KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 79: End of Year Show 2021 with Mike Fury – Part Two

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 79: End of Year Show 2021 with Mike Fury – Part Two

The wait is over! Find out our favourite – and least favourite – martial arts movies of 2021 in Part Two of our End of Year Show, featuring Life of Action author, Mike Fury.

Join in the festivities as we take it in turns to reveal our top five fight films of the year over a few ‘snowballs’ – a cocktail of advocaat and lemonade. We also take the time to highlight some of the titles which narrowly missed out on a top five position, and look ahead to some of the big movies heading our way in 2022.

Over the last few …

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Castle Falls (2021)

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Castle Falls (2021)

“It’s a young man’s game,” says retired British martial artist Mike (Scott Adkins) as he packs up his life as a failed fighter in Atlanta to settle in Birmingham, Alabama (a neat little in-joke, considering how Adkins’ real birthplace is near Birmingham, UK). To say Mike has fallen on hard times is an understatement; he’s sleeping in his Jeep and punching-in as a construction worker helping to clear the derelict Castle Heights Hospital prior to demolition. During his duties, he chances upon a bag of hidden cash and decides to head back after hours to retrieve it – however, there …

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 78: End of Year Show 2021 with Mike Fury – Part One

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 78: End of Year Show 2021 with Mike Fury – Part One

Ho ho ho and happy holidays to all our listeners around the world. Welcome to the first part of our annual, end-of-year wrap-up podcast featuring the Life of Action author, Mike Fury. And, wow, what a year it has been for martial arts action movies! From manga to Marvel, Netflix to multiplex, low-budget indies to explosive Hong Kong thrillers, this year had it all.

In Part One of our End of Year Show, we discuss the martial arts movie news which grabbed the headlines in 2021, and we pay our respects to the famous people we lost. We share some recorded messages …

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Bruised (2020)

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Bruised (2020)

Stirring sports drama from producer, director and star, Halle Berry. It’s an incredibly confident directorial debut from the Academy Award-winning actor, who manages to conjure up an evocative family drama with grit and poignancy, even if it does tick-off every sports movie cliche in the book, from Rocky to The Wrestler to Warrior. Berry gives everything to the role of New Jersey UFC legend, Jackie ‘Pretty Bull’ Justice; she’s intense, vulnerable, angry, and – even at 55 – just as powerful in the octagon as she is in the dramatic scenes. It seems her martial arts training for John Wick: Chapter 3 …

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning (2021)

The epic, live-action Rurouni Kenshin saga draws to a lofty and bloody conclusion with this prequel; a neat closing chapter which circles back to the events in part four, The Final, and concluding where the first movie started – at the Battle of Toba-Fushimi. By showing the origins of ‘Battōsai The Killer’ – notorious samurai-hunter of the anti-shogunate Choshu Domain – we get to see the feared assassin in his bloodthirsty glory, slicing off limbs and causing carnage with his lethal sword skills. “It’s a demon!” yells one of the Tsushima clan whose ear has just been bitten off by Battōsai. Director …

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Profile: Kenji Tanigaki

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Profile: Kenji Tanigaki

Date of birth: 13 October, 1970 (Nara, Japan)

Occupation: Action director, stunt coordinator, fight coordinator, director, stunt performer, actor, second unit director.

Biography: Kenji Tanigaki is an action director, stunt coordinator, fight coordinator, director and stunt performer. He is best known for his work with the martial arts star, Donnie Yen.

Kenji was born in Nara, near the city of Osaka, Japan. As a child, he learned gymnastics and trampolining, but says he knew he wanted to become a stunt performer after watching Jackie Chan in Drunken Master (1978). He learned Shorinji Kempo, and started to study with the martial artist and film …

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 77: Kenji Tanigaki

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 77: Kenji Tanigaki

“People want to watch something different. That’s why I just try to be myself.”

What a year it has been for the stunt coordinator, fight choreographer and second unit director, Kenji Tanigaki. Not only did he craft the action on two more Rurouni Kenshin films – called Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, both available now on Netflix – but he also worked as second unit director and fight choreographer on the Hollywood blockbuster, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, and helped out on the Hong Kong action hit, Raging Fire. The latter saw Kenji work again with Donnie Yen, who …

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Final (2021)

Despite the third film in this series being quite conclusively called The Legend Ends, it’s seven years later and it looks like the legend is very much not ending – instead, the series continues in the form of another two back-to-back sequels. You can say what you like about the Rurouni Kenshin films, but you can’t question their consistency: inventive, fast-paced action scenes; wacky characters; edgy, but without being too violent; political, but without anything to say; long and overwrought; and with decent performances. This fourth film is perhaps the most humourless and baggy so far, and although it is …

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

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Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends (2014)

“The legend ends” after a bloated four-and-a-half-hours of storytelling – if you include the previous movie – highlighting how brevity is clearly not one of filmmaker Keishi Ōtomo’s strong suits. Also, despite the huge running-time, these films have been rife with plot-holes, with random characters appearing out of nowhere and things happening with little or no reason or context. This concluding chapter is probably the most effective in fully committing to its wacky manga origins, setting the scene for an all-out battle to save Tokyo from Shishiro (Tatsuya Fujiwara) – a maniacal killer-for-hire who was burned alive and is now seeking revenge – and …

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Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)

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Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (2014)

Solid if ambling sequel filmed back-to-back with part three, The Legend Ends, which delivers more spirited sword-fighting and zany characters from the world of popular manga, Rurouni Kenshin. Following the events of the first film, Kenshin (Takeru Satoh) – the pacifist samurai continuing his vow not to kill – is now living a utopian existence helping Kaoru (Emi Takei) to run her dojo, hanging out with tempestuous street-brawler Sanosuke – played by Munetaka Aoki, very much enjoying his comedic foil role – who might have a thing for their doctor neighbour, Megumi (Yū Aoi). It’s pretty obvious their idyllic life …

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