Thoughts on a potential Netflix series.

[Hellspawn28]

The Faulconer score is certainly not the reason the series became popular in the West. It’s silly to suggest that.

Faulconer fans are living in some bizzaro alternative reality i find. So it makes sense that they would suggest that.

People act like no one would like DBZ in America if it had Shunsuke Kikuchi music despite other countries like DBZ with Kikuchi music. We are getting too off topic, but that's all I can say for now.

[Kokonoe]

Journey to the West: One of the great classic pieces of Chinese literature.

Sun Wukong: Chinese literary character.

Nyoibo: Weapon from Chinese literature.

Kintoun: Magical cloud from Chinese literature.

Utilizing Ki/Chi energy via martial arts techniques (including as beams of light fired from their hands/mouth/eyes/body): Chinese Taoist concept.

Sensing Ki (including its level of strength and positive/negative intent): Chinese Taoist concept.

Flying with Ki: Chinese Taoist concept.

Draining/Siphoning someone else's Ki: Chinese Taoist concept.

Moving with superhuman speed with Ki: Chinese concept (with imagery largely taken from Chinese Buddhist myth).

Martial artist obtaining superhuman strength and durability via Ki control: Chinese Taoist concept.

Chaozu's character design: Lifted directly from Jiangshi, aka Chinese Hopping Vampires.

Tenshinhan: Based heavily upon Erlang Shen (down to the third eye), a character from Chinese folklore (including in Journey to the West, among other tales).

Oolong: Largely a riff on Zhu Bajie, another Journey to the West character.

Ki aura: Chinese Taoist concept.

Ultra Instinct: Taken directly from Wuxin, a Chinese martial arts concept.

Martial artists stretching their limbs to great lengths as a fighting technique: Also seen throughout Chinese Wuxia fiction.

God Ki: A Chinese Taoist concept.

Kuririn: A Shaolin monk, also a Chinese martial arts concept.

Gohan: Portrayed as a Wuxia scholar archetype, and introduced wearing a Chinese mandarin scholar's robes & hat as one of his most iconic looks.

Yamucha: Introduced as a Wuxia bandit archetype, complete with a classic Chinese Wuxia costume.

Tao Pai Pai: A martial arts assassin, another classic Chinese Wuxia archetype. Modeled directly after Sheng Kuan, a character from a Chinese martial arts film.

King Yama: A Chinese/Buddhist deity.

The afterlife: Heavily modeled on Chinese/Buddhist depictions (with Japanese and modern day flourishes mixed in).

Instantaneous Movement/Shunkan Idou: Lifted verbatim from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils, a Chinese Wuxia story.

After-Image Technique: Lifted directly from Heaven Sword and Dragon Sabre, a Chinese Wuxia story.

Genki Dama: Also lifted from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils (including a "pure of heart" character rebounding the sphere back at the villain when it initially misses).

Mafuba: Lifted directly from Chinese Taoist myth.

Muscle Tower: Modeled directly off of the pagoda from Game of Death, a famous unfinished Hong Kong film by Bruce Lee.

Freeza: Mannerisms heavily modeled off of numerous Chinese Wuxia villains.

Body splitting: Also taken from Chinese Wuxia stories.

The entire "Training to be the greatest fighter ever" premise of the entire story: Forms the core crux of most all Chinese Wuxia storytelling, and portrayed in DB directly in keeping with that very tradition.

Shen Long: A dragon god lifted directly from Chinese mythology.

90% of the clothing and dogi shown throughout the entire franchise, on both martial arts fighters, side characters, and background characters alike: Are completely Chinese in nature.

Martial arts fighting tournaments: Originally a Chinese concept.

Telekinetically levitating rocks/other objects with Ki: A Chinese Taoist concept.

Creating mystical weapons from Ki: A Chinese Taoist concept.

The whole "back tingle" thing when turning SSJ in Super that people threw a shit fit over: Also a Chinese Taoist concept, taken from the concepts of Dantians and Meridians.

Every single fight ever shown in Dragon Ball: Modeled DIRECTLY on the fighting seen throughout Chinese Wuxia media for literally centuries.

Mortal martial arts warriors fighting against gods and heavenly deities: Another stock Chinese Wuxia (really Xianxia) concept.

Muten Roshi/Kame Sennin: Sennin aka Xian are a Chinese Taoist concept from front to back.

Most of the plotlines for a majority of DB's story arcs: Lifted directly from various stock Chinese Wuxia plotlines and even specific Chinese martial arts films.

Side characters providing commentary and breakdown on a major fight scene: A stock Chinese Wuxia cliche.

Characters distilling the power of their Ki/martial arts techniques as a percentage number: Another stock Chinese Wuxia cliche.

Goku's whole "naive rural bumpkin who loves fighting" personality: A stock Chinese Wuxia character-type.


I mean.... I can keep going and going and going and going for several dozen more pages with this, but I think I've gotten the basic idea across.

And obviously other cultures (including American) are utilized in DB as well. But they are in NO way the prominent-most focus of the meat of the series: despite being created in Japan by a Japanese guy, Dragon Ball's creative DNA is overwhelmingly Chinese, foremost and above all else, in nature.

And in the content itself it's not chinese to have laser beam battles or fight aliens as well as all the futuristic vehicles. It's very scifi.

Kunzait has already explained how ki blast (read laser beam blast) is tied to the Chinese influence.

As far as sci fi and fighting aliens and futuristic tech you realize multiple things can be true right? The Sci fi window dressing doesn’t override the series being about martial artist who use chi to fight or how they try to become stronger. Goku being an alien doesn’t erase him being a martial artist who uses chi.

Okay but none of that is like how it actually is in chinese content. Those beams and stuff are Toriyama. You have chinese aesthetic stuff here and there but to say Dragon Ball is a authentic chinese show? That's pushing it.

[ABED]

He's not saying it's authentic Chinese, just that Toriyama's influences for DB are mostly Chinese.

[Kokonoe]

He's not saying it's authentic Chinese, just that Toriyama's influences for DB are mostly Chinese.

Well good cause I was under the impression he thought it was a authentic chinese show and I was real confused.

[MyVisionity]

Then again, Superman’s backstory itself was based on the story of Moses, which is of Eastern origin.

I don't know whether or not the Superman story has been explicitly stated to have been based upon the story of Moses, but I'm pretty sure that those types of stories were around long before Moses and the age of the Bible.

Those beams and stuff are Toriyama.

Beams of Qi have been around forever. I don't think Toriyama's depiction is necessarily unique, but even if it were, how is that somehow less "authentically" Chinese? I imagine that the depiction of Qi attacks has varied for centuries and is open to interpretation.

[MasenkoHA]

Then again, Superman’s backstory itself was based on the story of Moses, which is of Eastern origin.

I don't know whether or not the Superman story has been explicitly stated to have been based upon the story of Moses, but I'm pretty sure that those types of stories were around long before Moses and the age of the Bible.

Superman’s creators were both Jewish. The parallels to Moses were almost certainly intentional. That’s why the Christ allegory crap from Donner and Singer and Snyder have always been a little problematic turning what what suppose to be a Jewish figure into a Christian one.

[WittyUsername]

Then again, Superman’s backstory itself was based on the story of Moses, which is of Eastern origin.

I don't know whether or not the Superman story has been explicitly stated to have been based upon the story of Moses, but I'm pretty sure that those types of stories were around long before Moses and the age of the Bible.

Superman’s creators were both Jewish. The parallels to Moses were almost certainly intentional. That’s why the Christ allegory crap from Donner and Singer and Snyder have always been a little problematic turning what what suppose to be a Jewish figure into a Christian one.

Aren’t Richard Donner and Bryan Singer Jewish?

[Kunzait_83]

And in the content itself it's not chinese to have laser beam battles

Okay but none of that is like how it actually is in chinese content. Those beams and stuff are Toriyama.

Me talking about Wuxia on Kanzenshuu almost any and every time:

[Yuli Ban]

People who say Dragon Ball isn't rooted in a Chinese genre & aesthetic have to stick to their guns and also maintain that shows like Xiaolin Showdown and Avatar: The Last Airbender are also 99% Western with virtually no Chinese/Far Eastern influence.

[It_Is_Ayna_You_Flips]

Me talking about Wuxia on Kanzenshuu almost any and every time:

Completely unfair.

That wall is listening patiently whereas we're quite loudly and rudely interrupting you

[Kokonoe]

And in the content itself it's not chinese to have laser beam battles

Okay but none of that is like how it actually is in chinese content. Those beams and stuff are Toriyama.

Me talking about Wuxia on Kanzenshuu almost any and every time:

You know energy blasts from the hands is not exclusive to china right?









It's important to note that even when something is taking inspiration that the implementation in Dragon Ball is really Toriyama. None of those beams you showed looks like Kamehameha. And Toriyama honestly at first grabbed from Journey of the West as a base inspiration but he really does his own things with just about everything including Goku's personality in comparison to Wukong is a lot different in execution.

Dragon Ball also starts heavily straying away from Journey of the West as it progresses and becomes entirely it's own thing which is more than half the show.

[Kunzait_83]

You know energy blasts from the hands is not exclusive to china right?

You literally JUST said previously:

And in the content itself it's not chinese to have laser beam battles

Okay but none of that is like how it actually is in chinese content. Those beams and stuff are Toriyama.

And I then provided you with a fuckload of Chinese content (a great deal of which long predates DB) where "laser beam battles" are EXACTLY what happens in a martial arts fight.

Stop moving the goalposts.

It's important to note that even when something is taking inspiration that the implementation in Dragon Ball is really Toriyama.

I mean... obviously Toriyama's the one implementing the trope in Dragon Ball. Its HIS manga! He's the one drawing and writing it. No one, least of all myself, was disputing that.

What we were disputing was that the elements that he used WEREN'T his invention: he appropriated them directly from other stories and media: namely Chinese in origin. None of the Western comic book examples you posted were remotely relevant, because none of them are from martial arts fiction or have anything to do with martial arts concepts, which is the context from which DB was created.

Space Ghost doesn't tap into his inner Qi via intense martial arts training and cultivation (which is all a Chinese Taoist concept dating back literally THOUSANDS of years ago, and has been depicted in COUNTLESS Chinese - and Japanese - films, TV shows, and comics, well long before DB). Space Ghost has wrist blaster thingies, which are purely sci fi technology.

If you can't understand why Toriyama's depiction of Ki has almost nothing to do with Western comics (where such powers are almost always a result of sci fi technology or biological mutation, and in some cases a Western conception of "magic") and everything to do with Eastern martial arts/Wuxia media - which is where almost ALL of DB's core concepts, character archetypes, and plot beats can be directly found and traced to - then we're at a fundamental impasse here.

Again: nobody's saying that DB is LITERALLY a Chinese series made in China by a Chinese person. Thinking that that's what I've been saying here forces me to question your basic reading comprehension.

What I've been saying here is that, DESPITE being created in Japan by a Japanese guy, almost ALL of the series' foremost artistic and cultural influences are almost wholly Chinese in origin. Just like if I, as an American, went ahead and wrote a Samurai Jidaigeki/Chanbara story: even though the story is American made by an American author, the story's basic components and genre-makeup are still unmistakably Japanese.

Saying that Dragon Ball's creative components are primarily Japanese or that it has "very minimal" Chinese aesthetics (which is what you were saying earlier that prompted me to originally respond) is COMPLETELY incorrect and flies utterly in the face of basic reality here.

Just like how my hypothetical Jidaigeki/Chanbara story authored by me would be a case of an American appropriating a foreign genre (that's Japanese in origin) and its tropes, Dragon Ball (a Wuxia/martial arts fantasy serial) is Toriyama, a Japanese guy, appropriating what is also for him a foreign genre (that's Chinese in origin) and its tropes.

This really isn't THAT difficult of a concept to grasp here.

None of those beams you showed looks like Kamehameha.

Fine, here's a Qi/Chi/Ki blast from a whole different Wuxia manhua (Chinese comic) that also predates Dragon Ball:




And furthermore, this scene here?



Where this warrior monk is creating a Ki orb that both looks and works EXACTLY like the Genki Dama?

This is LITERALLY the technique that the Genki Dama itself is directly based off of. Originating in a Wuxia novel first published in 1963, and shown in countless live action film and TV adaptations (like the one gifed above).

That same novel (and its many adaptations) also incidentally features yet another mystical/supernatural martial arts technique you might find a hair bit familiar:





I can literally go through REAMS more techniques that DB directly lifted almost VERBATIM from other Wuxia stories. Enough to fill pages and pages (I literally did exactly that in the Wuxia thread).

And Toriyama honestly at first grabbed from Journey of the West as a base inspiration but he really does his own things with just about everything including Goku's personality in comparison to Wukong is a lot different in execution.

First of all, the Journey to the West influences, while they are by far at their strongest in the first arc, don't just stop there and continue to crop up throughout subsequent arcs: Tenshinhan himself, as noted earlier, is HEAVILY based on Erlang Shen, a character who features prominently in Journey to the West, and his original fight with Goku takes a ton of influence from Shen's fight against Wukong in the book.

Secondly, Goku's entire personality (naive rural, uncivilized/uncultured, book-dumb mountain bumpkin who is obsessed with food and is a martial arts savant) is a stock cliche of a character type found throughout a ton of Wuxia fiction, and even in a lot of non-Wuxia martial arts fiction, going back decades and decades and decades long before Dragon Ball. Linghu Chong, the main protagonist of The Smiling, Proud Wanderer series, is one of the most easily recognizable of these character types, and even none other than Bruce Lee himself played this exact character type to the hilt in Way of the Dragon (the one where he fights against Chuck Norris at the Roman Coliseum).

I even went through the whole history of this very character archetype in the Wuxia thread, including where it originated from culturally in Chinese Wuxia literature, and how it developed the way it did throughout the centuries into what we know it as today.

Dragon Ball also starts heavily straying away from Journey of the West as it progresses and becomes entirely it's own thing which is more than half the show.

Again, while the very first Dragon Ball arc is the arc most heavily and directly based on Journey to the West, the JTTW influences and references NEVER go COMPLETELY away, both in the manga and even in the anime filler (there's are several filler episodes that heavily pay tribute to JTTW via direct plot and character references). And more than that, even setting JTTW completely aside, the ENTIRE series is still STEEPED heavily in Chinese Wuxia/Taoist martial arts lore from beginning to end, which is ultimately the main point I was making here.

I'm not saying that Toriyama is 100% unoriginal (his art style and design aesthetic is as distinctive to him as a fingerprint, and while setting a Wuxia story in EITHER an ancient Chinese setting OR a modern day/futuristic setting had been done plenty of times prior to DB, none but DB have done literally BOTH simultaneously), but the things that yourself and others continually credit to him and to DB for "inventing" are just not at all factually accurate whatsoever.

The assumption that Toriyama and DB completely invented things like the series' distinctive style of supernatural martial arts fights (complete with ridiculous super speed, strength, flying, and Ki beam battles) and numerous other flourishes, or that they're unique largely to Toriyama and DB (or even that they mostly came from Western superhero media) and weren't already present in tons of other (and largely/overwhelmingly Chinese) media is 100% totally false, and easily demonstrably/provably so on any number of levels.


Once again, this right here is me discussing Wuxia on this website:

[kei17]

Fine, here's a Qi/Chi/Ki blast from a whole different Wuxia manhua (Chinese comic) that also predates Dragon Ball:

Spoiler:

What manhua is that panel from? If that's Iron Marshal, it doesn't predate Dragon Ball and it's actually a rip-off of Dragon Ball instead.

Also, considering Toriyama's love for the Star Wars series, my guess is that the concept of "ki" is rooted more in the Force.

[Kunzait_83]

What manhua is that panel from? If that's Iron Marshal, it doesn't predate Dragon Ball and it's actually a rip-off of Dragon Ball instead.

I thought for a moment that I took that from Oriental Heroes/Dragon Tiger Gate (which predates DB by quite a bit), but on secondary inspection you're right, it is from Iron Marshal. Iron Marshal, to the best of my knowledge at least, wasn't a ripoff of DB, but rather was published contemporaneously alongside DB in the late 80s/early 90s.

Still, my mistake.

Also, considering Toriyama's love for the Star Wars series, my guess is that the concept of "ki" is rooted more in the Force.

Star Wars itself lifted the Force from Qi/Chi/Ki and Chinese folklore to begin with. And while it allows users to levitate objects, leap great distances, sense its presence/strength in others, and move with superhuman speed, it still doesn't bestow any number of the other prominent abilities seen throughout DB and other martial arts fantasy media. Including any number of the specific techniques from countless other Wuxia franchises that DB blatantly lifted from.

[Yuli Ban]

It's not like wuxia is some obscure genre that only 80-year-old Taoist monks write and reflect upon. Wuxia and its derivatives are pretty much the East Asian equivalent of Westerns, almost down to shockingly similar morals and character archetypes. Just like Westerns, there's everything from high brow art films & deconstructions all the way to over-the-top comedic shlock for children and macho young men. And also like Westerns, it's most well known for being set during an olden time in history, but nowadays it can be set in any era it wants to be; just like there are Westerns in space, cyberpunk Westerns, and arguably Westerns existing as superhero & dystopian movies (that's an actual film critic argument that's widely accepted too), wuxia doesn't necessarily equal men and women in flowing gowns carrying swords in ancient China; you could very easily write a wuxia story that's, say, set in a pastiche of different eras and settings ranging from post-WWII all the way to a space opera in the same story, complete with characters wearing modern clothing and using smartphones while others don qipaos. And hell, it's not like others wouldn't wear ninja garbs or cowboy gear either; if Westerns can use samurai, there's no reason why wuxia stories can't use Western archetypes either.

Like, I don't imagine most people will know that Westerns were pretty much the only thing you could find on TV and in movie theatres between the 1940s and 1960s, with non-Westerns being a minority. That's sort of like what culture in the East was like back in the day. Not as much nowadays, but in the '70s and '80s (including and perhaps especially Japan)? If you went to a movie theater that played five movies, chances are there were at least three Hong Kong movies playing that involved kung fu, wire-fu, supernatural entities, gross usage of ki, a setting somewhere in Ancient or 19th century China or an expy thereof, etc. Just like how, if you watched 24 hours of TV in America in 1962, at least 12 hours would be Westerns and a good chunk of those hours would be dead space. There's literally no way to not know what wuxia is if you're from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc. for the same reason it'd be weird if you met an American, Canadian, or Briton that didn't know of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movies or the general archetype of wild west outlaw stories. We in America are simply largely ignorant of wuxia (and strangely, this is something that's only happened in the past 20 years with the rise of anime taking the place of wuxia; if you were anywhere between the ages of 8 and 48 any time in the 1960s, '70s, and '80s, you'd know what wuxia & kung fu stories are supposed to be as well as their general archetypes).

The whole thing with Dragon Ball is that it was a love letter to those movies, comics, and shows. Toriyama used Journey to the West because that was a tale everyone knew; if you were a schoolboy (e.g. the target demographic), you knew of the exploits of Sun Wukong and his merry fellows collecting sutras. It's basically the Asian equivalent of a fairy tale or tall tale; there's King Arthur, there's Paul Bunyon, and there's Sun Wukong. So if you want to make a kung fu comic but don't want to think too much about it, why not base it on JttW at least to kick it off?


To that end, Kokonoe's argument could be reframed as:

You know shooting guns from revolvers is not exclusive to america right?

And it'd make about as much sense. It's like some CCP ultranationalist from China arguing Harry Potter is a wuxia story that has nothing to do with European fantasy, that using magical staffs to shoot chi-based attacks is something that's East Asian and not really European, and that Harry & friends cultivating knowledge to grow stronger proves it's actually wuxia unlike something like Chronicles of Narnia or Lord of the Rings. Therefore, Harry Potter is a wuxia story.
That's basically the same argument people make when they say Dragon Ball isn't a parodic wuxia story.

Also, considering Toriyama's love for the Star Wars series, my guess is that the concept of "ki" is rooted more in the Force.

Ki is literally "chi". Like, it's "chi" the same way Son Goku is literally Sun Wukong. It's similar to the way Juan, Jean, and Ivan are John. There is NOTHING different about "chi" and "ki". The only reason it's spelled differently is because of the different way we transliterate Chinese and Japanese.
Hell, the Force itself was taken directly from chi/prana as well. Star Wars' whole ethos was a mixture of everything from wuxia to Samurai movies to Westerns to WWII movies (that's just how that era of Hollywood operated), and its wuxia and ronin influences are evident in things like the Jedi vs Sith struggle and how the Force works and various other archetypes. OG Star Wars was unique in that it could jump from gunslinging cowboys to Arthurian legend to Taoist spirituality in the span of 10 minutes all wrapped up in a sci-fi bow.

It's a neat theory, but completely wrong. Again, it's like someone arguing that J.K. Rowling's concept for Harry Potter having ghosts must've come from Scooby-Doo.

[Kunzait_83]

It's a neat theory, but completely wrong. Again, it's like someone arguing that J.K. Rowling's concept for Harry Potter having ghosts must've come from Scooby-Doo.

Hey come on now: who doesn't remember that famous Star Wars technique from the original trilogy where a Force user creates a giant orb of Force power taken from all surrounding life and throws it like a bomb, but can be rebounded by someone who's pure of heart?

Not to mention that one where a Force user can lock onto another source of Force power by putting their fingers to their forehead and instantly teleport to that location.

Not to mention all those beams of light that blow up mountains and clash against one another that the Jedi are always firing from their eyes, mouths, and palms.

Or when a Jedi or Sith drains the Force from someone to the point where their flesh crumples and shrivels up.

Or all the times their Force power leaves a visible "aura" surrounding them and can be expanded outward into a destructive radiating dome of energy.

Or when the Jedi and Sith split themselves into multiple duplicates.

Or stretch their limbs to great lengths.

Or knock people full-bodily miles away from them with a Kiai shout.

Or when a Force user moves so fast, they leave an afterimage of themselves behind.

Or all those times that the Jedi used the Force to seal away the Sith and their Dark Side power into a small jar.

All Force powers primarily associated with the original Star Wars trilogy and that obviously NEVER creeped their way into tons of Chinese Wuxia/martial arts fantasy fiction from long before either SW or DB.

[kei17]

Not as much nowadays, but in the '70s and '80s (including and perhaps especially Japan)? If you went to a movie theater that played five movies, chances are there were at least three Hong Kong movies playing that involved kung fu, wire-fu, supernatural entities, gross usage of ki, a setting somewhere in Ancient or 19th century China or an expy thereof, etc. Just like how, if you watched 24 hours of TV in America in 1962, at least 12 hours would be Westerns and a good chunk of those hours would be dead space.

As a man born and raised in Japan, I can confirm that you're stretching the truth too much here. At least three Hong Kong movies out of five at a theater in Japan? No way! There surely was a boom in Hon Kong movies in Japan from the mid-'70s to the end of the '80s, but that came from the Western world. In fact, most of the popular kung-fu movies starring Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan were secondarily imported from the US, thus their titles and edits were based on the English version. In the first place, in Japanese, kung-fu movies are called "カンフー映画" (kanfu-eiga), which originates in the English pronunciation of kung-fu, and that fact alone implies a lot about the origin of the trend. Under the great influence of the US, the Japanese people had been exposed more to the Western culture after losing the WW2, so things were somewhat different from other East Asian countries.

There's literally no way to not know what wuxia is if you're from China, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, etc. for the same reason it'd be weird if you met an American, Canadian, or Briton that didn't know of John Wayne or Clint Eastwood movies or the general archetype of wild west outlaw stories.

This is plain wrong. Although a lot of Hong Kong movies were screened and received home video releases in Japan, 99% of them fall under the genres of kung-fu and Jiangshi, and Wuxia movies never became popular. Wuxia novels were never introduced, too. The word 武侠 itself had not been even known until the beginning of this century, when the movie named "Hero" was released in 2003. To most of the Japanese people, it was the first exposure to Wuxia, and it predates the US release only by a year. Also, I myself had never heard of the word Wuxia (or 武侠 bukyô in Japanese) until Kunzait's thread.
I wonder why Wuxia did not (and still have not) become popular in Japan considering the high popularity of kung-fu movies, though. Maybe it competes with the demand for samurai movies/dramas (jidai-geki and chanbara) and it has almost no place in the Japanese market.

[kei17]

I thought for a moment that I took that from Oriental Heroes/Dragon Tiger Gate (which predates DB by quite a bit), but on secondary inspection you're right, it is from Iron Marshal. Iron Marshal, to the best of my knowledge at least, wasn't a ripoff of DB

Oh, you don't think it was?









You are obviously overrating the originality of Hong Kong manhua at the time.

[dougo13]

I'd also appreciate it if anyone could point me to these movies on a streaming service. I'm not interested enough to begin paying for them, but would still like to sample.

Do you have Amazon Prime? Lots of Shaw Bros. and Golden Harvest films there. Do a search for Mona Fong (the producer), Shaw, Kung Fu, etc. Also, if you have the El Ray Network, Sundays from 6AM to 4PM are wall to wall kung fu movies...

[ABED]

And also like Westerns, it's most well known for being set during an olden time in history, but nowadays it can be set in any era it wants to be

Like my favorite, Justified. Seriously, I'll talk about that show any chance I get. It's amazing. Wait, what are we talking about? Oh yes, Wuxia. I think many people have watched the genre without knowing that's what they were watching.