"Indie Fu", as a sub-sub-genre, perhaps got its start with Steve Wang's 1992 KUNG FU RASCALS. This engaging low budget fantasy, which combined elements of Jackie Chan and Ray Harryhausen movies with a touch of THE GOONIES, began mainly as a short displaying Wang's special effects skills, but was later expanded into a full feature. Many of today's Indie Fu shorts were produced both to display the athletic and technical skills of the filmmakers and as a demo reels for proposed features.

KWOON, on the other hand, seems best suited to the format of an ongoing television series, and would be right at home on Comedy Central. It chronicles the goofy adventures of five Silicon Valley kung fu students - the Bowery Boys of martial arts. Brawny Onassis Sweeps (choreographer Onassis Parungao) is the best martial artist and does the most fighting. Beefy, bald Nathan Blocks (Nathan Decker) is the uncouth "Curly" of the group, but is still a pretty good fighter. Gadgeteer Chuck Numb (Chuck Becker) and the secretly-800-year-old Jimmy Chops (Jimmy Lam) are two other guys. And Todd Gar (writer/director Todd Roy) is a pathetic coward.

The series' tag line is "Bad acting, good kung fu", but they're really selling themselves short. Sure, some of the acting by non-actors is a bit rough around the edges, but the leads are less hammy than the average soap opera actor, and can usual get their scenes across. As for the kung fu? Sure, these guys would get lost in the crowd in the heyday of Hong Kong and Taiwan martial arts movies, but given star treatment on screen - and a generous helping of corny sound effects and these guys don't look bad. Parungao looks especially good in his fight scenes, and can out-act quite a few stars of "professional" action films.

In my review of EVERYONE IS KUNG FU FIGHTING, I erroneously reported that this disc contained the first three episodes of KWOON. The episodes, which average about 25 minutes each, were planned from the beginning to be filmed in reverse order, starting with Episode Four, and the first episode has yet to be shot. It was thought that as the filmmaking skills of the KWOON team matured, their films would get better, and it would be better to hook audiences with the good stuff first. While Episode Two is certainly much more ambitious and impressive than Episode Four, there's no real continuity between episodes, so feel free to watch them in any old order.

"Episode Two: Death vs. Kung Fu Carwash"
The boys try to raise money for the school with a carwash, but Nathan spends most of the profits on ice tea. Then their car is destroyed in an accident (a truly impressive stunt), but our heroes miraculously survive. The Department of Death views this as a mistake, and sends the "new guy" Mort (Vietnam born world class fighter Cung Le of EDGE OF DARKNESS), a former hitman, is sent to correct the error. The devilish Yoru (Ford Minton) gives Mort fu skills to help him out. Hilarity ensues as nobody but the target students can see their foe. It all ends in a display of lion dancing.

"Episode Three: Collection Agency"
When mobster Jack Tortorelli (Jack Dougherty, who is in every episode) is overdue paying for a shipment of swords from the Kwoon warehouse, Onassis, Chuck and Todd are sent to Fresno to collect. Jack resists paying up, sending his bodyguard (big Don Hambey) and ninja killers after them, leading to much chasing and fighting in a water park.

"Episode Four: Mummy Dearest"
The boys' wisecracks re-animate a museum exhibit, but the trouble really starts when the living mummy (Vince Amadio) steals Onassis' kung fu skills (ala the villains of SPACE JAM). This first effort highlights Parungao's choreography skills, as well as Roy's willingness to make a fool of himself onscreen he spends most of the episode with his pants around his ankles.

As a promotional gimmick, episodes of KWOON have been available for download from kwoon.com as they've been completed (or updated), but of course the DVD offers much better video quality and a bunch of extras.

Todd, Nathan, Jimmy, Onassis & Chuck take part in commentraks for all three episodes, self-consciously pointing out every minor flaw that you probably wouldn't notice. Heck, I didn't even see the puppeteers working the Death skeletons until Roy told me to look for them. This actually makes them appear to be better filmmakers, since there are plenty of folks that wouldn't even notice or care about these details. Even more mistakes can be found in the deleted scenes and outtakes sections. And that's really good, too, as it shows that they recognize that some stuff is too crappy to include.

The disc is loaded up with even more bonus stuff in a menu section labeled "bonus stuff". Here you'll find behind-the-scenes footage of fight rehearsal sessions, Todd and Jimmy getting tortured by fight trainers, trade show antics, Todd trying to get Nate to make out with him, and plenty more. And yes, you have to watch it all.

I'm not sure if this DVD will get KWOON on TV, but it's plenty entertaining, and hopefully there'll be more. Meanwhile, the Indie Fu wave continues with projects like FIGHT CIRCLE available online, and A55 Films has EVERYONE IS KUNG FU FIGHTING RELOADED coming soon.