Childhood movies

When I was young I used to watch a lot of films. The main staple of my movie diet was Hong Kong movies.

The guy who used to deliver our beansprouts also had a sideline in pirate videos. We used to get films one week after they had their cinematic release in Hong Kong, and the movies would be crystal clear. In the late 80's, early 90's movies that I watched were very similar. There are 2 settings for Hong Kong movies, "in the past" (see Once Upon a Time In China, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and modern Hong Kong (The Killer, God of Gamblers). The common thing that runs through all movies is kung fu. From action to horror to comedy to romance, everyone knows kung fu. There is no need for explanation, EVERYONE KNOWS KUNG FU. You can do everything with kung fu, you can fight, fly, change cards, listen to dice, predict the future, discover the past, catch bullets, x-ray vision, defeat vampires, kill demons, battle with gods, start wars, finish wars, move mountains, resurrect the dead... anything you want. Of course some are better that other, but other than the comic sidekick or the princess in peril (who normally pickup one or two moves anyway), EVERYONE KNOWS KUNG FU. Every film had fighting in it, even the comedies could be very violent. I could watch several men being disemboweled, be-headed, chopped into a thousand pieces and fed to the fishes (that was in a comedy about gangsters. Actually all modern HK films, comedy, romance, action had some gangsters in it somewhere.). When I was in visiting my grandparents a few years ago in HK I started watching a soap opera, set "in the past". The first episode I saw, 6 people got murdered in the final 10 minutes. The next episode had 3 people die in the first 20 minutes. This was being shown at midday. Imagine if Dr Truman did that in Eastenders.

After about 3 years, the guy with the beansprouts and pirate videos stopped visiting, and stopped answering his calls. The movies stopped with him. I never found out what happened to him. Some say he was arrested for distributing pirate videos. Some say he was in the triads, and moved onto other dodgy trades. I like to think he was attacked by gang of masked assassins, and used what he learnt from the movies to defeat them, whilst his camp comedy driver cowarded in the corner. Then a passing monk spotted his talents and took him to the mountains to train in the "Secret Ancient Arts" for a cosmic battle with the demonic gods who want to enslave mankind.