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Kung Fury

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Kung Fury
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Sandberg
Written byDavid Sandberg
Produced by
  • Linus Andersson
  • Eleni Young
Starring
Cinematography
  • Jonas Ernhill
  • Martin Gäardemalm
  • Matias Andersson
Edited byNils Moström
Music by
  • Mitch Murder
  • Lost Years
Production
companies
  • Laser Unicorns
  • Lampray
Release dates
Running time
31 minutes
CountrySweden
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$630,019[2]

Kung Fury is a 2015 Swedish martial arts comedy short film written, directed by, and starring David Sandberg. It is an homage to 1980s martial arts and police action films.[3][4] 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 falling 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 UK.[5]

Plot

In 1985, 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. The day 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 "hack" him back into Nazi Germany to kill Hitler. A glitch in the system, however, sends him back into the Viking Age. After Kung Fury meets the Viking babes 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 hundreds of Nazi soldiers with his kung fu skills, but is gunned down by Hitler using a Gatling 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 robot bird. After being revived back into health by Hackerman, Kung Fury gives Hitler an uppercut before Thor drops his hammer on the Nazi leader and his robot bird. 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 robot bird enter the timeline, vowing revenge on Kung Fury.

Cast

  • David Sandberg as Kung Fury, a Miami detective who possesses a new and powerful form of kung fu after being struck by lightning and bitten by a cobra, thus becoming "The Chosen One" as told by an ancient prophecy
  • Jorma Taccone as Adolf Hitler, a.k.a. "Kung Führer", who aims to become the greatest martial artist by traveling through time to kill "The Chosen One"[6]
  • Steven Chew as Dragon, Kung Fury's partner who is killed by a red ninja
  • Leopold Nilsson as Hackerman, a computer whiz who can transform into a robot
  • Andreas Cahling as Thor (voiced by Per-Henrik Arvidius), the Norse god of thunder
  • Erik Hornqvist as Triceracop (voiced by Frank Sanderson), a half-man, half-Triceratops cop who is assigned as Kung Fury's new partner
  • Per-Henrik Arvidius as Chief
  • Eleni Young as Barbarianna
  • Helene Ahlson as Katana (voiced by Yasmina Suhonen)
  • Eos Karlsson as the Red Ninja
  • Magnus Betnér as Colonel Reichstache
  • Björn Gustafsson as Private Lahmstache
  • David Hasselhoff as Hoff 9000 (voice)
  • Frank Sanderson as Cobra/Dinomite

Production

David Sandberg is a Swedish filmmaker who has directed television commercials and music videos. In 2012, he quit the commercial directing 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 first trailer.[2]

In December 2013, Sandberg 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 and a Sony FS700, but additional funding was required for post-production.[2][7][8]

The Kickstarter project ended on January 25, 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-frame 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 July 30, 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.[9]

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,[10] with additional music by Patrik Öberg, Christoffer Ling, Highway Superstar, and Betamaxx. The official soundtrack album is scheduled to be released on vinyl record on July 8, 2015.[11]

David Hasselhoff's music video of the theme song "True Survivor" debuted on April 16, 2015.[12] It begins with an altered scene from the trailer where instead of the police car exploding in mid air, from thug gunfire, Hasselhoff turns the tables and fires back at the thugs from the airborne police car. The video features Hasselhoff singing alongside a white Lamborghini Countach replica, clips from the film, as well as an end scene of himself and Kung Fury riding a tyrannosaurus; Hasselhoff replaces Katana, who appeared with Kung Fury on the tyrannosaurus in the original trailer.[13] As of May 17, 2015, the video has scored over 10.5 million views on YouTube.

Untitled

Track listing

No.TitleWriter(s)ArtistLength
1."Kung Fury"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
2."True Survivor"Jörgen Elofsson & Mitch MurderDavid Hasselhoff 
3."West Side Lane"Lost YearsLost Years 
4."Redlining 6th"BetamaxxBetamaxx 
5."Face Puncher"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
6."The Final Stretch"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
7."Careful Shouting"Highway SuperstarHighway Superstar 
8."Enter the Fury"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
9."Power Move"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
10."Phoenix Rising"Lost YearsLost Years 
11."From the Future"Mitch MurderMitch Murder 
12."Barbarianna"Christoffer LingChristoffer Ling 
13."Nuclear"Lost YearsLost Years 

Release

The film made its debut at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and premiered on YouTube, the Steam PC gaming platform,[14] SVT2 in Sweden, and the El Rey Network in the United States, on May 28, 2015.[1] In less than 24 hours, the film received over three million views on YouTube.

Critical reception

Kung Fury was met with positive reviews. 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 80's cop movies."[15] 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 90’s."[16] 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."[17]

References

  1. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c d e f "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. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Wacky trailer for new action comedy Kung Fury released on Kickstarter". The Independent. 2013-12-27. Retrieved 2014-01-06. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  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. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  7. ^ Souppouris (2013-12-27). "'Kung Fury' pits Hitler against the greatest '80s action hero that never was". The Verge. Retrieved 2014-01-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Stoneback, Robert (2014-01-04). "Kung-Fu Hitler, Renegade Cops and Vikings Star in Kickstarter Film Kung Fury". The Escapist. Retrieved 2014-01-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ Sandberg, David (2014-07-30). "Progress!". Kickstarter. Retrieved 2014-08-02.
  10. ^ "Kung Fury: Beyond Awesome". Future City Records. 2013-12-29. Retrieved 2015-04-18.
  11. ^ "Kung Fury Original Motion Picture Soundtrack". Kung Fury Official Online Store. Retrieved 2015-05-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ Sandberg, David (2015-04-16). "We thought one David was not enough". VHX. Retrieved 2015-04-20.
  13. ^ Kooser, Amanda (April 16, 2015). "David Hasselhoff rides a T. rex in 'Kung Fury' music video". CNET. p. 1. Retrieved April 17, 2015.
  14. ^ "Kung Fury on Steam". Steam. Laser Unicorns. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  15. ^ Richardson, Tyler (2015-05-29). "Film Review: Kung Fury". Latino-Review. Retrieved 2015-05-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Bunning, Jonny (2015-05-29). "[Review] We've Kicked Ass With Kung Fury!". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved 2015-05-30.
  17. ^ 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.
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