Kung-Fu Master! (also known as Kung-Fu Master! ou "Le Petit Amour" in France) is a 1988 French drama film directed by Agnès Varda.
Mary-Jane (Jane Birkin) is a divorced 40-year-old woman with two daughters. At a party thrown by her eldest daughter Lucy (Charlotte Gainsbourg), Mary-Jane becomes intrigued by one of her friends, the 14-year-old Julien (Mathieu Demy). They bond over Julien's strong interest in an arcade game, the Beat 'em Up Kung Fu Master. As they contrive reasons for meeting each other, their relationship turns romantic.
Tropes:
- The '80s: The film was made in the late 80's and Varda is happy to capture the zeitgeist of the period through the games that Julien plays, the proliferation of arcades, and a lot of background talk about AIDS, including homophobic jokes and misinformation.
- Age-Gap Romance: Mary-Jane is 40, while Julien is 14. They fall in love and have a brief relationship against all common sense.
- Hypocrite: Mary-Jane tells Lucy that it's important not to tell lies, which is quite rich of her as she'd just told her one to cover for the fact that she had gone to see Julien. Judging from Mary-Jane's facial expression, she seems to acknowledge her hypocrisy.
- Impeded Messenger: At the end, Julien asks an arcade employee to call Mary-Jane (since he legally can't) and tell her that he finally beat Kung Fu Master and saved Sylvia (the Damsel in Distress of the game). The employee makes an effort at delivering the message despite thinking Julien is nuts, but when it's Mary-Jane's youngest daughter who answers, the employee hangs up, saying "Screw it!"
- Non-Indicative Title: What sounds like a cheesy martial arts flick is actually a soft French drama about the relationship between an adult woman and an underage boy. According to Varda, many distributors were misled by the title.
- Shout-Out: Besides Kung Fu Master playing a large role in the story, Julien explains in detail the rules of Dungeons & Dragons to Mary-Jane.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Mary-Jane and Julien are aware that their romance is deeply frowned upon and illegal and that they'll have to go their separate ways eventually. That's exactly what happens; Mary-Jane comes clean to several people, including Julien's mother, principal and others, about what she did. As a result, she has to move away and loses custody of Lucy, while Julien has to change schools, and the two aren't allowed to contact each other. This state of affairs isn't painted as a tragedy so much as just life moving on for them.
- Video Arcade: Julien is an avid gamer and often spends his free time at arcades. Mary-Jane at one point explores several arcades to find which ones have Julien's favorite game.
