Kung Fury

Kung Fury

Theatrical release poster
Directed by David Sandberg
Produced by
  • Linus Andersson
  • Eleni Young Antonia
Written by David Sandberg
Starring
Music by
Cinematography
  • Matias Andersson
  • Jonas Ernhill
  • Martin Gäardeman
Edited by Nils Moström
Production
companies
  • Lampray
  • Laser Unicorns
Release dates
Running time
 31 minutes
Country Sweden
Language English
Budget US$630,019[2]

Kung Fury is a 2015 English-language Swedish martial arts action comedy short film written, directed by, and starring David Sandberg. It pays homage to 1980s martial arts and police action films.[3][4] The film stars David Sandberg in the title role with Jorma Taccone, Leopold Nilsson, and a cameo appearance by David Hasselhoff.

The film was crowdfunded through Kickstarter from December 2013 to January 2014 with pledges reaching US$630,019, exceeding the original target goal of $200,000, but short of the feature film goal of $1 million.[2] It was selected to screen in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, losing to Rate Me from the United Kingdom.[5]

Plot

Sometime in the early 1980s, Miami-Dade Police Department detective Kung Fury and his partner Dragon apprehend a red ninja in a back alley, but Dragon is sliced in half by the ninja while Kung Fury is suddenly struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, giving him extraordinary kung fu powers that enable him to defeat his foe. Years later in 1985, after defeating a rogue arcade machine robot, Kung Fury quits the force when he is assigned to partner with Triceracop, fearing that he would lose another partner in the line of duty. Meanwhile, Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", enters the timeline and remotely guns down the police chief and attacks the precinct through a mobile phone. Intent to avenge the chief, Kung Fury has computer whiz Hackerman send him back in time to kill Hitler in Nazi Germany. A glitch in the system, however, sends him back into the Viking Age. After Kung Fury meets the Viking valkyries Barbarianna and Katana, the Norse god Thor sends him to Nazi Germany for him to finish his job.

Upon his arrival, Kung Fury singlehandedly mows down dozens of Nazi soldiers with his kung fu skills, but is gunned down by Hitler using a Gatling-type gun from inside his podium. Suddenly, Thor, Hackerman, Triceracop, the Viking Babes, and a tyrannosaurus hack into the timeline and kill the rest of the Nazi army while the tyrannosaurus squares off against Hitler's robotic Reichsadler. After being revived by Hackerman, Kung Fury gives Hitler an uppercut before Thor drops his hammer on the Nazi leader and his robotic eagle. Seeing his mission as accomplished, Kung Fury returns to his timeline.

Back in 1985 Miami, Kung Fury once again battles and defeats the arcade machine robot, but notices a Swastika on the robot's body while Hitler and his Reichsadler enter the timeline, vowing revenge on Kung Fury.

Cast

Production

Director David Sandberg dressed as Kung Fury at the 2015 Comic-Con International.

David Sandberg is a Swedish filmmaker who has directed television commercials and music videos. In 2012, he quit the commercial directing business and focused on writing a script for an action comedy film set in the 1980s, inspired by action films of that era. He initially spent US$5,000 on producing and shooting footage with his friends, which became the trailer.[2]

In December 2013, Sandberg released the trailer and began a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the film's production with the goal of raising US$200,000 to produce a 30-minute version of the film and stream it online for free. A second goal was added with the target set to $1 million to rewrite the story into a full-length feature and a possible distribution deal. Most of the raw footage over green screen had been filmed using a Canon EOS 5D Mark III[7] and a Sony FS700, but additional funding was required for post-production.[2][8][9]

The Kickstarter project ended on 25 January 2014, with $630,019 pledged by 17,713 backers.[2]

Filming

Due to a limited budget, Sandberg shot the majority of the film at his office in Umeå, Sweden, using digital effects to replicate the streets of Miami. As he could only afford one police uniform during the production of the trailer, he filmed the police precinct scene by shooting each extra separately and compositing them in the scene. The single-shot scene where Kung Fury dispatches dozens of Nazi soldiers was achieved by combining the primary take of Sandberg's moves with over 60 takes of individual extras attacking him.[2]

On 30 July 2014, Sandberg announced that he and his crew had begun filming new footage, with the 30 backers who pledged to be in the film as extras. Filming was also done in Stockholm for additional scenes and stunts.[10] For the scene with Barbarianna riding a giant wolf, Sandberg used stock footage of a black wolf from the website GreenScreen Animals, as sourcing a real wolf was impossible in Sweden. Miniatures were used in Kung Fury's fight scenes involving the arcade machine robot and the Red Ninja.[11] The animated "Heaven" sequence was produced by French video game developer Old Skull Games.[12]

In keeping with the film's '80s theme, the visual effects artists softened the film clarity and added videotape wear effects to give the illusion of it being a worn VHS copy being played on an old VCR. One instance of this effect is in the scene where the Viking Babe Katana summons Thor. The scene was in the trailer with Joanna Häggblom originally as Katana, but because Häggblom was replaced by Helene Ahlson for the actual film, visual scratches and distortion effects were added to the scene to mask the cast change.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack score is composed by Swedish synthwave musicians Mitch Murder and Lost Years,[13] with additional music by Patrik Öberg, Christoffer Ling, Highway Superstar, and Betamaxx. The official soundtrack album was released on vinyl record on 8 July 2015.[14]

Release

The film made its debut at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and premiered on YouTube, the Steam PC gaming platform,[15] SVT2 in Sweden, and the El Rey Network in the United States, on 28 May 2015.[1] By 1 June, the film had received over 10 million views on YouTube.[16] As of 22 July 2016, the video has scored over 26 million views on YouTube. The film has also been made available on VoD platforms through a distribution deal with Under the Milky Way.[17]

Critical reception

Kung Fury was met with positive reviews from critics and audiences alike. Tyler Richardson of Latino-Review gave the film an A, commenting that "What Black Dynamite got so perfect about Blaxploitation films, this does wonderfully for 80s cop movies."[18] Jonny Bunning of Bloody Disgusting gave the film a score of three-and-a-half out of five skulls, saying that "Kung Fury is the Avengers Assemble if it had been made in the 90s."[19]

Todd Brown of Twitch Film also praised the film, calling it "a thirty-minute long, nonstop assault of some of the most astounding visual gags ever assembled in one place. Kung Fury knows its audience, knows it damn well, and while it has little to offer to anyone outside of its particular niche, for people within that niche this is absolute gold."[20] Scott Weinberg of Nerdist Industries called it "a 31-minute masterpiece that feels like it fell right out of 1985 and hit just about every awesome b-movie genre on the way down."[21] Melissa Locker of Vanity Fair praised the film, jokingly calling it "the best movie ever, of course."[22]

Awards and nominations

Kung Fury received the following awards and nominations:[23]

Video game

Kung Fury: Street Rage is the companion video game to the film published by Hello There AB, paying homage to classic beat 'em up games such as Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, and Final Fight, though the actual gameplay mostly resembles One Finger Death Punch by Silver Dollar Games, with the player pressing left or right of the character to attack in either direction. It is available on PSN for the PlayStation 4, Google Play, App Store, Windows Store, and Steam.[24][25][26] A Commodore 64 version was also produced in a limited edition of 200 cassette tapes, for promotional purposes.[27]

An upgraded version of the game, titled Kung Fury: Street Rage - The Arcade Strikes Back, was released on Steam and PlayStation 4 in December 2015. The game features additional boss fights and enables players to fight as Kung Fury's allies Triceracop, Barbarianna, and Hackerman.[28]

Sequel

On 28 May 2016 it was announced on the Laser Unicorns Facebook page that Kung Fury II The Movie is in development.[29]

Future

Sandberg is currently working with producers Seth Grahame-Smith and David Katzenberg on a full-length feature film version of Kung Fury. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he stated that the project would be a "clean slate", containing no footage from the short film but taking place in the same universe.[30]

References

  1. 1 2 Bishop, Bryan. "The Insane '80s Action Short Kung Fury Is Jumping from Kickstarter to Your TV." The Verge. Vox Media, 21 May 2015. Web. 24 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Kung Fury". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  3. ↑ Kristobak, Ryan (2013-12-29). "'Kung Fury' Is The Over-The-Top 80s Renegade Cop Movie We've Been Waiting For". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  4. ↑ "Wacky trailer for new action comedy Kung Fury released on Kickstarter". The Independent. 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  5. ↑ "The Directors' Fortnight 2015 selection!". Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "Han spelar Hitler i Kung Fury". Västerbottens-Kuriren. 5 May 2015. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
  7. ↑ "Briljante jaren 80 actiefilm 'Kung Fury' gefilmd met de Canon 5D III". FotoVideo.nu. 2015-05-30. Retrieved 2015-06-02.
  8. ↑ Souppouris (2013-12-27). "'Kung Fury' pits Hitler against the greatest '80s action hero that never was". The Verge. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  9. ↑ Stoneback, Robert (2014-01-04). "Kung-Fu Hitler, Renegade Cops and Vikings Star in Kickstarter Film Kung Fury". The Escapist. Retrieved 2014-01-06.
  10. ↑ Sandberg, David (2014-07-30). "Progress!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  11. ↑ Sandberg, David (director) (2015-07-07). Kung Fury VFX Breakdown #1 with David Sandberg (Web video). Laser Unicorns. Retrieved 2015-07-07.
  12. ↑ Sandberg, David (director) (2015-09-24). Animating Kung Fury by Old Skull Games (Web video). Laser Unicorns. Retrieved 2015-09-24.
  13. ↑ "Kung Fury: Beyond Awesome". Future City Records. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  14. ↑ "Kung Fury Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Kung Fury Official Online Store. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  15. ↑ "Kung Fury on Steam". Steam. Laser Unicorns. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  16. ↑ VanDerWerff, Todd (2015-06-02). "Inside Kung Fury, the 30-minute viral video that hit 10 million views in a weekend". Vox Culture. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  17. ↑ "Kung Fury Coming to VOD". Bloody Disgusting. 2015-05-15. Retrieved 2015-06-11.
  18. ↑ Richardson, Tyler (2015-05-29). "Film Review: Kung Fury". Latino-Review. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  19. ↑ Bunning, Jonny (2015-05-29). "[Review] We've Kicked Ass With Kung Fury!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  20. ↑ Brown, Todd (2015-05-29). "Review: Struck By Lightning. Bitten By A Cobra. KUNG FURY Is A Giddy Blast Of B-Movie Entertainment.". Twitch Film. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  21. ↑ Weinberg, Scott (2015-05-30). "Review: Kung Fury Will Fill Your Soul With Awesome". Nerdist Industries. Retrieved 2015-05-31.
  22. ↑ Locker, Melissa (2015-05-31). "Kung Fury Is The Best Movie Ever Exclamation Point". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  23. ↑ Kung Fury (2015) Awards, Internet Movie Database
  24. ↑ "Kung Fury: Street Rage Now Available!". VHX. 2015-06-03. Retrieved 2015-06-07.
  25. ↑ "Can't Get Enough of Kung Fury? Get the Game and Soundtrack". Inquisitr. 2015-06-01. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  26. ↑ "Kung Fury is also now a game for your Android devices". Android Community. 2015-06-01. Retrieved 2015-06-03.
  27. ↑ Ritman, Alex (2015-05-14). "Cannes: Behold the Cheesy Glory of '80s Homage 'Kung Fury'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2015-08-11.
  28. ↑ McDonnell, Jeffrey (2015-12-04). "Kung Fury: Street Rage - The Arcade Strikes Back Is Now Available on Steam and PS4". Gamenesia.com. Retrieved 2015-12-05.
  29. ↑ Nordine (2016-05-29). "Kung Fury II Teased by Writer, Director & Star David Sandberg". IndieWire. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  30. ↑ Breznican, Anthony (2015-06-03). "What the hell is Kung Fury and who on earth made it? Some answers...". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2015-07-01.
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