Though often promoted (and sometimes retitled) as a Jet Li movie, This is Kung Fu only features the superstar for a few brief minutes. Fans expecting to see some of his trademark action will most likely be disappointed, as Li's footage consists mainly of him doing push-ups and eating birthday cake -- though we do get a rare glimpse of a very young Jet performing onstage in Hong Kong, showcasing talent well beyond his years. In the end, what we're left with here is a decent demonstration/documentary about various forms of Chinese martial arts.

The presentation here is not very exciting; we get some dry (yet still somewhat strangely cheerleading and overenthusiastic) commentary about the wonders of Chinese culture -- the Great Wall and the like -- and then the movie settles into showing different styles of kung fu performed. The performances are fairly short and to the point, though the narrator would have you believe these are the greatest battles ever captured on film.

There is a kind of naivete combined with the forced superiority of Communist culture that makes This is Kung Fu stand out more of a historical oddity than truly well-crafted film. Mainland China at this time was more of a mewling cat rather than the roaring tiger it is (or tries to portray itself as) in the current millennium. Cinematically, the intended ideals are the same -- show the superiority of Chinese methods -- but the message is delivered with much less overt propaganda than most modern films, which is a little refreshing.

RATING: 6