The Zany Brilliance Of Kung Fury

by Luv Mehta

Kung Fury is a movie written and directed by David Sandberg, funded via Kickstarter and released for free to the world. Envisioned as an ode to the 80s, it features all the gloriously great, silly, weird, epic and goofy tropes of the era you can think of.

I'm not kidding, you guys, Kung Fury is so 80s. Totally, radically 80s.

(Kung Fury will be shown in the Heritage Film Festival on the 27th of April, and that's tomorrow - so come on over!)

Kung Fury is so 80s, it sets up a cyberpunk universe with neon blues and moonlit skies, all in service of brilliantly unscientific science. A lightning bolt animates an arcade machine and gives it life! A super hacker named Hackerman hacks time through his computer using a PowerGlove and a CRT with vector graphics to make E equal MC cubed!

Kung Fury is so 80s, it takes up the mystical martial art of Kung Fu and, obviously, treats it as an awesome superpower imparted through a lightning strike - and a cobra bite. And, of course, our protagonist becomes the chosen one, fulfiller of a prophecy... a super mystic ninja prophecy.

Kung Fury is so 80s, it can't possibly constrain itself to an 80s cyberpunk street brawl movie - so it decides to be a buddy cop movie too. The opening credits set themselves all over Miami, with awesomely dated graphics of the cops zooming into frame - and the buddy's a Triceratops named Triceracop!

Kung Fury is so 80s, though, that three genres aren't enough. Why not have Vikings as well, set in a timeline with laser raptors? Why not have Nazis, too, and find new and inventive ways to slaughter them as well? Hell, why not have a Saturday Morning cartoon as well?​

Kung Fury is so 80s, you guys, and the soundtrack is pure, synthesized 80s goodness. Have a listen to one of the songs as you're doing work, any work, maybe a project, an assignment, a report, and your productivity will automatically increase by holyshit%. It's scientifically proven, you guys.

Kung Fury is so 80s, it demands your eyeballs, because no other decade could depict the crazy excess of the upcoming generation like this one. Pastel shirts and giant bobs, flat-tops and enough neon makeup to light up a frame of Blade Runner, synth music and hip-hop, and the sound of those doves crying - never has such an era come before, and never will it come again.

Basically, I love this movie, and I'm willing to bet the 80s fan in you will, too.