Master Killer (“The 36th Chamber of Shaolin” - “Master Killer” is the title it had when it ran on Sat Afternoon television and blew a young jackalope’s mind) is the best example of a kung fu origin story, and it is old skool amazing. But check out this thread -
I don’t know who those guys are, but I understand what is going on. Knowing why everyone is so mad at each other isn’t so important as the metric tonnage of ass being kicked.
Motivations are explored (and change, Rashamon like) throughout “Hero”, but we are never walked through how everyone got so good at kung fu. (See? I know the difference between origin and motivation)
As to “Punisher”, he doesn’t work outside of comic books because movie audiences are used to vigilantes shooting and killing bad guys that need killing. Punisher (and Wolverine) made an impact because they were killers in a universe where spandex wearing superpowered boy scouts used their powers to capture bad guys (even the “dark” character Batman, how much shit does he have to take from Joker before he just runs him over with the Batmobile? ) and were appalled at Punisher’s actually killing guys.
Punisher in the next Spiderman movie might be interesting (might), but as a stand alone guy? I don’t think it will ever work. But they should go the Dirty Harry route, anyone know why Dirty Harry hates criminals so much? How he got so good at shooting fools? Anyone care?