a newspaper man adjusts his pen

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Kung Fu flicks will cure the blues


Kung Fu (2), originally uploaded by BrainErp.

“You will always be your child’s favorite toy.” – Vicki Lansky

“Everyone was Kung Fu fighting.” – singer Carl Douglas

By Amanda Gillooly

Some people head for church when they need a little reassurance after a rough week. Some people (mostly my close family and friends) head for the nearest bar stool.

While beer has always been a friend of mine, and Sir Harold the Great of River City Inn is always kind to me, after a day of worrying about work and handling the embarrassment that inevitably comes from a quasi-date blow-off, I seek out neither alcohol nor God.

Sometimes I just need my Dad. Unlike some of my contemporaries, who bemoan having to chat with the ‘rents, I seek out dear old dad. He knows where the center of the earth is, if you know what I mean.

And when I rush through the door, red-faced and Irish temper raging, he knows I don’t need reassurance or any sort of smoke blown up any orifice. Nope, Dad knows I need something far more important. Far more inspiring. Far less complicated.

Sometimes all I need is some Kung Fu. And if you ever stayed up late on a Saturday nights watching the “it’s-so-ridiculous-it’s-awesome” black-and-white Kung Fu flicks with your dad as a small child, you know as well as I do the therapeutic benefits.

I happen to love the genre because of its winning combination of arse-kicking martial arts, silly premises and really horrific dubbing.

Yesterday, while sharing a hot cup of Joe (black, Dad’s signature beverage), the subject of those nights watching Kung Fu came up in conversation and he said something I hadn’t thought of before.

“You know, I love it that ANYTHING – no matter how stupid – can be made into a Kung Fu flick,” he told me.

And while I was inclined to believe him, he did me one better. He told me about a movie starring the great Christopher Lee. If anyone else told me there was a movie about a Chinese, butt-kicking Dracula, I might have thought they were trying to take advantage of my admitted gullibility.

But I know Dad wouldn’t bust my chops about something so important to my quality of life.

Dad couldn’t remember the exact name of the film – it’s circa 1960-something – so I need a little bit of help finding the thing. And then owning it immediately.

I mean, come on, man. A Kung Fu horror movie? Dude, where has this movie been all my life.

He thinks it was called “Curse of the Golden Vampire” or something. I haven’t yet embarked on a Google quest; so if you happen across the movie (or one like it), please let me know.

Because I’m into it. And I’m sure my dad would appreciate it, too.

4 comments:

Ellipses said...

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires?

Amanda Gillooly said...

Oh My God. I just phoned my Dad and he said that sounded AWFULLY convinced that was, indeed, the movie. Now that I have a working title, I needs that movie like James Harrison needs anger management classes, bro.

Thank you. And God speed!

Scott said...

Does that mean we are closer to global peace?

Ellipses said...

Check Amazon... for some reason, it looks like there are several "versions" of the movie... but they could just be different boxes. I dunno...

Hope you find what you are looking for