KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 30: Bob Wall / Timon Singh

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 30: Bob Wall / Timon Singh

“I have a long history of having my ass kicked. Nobody gets great if they don’t get their ass kicked.” Bob Wall

Although Bob Wall had no desire to become a film star, he somehow ended up appearing in some of the highest grossing martial arts films of all time. As Chuck Norris’ business partner and Bruce Lee’s training buddy and friend for over a decade, Bob – a world professional karate champion – found himself cast as one of the baddies in Lee’s 1972 film, The Way of the Dragon. Bob provided a similar foil to Lee’s on-screen attacks the …

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 29: Joey Ansah

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 29: Joey Ansah

“Some games hook into you, and they’ve got you – and Street Fighter hooked into me.”

UK actor and filmmaker Joey Ansah’s imagination was sparked at an early age through the power of the classic Hong Kong action movie, Dragons Forever, and the Street Fighter video game. The son of a famous Ghanaian fashion designer father and a UK mother, Joey grew up immersed in both British and African culture. His passion was, and still is, the martial arts, becoming a famous online ‘tricker’ and skilled in Capoeira, Taekwondo, Ninjitsu and many other styles. Working as a fight choreographer, extra, stuntman …

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 28: Alain Moussi / Dimitri Logothetis

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 28: Alain Moussi / Dimitri Logothetis

“I get nervous all the time. But, for me, I have always channelled nerves into excitement, and then into performance.” Alain Moussi

Alain Moussi has enjoyed a rapid rise, from stuntman to starring roles to leading his own martial arts movie franchise. As Kurt Sloane, he is the poster-boy at the heart of the rebooted Kickboxer franchise – a role made famous by his boyhood hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme – which was launched in 2016 with the film Kickboxer: Vengeance. The second instalment, Kickboxer: Retaliation, received rave reviews upon its release in 2018, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it “stylish and …

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 27: Amy Johnston / Scott Adkins

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KFMG Podcast S03 Episode 27: Amy Johnston / Scott Adkins

“I grew up watching Michelle Yeoh and she started it all for me.” Amy Johnston

To celebrate the UK DVD and digital download release of Accident Man – a British action comedy based on a comic-strip by the creator of Judge Dredd – we have two of the world’s biggest martial arts movie stars on the show. Listen to my in-depth conversation with one of the most popular female action stars on the planet right now, Amy Johnston, who has gone from being Scarlett Johannsson’s stunt double to leading her own fight flicks with top performances in movies like Lady Bloodfight and …

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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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