Set In Current Times And Starring Olivia Liang, The New KUNG FU Breaks Down Barriers

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede When Olivia Liang was cast in the new version of KUNG FU, she threw herself into it with grace and grit. “I did not have any prior martial arts training – thank goodness that was not a requirement from Christina (M. Kim, creator and executive producer),” said Liang, whose new series debuts Wednesday, April 7 at 8 p.m. ET on CTV2. “But I have a background in dance, so I was able to at least pick up the choreography, because martial arts, and especially martial arts for film and TV, is very much a dance.” But Liang’s admirable eagerness was a bit of a hazard at first, according to Kim. “When we were shooting the pilot, Olivia was wanting to do more and more,” Kim recalled. “Our stunt coordinator gave me a call and was like, ‘She wants to do everything. And I need her to slow down. She’s covered in bruises, but she still wants to do more.’ ” Liang clearly understands the responsibility of fronting KUNG FU, which is a re-imagining of the 1970s series of the same name that starred David Carradine, rather than a reboot. The older version was a Western set in the mid-1800s, but the new version takes place in modern times. KUNG FU centres on a young woman named Nicky Shen (Liang), who fled family pressures in her hometown of San Francisco and wound up in China for three years, where she was trained in martial arts at a secluded monastery. After a violent incident in China, Nicky returns to San Francisco, but certain magical mysteries may have followed her home. She’s definitely a different person than she was when she left the U.S., and this new Nicky quickly finds herself battling criminal forces who have taken over her parents’ neighbourhood, while at the same time trying to mend relationships with the friends and family she abandoned. As Nicky’s mom Mei-Li, played by Kheng Hua Tan, puts it in the opening episode: “I would have thought living in China would make you see ‘sorry’ is an American idea … one little word is not a magic eraser.” So Nicky has her work cut out for her, on multiple fronts. Luckily, Liang seems up to the task, also on multiple fronts. “I think the timing of our show is really impeccable,” Liang said. “So much about representation and inclusion is not so much that we, as Asians, need to see ourselves represented on the screens, but we need to be invited into people’s homes who don’t see us in their everyday life, just to humanize us, normalize seeing us, remind them that we are people just like they are, and that we have a place in this world. Hopefully having our show in their homes will expand that worldview for them.” Liang became emotional when relating Nicky’s story to her own. “Uh-oh, gonna get a little misty-eyed … any woman of colour is placed into a box, she is defined, she doesn’t get to define herself, and I think that was Nicky’s story for a very long time, you know, just trying to be what everybody expected of her, what everyone projected onto her,” Liang said. “And that’s what caused her to freak out and think, ‘I need to find my voice.’ I think we, as women and people of colour, can all relate to that. I certainly related to it when I was reading the script, and it has empowered me to play a character who has found her voice, and who is trying to use her voice. It has empowered me to do the same in my own life, and to encourage the men and women around me to do the same.” It was exactly those types of themes that Kim wanted to emphasize when she was creating the new KUNG FU. “The original series was an iconic TV show, and groundbreaking at the time, but the lead actor was not Asian, and for me it was really important that we change that,” Kim said. “And for myself as a woman, I really wanted a strong female Asian lead, who was kicking butt, and was the role model that I wished I had growing up on TV.” billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv