New 'Kung Fu' is not your father's 'Kung Fu;' Thank goodness!

Olivia Liang will star in the new 'Kung Fu.'

Kung Fu is coming back to television but don't expect to see "grasshopper" and his slow motion martial art that, while beautiful to watch, was meant to disguise Carradine's lack of real training in kung fu.

Old guys like me remember the original Kung Fu TV series that aired from 1972 to 1975 and I'm not ashamed to admit I didn't miss an episode.

Currently, its in vogue to chastise the original series because 1. it was basically a plotline stolen from an idea of Bruce Lee; 2. it's portrayal of an ancient martial art/philosophy was not very good (a lot of slow-motion balletic moves; 3. it starred a white guy (David Carradine) in yellow-face.

Those were all valid criticism and I agree with all those points. But you also have to view the old series in the context of the times. The series also gave a lot of work to Asian American actors when there weren't many roles for them. Just seeing a rare Asian face onscreen was enough to celebrate and most of the time, the Asian characters were in the right side of the moral divide (even though Carradine was in yellow-face, his character was supposed to be Chinese).

Back in 1972, the last time an Asian character on American TV was shown as a strong, character was in the Green Hornet, which starred Bruce Lee as Cato, way back in 1966-67. That's a long time for Asian Americans who didn't have anyone to cheer for.

However, don't watch the 2021 version of Kung Fu expecting to see a simple reboot of the original. There are a few big differences.

• It is no longer the old west, but the new west taking place (based on the trailer) mostly in present day San Francisco.
• It is not about a lone-wolf Buddhist monk wandering around with no apparent purpose, but the monk-trained martial artist will battle present-day gangsters on behalf of her multi-generational family.
• It's Asian characters will no longer speak in the faux stilted Asian accent demanded of the original Kung Fu Asian actors, but in contemporary English, fully embracing the American culture as their own while holding on to their Asian heritage.
• The most significant change is that the lead protaganist is no longer a white guy in yellow face, but a kick-ass Asian American woman. 

Olivia Liang stars as Nicky Shen, who while visiting China, joins a monastery where she is taught Shaolin values and martial arts. When her mentor is killed, she returns home to find her community disrupted by a local gang. She must use the martial arts skills she learned to protect her neighborhood and family, and soon discovers she's being targeted by the same assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor.

“Nicky is heroic, but she doesn’t see herself as a hero," explains Liang about her character. "She doesn’t have a hero complex where she is going out to find bad guys. She sees bad things happening and feels like she needs to do something about it.”

The 2021 Kung Fu also stars Kheng Hua Tan as Mei-Li Shen, Shannon Dang as Althea Shen, Eddie Liu as Henry Yan, Gavin Stenhouse as Evan Hartley, Tony Chung as Dennis Soong, and Tzi Ma, doing what he does best portraying the father, Jin Shen.

“Not only is there representation on screen but we back it up from our writers room to all our guest directors. It is an amazing sight to behold. I’ve been doing this for a minute now and I have never seen this kind of make up,” Ma tells Deadline.

Christina M. Kim wrote the pilot episode and serves as executive producer/co-showrunner of the series with Robert Berens. Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter, Martin Gero, and David Madden also serve as executive producers. 

Kung Fu premieres on the CW Network (check local listins), Wednesday, April 7, 8 p.m.