Profile: Dolph Lundgren

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Profile: Dolph Lundgren

Date of birth: 3 November, 1957 (Spånga, Sweden)

Real name: Hans Lundgren

Occupation: Actor, director, screenwriter, producer, martial artist.

Style: Kyokushin karate

Biography: Hans Lundgren was born in Spånga in the city of Stockholm, Sweden, to Sigrid Birgitta – a languages teacher – and Karl Johan Hugo Lundgren, an engineer and economist for the Swedish government. Lundgren has an older brother and two younger sisters. At the age of 13, the family moved to Nyland, Ångermanland, in northern Sweden. His nickname, ‘Dolph’, was given to him by a relative on his mother’s side.

Lundgren has spoken publicly about the mental and physical abuse suffered at …

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Black Water (2018)

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Black Water (2018)

Gone are the days when Hollywood would roll out the red carpet for a Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren double-header. Universal Soldier took $36m at the box office when it was released in 1992. What a difference 26 years can make. JCVD and Dolph can still be found cracking skulls, but to increasingly diminishing returns. This DTV reunion of the high-kicking B-movie power couple – their sixth collaboration but their first as the good guys – sneaked onto streaming services with little fanfare, and with a budget so hamstrung that most of the movie is restricted to a single set. …

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Profile: Cung Le

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Profile: Cung Le

Date of birth: 25 May, 1972 (Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam)

Full name: Anh Cung Le

Style: Sanda, kickboxing, taekwondo, Sambo, Vovinam, MMA, wrestling.

Occupation: MMA fighter, actor.

Biography: Cung Le was born in Saigon, South Vietnam (now Ho Chi Minh City). Three days before the Fall of Saigon in 1975, his mother managed to escape with the family via helicopter. After spending a few months in a refugee camp in the Philippines, the Le family were sent to San Jose, California.

As a reaction to being bullied, Le became involved in the martial arts. His mother enrolled him in taekwondo at the age of 10. He …

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 26: Cung Le

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 26: Cung Le

“I think I’m going for a title fight every time I get a part in a movie.”

Cung Le is channelling the same grit and determination which made him a champion MMA fighter into his career as an actor in Hollywood and Asia. Over the past decade, the former UFC fighter, Strikeforce Middleweight Champion and highly decorated martial artist has balanced his professional fighting career with appearances in some superb martial arts movies, including Fighting, The Man with the Iron Fists, Bodyguards and Assassins, The Grandmaster and True Legend. Last year, he took on Antonio Banderas in Security and Scott Adkins …

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The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)

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The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (2017)

Bonkers, CGI-heavy craziness from the hyperactive mind of Tsui Hark. Although Yuen Woo-ping may have been recruited to direct, Tsui’s fingerprints are all over this; a film which shares the same Chinese name as Woo-ping’s seminal supernatural fu, The Miracle Fighters (1982), although the two have very little in common. Whereas The Miracle Fighters focused Woo-ping’s wild imagination and sublime choreography in the world of the occult, this is more of a creature feature which sidelines physical combat (for which Woo-ping is a master) in favour of giant winged beast battles and glowing red things with tentacles. So those expecting a …

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Profile: Diana Lee Inosanto

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Profile: Diana Lee Inosanto

Date of birth: May 29, 1966 (Torrance, California, US)

Other names: Diana Lee; D. Lee Inosanto

Occupation: Actor, stunt performer, fight choreographer, martial arts instructor, producer.

Style: Jeet Kune Do, Kali, Eskrima, Silat, boxing, kickboxing, Wing Chun.

Biography: Diana Lee Inosanto was born in Torrance, California, and raised in Carson. Diana’s mother is Sue Ann Reveal and her father is the Filipino-American martial arts expert Dan Inosanto, who was a close friend of Bruce Lee. The two were such close friends that Dan Inosanto named his daughter, Diana Lee, after him. Bruce Lee was also Diana’s first godfather. Dan Inosanto trained and studied the …

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 25: Diana Lee Inosanto

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 25: Diana Lee Inosanto

On being a stunt performer: “It’s like being a football player and a ballerina in one. You have to be tough to take the hits, but you also have to understand choreography and timing.”

Actor, stunt performer, filmmaker, teacher, activist – there’s a lot more to Diana Lee Inosanto than just being the daughter of legendary Filipino-American martial artist Dan Inosanto, not to mention the goddaughter of the iconic Bruce Lee. Despite being only seven when the martial arts star passed away, she still has fond memories of “Uncle Bruce” and the Lee family, with whom she is still very close. …

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Fighting (2009)

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Fighting (2009)

Predictable urban sports drama centring on the murky world of underground street fighting. Shawn (Channing Tatum) is the doe-eyed hustler with a heart; a disgraced, college-educated wrestler with daddy issues who looks great in a vest. Harvey (Terrence Howard) is a streetwise, well-connected wheeler-dealer who channels Shawn’s pent-up male aggression into a commercially lucrative opportunity on the amateur fight circuit. He quickly gains notoriety brawling with New York’s diverse communities in dark alleyways, nightclubs and around the back of convenience stores, before an inevitable conclusion with an old rival. All the characters conform to their prescribed ethnic stereotypes and the …

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Ninja Death III (1987)

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Ninja Death III (1987)

This insane ninja opus comes to a fittingly bonkers conclusion. Tiger (Alexander Lo) learns the true identity of his mother, the Princess, who has remained incognito in order for the boy to learn the ‘royal style’ from a blind old master. He needs to up his game if he thinks he can defeat the cloak-wearing, gold-suited Grandmaster and his deadly ‘double sky hammer’. His personal life also gets a bit more complicated, as romance blossoms with servant girl and top fighter Sukura, before the finale explodes in a blur of fun and fury. Those who like their kung fu eccentric, …

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Re:Born (2016)

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Re:Born (2016)

Versus star Tak Sakaguchi is in fine form in this stabby mercenary flick, allegedly his final martial arts project. It doesn’t quite feel like a swan-song; the sheer glee and exuberance exhibited during the relentless, brutal, throat-slicing fight scenes show a great performer still at the top of his game. Tak (alongside long-time collaborator Yuji Shimomura and co-star Yoshitaka Inagawa) created a new martial arts concept for the film, called Zero Range Combat, which utilises military-based tactics and close-quarter knife work. Its what gives the fight scenes a signature style, and as much as the action is entertaining and well-choreographed …

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