Just for kicks: how a kung-fu fighting female TV detective reshaped gender norms in the Eastern Bloc
30 AUGUST 2016 · HUNGARY
When Linda, a karate-kicking detective, appeared on Hungarian TV in the 80s, she became an unlikely symbol of female emancipation. Yoana Pavlova examines her legacy
Yoana Pavlova
The “other side” of the Iron Curtain may be famous for its auteur film directors but there is one thing its state-produced cinema lacked: genre films and B movies. Style-over-substance went against the socialist realism dogma, while formalism was deemed a crime. Historical drama and sci-fi were the sole exception, as they projected socialist values into the past and the future, respectively.
The kung-fu movie craze reached Eastern Europe and USSR in the 1980s. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li struck a chord with the late socialist audience, with the help of a well-developed distribution network, as well as the rise of the home VHS deck. Watching the Shaolin Temple cycle or Hong Gil-dong (1986) was both a lesson in cultural anthropology and an epic escape into rebellion, individuality, and most of all a different rapport to our own trivial, collectivised bodies. Kids spent hours and hours imitating their favourite characters, hoping that this would turn them into martial arts experts. There was no other way to practice anyway — until the 1980s, only elite police and military troops had access to certain combat techniques from the Far East, mostly karate and judo.
Based on old-time legends and produced by far-flung comrades, often as a result of the complicated dynamic between China and Hong Kong or North and South Korea, the virtues promoted in these kung-fu movies clung nicely on to the 20th century understanding of socialist ethics: humility, persistence, respect for traditions. We could not possibly imagine staging a martial arts story in the here and now — we did not even have villains! But then Hungary and its “democratic socialism” realised the unthinkable by producing Linda (1983-1989), a three-season TV show about an ass-kicking woman police detective who is also a loving daughter and fiancée. Programmed in the late-night slot for being slightly decadent and unusually violent, Linda Veszprémi's signature squeal and the corny sound effect from her punches reverberated from every corner of the Eastern Bloc.
Nóra Görbe's androgynous look and real-life dedication to martial arts made her the face of an era
Linda's creator and producer György Gát, a big fan of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, had long aspired to make a film with martial arts. When he pitched the idea to Hungarian National Television, it took a lot of persuasion, but they finally agreed to start with three pilot episodes. And without a doubt, much of the series' success was owing to the actress cast play the lead. At the time Nóra Görbe appeared as Linda, she was already an emerging actress, whose career had started a decade after the untimely death of her father János Görbe — a film and stage star, known also for his participation in the 1956 uprising in Hungary. Still, it was through this particular TV show that Nóra Görbe became famous, including as a pop singer. Her androgynous look and real-life dedication to martial arts (she earned some actual karate belts) made her the face of an era.
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