#vanessa kai

[dianessunflower]

BTS from the Elsbeth Christmas episode 2x06 "Gold, Frankincense, and Murder"

[danlaw1991]

Kung Fu is the show that got me into doing edits in the first place. Here’s some edits of the Kung Fu cast together.

[grande-caps]

Kung Fu 3.11 -  The Specter

Quality : HD Screencaptures Amount : 1.174 files Resolution : 1.920 x 960 px

-Please like/reblog if taking!

[yixiaosuige]

Xiao finds the scepter || Alias

[geekverse08]

Photos of Olivia Liang, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Eddie Liu and Tony Chung, Vanessa Kai and JB Tadena at Universal Studios 💖

[eastasiansonwesternscreen]

With just over a month to go before The CW's Kung Fu reboot officially premieres, only ET has the exclusive look at the first official photos from the series.

Featuring an Asian-led cast, with Legacies' Olivia Liang and Tzi Ma leading the charge, the one-hour drama is a modern-day, gender-swapped reimagining of Ed Spielman's 1970s series that starred David Carradine. In this take, created by Christina M. Kim, the story begins with heroine Nicky Shen (Liang), a young Chinese American woman who drops out of college after going through a quarter-life crisis and goes on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China.

But when she returns home to San Francisco three years later, she finds her city and estranged family, including her parents Jin (Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan), at the mercy of the powerful Triad as crime and corruption abound. Forced to readapt to her new life and circumstances, Nicky turns to her tech-savvy sister Althea (Shannon Dang), Althea’s fiancé Dennis (Tony Chung), pre-med brother Ryan (Jon Prasida), Assistant District Attorney and ex-boyfriend Evan (Gavin Stenhouse) and new love interest Henry (Eddie Liu), as well as her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice -- all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor, Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai), and is now targeting her.

As the first photos of Kung Fu reveal, Nicky's unexpected return home isn't met with the warmest of welcomes by her parents, especially her mother Mei-Li. An understandable response, considering Nicky's decision to abandon the family years earlier to learn the Shaolin way with Pei-Ling.

There's also an early sneak peek at Nicky's life at the monastery as she prepares for battle, as well as a tense moment between the Shen siblings as they listen on with concern to what their mother has to say.

Kung Fu premieres Wednesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.

(via ET)

[redsamuraiii]

Kung Fu (1972/1993) | Kung Fu (2021)

So I just watched the new series, Kung Fu, which is based on the original series of the same name and decided to do a comparison.

*spoilers ahead*

Kung Fu (2021)

The story follows Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang), a law student dropout who wished to carve her own path and find her place in the world leading her to the Shaolin Monastery where she became a martial arts student with her master, Pei-Ling Zhang (Vanessa Kai) for three years before it was attacked by “ninjas” lead by  Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman) who is later discovered to be the sister of the master. Zhilan wants the ancient sword (The Sword of Liang Daiyu) which was wielded by female warriors in the past and she hopes to unlock it’s powers. 

After the burning and destruction of the monastery, Nicky finds herself returning home to the United States where things are not the same as she last remembered as her brother and mother are upset and furious with her for abandoning them for three years to go on her spiritual journey to China. While her father and sister are more than happy to have her back and be a big happy family once again. But things are not what it seems when she discovered that her parents are involved with the local triads due to money issues. 

One thing lead to another and she finds herself not only protecting her own family from the gangs and saving them but saving others outside of her family too who are in need of saving but had no one else to turn to for help but her. But she began to question herself if this is what she is meant to do with her life while trying to overcame her own fears of the past of losing her master and the fear of the unknown future where she has to stop Zhilan from obtaining the sword. 

Kung Fu : The Legend Continues (1993)

The story takes place after the prequel, Kung Fu (1972) which follows Kwai Chang Caine (David Carradine). In the prequel, it shows Caine, an orphan son of an American man and a Chinese woman in mid-19th Century China, where he became a Shaolin warrior monk. When his master, Po, is killed by the Emperor’s nephew, an enraged Caine retaliates by killing him after which he had to flee China to the United States.

In Kung Fu : The Legend Continues (1993), Caine is now a head of a Shaolin Temple in the United States where his son is also a Shaolin student. But an intense rivalry with a fellow Shaolin warrior monk whose philosophy of war clashes with Caine’s peaceful ways, caused Caine to banish him and his followers from the temple as his beliefs goes against Caine’s master’s teachings. 

However, the insulted monk and his followers return one night as “ninjas” to attack Caine and burn the temple to the ground. After the destruction of the temple where he believed his son to be dead, he embarked on a monk pilgrimage across the states in search of peace. But things changed when he passed through Chinatown and helped the locals from the triad gangs. Along the way, he reunited with his son, Peter (Chris Potter) who is now a Detective and together they try to help the locals from the triads, which is later revealed to be run by Caine’s arch enemy, Tan (Ernest Abuba), the rival monk that burnt down the temple.

My Thoughts

Both the original and the new series are amazing and interesting in different ways, as both have something that the other does not or does not have something that the other does. 

For example, I feel that the life philosophies, discussions and life lessons of the original to be more compelling and the soundtrack is much more memorable as the new one feels a bit generic. I was hoping the new one would have a song something like Netflix’s Marco Polo. But the fight scenes of the new series is much better and the struggles of the main character is more relatable as she’s like everyone of us, struggling to find her place in the world, questioning her purpose, asking what she wants in life and finding inner peace.

There’s one thing which I think is a wasted opportunity not to focus on Wing Chun, which is not only used by the famous Bruce Lee and Ip Man but the pioneers and founders who happened to be women, first by Ng Mui, a nun who survived the destruction of the Shaolin Temple that passed on her teachings to Yim Wing Chun who wants to fight the brute fighters of her town to avenge her father who was beaten up by them.

The thing about Wing Chun is that the way of fighting is more graceful and feminine, considering that the founder was a woman, but nevertheless, effective and deadly, especially against brute strengths, which make the martial arts unique and beautiful, that it’s hard for the male martial artists to master it, with the exception of Ip Man and Bruce Lee, which what makes them great.

Instead of using the character, Liang Daiyu, which I am not sure of whether is based on a real life character or a character that actually exist in Chinese myths or purely fictional character, which I am curious about and intend to find out. 

Anyway, you can read more about my findings on Wing Chun in my early post which includes a TED Talk video by a real life female Wing Chun martial artist of today, named Yvette Kong Man Yi. From the video, you could see that she’s very humble, polite, graceful but at the same time, has that look where she could beat you up in a heart beat.  

But nonetheless, as an Asian and a martial arts fan, I think it’s definitely awesome seeing more martial arts films making a comeback! 

[jonmercer]

Kung Fu - 1x01 “Pilot” stills