Ninja in the Dragon’s Den (1982)

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Ninja in the Dragon’s Den (1982)

This is a cult classic loved by kung fu fans around the world; a fabulous amalgamation of Chinese and Japanese filmmaking which adapts the chambara film to match the pacing of Hong Kong action cinema. It is also quite a bold and well-crafted directorial debut from Corey Yuen – a fight coordinator of considerable merit and experience even by this stage in his career, responsible for shaping the distinct look and feel for action at Seasonal Films. His sense of ambition leaps off the screen – a complicated duel on stilts and an imaginative kick-fest in a Japanese apartment best …

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 73: Max Huang

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KFMG Podcast S06 Episode 73: Max Huang

“I want to bring back the spirit of martial arts on the big screen, and I want to remind people of what real martial arts movies are about… it is about the art.”

Max Huang‘s turn as Kung Lao – the deadly, hat-throwing, Shaolin-trained kung fu cousin of Liu Kang – in the 2021 reboot of Mortal Kombat was a delightful surprise; a scene-stealing performance complete with comedy, drama, action, and an almighty ‘fatality’ which just about steals the movie. But the notion of Max being something of an ‘overnight success’ could not be further from the truth. The German wushu …

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Profile: Max Huang

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Profile: Max Huang

Date of birth: 22 September 1988 (Nuremberg, Germany)

Occupation: Actor, stunt coordinator, fight choreographer.

Style: Wushu.

Biography: Max Huang is a martial artist, stunt performer and actor. His mother is German – a vocal coach and actor – and his father is the Chinese Indonesian classical pianist and conductor, Noorman Widjaja. Max was instilled with a love of music from an early age, and he played the violin as a child. His brother, Lee Huang, is also a stunt coordinator, fight choreographer and stunt performer.

His father would show him videos of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan growing up, which inspired him to learn …

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Black Widow (2021)

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Black Widow (2021)

It has been 11 years since Scarlett Johansson first made her debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Russian spy Natasha Romanova, alias Black Widow, notable for being the only woman in the Avengers, and relegated to either a romantic interest, an emotional support for the boys, or to provide fetishised kick-assery in tight-fitting clothing. Thanks in no small part to Johansson’s command over the performance, the character has developed and endured throughout the series, yet despite her fascinating history – portrayed in Marvel comics since the 1960s – she has remained the only Avenger without her own origin story. …

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Big Brother (2018)

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Big Brother (2018)

Vibrant drama about Hong Kong’s secondary school education system which is enjoyable if a little saccharine at times a bit all over the place. Donnie Yen makes a neat transition into a straight, dramatic leading actor, playing new teacher Mr Chen, a former US marine who has turned his back on a life of violence and is now dedicating his time to safeguarding the future of Hong Kong’s youth at a public school where the paint is falling off the walls. He’s one of those cool teachers who wears jeans and rides a motorbike – think Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous …

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Birth of the Dragon (2016)

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Birth of the Dragon (2016)

In the true Hollywood sense of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story, this embellished Bruce Lee origin film centres around his highly contested real-life fight with Chinese kung fu teacher and fellow San Francisco resident, Wong Jack Man, who also acts as a consultant on the film. Depending on who you believe, the fight in December 1964 at Lee’s Oakland school either lasted a few minutes with Wong running away from Lee’s flurry of punches (Linda Lee’s account), or it lasted closer to 25 minutes and ended in something resembling a tie (Wong’s account). …

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Sworn to Justice (1996)

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Sworn to Justice (1996)

Probably the best of Cynthia Rothrock‘s somewhat patchy American output, she gives a rounded and accomplished performance as Gianna, a distinguished criminal psychiatrist by day and a crime-fighting, ass-kicking vigilante by night. She is on a quest to root-out those responsible for killing her sister and nephew at the start of the film, and after a visit to a shrink (played by Star Trek‘s Chekov, Walter Koenig), there are suggestions that – after a number of increasingly powerful premonitions – Gianna may indeed have psychic abilities. This supernatural element is never fully explored, but it does add a superhero-like note …

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Zombie Fight Club (2014)

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Zombie Fight Club (2014)

Tedious Taiwanese zombie flick with a really unpleasant seedy streak. The film is split into two parts: the first part rips off The Raid, the second rips off The Walking Dead. In The Raid section, a SWAT team led by corrupt Michael Wong and dashing young do-gooder Andy On are trapped in an apartment block during a zombie invasion, caused by what seems to be some dodgy pills at a orgy. The second section is set a year after the attack, in which Andy On and some other remaining humans are used as gladiatorial guinea pigs in a zombie fight …

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Star Runner (2003)

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Star Runner (2003)

This is a real mixed bag; a schmaltzy, soft focus teen romance coupled with a predictable tournament movie. Black Mask director Daniel Lee uses a melancholy acoustic soundtrack and some overwrought performances to layer on sentiment with a heavy trowel (think Best of the Best levels of troweling), and although the story is very familiar, some of these rousing emotional tricks do occasionally work. As a piece of postmillennial Hong Kong martial arts filmmaking, the movie is notable for introducing a trio of fresh-faced Asian American actors who would, within the next decade, become Hong Kong’s next generation of fighting …

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Dragon Squad (2005)

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Dragon Squad (2005)

Cops and robbers stuff from director Daniel Lee, who really butchers the action with way too much ‘shakey-cam’, crash zooms and quick editing, rendering many of the shootouts as almost unwatchable. And the film mostly consists of shootouts, too, despite Chin Kar-lok’s credit as martial arts coordinator and with Sammo Hung in the cast. Sammo does have an excellent throw-down with Korean star Heo Joon-ho, but if you’re a kung fu movie fan, you will be far better served watching Sammo’s other 2005 effort, S.P.L.. Given that its an ensemble film, most of the characters are offered short-shrift in terms …

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