A new version of Kung Fu redresses past mistakes economist.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from economist.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The makeup of the cast carries extra weight given that
Kung Fu is a reimagining of the 1972 television show of the same name by Ed Spielman, which followed the story of the half-Chinese, half-white Shaolin monk Kwai Chang Caine, played by David Carradine, a white actor. The new adaptation arrives at a time when calls for an end to Hollywood’s whitewashing of roles have gotten louder. In recent years, a pattern of white actors cast as Asian characters in particular from Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One in
Doctor Strange to Scarlett Johansson as Major Motoko Kusanagi in the live-action adaptation of
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The SF-set reboot of Kung Fu on The CW flips the classic martial arts show s gender roles
Max Gao
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Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen in Kung Fu on The CW.Kailey Schwerman/The CW
In a modern reimagining of Ed Spielman’s hit series that starred David Carradine, “Kung Fu” is returning to network television with two unprecedented changes: The lead is a Chinese American woman and the cast is predominantly Asian American, a rarity in the landscape of network television dramas.
The gender-flipped reboot chronicles the journey of Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), a young woman who, after going through a quarter-life crisis, decides to drop out of university and take a life-altering journey to a remote Chinese monastery. When Nicky returns to San Francisco three years later, she discovers that her hometown has been overrun with crime and corruption and that the local Chinatown, where her parents Jin (Tzi Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua T
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN, CALIFORNIA
Greg Berlanti accepts the Patron of the Artists Award onstage during SAG-AFTRA Foundation s 4th Annual Patron of the Artists Awards at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on November 7, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for SAG-AFTRA Foundation/TNS)
Review: Strangely drawn to Asian American stereotypes, ‘Kung Fu’ stumbles out of gate
Robert Lloyd, Los Angeles Times, (TNS)
What’s in a name? The potential to make new deals out of old intellectual property, for one. “Kung Fu,” which premieres Wednesday on the CW, is related by contracts and corporate history to “Kung Fu,” the 1970s David Carradine series about a half-Chinese Shaolin monk roaming the Old West; what they have in common is a main character schooled in martial arts whose mentor is killed. And, apart from a title and a screen credit for Ed Spielman, who created the original series – Christina M. Kim, whose credits include �
What s in a name? The potential to make new deals out of old intellectual property, for one. Kung Fu, which premieres Wednesday on the CW, is related by contracts and corporate history to Kung Fu, the 1970s David Carradine series about a half-Chinese Shaolin monk roaming the Old West; what they have in common is a main character schooled in martial arts whose mentor is killed. And, apart from a title and a screen credit for Ed Spielman, who created the original series â Christina M. Kim, whose credits include Blindspot and Lost, is the new version s showrunner â nothing else.
In the latest adventure series from Arrowverse honcho Greg Berlanti, Olivia Liang plays Nicky Shen, who spin-kicks things off with a narrated quick trip charting her progress from Harvard college girl to kung fu fighter. Realizing that the cultural tour of China on which she s been sent by her mother is just a dodge to find her a nice Chinese boy, Nicky bolts, jumping into the back of a truc