The Beauty of Kung Fury

One recent phenomenon on the Internet that earned accolades from me was this short film from Sweden, Kung Fury.

A personal project of advertising and music director David Sandberg, Kung Fury was financed through Kickstarter and cost $630,000 to make and release. Sandberg says he's a big fan of the 1980s and made this movie as both a parody and a tribute to that era. Being a child of the 80s myself, I decided to make a brief analysis of the elements of the 80s referenced in this film.

Let me just enumerate the elements that make Kung Fury a smash:

Sandberg's look in the film - like Sylvester Stallone in Cobra, with red headband from Rambo
Miami environment - Miami vice
80s arcarde games - obvious here
Video tape malfunctions like in Betamax
General martial arts referencs, ninjas, Shaolin monks, Asian shrine in Kung Fury's home, popularized in the 80s
Partner death cliche
Police uniform look - T.J. Hooker
"Chosen one" cliche
Van Damme split after killing red ninja
80s-style intro sequence, with sunset background
Follow the rules reference to typical rule-breaking protagonist
Doesn't want a partner - Dirty Harry (actually 70s cliche repeated by 80s loner heroes)
Triceracop - Dinosaucers, Dino-Riders, all that
Hitler appearing in alley with lightning - Terminator
Hackerman - hacker is always someone special who can make computer matter affect reality, like Walter Nebicher in Automan, and even Tron
Barbarian girls - look up Barbarian Women, Red Sonja, Hundra and other female barbarian movies and shows
Hitler and henchmen - like GI Joe's nemesis Cobra and other typical villainous paramilitary organizations
Hitler trying to sweet talk Kung Fury into joining him - typical villain saying you and I are alike, like Batman and Joker
80s cartoon sequence - Car turns into helicopter like M.A.S.K., Cobra on flying sled is like Serpentor in GI Joe, Fury's power up like Dragonball Z (which is an 80s anime) and fighting cartoons, general 80s cartoon feel

Ending - Moral lesson in teamwork, sharing a laugh at the end, 

Poorly synced dubbing - typical of 80s martial arts films


No need for negative reviews, since it was a short comedy film, probably something like a demonstration film. As it is, it was good. Although the gore was not too 80s-y. hehe