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Kwai Chang Caine

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Kwai Chang Caine
Kung Fu character
David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine
First appearanceKung Fu
Created byEd Spielman
Portrayed byDavid Carradine as an adult
Keith Carradine as a younger Caine
Radames Pera the child Caine
Stephen Manley
In-universe information
GenderMale
Occupationbuddhist monk
Familyhalf-brother, Danny Caine
ReligionBuddhism
NationalityChinese

Kwai Chang Caine [虔官昌 or 拐杖棍 Qián Guānchāng][citation needed] is a fictional television character played by David Carradine as an adult, Keith Carradine as a younger Caine and Radames Pera the child Caine and Stephen Manley as the youngest Caine, in the 1972–1975 western television series, Kung Fu. [1]

In the late 19th century China, Kwai Chang Caine was the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman. He was raised in a Shaolin Monastery, and was trained by the monks to be a Shaolin master. Kung Fu follows his adventures as he travels to the American Old West (armed only with his skill in martial arts) as he seeks his half-brother, Danny Caine. Although it was his intention to find his brother Danny in a way which would escape notice, the demands of his training as a priest in addition to the sense of social responsibility which was instilled within him during his childhood, forced Caine to repeatedly come into the open to fight for justice. He would then leave his new surroundings in a further search for anonymity and security.

Although Caine was referred to as a priest throughout the series, members of the Shaolin order are actually monks. Western audiences might have expected that such a character had taken a vow of chastity, but that was apparently not true in Caine's case as he frequently had intimate relations with women throughout the series.

Synopsis

Orphaned after his maternal grandfather's death, Caine eventually found himself outside the local Shaolin temple along with other hopeful candidates. After waiting patiently for several days, Caine and the few other remaining candidates were taken inside the temple where only Caine passed a subtle test in manners. Although taking a student of mixed parentage into the order was unprecedented, the head monk sagely noted "There is a first for everything," and welcomed Caine.

Following his induction into the order, Caine then lived in the temple until adulthood, mastering many of the fighting forms and lessons taught by the Shaolin monks. At one point during his training he was shown the various forms and his instructor explained that it would take a lifetime to master one of the forms. Later, while in America, when asked by a student which forms he teaches, Caine's response was "All of them."

One of his first instructors was the blind master named Po. Po considered Caine his favorite pupil and behaved more like an elderly grandfather. Caine was given the nickname "Grasshopper" by Master Po. The reference was from an exchange where the still ignorant young Caine asked the old blind master how he could function without seeing. Po asked Caine to close his eyes and describe what he could hear. Po then asked if Caine could hear the grasshopper at his feet feet (Caine hadn't noticed the insect until that moment). Incredulous, Caine asked Po, "Old man - how is it that you hear these things?". Po's reply was, "Young man, how is it that you do not?". From that point on, Po affectionately called Caine "Grasshopper".

Kung Fu wanted poster

Years after his graduation, Caine travels to the Forbidden City to meet Po, whose lifelong ambition was to travel to the city on that date. While talking, the Emperor's nephew and his entourage come along and an altercation ensued. While defending himself from an unruly and belligerent guard, Master Po is shot by the Emperor's nephew. Caine kills the Imperial nephew before he can reload his pistol. With his dying words, Po gives Caine his pouch, containing his few worldly possessions and instructs Caine to flee from China. At first , Caine tries to flee to Tibet , being unsuccessful he then escapes to the American Old West during which time he discovers that he has a half-brother, named Danny. At the same time, he was on the run from a steady stream of bounty hunters and Chinese agents searching for him.

The conflict between a desire for anonymity and a sense of social responsibility is conveyed through the frequent use of flashbacks. In these flashbacks, the adult Caine (Carradine) recalls a particular lesson during his training in the monastery while a child (Radames Pera) by his teachers, the blind Master Po (Keye Luke) and Master Kan (Philip Ahn).

During the concluding four episodes of the third (and final) season (Barbary House, Flight to Orion, The Brothers Caine, and Full Circle,) Caine not only finds his brother Danny, but his nephew Zeke as well.

Characteristics and skills

Caine is a Master In Shaolin Kung Fu. This school contained various arts in real Chinese history, but the styles depicted in the series were:

Master Po (left) and Kwai Chang Caine (right) in a flashback from the episode "Dark Angel", written by Herman Miller

Caine's training involved both armed and unarmed combat. He was also tutored in eastern philosophy and herbal medicine. Upon graduation he attained the rank of Shaolin Master. Caine exited the school via a special corridor designed as a last test. Barring the exit was a hot iron cauldron with the figures of a dragon on one side and a tiger on the other. By lifting the cauldron with his forearms, the graduate branded himself with the figures. The newly initiated master thus bore an imprint on each their inner forearms; signifying their new status. On several occasions these scars identified him as a Shaolin monk to those familiar with Chinese culture.

‎

Caine's character is humble, intelligent, inquisitive, and usually very soft-spoken. His only known pastimes are the playing of a bamboo flute and meditation. Caine is fluent in both Cantonese and English. He is also very skilled in the schools of herbalism and healing.

Love life

As Caine explained to his brother in the last episode of the Kung Fu series, Full Circle, the Shaolin life "is not one of restriction". As a matter of fact, Caine frequently indulged in sex and even contemplated marriage on at least two occasions.

In the first episode, King of the Mountain, Lara Parker, best known as Angelique from Dark Shadows, plays a widowed ranch owner with whom Caine finds employment. She offers him money for his labors, but he refuses saying that all he needs is food and place to sleep. She presses him and insists there must be more he needs. It is subtly implied that she eventually supplies what he needs. It is also implied that she is attracted by the "tattoos" on his forearms.

In the episode The Tide, Caine falls in love with Su Yen, played by Tina Chen, the daughter of a philosopher and author with whom Caine is familiar. It turns out that Su Yen, however, seeks to trade Caine to the Emperor in exchange for her father who is imprisoned in China.

It is hard to say if Mayli, played by Nancy Kwan, really loved Caine, or if she was just using him to fight her battles, but it is clear that she took his virginity in the two part, second season episode, Cenotaph. It would be many years before Caine discovered that the union resulted in the conception of his son, Chung Wang, who was played by Brandon Lee (Bruce Lee's son) in the 1986 spin-off movie, Kung Fu: The Movie.

In the waning days of her relationship with David Carradine, Barbara Hershey appeared in a two part, season three episode called Besieged. She played the role of Nan Chi, a half-Chinese, half-Caucasian woman who wanted to become a disciple of the Shaolin. She and Kwai Chang clearly fall in love, but the relationship is never consummated as Kwai Chang, still a disciple in this flashback episode, did not lose his virginity until after he had left the monastery, as previously depicted in the second season. Nan Chi is mortally wounded while saving Kwai Chang's life. As she lies dying, she asks Caine to pretend with her that they are married and have a child. He says, "Only live, Nan Chi, and it will be true."

Reverting to a familiar pattern, Caine once again takes employment from a widowed ranch owner who doesn't feel that food and a place to sleep is enough compensation for all that Caine has done for her. Thus, Caine has no choice but to have a little roll in the hay with her. In this third season episode, A Small Beheading, Ellie is played by Rosemary Forsyth.

Teachers

Known relatives

Kung-Fu

  • Father: Thomas Henry Caine
  • Mother: Kwai Lin
  • Half Brother: Daniel Caine
  • Uncle: American farmer
  • Grandfather: Henry Rafael Caine
  • Grandmother: Elizabeth Hale Caine
  • Nephew: Zeke (John Blyth Barrymore)
  • Cousin: Margit Kingsley McLean (Season Hubley)
  • Cousin: Johnny Kingsley McLean (Edward Albert)

Kung-Fu: The Movie

Kung-Fu: The Next Generation

Kung-Fu: The Legend Continues

  • Distant ancestor: Kwai Chang (the first of the line, 1500 years before the series)
  • Son: Matthew Caine
  • Grandson: Kwai Chang Caine
  • Grandson: Damon Caine
  • Grandson: Martin Bradshaw (half-brother of Kwai Chang Caine and Damon Caine)
  • Great-grandson: Peter Caine (the last of the line; played by Chris Potter)

Caine's name

In the fourth episode of season three ("The Small Beheading"), William Shatner's character presents Caine with a scroll that is written in Chinese. As the camera pans down the scroll, the Chinese characters for Caine's name appear for the first time in the series:

Chinese English Zhangzhou accented Amoy (POJ) Mandarin (Pinyin)
虔 Caine Khiân [kʰɪɛn] Qián [tɕʰjɛ̌n]
官 Kwai Koaiⁿ [kuaĩ] Guān [kwán]
昌 Chang chhiang [tɕʰiaŋ] chāng [tʂʰɑ́ŋ]
  • note: in Chinese, the surname is written first

The Zhangzhou accented Amoy pronunciation of the characters most closely match the English spelling of Caine's name. However, in the series, Caine attended the Shaolin Temple in Henan province, where the priests likely spoke Mandarin.

Spin-offs

  • In 1986 Kung Fu: The Movie premiered as a made-for-TV movie. In reality, the movie was the pilot for a new series in which Caine finds himself hunted by the father of the royal nephew killed by Caine in the original pilot. The royal's primary weapon against Caine is a young man named Chung Wang - unknowingly Caine's adult son (played by Brandon Lee).
  • In 1987 a second series called Kung Fu: The Next Generation was supposed to be launched. It was set in the present day telling the story of Kwai Chang Caine's grandson (played by David Barlow) and great-grandson, played by Brandon Lee. Throughout this series, Caine would teach his rebellious son of the Shaolin ways. The series idea never took off beyond the pilot, however, and was not launched.
  • In 1993 a third series was begun, Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, wherein Carradine played the grandson of the original Caine. Identical in appearance to and named after the first Kwai Chang Caine, this Caine was reunited with his son from whom he was separated fifteen years ago (when both thought the other had died in an explosion). Raised by a Los Angeles policeman, the son is now a police detective who has long since abandoned his boyhood Shaolin training. This series ran for four seasons and 88 episodes.
  • David Carradine made one final appearance as Caine in "The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw", part of Kenny Rogers "The Gambler" telefilm series. It also featured the final appearance of Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, Hugh O'Brian as Wyatt Earp and Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick.

In popular culture

  • Caine was mentioned in Pulp Fiction. The character Jules Winnfield stated that he would give up his life of crime and "walk the Earth; you know, like Caine from Kung Fu". David Carradine, who portrayed Caine, was cast as the title role in one of Tarantino's later films, Kill Bill.

References

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kwai_Chang_Caine&oldid=372719784"