Kung Fu Master!

1988 drama

Rating: 15/20

Plot: Approaching middle age, a mother of two falls for a 14-year-old classmate of one of her daughters and probably crosses a few lines.

An Agnes Varda movie called Kung Fu Master!, complete with that exclamation point at the end of the title, always intrigued me, and her recent death gave me the excuse I needed to finally check it out. The story--one involving a middle-aged Jane Birkin having a romantic relationship (and possibly a physical one) with a 14-year-old played by Varda's son--should be more challenging than it winds up being on screen which is a testament to the empathy Varda has for her characters and the tender way this story unfolds on the screen. You never feel that the protagonist is doing the right thing here, but you don't quite think of Birkin's character as a villain either. And you deeply understand what this character's feeling, mostly from the way Varda chooses to shoot her although some inner monologue is shared in voice over.

The movie is called Le Petit Amour in the U.S., and that's really odd for two reasons. First, it's called Kung Fu Master! everywhere else, so you'd think in America, a country where some variation of English is spoken, you'd get an English title instead of a French one. Second, Kung Fu Master! is the best title ever, and calling it something else just seems like a terrible decision.

The title is from a video game that I remember playing on the Nintendo. The movie opens in the goofiest way possible with a kid walking down the sidewalk while practicing kung-fu moves, moves accompanied by video game sound effects. There are quite a few shots where Varda just shows us this kid playing the video game. And then there are shots of Birkin watching the kid as he plays the video game, and again, what should be creepy somehow manages to be touching. Maybe if it wasn't French, I'd be appalled.

Eggs are apparently a turn-on in this, and there's a puzzling moment where a trio of characters are imitating birds. And there are lots of references to AIDS and condoms, enough to convince me that there was a thematic link to that particular 1980's fear.

Anyway, I'm sad about Varda's death, mostly because she had enough life in her to make it seem like two people died instead of just one. I watched her other movie with Birkin from 1988 (Jane B. for Agnes V.) which I'll write about in a bit.