If you can snatch the pebble from my hand grasshopper...

[Snowflake]

Hollywood's pillaging of old TV programs continues......

A Kung Fu movie without Philip Ahn and Keye Luke?

The Story Here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060601/film_nm/leisure_kungfu_dc;_ylt=AhO2JtLvVDpUju7SV24fCbJxFb8 C;_ylu=X3oDMTA0cDJlYmhvBHNlYwM-)

[Alex]

Well, at least this time around I bet the main character is played by an actual Chinese person. That'll be an improvement.

[Moonliner]

Well, at least this time around I bet the main character is played by an actual Chinese person. That'll be an improvement.

Really? I always thought the fish-out-of-water quality was an important part of the show. To the monks he was a white child, in the US he was a china-man. The contrast of how the monks accepted him VS how the west did not was a staple of the show.

[Alex]

The character wasn't white, he was hapa. And this was a trait added to the character only after they decided to cast a white actor instead of an Asian one (having passed over, most prominently, Bruce Lee for the role).

So they had a character that was half-Chinese but still cast a white actor (and the character was only half-Chinese because it is easier to whitewash half an Asian rather than an entire one).

There's a reason that they tried to set things right a little bit in the two Kung Fu movies that have previously been made by having Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son) play Caine's son. In the first (Kung Fu: The Movie) he plays Caine's unknown son and in the second (Kung Fu: The Next Generation) he plays Caine's grandson.

So yes, the mixed-race nature of Caine is probably ingrained in the story line (though probably for racist reasons) to the point that it won't be removed. But they can still get a Chinese, or at least hapa, actor to play the role.

[scaeagles]

Wasn't there also some sort of television series set in the present with the descandants of Caine?

[Capt Jack]

yup. weak weaker weakest

[Alex]

Yeah, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. It is set in modern day LA and David Carradine plays his own grandson. This character has a son that is a detective with the LAPD and they solve crimes together. Very touching and very bad.

I think it was part of the "Action Pack" of syndicated TV shows around that time that included Highlander: The Series (actually somewhat good), Hercules: The Series, Tekwar, and Vanishing Son.