KUNG FU: EPISODES 13-15 (1974)

PHENOMENALITY: (1) *uncanny," (2,3)*naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTIONS: *psychological, sociological*


LIke "The Soldier," "Empty Pages from a Dead Book" involves a man who's become a prisoner of parental influences, though "Pages" succeeds in evoking a deeper sense of human tragedy.

While walking toward the next town, Caine encounters a friendly fellow, Bart Fisher, and they exchange pleasantries. Along comes Texas Ranger Clyde McNelly, who holds a gun on Fisher, claiming that he's a wanted outlaw. Fisher proclaims his innocence but makes the mistake (he says) of reaching for his canteen. McNelly shoots Fisher in the arm, and then takes him into town for treatment before taking him back to Texas justice. Caine, though not really involved, tags along.

The local judge is not so sanguine about McNelly's crusade. Not only does he assert that the Ranger is out of his jurisdiction, the judge also pardoned Fisher for earlier crimes, meaning that McNelly shot a respectable citizen. McNelly protests that Fisher's name is written in the book of wanted criminals bequeathed to the Ranger by his late father, a list McNelly is determined to bring to justice. But McNelly's book cuts no ice with the judge, who takes away McNelly's badge.

Caine, the uninvolved bystander, listens as McNelly rants to him about his need to carry on his father's duties. Perhaps Caine, who barely knew his own father, is fascinated by the spectacle of man having submerged his entire identity into his father's mission. Fisher, despite having been exonerated, still resents having been shot, and he whips up a bunch of friends to beat down the former Ranger. Caine comes to the defense of the badly outnumbered victim, trouncing most of the men. One of the attackers, Fisher's brother, climbs up the side of the building, trying to recover a pistol flung up there  by Caine. The brother falls and breaks his neck. At an inquest Fisher gives testimony to make it sound like Caine and McNelly caused his brother's death, so the judge orders them locked up for a trial. Caine, though he was willing to submit to an unjust sentence in "Alethia," decides not to stay, and performs one of his more superheroic feats by simply kicking open the metal door of the cell. He and McNelly flee justice, with much aggrieved talk from McNelly, who still considers himself an avatar of the law. A sheriff on horseback overtakes them. McNelly spooks the lawman;s horse, which results in the man being thrown and injured. For the first time McNelly knows what it means to be a fugitive getting in too deep, but he accedes to Caine's wish to take the hurt man back to town for medical attention. The judge decides that guilty men would never do this, and releases them. McNelly takes his leave of Caine, having realized that a slavish devotion to his father's legacy is no legacy worth leaving.

"Pages" is as good as any of the first-season episodes at conjuring the sense of human tragedy. Even Bart Fisher has a tragic moment, mourning the loss of his brother through his own actions. In contrast, "A Dream Within a Dream," despite good sets and a number of Hollywood heavies, is a rote mystery-story, that wouldn't have been out of place in a Charlie Chan movie.

Caine walks through a forest, and beholds a man hanging by the neck. Before the Shaolin can investigation, an unseen assailant shoots Caine. The bullet only grazes the priest's skull, and when he comes to, he's being cared for by Alex, the town's statue-maker (John Drew Barrymore). Caine tells Alex, and later other citizens of the town, what he saw in the forest. Caine's description of the hanged man matches that of the town's leading citizen. However, when the sheriff investigates the site, there's no sign of a body.

Numerous red herrings are trotted out, and Caine makes a stab at solving the mystery, even though he has no real reason to do so, beyond finding out who shot him. The solution is pretty contrived, and so are Caine's flashbacks, which at one point swipe from the Irish poet W.B. Years  The episode does boast a strong performance from maverick actor Barrymore, whose family grew up alongside that of the Carradines, but "Dream" is otherwise unremarkable.

LIke "The Tong," we see the theme of Shaolin self-defense techniques perverted to criminal ends in "The Way of Violence Has No Mind." Caine's minding his own business in the wild, when a stagecoach comes along. The guards aboard the coach immediately accuse Caine of being part of a gang of desperadoes, because it's known (even though the bandits go around masked) are all Chinese men. Then the real bandits arrive, rob the stage, and liberate Caine from his accusers. The masks worn by the hold-up men don't really seem to serve any purpose except to surprise Caine when he learns that all of the men are of his own nationality. Caine also learns, before he takes his leave, that the leader, Captain Lee, was trained in the Shaolin arts by a renegade priest, and that he uses his skills to loot the white men who have been keeping his people down

Though initially Caine seems willing to let the bandits go their way, eventually he's drawn into conflict with them again, arguing that their way of violence "has no mind" and can only end badly. Most of Lee's men are willing to give themselves up to the law, but naturally Lee is not, and so he and Caine must fight. It's a well-staged battle, one of the few that Caine does not decisively win, making it possible for Lee to do the right thing on his own. It's a better episode than "Dream Within a Dream," but nothing special.