kungfucinema.com: 2003-2015
Many visitors to City on Fire will also no doubt be aware of kungfucinema.com, and are most likely asking the question of why the site has been offline since Sunday 11th July. Unfortunately it was confirmed by site owner Mark Pollard a couple of days ago that kungfucinema.com has been laid to rest, after 12 years online, due to personal reasons.
For myself, as I’m sure for many others, the closure of the site marks the end of an era. Having started in 2003, for the next 6 years the site was run by Mark, providing in-depth and entertaining reviews on kung fu movies both new and old. Personally, many of my DVD purchases of years gone by were based on Mark’s reviews. Having gotten into the genre in 1999, after purging myself on Hong Kong Legends and Eastern Heroes releases, kungfucinema came along at a time when sites like HKflix were just warming up, and Celestial had just began releasing remastered Shaw Brothers movies on DVD for the first time. The reviews and articles on kungfucinema were like an invaluable guide on what was worth picking up and what wasn’t.
In 2007, kungfucinema also gave me my very first writing gig. After having several e-mail exchanges with Mark, he took me on-board as a reviewer, and I took to sharpening my writing skills on a selection of Shaw Brothers movies. As fate would have it though, a few months later Mark became less and less active on the site, which was the end of an era in itself. In 2008 the reigns were handed over to Albert Valentin, whose arrival marked a noticeable shift of focus away from kung fu movies, and onto lesser known American martial arts B-movies from the 1990’s.
2008 also marked another significant event in the history of kungfucinema, as the most well established forum for talking kung fu movies on the internet, Kung Fu Fandom, made the switch from its previous incarnation and began being hosted through kungfucinema. Now going under the title of the Kung Fu Cinema Forum, in its new guise the community went from strength to strength, quickly becoming the home for both people that were new to the genre, and those that had several encyclopaedias worth of knowledge stored under their belts.
For many, the sudden disappearance of the forum is understandably the greatest cause for concern. Not only does it contain 10+ years’ worth of discussion and information, but it also has the posts of forum members who have since passed on, their thoughts and opinions still able to live on in the written word. I became a forum moderator myself at the beginning of 2014, and like many other members of the community out there, the biggest question that’s being addressed right now is to how we can transfer the content to a new home.
Update: It’s back! The official launch of the Kung Fu Fandom Forum begins today at 5:00PM, North America, Eastern Time Zone. Expect the forum to be bigger, better, and more user friendly than ever!
Definitely an unfortunate chapter for the martial arts/Asian Film online community. I was a daily visitor/active member of that site (particularly the forum) for years. As they say, all good things do come to an end. I wish Mark Pollard the best with whatever challenges life serves him.
For now, let’s look to the future. Archives may be gone, but this an opportunity to create new ones. If all the prior forum visitors apply their contributions to the new forum, it will get to the point where it feels like home again.
Thanks for the article Paul!
Well put Paul and MPM. As someone who got into the genre later, the site was actually a big part of my entire jouney into the genre.
I hope most of our old community can get back together on Yuku.
I share your hopes Matt. The closure of kfc was like a bomb being dropped on the forum community, the blast scattering its members far and wide. I think it’ll take weeks, maybe even months, to get everyone back together again, but I’m sure we’ll get there. If you know anyone from the forum who isn’t a regular visitor to COF, please share this article with them.
Oh well that’s pretty sad… it was one of my everyday website… 🙁 Hope everything is going well for the website’s author….
Hey metalfourbe, the website may be gone, but let’s help the forum to rise up from the ashes. If you were a member it’d be great to see you again in it’s new incarnation –
http://kff.yuku.com/#sthash.uzpD1PJp.dpuf
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That’s sad to hear, though not completely unexpected. I’ll miss the site, as I stumbled upon it after using Amazon reviews for years to find new films.
Nonetheless, kung fu fans should join the community over at https://www.reddit.com/r/kungfucinema
I kinda feel bad for them, but at the same time, they *did* tout those shitty dubbed and edited Miramaxe versions of Asian films…
I haven’t been on KFC as long as others have.. But KFC didn’t sell anything, although there was a marketplace on the forums?
I mean, when they were mentioning upcoming movies and DVDs, they’d defend the Harvey ‘cuts’. For example, Shaolin Soccer. They didn’t even bother warning people that they were edited, like you.
You=COF.
Ah, I misinterpreted you. I can’t really comment on that as in my time there I didn’t see many reviews on said releases. With that said, the reviews I did read of Marks were usually pretty critical (he was hard on many movies I think are actually pretty good), so I would be surprised if he cut poor releases any slack!
Since I joined KFC, most of what was on the main page was American Martial Arts movies, which is ok, but not much of an interest of mine.. Therefore I didn’t pay much attention to it.
Hey Ningen21, I’m curious to know what you’re referring to here? The main site hasn’t really focused on kung-fu movies for a long time, but back when Mark was running it, he was always very vocal in his disdain for the Weinstein’s treatment of Asian movies…quite the opposite of what you’re stating.
0/10….you could at least put some effort in your trolls if you going to continue trolling around here.
I miss my friends, 🙁
Opium, see here:
http://kff.yuku.com/topic/37/master/1/?page=1#.VatEA_mqpBd
OKFC….bless your heart! Come back, and bring your soul mate GD Y-Y with you!
Yes, come back OKFC, who else will bless GD Y-Y’s heart multiple times daily?
😀
Does anyone have his contact info? Oh man, I think we might lose him forever! It’s a real shame!!!!
I don’t, and he was on the list of members that also didn’t get included in the mass e-mail send out advising of the sites closure. Someone needs to get down to Boston Common and find that guy.
I’m pretty sure I have seen GD YY on some FB groups before. Ill have to see if I can track him down again.
That would be great Matt, and if you could also post a link to this article on the Facebook groups you frequent (if there isn’t one already) to alert any other members who may not have been notified of the new forum, it would be really appreciated.
Hard to read your article Paul. It gives the whole thing… I don’t know… makes it more real I guess.
As for the gent above… Mark Pollard WAS kungfucinema.com and he certainly never led anyone astray or suggested Mirimax releases were anything but the bastardized versions of the original films.
Yes, right now many members are like leaves in the wind. But there are long-time forum members that are acting as a giant kung fu rake, and trying to bring us all back together. 😀 I’ve joined the new forum and hope everyone else does too.
As for our beloved forum, all may seem lost. But still… I still see a ray of hope. Stay positive people…
Its a real shame to hear about the closing of the forums. I have signed up to the new site but I’m unable to post anything at the moment. I never got an email about the new site and heard about it through this article, thanks for making people aware of this.
Hey DragonClaws, good to see you found this article. Your monthly mutual review thread was one of the best things to happen to the forum in recent months, and right now there’s a Mission Impossible style team working behind the scenes to try and find a way to recover the old content. It won’t be easy, but then nothing worth doing ever is, shall keep you updated. The approval for yuku should come through soon.
Anybody get approved on yuku yet?
I’m approved….yours should come through soon.
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Is there any way of getting the old information (most likely it was stored in a MYSQL database, correct me if I’m wrong)? Is it a matter of money?
I think it was a completely asinine move. You should always give warning before you drop a site or you give someone a chance to pay for it and/or take it over. All of Linn Haynes posts now gone. All the reviews gone (I’m sure Albert kept copies, but they were easily accessible.) So much work from so many writers now gone (well hopefully stored somewhere in a database.)
The thought of it being an ‘asinine move’ by Mark definitely crossed my mind as well. But… I just had to give the guy the benefit of the doubt – maybe what happened was so big of a catastrophe that he couldn’t dedicate a second of time to it. Who knows?
It’s being worked on MOOIP. You, myself, and many others are hoping that the old content can be retrieved and transferred over. Shall keep you in the loop with any updates.
The whole kungfucinema deal was a strange one, and to be honest I’m surprised there wasn’t a proactive conversation initiated many years before to transfer the ownership of it to Albert. Nobody had any contact with Mark in at least the last 5 years, and even before then it was intermittent, then when the site went down it was teako that managed to get in contact with him to get the official word. If he hadn’t have reached out, perhaps we’d still all be clicking it every day hoping for it to load.
Basically for as long as we’ve been on the forum we’ve been helping to create the ultimate encyclopedia on kung-fu movies, the problem is, the paper it was being written on was never ours.
Thanks Paul Re:The Monthly reviews, DrNgor came up with that idea and the great contributions from others members made it work really well.
I should imagine there’s enough information on those forums to fill many large sized books. There should be a KFC fandom forum archive of some sort. Some really knowledgeable and skilled writers contributed to that forum.
This is a difficult experience. I’m saddened beyond belief. Though I didn’t post daily, I always looked forward to the news, updates, and overall information provided. Met some very nice people along the way, and some undesirables, which make the circle complete.
I’ll miss this forum, it became a part of my life.
I’m getting emotional.
Salute.
The site ran its course. Some things I liked about the site and some I didn’t. For one I thought there was a lot of snoody people on that forum. It seemed all the cool people vanished from the site. Some of the moderators I didn’t like on there either. Lots of limitations to what you can and cannot post. The genre that we once knew is gone, and now we live in a CGI age. It will be a great archive now for information, if not the site certainly helped educate people on the genre. I always preferred CityonFire more, but I must say RIP to KUNGFUCINEMA, and THANK YOU for helping spread the knowledge.
I was an original poster back in its heyday and also a daily visitor to the site. I thought I missed something when all of the sudden…poof..no website. Sad day indeed….
Important update: http://kff.yuku.com/topic/81/UPDATE-MARK-POLLARD-FUTURE-FOURM-READ#.VbpmgE1RGkk
Looking forward to the new (maybe not too different) incarnation.
I should probably try to write more :D.
Hey MOOIP…long time no talk! 😛
Yes, the forum is coming back. As teako mentioned, an announcement will be made soon regarding its new home, we’re just in the process of ironing out a few final details.
The good news is, it’s not going to look a whole lot different that its previous incarnation. Stay tuned for further updates!
Like the author, I wrote for KFC. It was a great site and I’m sorry that Mark decided to let it go. Truthfully, really wasn’t involved with the site over the last few years, and the quality of the articles and content slowly deteriorated. I’m almost positive the site has been around longer than 12 years. If I’m not mistaken, I started reading that site back in the late 90s.
Cheers to everyone for bringing this back.
hi,
Somebody know about a martial arts movie from… 1887 – 1993 where two kung fu masters switch their sons, and one of the kids end in the kitchen of a Shaolin temple???
When i was a kid, i can’t finish that movie 🙁 and still with the inquietude of finish it.
Thanks
That’s quite the time range. 🙂 The movie you’re thinking of is this one –
http://cityonfire.com/fury-in-shaolin-temple-aka-friendship-forged-in-blood-1982-review/
Looks like Kung Fu Fandom is down, hopefully it’s just temporary.
It is, a message from the forum administrator was posted on Facebook –
“Due to a server problem shaolinchamber36.com, Kung Fu Fandom Forum, Kung Fu Bob’s Art, and 36 Styles websites are currently down. But as soon as the problem is fixed we’ll be back. In the meantime we are still taking orders. You can e-mail us or PM us on Facebook. Thanks!”
Hey guys i wanted to ask you something, when i was younger i saw a movie the action was like in medieval times and it was between 2 clans they had superpowers tthere ware 2 teams of 7 or 9 from 2 diofferent villiges and the best from each villige was a man and a girl and they were in love the girl had an ayas pover and had in her team a man with chains in his hands and a man dresst in abear coat can u pls help me im searchinf for it from 3 days but i cand find it
Remember a kung fu movie I saw as a kid. Only distinction that
stays in my mind is a guy in a red “jogging suit”. Great Kung fu!
Anyone know what movie this might be?
Good post , Hard to read your article Paul. It gives the whole thing… I don’t know… makes it more real I guess.