Kung Fu - The Complete Second Season

I remember watching this show religiously when I was a kid and thinking it was the best thing on TV. The philosophy of life exemplified by the character Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine) had a real and lasting impact on me. Watching the same episodes all over again 30 years down the road, I find that they have not lost their original power. I would recommend watching this show with your children. If everyone learned to behave more like Kwai Chang Caine, the world would be a better place indeed.

I am pretty annoyed by some of the reviews here blaming ME for the mistake of "the cenotaph." I originally had that correct title and was told to change it to "the cenopath." So please...dont' blame me!
If you doubt me, check out the International sleeves, which I designed...and has "the cenotaph."

"Kung Fu" catapulted actor David Carradine to fame. He didn't even know it because he didn't have a TV and was living in what he describes as a "shack" (my guess is a very nice one) in Southern California according to the commentary track on "The Well". The classic 70's TV series had an impact on many kids (including this one) when it aired giving us our first taste of Kung Fu, eastern philosphy set in the wild west.

Carradine plays Cane a half Chinese Shaolin priest searching for his half brother Danny in America. On the run when he causes the death of a member of the royal Chinese court, Cane has a bounty on his head. The second season consists of 23 episodes and is presented in its original 1.33:1 full screen format (unlike season one which was cropped for a widescreen format of 1.78:1). The image quality is exceptionally crisp and clear with solid blacks and exceptionally good color given the fact that the series is over 30 years old. The images have been cleaned up and there's little in the way of dirt and hair to mar the images. The sophisticated storytelling in every episode feature a plot involving Cane as a man contrasted to Cane being trained at the Shaolin temple by his teachers. This unusual use of flashbacks as a "subplot" enriched and made the series unusual and memorable. This device hasn't been used in a series since and, while it could easily have become a gimmick, most of the writers and directors used it to compliment the more modern stories they were telling. With stunning cinematography and sharp direction that frequently used unusual camera angles, "Kung Fu" sadly only lasted three seasons (Carradine left when it became successful to pursue a film career).

The extras are particularly fun. We get rambling but fascinating commentaries from Carradine on two episodes; "The Well" where Cane drinks contaminated water and must be nursed back to health by an African-American family and "A Dream Within a Dream" in which Cane discovers a body in a marsh. When the body mysteriously disappears, the tension escalates in the town. Carradine relates a number of interesting stories including his habit of NOT reading the script (he would study it just before he needed to do his scenes learning the lines and picking up a general idea of the plot). Carradine claims that this helped foster the idea that the foreign Cane couldn't understand the culture or what was truly going on around him a lot of the time. Carradine also points out that only two directors in three years ever figured out he was doing this (although I suspect he probably did read the two hour pilot).

The only extra is a great featurette wittily entitled "Now and Zen" where Carradine has a dinner with friends from the series and castmates from "Kill Bill". They discuss the series, the character and the impact "Kung Fu" had in its day. We also get hear from Kam Yuen one of the technical advisors on the show and Radames Pera the man who played Cane as a child in the flashback episodes of the series.

Kudos to Warner Brothers for returning the series to its original format and for doing a great job of delivering this classic series. Unlike many companies (are you listening Universal?)that put out series as so much "product" a lot of care went into putting this set together. A note about the packaging. The package designer Paul Lanner did, indeed, spell the title of the the cenotaph correctly but it was changed without his consent for the domestic release. While I'm not a fan of the two sided dual layer discs (we have 23 episodes spread over four discs as a result) because they can easily get damaged or scratched, the exceptional package design works well at protecting the discs and providing key info on each individual episodes.

Oddly, the second season seems more antiquated than the first, and relies more on dialogue and character development, than action to capture the audience's attention. It does this well. These episodes have a simplicity, innocence, and an uncanny way of drawing you into the sense of distant place and time. "The Brujo" is in my opinion one of the greatest episodes of the series, beautifully directed, acted, and with Carradine in top form. The contrast of Carradine in the special feature informal dinner chat, with Caine, confirms that Caine was a character that Carradine seem to channel, as evasive as the melancholy notes from his flute, the graceful and clumsy slow motion ballet, the simultaneously unfocused and penetrating vision. No episode stands alone. Each season gives us a chance to see that unique character in cinematic history, Caine, evolve, and it captures the imagination, is life affirming, and empowering.

I recently purchased this set and put the first disc in my dvd and it looked fantastic, after they started the dialoge it was quite noticeable that the soundtrack did not match the visuals, it was totally off. This was the first disc, first episode,the second episode did'nt have that problem, but there were two sccenes that just faded out. The third episode was ok. Iam not even going to go thru the entire set and plan on returning this as it is defective. I purchased it at a major warehouse club. Has anyone else had this problem? I was all set on watching this in it's entirety. I am sure my rating will improve when i get another copy.