Profile: Keith Cooke

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Profile: Keith Cooke

Date of birth: 17 September, 1959 (Seattle, Washington, USA)

Full name: Keith Cooke Hirabayashi

Other names: Keith H. Cooke

Occupation: Martial arts instructor, actor, stunt performer.

Style: Karate, wushu, taekwondo, boxing.

Biography: Keith Cooke is a martial arts instructor and actor. He has a fifth degree black belt in karate and is a five-time World Martial Arts Grand Champion. He was named ‘Competitor of the Year’ in 1983, 1985 and 1986. He has also been named as one of the top 100 ‘most influential martial artists of the last century’ by Black Belt magazine, and inducted into their ‘hall of fame’.

Keith Cooke Hirabayashi was born …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 88: Keith Cooke

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 88: Keith Cooke

“I don’t regret the movies at all. I had a blast.”

Keith Cooke is one of action cinema’s all-time greatest kickers. From his explosive triple kicks as Muay Thai instructor Prang in the cult classic, The King of the Kickboxers, to his turns in costume as Reptile and Sub-Zero in the 1990s Mortal Kombat movies, Cooke’s poise, energy and talent marked him out as one of the most engaging breakout martial arts stars of the 1990s. It was a phone call from none other than Enter the Dragon producer Fred Weintraub that transformed Cooke’s fortunes in Hollywood. A karate world champion …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 87: Mike Leeder

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 87: Mike Leeder

“I would be the only westerner in the cinema, and 90% of the audience would be like, ‘there’s a white guy in the cinema, what’s he doing?’”

When Asian action cinema expert, producer and casting director Mike Leeder left his job in a Croydon department store to go on holiday to Hong Kong, little did he know that – 32 years later – he would still be there. Before he fell in love with the city, he fell in love with its movies; a blossoming romance which started with a Jackie Chan double bill of Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow and …

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Heatseeker (1995)

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Heatseeker (1995)

Another low-budget cyborg movie from director Albert Pyun. This one is set in 2019, when corporations use bioengineering to create a new range of super-humans. One particularly slimy CEO (Norbert Weissner) hosts a kickboxing tournament on his private island to show off his latest technology, which is implanted into Gary Daniels, who looks majestic in foppish blonde hair, shiny muscles and bright blue contact lenses. The tournament promises to be “bigger than the Super Bowl, World Cup and the Olympics”, but it actually looks like a cheaper version of Bloodsport. As a way of attracting the reigning world champion, Chance …

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The Assassin (1967)

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The Assassin (1967)

The Shaw Brothers’ dream-team of director Chang Cheh, leading actor Jimmy Wang Yu and fight coordinators Lau Kar-leung and Tong Gaai follow their huge hit, One-Armed Swordsman, with this sumptuous, romantic, and often overlooked wuxia epic which might be one of Cheh’s best films. Released at a politically charged time not just in Hong Kong but globally, Cheh’s story is set during the tumultuous period of China’s Warring States and focuses on the tragic, anti-establishment heroics of a young swordsman, Nie Zhang (Wang Yu). Nie identifies as a lowly commoner, but is nonetheless burdened by an overwhelming existential fear. He …

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The Guillotines (2012)

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The Guillotines (2012)

A modern, 3D-rendered retelling of the 1975 Shaw Brothers film, The Flying Guillotine, from director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs). He uses his visual effects skills to cook-up a flying guillotine worthy of the digital age. This is no flimsy hatbox on a chain which is simply thrown into the air before landing on the necks of its unsuspecting victims. This sophisticated, multi-blade contraption spins viciously at the end of a massive sword, gathering momentum until it is released like a frisbee, whirling violently in various directions, disorientating its victims, and revealing a sequence of evil-looking sharp things before the victim’s …

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Return of the Chinese Boxer (1977)

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Return of the Chinese Boxer (1977)

This has all the hallmarks of a filmmaker throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. It is not too surprising, then, that this would prove to be Wang Yu‘s final film as director, producer and star. His 1970s output – as well as being mostly insane – was prone to repetition, featuring variations of his most popular characters, and sequences which seem interchangeable with his other movies. For instance, this film features an extended tournament sequence plonked in the middle for no good reason, centring on Kam Kong as another mad monk, which feels eerily similar to the …

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Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020)

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Stuntwomen: The Untold Hollywood Story (2020)

When discussing the specific subject of female stunt performers in Hollywood, the ‘untold’ story is one of pervasive, decades-long male dominance and an implied and often overt misogyny. It is evident in the way female stunt performers were prolific during the silent era – regularly doing all sorts of dangerous things like jumping from horses onto moving trains and driving cars through buildings – until Hollywood became industrialised and incorporated, run by businessmen who pushed women to the margins. It is evident in the way Debbie Evans – one of America’s best competitive motorcyclists – says she still feels she has …

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Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022)

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Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022)

Set in an anthropomorphic version of feudal Japan in which all its inhabitants are cats, an unscrupulous official for the Shogun vows to destroy the small village of ‘Kakamucho’ in order to extend his palace. Without a samurai to protect them, the poor feline folk are doomed. Enter Hank – a dog in a cat’s world, wearing a Game of Death dressing gown with a longing to be a warrior despite any obvious sword skills. He is hired by the official to protect the village, assuming that Hank will fail and the town will be his for the taking. Hank’s …

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The Gray Man (2022)

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The Gray Man (2022)

An adaption of Mark Greaney’s The Gray Man novel series about a former assassin for the CIA, this is one of Netflix’s most expensive films with a production budget of around $200m. It’s the sort of bloated, globe-trotting, star-studded action movie that might make many executives at Netflix question its long-term economic strategy, particularly at a time when the streaming platform is struggling with declining subscriber numbers. The Russo Brothers – responsible for the excellent Captain America and Avengers movies at Marvel Studios – bring their slick Hollywood operation to a new project (or ‘IP’, to use the appropriate studio …

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