KUNG FU THEATER

Design thinking

The Saturday kung fu double feature came with ritual: a gong at the open, a slab-letter title card, and 終 on the last frame. KUNG FU THEATER is one rendered red-lacquer shrine with golden dragons coiled up the pillars and a curtained stage where the video plays on a warm film print. The hanging bronze gong is the play button: strike it and it swings. I lifted the gong and both paper lanterns out of the render so they move on their own, and the lanterns sway and glow with the sound. The five lacquer buttons rewind, mute, change speed, skip and go fullscreen, and the gold rail at the base is your chi, the volume.

Buttons get touch areas sized to the space around them, the title cards read over any frame, focus shows as a gold ring, and the swaying, the gong swing and the title animation stop with reduced motion. On phones the shrine stands upright with the gong front and center, big enough to hit with a thumb.

Controls

• Space Play or pause
• ← → Seek 10 seconds
• ↑ ↓ Volume
• 0–9 Jump to 0–90%
• M Mute
• F Fullscreen
• 2× tap Sides seek, center goes fullscreen