Kung Phooey!

Kung Phooey! (2003)

All the action, twice the laughs... no M.S.G.

The plot follows Art Chew's (a pun of the sound one makes when sneezing) quest to retrieve the ancient peach. The movie starts with Art Chew traveling to America, as well as showing Art's training at the Shur-li temple (a play on words with the child actor Shirley Temple), showing many kung-fu clichés such as grabbing the pebble from the masters hand (which Art succeeds without effort), fighting on trees in this case small potted palms and "listing" for elements (Earth, Wind and Fire play a funky tune). After the montage is shown Art meets up with his cousin Wayman (A parody on the way Chinese pronounce r as w) a Chinese adult who tries to act American so he isn't embarrassed by stereotypes and foster cousin Roy Lee, an African American who sincerely believes he is a reincarnation of Bruce Lee.

Date of release
2003-03-11
TMDB
5.5 / 10 (11)
Runtime
1h 27m
Genres
Action, Comedy
Director
Darryl Fong

Casting

Interesting facts

Kung Phooey! is a 2003 independent film directed and produced by Darryl Fong. Fong also co-stars in the movie, alongside Michael Chow and Colman Domingo. The movie is about a monk who tries to find a mysterious lost "Fountain of Youth". He travels to British Columbia, and, with a new band of friends, tries to retrieve the stolen artifact.

Production

Kung Phooey! was primarily filmed in Oakland and San Francisco, starting in spring 2001. Filming locations included Oakland Chinatown and Golden Gate Park.

Fong said he was motivated to create the film after he was continually cast into stereotypical "Asian American" roles: "I was an actor, disgusted with the opportunities for Asian actors. There were no really great parts." Fran Kuzui had signed to direct the project, but she said the film could not be sold without casting more Caucasian actors, so Fong made the film independently.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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