- My good friend, and B.Boy student Eric Pellerin, who wrote the article Challenge of the B.Boy Masters, had the opportunity to once again share his research on Kung Fu Cinema and the impact it had on B.Boying in the 1970s in NYC. I was invited to attend. This is part of his MA thesis for the CUNY Graduate Center titled Lau Kar Leung: Master of the Kung Fu Film The MALS Film Series will feature events throughout the year. Check it out !! MALS FILM Series film screening and discussion of Executioners from Shaolin, with Eric Pellerin, and invited guest, Ken Swift. Lau Kar Leung, one of the most important directors of Hong Kong kung fu films, was the only director working in the genre who could be considered a real life master, or sifu. As kung fu films were imported to grindhouse theaters in Times Square in the 1970s, the influence of the genre, and Lau’s films in particular, was felt across New York’s emerging hip hop culture, from the choreography of breakdancers to the creation of The Wu-Tang Clan. This screening inaugurates The MALS FILM Series which will feature events throughout the year. Eric Pellerin is the Electronic Resources and Serials Management/Reference Librarian at Medgar Evers College. He earned his Master of Arts (MA) in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Film Studies, from The Graduate Center, CUNY, in 2013. He discusses this film in light of his research on the Kung fu films of the 1970s. Professor Amy Herzog, Coordinator of the Film Studies Program, Department of Theatre, The Graduate Center, CUNY, will serve as discussant. Eric Pellerin based his talk on his MA thesis for the CUNY Graduate Center titled Lau Kar Leung: Master of the Kung Fu Film. Pellerin was joined by special guest speaker Ken Swift. Pellerin and Swift demonstrated B-Boy and kung fu moves for the audience, and how the kung fu moves from Lau Kar Leungs films, and Mad Monkey Kung Fu in particular, inspired B-Boys from the Rock Steady Crew and many other crews in NYC to take their choreographed routines to the next level. Swift specifically cited Mad Monkey Kung Fu in particular as having an impact on the in sync side by side routines which existed in B.Boying, which were similar to the famous training scene in Mad Monkey where Lau Kar Leung trains Hsiao Hou side by side. In addition to inspiring Ken Swifts Python Style Top Rock, Ken mentioned that this movie also inspired them to choreograph tighter more synchronized routines in their dance. Swift told the audience about his experiences as a teenager starting in 1978 and then going to 42nd Street a couple of years later to view kung fu films in the Grindhouse Theaters, as well as watching them on television on weekends. He said that kung fu movies in general were something hot in the streets in the 1970s. Pellerin and Swift explained to the audience that they had been invited by Celestial Pictures to give a similar lecture in Hong Kong on May 4th 2005, for the Shanghai Tang, Kung Fu Yong Launch Party, and gave a four minute, two man breaking performance. Pellerin and Swift met the Shaw Brothers actors Cheng Pei Pei, Chen Kuan Tai and Gordon Liu that night. The next day they were invited by Celestial Pictures to the old Shaw Borthers studio at Clearwater Bay, where they met Hsiao Hou, the star of Mad Monkey Kung Fu, who gave them a demonstration of his Monkey kung fu skills outside of the famous Shaw House. They ate lunch in the historic Shaw studio cafeteria with Hsiao Hou, his son, and members of Celestial Pictures and the Shaw Brothers staff. Celestial Pictures owns the rights to the historic Shaw Brothers film library, and has released over 700 films on DVD and streaming formats. The MALS FILM series was capped off by a screening of Lau Kar Leungs classic film Executioners from Shaolin (1977) which has been sampled by the Wu Tang Clan and was the inspiration for the Bai Mei character in Quentin Taratinos Kill Bill part 2. Tarantinos Bai Mei is a direct reference to the characters in Laus film and the semi sequel Fists of the White Lotus (1980). Bai Mei was played by Lo Lieh in Executioners from Shaolin and Fists of the White Lotus, and by Gordon Liu in Kill Bill 2.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 05:24:26 +0000
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