A "kids movie" in the current Japanese film business almost always means anime. It wasn't always thus — kids were the biggest fans of the Godzilla series and dozens of other nonanimated homegrown monster movies now vanished from the screens. They've also flocked to the "Spy Kids" films and similar fare from Hollywood.
The current rarity of Japanese live-action films for under 12s is therefore something of a puzzle. One factor may be the scarcity of local live-action TV shows for the tween demographic — especially ones with the ratings punch of "Hannah Montana," the wildly popular Disney Channel show, which has generated a hit concert film, about a schoolgirl who leads a double life as a pop singer.
Issei Oda's "Kung Fu Kun (Kung Fu Kid)" attempts to fill this lacuna with a pint-size kung-fu expert, computer-graphics effects that range from the cutely comic to thunder-and-lightening operatic, and samplings of everything from Hong Kong martial-arts epics to James Bond pics — or rather the "Austin Powers" parodies. Screened in the Generation section of the 2008 Berlin Film Festival, "Kung Fu Kun" may not break new action ground, but it's also not going to make mom and dad count the endless minutes until the lights go on. Instead, it's charming, clever and energetic enough to win over all but the most confirmed kiddie-pic haters (including those under 12).
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