The Driver (2019)

Posted in Reviews
The Driver (2019)

Indie outing for the Dacascos family, fighting zombies in Thailand. Mark plays the husband and father who works to protect a compound from the undead at some point in the future. “I used to kill for a living,” he says while driving, which pretty much sums up the only thing we learn about his character. His wife – played by Julie Condra, aka Mrs Dacascos, working together for first time since they met on 1995’s Crying Freeman – is bitten during a zombie attack, forcing Mark to grab his daughter (played by his actual daughter, Noelani Dacascso) and hit the …

Read More

Profile: Joe Taslim

Posted in Profiles

Date of birth: 23 June, 1981 (Palembang, Indonesia)

Full name: Johannes Taslim

Occupation: Actor, martial artist, model.

Style: Judo, wushu, taekwondo, boxing.

Biography: Joe Taslim was born in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatera in Indonesia. He picked up martial arts at an early age, learning wushu, taekwondo, and eventually settling on judo. Growing up, he enjoyed going to the cinema, and this is where he started to harbour the ambition of becoming an actor. While still in high school, he won his first national judo competition, which eventually led to a career as a professional judo athlete. He was encouraged by his father, …

Read More

KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 62: Joe Taslim

Posted in Podcasts

“I like a fight that feels real, rather than flashy. Every time I work on something, I say, ‘you’ve got to make the fight believable’.”

Joe Taslim always wanted to be an actor, even before he became a martial artist. Growing up poor in South Sumatra, Indonesia, his family only took him to judo lessons because they were free. With his dad as his coach, he would go on to become a national judo champion in a career spanning well over a decade. Ironically, it was his skills in the martial arts which would eventually lead him back to his true …

Read More

Rise of the Legend (2014)

Posted in Reviews

Stylish if slightly bloated reimagining of Wong Fei-hung’s beginnings which recasts the virtuous folk hero as a violent fighter in a Guangzhou (Canton) docklands gang in the 1860s, running errands for his crime boss, Lui (Sammo Hung). He decapitates a rival kingpin and thrashes the whole gang single-handedly, earning his boss’ trust and respect. Max Zhang, playing the boss’ son, drops in to take his revenge, and Wong thrashes him too. Its a daring, contrary approach to Wong’s filmic heritage from a writer – Christine To – well-known for her postmodern twists on the kung fu origin story. She gave …

Read More

The Legend of Tomiris (2019)

Posted in Reviews

Straight and sober historical war epic detailing the Tomiris story; the Scythian queen of Central Asia’s Massagetae tribe credited for uniting the nomadic clans of the ‘steppe’ – vast, empty grasslands – and leading them into battle against the might of Cyrus the Great and his Persian army in 530 BC. There are conflicting accounts as to circumstances surrounding the death of the first Persian King and the validity of the Tomiris legend. It was originally documented some 100 years after the event by Ancient Greek historian, Herodotus. This film version ditches Ancient Greece in favour of the Syrian capital of …

Read More

KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 61: Larnell Stovall

Posted in Podcasts

“Give people something they are going to remember. You can’t get that time back, so let me make sure you enjoy what I have to present.”

When martial artist Larnell Stovall first saw the film Blade in 1998, it was a lightbulb moment. But it wasn’t the actions of Wesley Snipes as the titular kick-ass vampire hunter which would spark a sudden interest in wanting to work in the movies; it was the actions of the people Wesley was beating up. Feeling inspired, Larnell took a bus from New Orleans to Hollywood armed only with his martial arts skills and the …

Read More

KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 60: Rocky Taylor

Posted in Podcasts

“All the other stuntmen had never done judo; they couldn’t even do falls on the floor. It gave me great credibility in the stunt business and allowed me to learn my craft.”

At 75, Rocky Taylor is known as Britain’s oldest stunt performer. A day before this podcast was recorded, he was doing doughnut spins in his car and setting himself on fire. In the last year alone, his stunt credits include Spider-Man: Far from Home and Angel Has Fallen. Rocky has sustained his long career (six decades and counting) by being something of an all-rounder: high-falls, horses, cars, sword fights …

Read More

One Night in Bangkok (2020)

Posted in Reviews

Meditative revenge drama from director Wych Kaosayananda, who last worked with action star Mark Dacascos for 2019’s The Driver. Dacascos plays Kai, a smartly dressed, well-mannered hitman who lands in Bangkok and immediately sets to work picking off his targets as the night unfolds, assisted in his travels by unassuming young taxi driver, Fha (Vanida Golten). There are clear parallels to Michael Mann’s excellent 2004 film, Collateral, even down to Dacascos’ grey suit, although this has a more dream-like, almost meandering sensibility, particularly during the projected dialogue scenes between Kai and Fha, in which the two wax lyrical about everything from …

Read More

Profile: Bob Wall

Posted in Profiles

Date of birth: 22 August, 1939 (San Jose, California)

Date of death: 30 January, 2022 (aged 82), Los Angeles

Full name: Robert Alan Wall

Style: Karate, Tang Soo Do, Judo.

Biography: Martial artist, actor and businessman Bob Wall was a ninth degree black belt in the Korean martial art of Tang Soo Do who studied under Chuck Norris. He also trained in a number of different disciplines including Judo (under “Judo” Gene LeBell), Okinawan Shorin-Ryu (under Joe Lewis), and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (under the Machado brothers). In 1975, Bob Wall was inducted into the Professional Karate Association’s Hall of Fame, and throughout his life, he taught martial arts …

Read More

Profile: Ludi Lin

Posted in Profiles

Date of birth: 11 November, 1987 (Fuzhou, China)

Style: Muay Thai, jiujitsu, wrestling.

Biography: Ludi Lin was born in Fuzhou, a city along the southern coast of China, near Taiwan. His mother is also an actor. At the age of nine, Ludi was sent to study at a boarding school in Sydney, Australia, which is where he spent the majority of his youth. At the age of 17, Ludi emigrated to Vancouver, Canada, with his mother to complete his university education. He graduated from the University of British Columbia with a double major in Dietetics and Theatre Performance. He has also studied film …

Read More