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Science fiction and martial arts totally belong together. After all, they both involve a deep introspection and awestruck contemplation of our place in the universe. Oh, and nothing improves a story about robots and aliens more than people kicking each other in the head. Yet, shockingly enough, scifi and kung-fu only really found each other pretty recently. What took so long? We investigate — with our fists of blood.
Science fiction and martial arts totally belong together. After all, they both involve a deep introspection and awestruck contemplation of our place in the universe. Oh, and nothing improves a story about robots and aliens more than people kicking each other in the head. Yet, shockingly enough, scifi and kung-fu only really found each other pretty recently. What took so long? We investigate — with our fists of blood.
Note: I mention kung fu above, but I'm also going to touch on other martial arts in this post. I hope that's OK.
Totally random factoid: as a young reporter, I wrote a story about Sir Run Run Shaw, the legendary Hong Kong movie producer responsible for Five Fingers Of Death, and actually met him and shook his hand. I am still excited.
1960s.
Bruce Lee co-stars in The Green Hornet, a scifi-ish Shadow ripoff about a newspaper publisher and his Asian valet, who team up to fight crime as the Green Hornet and Kato.
The Legion Of Superheroes introduces Karate Kid, whose superpower should be pretty obvious, in Adventure Comics #346, published in 1966. Karate Kid is the son of Black Dragon, a 30th century Japanese supervillain, who gets defeated by Japan's main superhero Sensei, who raises him to be a good guy and appreciate painting and sculpture. And he's been playing a major starring role in the recent Legion cartoon, as well as Brad Meltzer's revival of the Justice League comic. In his first appearance, Karate Kid was one of four teen heroes who applied to join the Legion — but one of them was secretly a villanous infiltrator. (Shockingly, it was the one named "Nemesis Kid.") (And check out this fantastic Legion cover gallery.)
1970s.
Sonny Chiba starred in a number of classic science fiction films, including Message From Space, a Star Wars-inspired film about the peaceful planet Jillucia under threat from the evil space Emperor. Sonny Chiba has to rescue a set of "holy seeds" that can save the planet somehow.
A volcano opens up and the evil Princess Dragon Mom emerges, in Hong Kong's Infra Man (1976). A scientist named Rayma volunteers to be implanted with electronics so he can become the unstoppable martial arts fighting machine Infra Man. Besides super strength and amazing martial arts skill, he also gains X-ray vision, plus ray beams and rockets coming out of his body. We have the original trailer above.
Doctor Who suddenly starts featuring a lot of martial arts, with Jon Pertwee's version of the Doctor claiming to be an expert in "Venusian Aikido" and "Venusian Karate." (Supposedly the producers preferred aikido because it's mostly a defensive art, and fit in with their vision of the Doctor as a pacifist.) Here's someone's compilation of the Doctor's greatest smackdowns:
1980s.
In 1983, director Kirk Wong puts out Flash-Future Kung Fu, a mash-up of Blade Runner and old-school martial arts melodrama. In a grungy neon-lit future, Eddy Ko, the star pupil of a martial arts school, secretly takes part in underground "black boxing" bouts. And a group of Neo-Nazi punks wants to take care of Ko and his friends using an army of mind-controlled zombies.
Just a year after Robocop hits in the U.S., Hong Kong puts out Roboforce, a comedy version featuring a robot dominatrix who shoots missiles out of her arm.
Japan creates the Super Sentai Series, about a team of super-soldiers in color-coded outfits who use martial arts and super-advanced weapons to fight monsters. They also join their robotic vehicles together to form a giant robot to fight giant monsters. In the 1990s, the Super Sentai Series got redubbed in English and mixed in with new footage of American actors, to create the Power Rangers series. The most awesome version of Power Rangers is Power Rangers In Space, in which they have to fight a villainess with the amazing name of Divatox.
1990s.
Hong Kong puts out a few awesome science fiction films, chief among them Tsui Hark's Wicked City, which features Yuen Wo-Ping in a supporting role. It's been a while since I've seen this film, but I don't remember it having much martial arts, despite Yuen's involvement. Hark also produced Black Mask, starring Jet Li as a super-soldier engineered not to feel any pain, who goes AWOL and tries to lead a quiet life as a librarian — until his old squad starts killing innocent people. And then he dons the eponymous black mask to bring down his former comrades. Hark also directed a sequel, Black Mask II. Here's the masked Jet Li kicking a guy about 20 times, and then dealing with rollerskating machine-gun thugs, using only a couple of compact disks (Kenny G is deadly!) And meanwhile, some crazy dominatrix turns out to have a razor blade in her mouth, which might make this scene not entirely work safe. And then there's Robotrix.
Plus, director Nam Lai Choi put out one of the strangest martial arts movies of all time — The Cat (Lao Mao), about an alien entity that goes around possessing people and creatures. The movie's setpiece, a giant martial arts smackdown between a dog and an alien-possessed cat, uses all of the cliches of martial arts movies, including the slow-mo wire work and the instant replay. (But no naming of the moves as you're doing them, sadly.) Here's a clip:
Meanwhile, Jean-Claude Van Damme puts out two of the greatest science fiction movies of all time: Universal Soldier and Timecop. He's an unstoppable cyber-zombie, or he's a windmill-kicking law-enforcement master from the distant year 2004. He kicks you so hard, your arm shatters. There's also 1995's Virtual Combat, in which a virtual character from a fighting video game somehow gets into the real world and kicks people in the head. A lot. Oh, and Milla Jovovich first starts smacking weird creatures around in 1997's The Fifth Element.
1999-today:
Yuen Wo-Ping arranges the fight sequences for The Matrix, the movie which proves virtual worlds feature more awesome flying head-kicks than real ones. The wire work is gorgeous, plus it's put together with a new "bullet time" special effect that makes all of the soaring and kicking look even more impressive.
The Matrix trilogy gives rise to a ton of kicking, smacking, chopping imitators, including Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium and Ultraviolet, which introduce the new and amazing martial art of gun-kata. Now at last people can use guns to create a graceful battle tableau, instead of having to fight with fists or feet. Plus the Resident Evil movies and a host of other video-gamey films.
Jet Li also stars in the mega-awesome The One, in which alternate universes are real, and you can gain awesome superpowers by killing all of your alternate selves. There are only two Jet Lis left, and only one of them has cool hair. Which one will smack the other one into oblivion and become a dimension spanning god? And then of course there's Jackie Chan's The Tuxedo, where a super-suit gives him amazing martial arts skills... and the ability to channel James Brown.
Comments
Okay, now, "Batman ripoff" indeed!
The Green Hornet predated Bats by nearly a decade, being introduced in the early 1930s as a radio hero. Perhaps a case might be made for GH being a ripoff of The Shadow, but Bats? No effing way. Sorry. Nope. Didn't wanta do it, but you made a mistake, see?
I'd be angry at the non-inclusion of Big Trouble in Little China, but the only way that could be included would be to add Fantasy to io9, and I would rather you didn't.
Still... Lo Pan.
I laughed my ass off at that killer kung-fu kitty klip... errr.. clip.
@SavannahJack: OK pardon the error... I'll fix that!
@Charlie Jane Anders: Apology accepted, CJ ... it's just that The Hornet was a favorite of mine ... NPR would run the old radio programs on Sunday evenings and they were great!
Didn't The Shadow have some martial arts elements in it as well? I mean, as long as we are tracing where sci-fi and flying fists of fury intersect it deserves a mention.
@SavannahJack: The Green Hornet existed as a character, but the TV show was pretty obviously a Batman echo, even though GH was played with little or no camp. In fact, the TV show was produced by the same production companies and often reused the same sets, props and production staff.
@MonkeyT: I think that's what I was thinking of... I was dimly aware there had been a radio serial. But the 60s version was so Batman-influenced.
You shook the hand of the person responsible for "The Five Fingers of Death"...You are a braver woman than I.
...And I see no mention of Johnny Sakko's Giant Robot? When Sci-Fi and Kung Fu are mentioned in the same sentence, I can't help but think of Giant Robot. (It was burned into my brain at a young age)
...admittedly, it might of been a bit thin on the Kung Fu, but I'd swear I remember lots of Karate chops.
In other words, there is no intrinsic relationship, but scifi needs action. And martial arts are more entertaining than white boy fisticuffs.
What? No reference to Star Trek's infamous Kirk Fu.
That Dog & Cat Fight Scene was pretty funny. I love the part where the cats jumps through the window and leaves an outlined image of himself in the glass. A little homage to the old Warner Brothers cartoons which this scene was obviously influenced by.
Kung-Fu Who works for me, but I still prefer Tom Baker's approach of offering them jelly babies.
Come on, you left out the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.
Okay, does anyone remember a martial arts movie set in the future where there's a tournament and our hero doesn't have robotic parts like the other fighters? The bad guy kidnaps his girl friend and either rapes her by using a machine that makes her want him or just torments the hero by saying he'll do this. Anyone? Bueller?
And didn't Ultra Man use martial arts on giant monsters?
@Charlie Jane Anders: @MonkeyT: Oh, the tele-vision device. That new-fangled thing.
The sharing of producers (and the fact that they did one-cross-over episode of Batman) was really the only similarity.
Green Hornet had Bruce Lee as Kato, for crying out loud. The episodes were fairly dark (for 1960s) and had some gripping drama ... or seemed that way to me as a youngster.
The radio plays were also great, though, and show that Green Hornet had deeper roots than the Batfeller.
How on earth could you leave out Godzilla: Final War? The best Godzilla movie, it includes more fistfights than all other Godzilla movies combined!
@SavannahJack: Oh, I agree. The shared heritage between the two was mostly photogenic: the incredibly vivid color by DeLUXE and the seizure inducing animations to fill the cuts between scenes...
But man did the GH soundtrack rock.
@CaptRavis: Good point! I was thinking about them but then somehow left them out. I should add them in when I get a sec.
@MonkeyT: Rock'n Flight of the Bumblebee! Yay!
Green Hornet = nephew (grand- ?) of the Lone Ranger.
TV series less goofy than Batman.
How can you tell an alien-possessed kitty from a regular one? Srsly?
I must see all of Lao Mao someday. Preferably drunk, with friends.
What about Space Giants? And Goldar's family.
Lots of Kung-Fu.
Super Cool.
Ninja Scroll and Afro Samaurai
@CaptRavis: OK added a reference to the Power Rangers.
@Bitterbunny: Wow, never heard of either of those things... have to look them up!
@Belabras: The Shadow was more about clouding men's minds and a pair of 45s blazing into the night.
I liked "Black Mask". it's like Kato kickin' tail without having that white guy taking all the credit. [tee hee]
"Black Mask II" was watchable only after Many Beers. A fourth-rate Mortal combat rip-off.
@Ghede: I was expecting to see Big Trouble too. I loved that movie and always thought Mortal Combat totally ripped them off. I suppose it is more fantasy than Sci-fi.
I haven't read the comments, but searching the page didn't show anything...
River in Serenity.
Okay, since nobody seems to have mentioned it...
River from Serenity/Firefly.
Ach! Double post'd! Sorry :[
@SavannahJack: Actually the TELEVISION version of
the GREEN HORNET did follow the BATMAN Televison show. ONly lasted for one season though, wasn't near as "campy" as Batman though..
AHH Yes my second favorite Doctor ..
Pertwee is still alive ..i believe...
And made a fitting predessor to Tom Baker..
The last time I checked, Power Ranger Space Patrol Delta was the greatest season of them of all. The really mixed futuristic scifi and kung fu together.
Guys, what about the Japanese (late 80's? early 90's?) flick, ZERAM?
If you haven't seen it, then go rent it!
Action!
Comedy!
Googly future alien monsters that dress like old school ronin!
@oldandintheway: Didn't they have a crossover at some point, too?
@Evil Tortie's Mom: The Lone Ranger's nephew was DAN Reed, an ancestor of BRITT Reed, the Green Hornet.
In Roger Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiates", the protagonist suicidal-poet-jujitsuka defeats the Martian temple guardian by the atemiwaza he perfected during his Fulbright time in Tokyo, during his "only weekly recreation"
"If the Martians have integrated their martial arts with the dance, I'm in big trouble"
@oldandintheway: Actually, Pertwee died in 1996.
Hong Kong's Inframan was a Chinese response to the Ultraman fad of Japan. Unfortunately it never took, and Ultraman remains an imported favorite among Hong Kong kids today.
The Cat - Is based on a story from a novel/comic book series starring a character named Wesley (or Wisely), who is a cross between Fox Mulder and Indiana Jones, who investigates aliens and paranormal events. Two other sci-fi based films were made in Hong Kong about the character; The Legend of Wisely (1987) [heavy on kung-fu] and The Wesley's Mysterious File (2002). Other than the name of the main character, there is no direct continuity between any of the films.
The Avenging Fist (2001) was another HK film (based loosley on Tekken I believe) that mixed in sci-fi elements with kung fu grip.
I was suprised and amused to see Robotrix in the list since it is more like pr0n-fu than anything else ;)
Depending upon your definition of sci-fi, DOA: Dead or Alive (2006) is a sci-fi movie of basically nothing but martial arts. It's not a great movie, but if you're entertained by a cheesy plot and good action, it might be worth a rental.
A series worth mentioning is Dark Angel, starring Jessica Alba as a genetically engineered super-soldier in the vaguely near future after a huge EMP knocks out all the computer systems and their records (think about it - how many records are really kept on paper nowadays?). She lives as a cat burglar, and has to constantly fight off goons sent by Manticore, the company that bred her.
You totally ignored Ultra Man (67); the guy worked for the Space Patrol and they flew around in Flash Gordonesque rockets - and Astro Boy, who was a robot.
Missing those two is like a dino exhibit with no T-Rex or Brontosaur
Well, I'll try again; if the posts doubles, sorry;
you totally forgot Ultra Man (67) and Astro Boy (63).
Absolutely SF in both cases: Ultra Man worked with the Science Patrol who used Flash Gordonesque spaceships and Astro Boy was a robot.
Missing those two is like visiting a dino display without benefit of T-Rex or Brontosaur...
Oh Inframan... all the good memories of the insane weirdness that passed for Sci-Fi those days.
And for the record: Inframan was meant to capitalize on the Kamenraider/Ultraman/Kikaider/Spectreman craze. Japan was chock a block FULL of sci-fi/martial arts series at the time.
Just sayin...
I've heard that in the Batman/Green Hornet TV crossover, Kato was supposed to lose a fight to Robin. Bruce Lee talked the producers out of it, once he'd finished laughing.
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