Grace Under Fire (neui kyun 女拳)

[GeneChing]

Anyone else watch this? It's a 2011 Hong Kong TV Kung Fu Soap Opera starring David Chiang as Wong Fei Hung and Olympic gymnast Liu Xuan as Mok Kwai Lan. It's available now through Hulu+ and I'm totally hooked. The Kung Fu is nice traditional stuff for TV. It's great to see Wong Fei Hung actually doing Hung Ga.

Here's the official website.

[Scott Larson]

Thanks for the recommendation. Will be checking this out soon.

[PalmStriker]

Would like to see David Chang in the role of Wong Fei Hung /Hung Style, wonder if Netflix will pick it up? http://www.hkcinemagic.com/en/people.asp?id=27

[mdo7]

Yes, I'm watching that show on Hulu courtesy of Dramafever (the same website responsible for bringing numerous ton of Korean TV dramas to the US audiences). Grace Under Fire is not the only TV drama from TVB that I'm watching. Late of last year, Dramafever started to pick up dramas from Hong Kong's TVB. Apparently looks like the success of Korean dramas and how Taiwanese dramas cashed in on the drama fad have seem to motivate TVB to put their catalog on Dramafever which end up on Hulu (well most of it). That and the failure of My Tai Seng TV (which only lasted for 3 years).

Just a little disclaimer: I've been an avid fan of TVB dramas (including their classic Kung fu TV dramas) even before Dramafever existed. I'm hoping TVB can put up their 1980's catalog (which is the golden age of Kung fu TV dramas) on Dramafever, Hulu, and Viki. I think many Kung fu film fans would really love these TV dramas from Hong Kong since Kung fu films are on life support. These TV dramas from Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are a great alternatives to film/cinema.

BTW, I just finished watching The Hippocratic Crush aka On call 36 hours on Hulu. It was a good medical drama. I also want to mention a few days ago, Viki (another well-known video streaming website) has also picked up Hong Kong dramas from TVB. They have some dramas not available on Dramafever/Hulu (although that could change) like for example, you can watch War and Beauty on Viki (click here)

[GeneChing]

I didn't make the Dramafever connection. I started to watch Three Kingdoms RPG, but couldn't get past the main protagonist slacker and then got totally addicted to Grace Under Fire. GUF has a pretty annoying slacker main protagonist too in Sam Shui, but...well, I'm totally crushing on Liu Xuan.

Here she is at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

[mdo7]

I didn't make the Dramafever connection. I started to watch Three Kingdoms RPG, but couldn't get past the main protagonist slacker and then got totally addicted to Grace Under Fire. GUF has a pretty annoying slacker main protagonist too in Sam Shui, but...well, I'm totally crushing on Liu Xuan.

Glad I could help, I hope TVB's 1980 dramas could get pick up for streaming, those are the best and the golden year of TVB Kung fu TV dramas. BTW, a quick question: Do you watch Korean dramas? If you don't, I know a good K-drama which has enough martial art in it, try watching Hong Gil Dong on Hulu, here's a clip of the first episode:

[GeneChing]

K-dramas were such the rage a short time ago. I liked Iris, but that was a spy series. I started watching one of the recommended Korean martial arts TV shows on Hulu but didn't get very far and now can't even remember which one it was (just surfed Hulu's list and couldn't recall).

Okay, here's an excuse to post another Liu Xuan vid.

[mdo7]

K-dramas were such the rage a short time ago. I liked Iris, but that was a spy series. I started watching one of the recommended Korean martial arts TV shows on Hulu but didn't get very far and now can't even remember which one it was (just surfed Hulu's list and couldn't recall).

OK, so you have seen K-dramas before. That's good to know, there are a lot of Kung fu film fans that aren't aware of these TV dramas from Korea, and Hong Kong. So I'm glad to see there are fans of Kung fu that are aware of these dramas.

[Jimbo]

I used to watch TV Kung fu/wuxia dramas in Taiwan during my first year there (then for the rest of nearly a decade living there I only watched TV on rare occasions). This was from the early/mid-80s into the 90s. They featured many old-school KF stars, like Leung Kar-Yan, Meng Fei, Hsia Kuang-Li, Phillip Ko Fei, Chin Siu-Ho, Hwang Jang Lee, Jack Long, Chiang Sheng, Chu Ko, Li Yi-Min, Wong Tao, etc. I wasn't obsessed with watching them, but would catch them from time to time when I wasn't doing other things.

Sometimes I would see TVB serials, on my visa trips to Hong Kong, or in Taiwanese restaurants playing TVB videos on their TVs. I saw one in HK that had Gordon Liu, and another one with Bruce Leung in it. The action choreography of the HK shows was almost as good as their movies at the time, and much better than the Taiwanese serials.

A few years ago I watched several episodes of a China TV series about Wing Chun, but never finished it. I didn't find it as good as the older HK serials, or even the old Taiwanese ones. I have not watched any Korean ones yet.

[mdo7]

I used to watch TV Kung fu/wuxia dramas in Taiwan during my first year there (then for the rest of nearly a decade living there I only watched TV on rare occasions). This was from the early/mid-80s into the 90s. They featured many old-school KF stars, like Leung Kar-Yan, Meng Fei, Hsia Kuang-Li, Phillip Ko Fei, Chin Siu-Ho, Hwang Jang Lee, Jack Long, Chiang Sheng, Chu Ko, Li Yi-Min, Wong Tao, etc. I wasn't obsessed with watching them, but would catch them from time to time when I wasn't doing other things.

Sometimes I would see TVB serials, on my visa trips to Hong Kong, or in Taiwanese restaurants playing TVB videos on their TVs. I saw one in HK that had Gordon Liu, and another one with Bruce Leung in it. The action choreography of the HK shows was almost as good as their movies at the time, and much better than the Taiwanese serials.

For me, before K-dramas, I used to watch a lot of Kung fu dramas from TVB (well they were dubbed in Vietnamese, I had to have my Mom translate and tell me what's going on). But like K-dramas today, they were addictive. I'm sad to see TVB is not what it used to be, and it was very late of TVB to cash in on the drama fad K-dramas created (well at least I can watch some of TVB's greatest dramas today with subtitle now thanks to Dramafever and Viki). I hope to see some of my favorite 80's kung fu TV dramas from TVB in the future on Dramafever and Viki so fans of Kung fu film will watch them.

[GeneChing]

The plague story arc is lagging. Not enough Kung Fu. Hopefully it'll all be cleared up soon and we can get back to more fight scenes.

Time for another Liu Xuan vid:



So, mdo7, of the Kung Fu TV shows available on Hulu now, what else would you recommend? Please start a new thread on it if it's really good.

[GeneChing]