Shaw Brothers Movies: Favorite/Top Food Scenes in Kung Fu

A lot of the old Shaw Brothers kung fu movies would feature food scenes heavily. Growing up in an Asian household and watching these movies on the weekends or later once I found the internet and could buy them online, I would find my stomach growling (and still do) even during dinner when my family might gather around the family room to watch some of these movies together. Certain scenes really stood out for my family and myself such as the infamous fried egg scene from Invincible Shaolin or when Gordon Liu watched other monks devour their plates almost stupefied in 36 Chambers of Shaolin. And while there were other companies that produced scenes featuring food, I still think the Shaw Brothers highlighted this aspect the best. In turn, I wanted to pay special tribute to my favorite/top food scenes from various Shaw Brothers kung fu movies.

Invincible Shaolin and Fried Eggs

Perhaps, the most influential kung fu meal for me personally in terms of cinema. When I originally saw this movie, I only could recall the fried eggs part because my dad would make them (scrambled actually) along with leftover rice and either spam or Vienna Sausage. Later on once I was able to procure a copy online of this movie, we might watch it later in the evening. Then my dad and I would get hunger and he’d make a meal like this. Even if spam and Vienna Sausage probably are bad for you, I continue to make them along with scrambled eggs once in a while, especially if I get the chance to see this movie. I think if I wanted to be even more authentic to the movie, I might try figuring out how to cook the beef and/or chicken that Lo Meng gets to eat once to succeeds in that phase of his training.

Invincible Shaolin and Chinese Pears

 

Actually, I’ve tried a Chinese pear before so I have no idea how they taste. But I love how several scenes in this movie show various people taking generous bites into them. In particular, Philip Kwok’s character sinks his teeth into one and tells Chiang Sheng, “Good! They’re real sweet.” For myself, I’ve never really been much of a pear person. I prefer peaches and I tend to not eat them raw. But back when I was trying to eat healthier, I would eat peaches in this manner.

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter with Bao

Actually, I heard that this wasn’t exactly bao but something similar. Nonetheless, for me I love this type of Chinese food. Growing up, my mom would hit up this one shop in Carson near the UCLA hospital that sold Chinese Hawaiian type of dim sum and she would frequently buy red pork (chashu) filled bao. Quite honestly, I didn’t care as much for the filling as I did for the sweet breading around it. You can get these kinds of things in the frozen section of stores these days especially if you have an Asian population.

Also, there are other movies that have similar dishes except Gordon just goes to town on these because of how he’s exhausted after the initial battle. But I like the way he’s just stuffing them down his gullet here.

Five Shaolin Masters with Fu Sheng Eating Fish

Fu Sheng’s character had been starving and goes around town using the secret hand sign in trying to obtain help from other patriots. Unfortunately, he is unable to find anyone who is able to recognize his gesture, although a pair of government officials believe him to be suspicious and chase him into a restaurant. After beating the two officials up and grabbing their money, he takes off to be stopped by Wang Lung-Wei, who, in turn, escorts him to a restaurant where he’s getting a decent sized meal (probably paid by Fu-Yi). You can see how he’s chewing away at that succulent piece of fish and occasionally spitting out the bones.

Back in the day, I didn’t really think much of this scene. However, my dad loved going bass fishing up in the mountains or at some rivers like in Yuma Arizona with his buddies. Quite often, he’d bring home his catches which mostly were bass and he’d cook them either over our backyard hibachi grill or he’d baked them in the oven with soy sauce, some grated ginger and scallions sprinkled on top and we’d have that for supper along with some rice. Depending on my mood, I either enjoyed it or wanted McDonald’s instead.

Later when I started living in Japan and appreciating a wide variety of food, I started to really enjoy fish especially after learning about the morbid obesity crisis in America in the early 2000s. Once I got back to Japan, I ate more fish like sushi. But there was a spot near my 2nd job out there in Kamiyacho where a mom n pop spot would get fresh fish daily and grill it. Really solid meal for about 1000-en. So this scene in particular brings back a variety of memories and makes me appreciate having this type of fish style a lot more.

The Rebel Intruders with Lo Meng and the Kung Fu Chicken

At one time, my dad had seen this movie and dubbed the chicken Lo Meng eats here the “kung fu chicken.” While there have been numerous instances of kung fu movies featuring chicken meals, especially Shaw Brothers ones, I think the way in which Lo Meng shreds the chicken apart with sharp bites impressed my dad so much that he gave the sequence that naming. Because if you watch the scene, it’s pretty impressive how Lo Meng can just rip apart in a few bites that chicken with celerity.

But the term “kung fu chicken” was endearing for me because of the way my dad would describe things like this. He wasn’t exactly an intelligent person (he was an engineer but various bad habits I think slowed his mind down over the years) and he certainly wasn’t a person with flowery diction (compared to yours truly). On occasion, he would term something in such a bizarre way that it became memorable for me. Sometimes, it was really irritating, a literal dad joke type of situation before the whole notion of the dad joke became a meme in contemporary culture. And I don’t think he was aware of that because he was just being him.

After his passing, scenes like this make me miss my dad because of how he was. He wasn’t necessarily a terrible person just someone who got lead astray and fell into a bad pattern that left him crippled, sickly, penniless and eventually dead.

Morbid thoughts aside and going back to this movie, I will say that earlier in the movie Philip Kwok also had his own “kung fu chicken” except that you don’t really get to see him eating it directly (just some bones are tossed on top of his table while eats in hiding underneath). It’s not as alluring since the chicken wasn’t emphasized compared to this scene so I didn’t want to screenshot it or list it as a top scene. But it does go to show how chicken and food were integral aspects of the Shaw Brothers movies.

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin Dining Hall Scene

This scene isn’t something that really makes you hungry because you can’t see the details of the food. Also, I doubt most people would find this type of food appealing (mostly vegetables and rice). However, what makes this scene appealing to me is the exigency at which it occurs. Poor Gordon Liu’s character San Ta is late for supper and barely can scrap congee (a Chinese rice porridge) into a bowl. The other monks know that delaying means you starve so Gordon can only watch as all the scraps of that night’s dinner disappears. The celerity of the monks wolfing down their meal is accentuated by the background music that matches the rhythm of their feasting. But it is a stark reminder that if you’re slow, others will get there before you do and that hunger is one hell of a motivator to improve.

Heroes Two with Chen Kuan-Tai

The above scene actually shows Wong Ching playing a Manchu officer bearing a thick slab of meat (maybe pork?) that he’s about to feed to Chen Kuan-Tai, who, as Hung Hsi Kuan, is manacled to a wall (actually, he was freed but fakes his imprisonment for this scene). The Manchu group feed Hung in a few scenes in the hope of him converting since he’s a highly known fighter. But I will say that the huge slab of meat as it’s steaming looked really good. We don’t get to see Hung eat it as he’s preparing to escape and fight his way out of the prison. But I have to say that I’d love to pick up a similar slab of meat at the store one day, season it well and either braise it or cook it in a pan for a while and just eat it straight.

7-Man Army Meal Scene

There might be a few meal scenes in the 7-Man Army movie but I liked this part in particular because of how they show the camaraderie between the soldiers and the young kid as they have dinner. David Chiang has a gift he wants to give his wife/fiance and had secretly told Chen Kuan-Tai about it where if Chiang dies, then he wants Chen to give the present to his wife. However, the other men each approach David individually to tell them they will help if it comes to that. Eventually, David figures out that Chen revealed his secret to the others and spills the rest of his meal over Chen’s head for embarrassing him. But the others calm David down because Chen had good intentions. Sadly, it’s the kid who is the only survivor of the bunch, taking up the duty to return the gift for David’s wife.

The food itself though here looked kinda good. Outside of rice, it’s a little hard to see what they’re eating. But I imagine it’s beef or chicken. There might be another previous scene where the others take care of the kid after he comes into their fold with Fu Sheng giving the kid some of his share. From what I recall, it looked like Fu Sheng gave the kid some sort of dumpling like Shu Mai. Either way, my thought here is that the Chinese army’s rations here (supposedly) look better than most fast food crap these days.

The Chinatown Kid and Dog-Meat-Sausage

Okay, it’s not really dog meat but the English translation for a hot dog came out to be “dog meat sausage” due to Fu Sheng’s character not really understanding English and being uneducated. While hot dogs themselves are fairly common in American food, it’s a unique instance for a Shaw Brothers movie showing a different culture, even though I’m certain that the bulk of the movie was shot at their studios. There were some gorilla shots of Fu Sheng wandering the streets of San Francisco but I’m sure the film crew didn’t have proper licenses to do them.

But I always thought it was meant to be charming in the way Fu Sheng called hot dogs “dog meat sausage” and had (incorrectly) believed Americans ate dogs. In this scene, he has his first date with Jenny Tseng after getting thrown out of the restaurant he worked at after arriving. But it’s funny seeing Fu Sheng in a contemporary setting especially as he’s eating American type of food (and drinks a Coke I believe).

The Chinatown Kid and Orange Julius

This is one of the most misplaced scenes in this movie and even the look screams being shot on set. First, I highly doubt that there were any Orange Julius spots in San Francisco’s Chinatown back in the day. Second, the next scene makes things even weirder.

So the guy who brings Fu Sheng over on a boat, takes Fu Sheng and the recently arrived Sun Chien for lunch at an Orange Julius in Chinatown. Yet you can clearly see Fu Sheng slurping down a bowl of noodles, despite the fact that the sign outside says pizza. These days I doubt most people would know what an Orange Julius is anymore because they had been bought/absorbed by the Dairy Queen at one point. I believe you can still get an Orange Julius drink from Dairy Queen but I don’t know if it’s limited by location.

Regardless, the Orange Julius spots I’ve been to mostly served hot dogs and a special beverage called an Orange Julius. These were kinda like an old school version of a smoothie where they’d blend orange with milk and add an egg. It had a strange texture partly because of the pulp from the orange and the egg but it was tasty. Their hot dogs were actually quite good and you could get interesting variations beyond chili dogs, like a pizza dog topped with mozzarella, pepperoni and pizza sauce. When I was really young, I recall how one of these Orange Julius spots was setup like a food truck or trailer outside one of the malls (maybe the South Bay Galleria before it was opened up). Later, Del Amo Mall had one by their movie theater near the Montgomery Wards side along with a few other old school mall food style shops like a Perry’s Pizza.

So this scene is really weird because I don’t think Orange Julius ever sold pizza much less noodles. While it might seem logical that a Chinatown version might try to cater to locals, I think they simply skipped that entire detail out. There is another scene earlier after Fu Sheng and his friend arrive where the friend takes Fu Sheng to a hot dog vendor (possibly the same one that he encounters Jenny), which is how he appropriated the term “dog meat sausage.” But I think it would’ve made far more sense if they did the entire scene at the Orange Julius because it was more appropriate in context and correctness.

For me though, the noodles themselves don’t look great but I do love the nostalgia factor of the Orange Julius. On the other hand, it does show how Chang Cheh kinda fudged stuff like this or didn’t really understand how to shoot a modern movie.

Final Thoughts

While there are other famous scenes from non-Shaw Brothers productions, I wanted to focus on the Shaw Brothers because of my general preference for their movies and the nostalgia factor. One thing I did notice while putting together this list was how a good chunk of these scenes involved the Venoms. Most of the time, you could see Chiang Sheng and Lo Meng involved in some gorging shot and it makes me wonder if they were just hungry all the time on set. If there were more scenes beyond these though, I either forgot about them or could not find the movie in question.

At any rate, if you have any fond memories of Shaw Brothers food scenes and wish to share them, please add your comments below. Maybe I’ll go search for them and see if I can make a follow up with any suggestions!