 28 minutes but the group manages to turn in great typical kung fu type action using sincere total amateurs. Everyone will recognize the humor easily and enjoyably. If you don’t like this film you have no sense of humor.
But wait there is more! A Trailer for Invincible Kung Fu Guy and notes on the productions, sets, costumes and music.
And if that is not enough there is also another spoof included – Estatuary Hounds! I can’t say it is as laugh out loud funny as Invincible Kung Fu Guy, but it is an amusing watch if you are familiar with… nope you will have to figure it out for yourselves.
Buy this one because you will want to see it again and it makes a great movie for opening on movie night!
JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 8.5/10
Where can I find this film? I know hkflix used to carry it… sounds like something I would like.
I’m looking for it. I thought Amazon would have a few used if nothing else but they don’t show it and i’m still checking around. I will find it, a lot of people are suddenly interested. I have some ideas but haven’t been able to contact anyone. Not on the major auctions that I could find either.
I bought a VHS copy off eBay back in 1999.
Don’t know if it was later sold on DVD or not.
The name of the eBay seller was Casey Foster.
Maybe Casey is a relative of Randy Foster (So Yee Lung / Eyepatch)?
I thought the movie was mildly amusing.
The back/bottom of the VHS case said to be sure to see Estuary Hounds. I never got to see that one though.
It looks like I’m a little late to this, but I did a google search of ol’ IKFG for kicks and came across this thread, which is pretty neat! Thanks JJ! 🙂
If anyone is interested in my Invincible Kung Fu Guy/Estuary Hounds DVD, I have a number left. Note that they are professionally pressed/ink-printed/packaged DVDs, are not home-burned. Cost is $6+shipping (I recommend cheap-o USPS, about $1.70 these days I think). As said in the top post here, the DVD contains the two movies (23mins+28mins), the KungFuGuy trailer, and a bunch of my blabbing in some “Director’s Notes.”
SuperNinja: Thanks for taking a chance on my little movie back in ’99. 🙂 I did the DVD in ’03.
Thanks again to JJ for the wonderful review! 🙂 I’ll check back to this thread as replies come in of course since, yes, my DVD is pretty off the radar now that wonderful ol’ HKFlix is gone (R.I.P.!) and I’ve been too busy with other things (like practicing with LightWave+MaxwellRender) to make an IKFG DVD website for “this old stuff”…even though I still have fun with it when it’s resurrected. 🙂
I’ll shut up now. Cheers!
-Will
Master Will,
I would like to buy a couple of the DVD’s, if you still have any.
Hi SuperNinja!
I indeed have copies to sell. Since you’ve proven that you bought IKFG on VHS way-back-when, I’ll do an *upgrade* of that copy for you, knock off a few bucks. 🙂 So, let’s say $10 including shipping. for the couple o’ the IKFG DVDs. Cool?
I work at a movie theatre (big surprise, eh?) in the SF/Bay Area, and unless you just happen to live very close and want to snag them in person I recommend you just mail the $10 to me via there to keep things secure-ish as far as our posting a bunch of personal contact info here that bots can grab. So, I work at the *Orinda Theatre*, here’s the mailing address for you (or anyone else for the time being) to send payment:
Orinda Theatre c/o Will Martin
4 Theatre Sq.
Orinda, CA 94563
If any of you like historic theatres, do a google image search of my workplace (which has been kept in nice shape). 🙂
Note1: Mentioning for kicks, Casey Foster isn’t related to Randy.
Note2: A reiteration that Estuary Hounds is indeed included on this DVD.
Bye for now!
Hello again Master Will,
Before I send payment, do you have any more goodies to sell?
And do you have a website where where fans can be updated for future blockbuster hit movies/stuff?
“Do you have any more goodies to sell?”
It took me so long make those two films that I retreated a bit I’m sorry to say. Still, I’ve been trying to keep my filmmaking skills sharpened on little various technical projects of sorts (including writing, editing projects, CG exercises), but thus far nothing assembled in a complete (new) film. Let’s see in a few years if I’ve succeeded in corralling all this into something big/new. Maybe… 🙂
“Do you have a website where where fans can be updated for future blockbuster hit movies/stuff?”
Since the crux of my website was my (old) films and I got very few hits/emails regarding them as time wore on, it just kind of dissolved, I didn’t bother renewing it when things expired a few years ago. I wish of course to do a new site if/when I get something new together whenever that may be. On an interesting side-ish note, one of the owners of HKFlix (in its heyday) and I became good pals thanks to my little DVD. We hang out often. 🙂
Well, instead of eating up this site’s bandwidth with our chat feel free to send a go-ogly ma-il my way starting with “7777will7777” if you get the code I’m trying to use. 😉
Thanks for the interest, SuperNinja! Now for me to buy Death Grip that I just learned about…
Do you still have copies of this movie??
HEY! 🙂 i need this movie..
could someone please ‘sprend’ the dvd-image to me?!
i’ll pay 6 USD for the trouble!
Hi eos
I didn’t see your reply until now, sorry! I just replied to a post by SuperNinja above with info that might be of use to you as far as acquiring a copy of the DVD, so have a look at that if you’re still interested. 🙂
-Will