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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
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Pui Chan: Kung Fu Pioneer
“Pui Chan” is a loving cinematic biography of a father by a daughter. The daughter is director/co-writer/narrator Mimi Chan. Her father, Grandmaster Pui Chan, was born in China, and escaped from there shortly after the communist takeover. Before his escape Pui studied a kung fu tradition called Wah Lum. His training began around the time of his toddlerhood.
Mimi Chan follows her father’s story from China, through years working on large ships – mostly in their engine rooms – to New York, New York, as an illegal immigrant, to Boston, and settling down in Orlando where he, his family, and his school are based.
Over the decades in America Pui Chan’s abilities as a practitioner and teacher of Wah Lum became legendary. As of the film’s production he is 73 years old, still teaching, presenting, and waking up early in the morning to do chores at his center called Wah Lum Tam Tui Northern Praying Mantis Kung Fu.
Pui Chan’s well-told story is a classic one of triumph over adversity, and the full realization of a human’s potential to make a difference in our world.