Enter the Warriors Gate (2016)

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Enter the Warriors Gate (2016)

An English-language Chinese-French co-production filmed in Canada and China from Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It’s a film of quite contrasting visions. The tone is generally light and played for younger audiences, but the mix of fantasy and realism doesn’t quite work together. The story follows an American teenager from a single parent household who gets transported to ancient China via a giant mystical urn. The boy has to rescue a kidnapped princess and defeat an evil tyrant – played by another American, Dave Bautista. The boy is a keen gamer, and you’re half-expecting him to be sucked into …

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Profile: Zara Phythian

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Profile: Zara Phythian

Date of birth: May 10, 1984 (Nottingham, UK)

Married name: Zara Marke

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

Nickname: The Lady Dragon

Style: Shotokan Karate, wushu, Taekwondo, kickboxing.

Biography: Zara Phythian is a former actor, martial arts instructor and convicted sex offender. She is the oldest of four sisters, born in Nottingham, UK. She trained in the martial arts from the age of seven, learning the discipline of Shotokan Karate and achieving a second dan black belt before becoming a teenager. At the age of 13, she enrolled at Nottingham’s School of Champions martial arts centre where she took up taekwondo, …

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Lady Bloodfight (2016)

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Lady Bloodfight (2016)

Exciting starring-role debut from Scarlett Johansson’s stunt double, Amy Johnston, who is served well in an all-female fight tournament premise with thematic links to the 1988 cult Van Damme hit Bloodsport. Amy plays Jane Jones, a “blue eyed bullet from the west”, who gets sacked from her Pittsburgh waiter job after beating up the customers. She leaves her bereft single mother for a flight to Hong Kong to discover the truth about what happened to her dead karate dad who was killed at the Kumite; a fabled, underground, full-contact martial arts competition, here remodelled as an oestrogen-fuelled, women-only fight club, …

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TC 2000 (1993)

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TC 2000 (1993)

First-time director T.J. Scott admirably fashions a high-concept sci-fi yarn on a shoestring budget, with clear allusions to films like Blade Runner and The Terminator. It’s all moody synthesisers, dry ice and blue lasers – some of it almost convincing – filmed predominantly in large basements full of pipework. In addition to its dystopian themes, the film is also a non-stop martial arts flick with a great B-movie cast of bare-chested strongmen like Bolo Yeung, Matthias Hues and Billy Blanks. This is a particular good vehicle for Blanks, who stars as a vengeful future-cop called Jason Storm operating in an …

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Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991)

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Kickboxer 2: The Road Back (1991)

Tiresome sequel which lacks the charm of the first film, not to mention its star attraction: Jean-Claude Van Damme. Instead, Dallas actor Sasha Mitchell steps into the lead role, but he never comes close to matching his predecessor during the physical scenes, which is quite important for a film with the word ‘kickboxer’ in the title. He plays a third Sloane brother: the good natured pretty-boy David, who inherits his brother’s LA gym after it is revealed that both Kurt and Eric have been killed by the Muay Thai monster Tong Po (Michel Qissi). David is initially lured back into …

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The Spiritual Boxer (1975)

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The Spiritual Boxer (1975)

Lau Kar-leung‘s influential directorial debut is often credited for being a precursor to both the slapstick kung fu comedies of Ng See-yuen at Seasonal Films (Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, Drunken Master), and the supernatural shenanigans of Sammo Hung. There are certainly signs of Jackie Chan in Wong Yu’s comedic central performance, playing a juvenile, opportunistic orphaned street rat whose sifu is a cipher for the alcoholic Beggar So. And Sammo clearly lifted the haunted mansions, Taoist priests and black magic routines for his extraordinary Encounters of the Spooky Kind. The film centres around Lau Kar-leung’s general distrust of the …

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KFMG Podcast S02 Episode 14: James Nunn / Matthias Hoene

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KFMG Podcast S02 Episode 14: James Nunn / Matthias Hoene

“I like the challenge of trying to entertain an audience, and I read the reviews, good and bad. I don’t let them affect me, but I do try to learn from them, if I can.” James Nunn

Aspiring filmmakers should definitely tune into this episode of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast, as I talk to two up-and-coming, supremely talented, London-based directors Matthias Hoene and James Nunn, who are both making waves internationally with their own action films. Firstly, I talk to the director Matthias Hoene about his new film, Enter the Warrior’s Gate (aka Warrior’s Gate), a Chinese-European co-production written …

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General Stone (1976)

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General Stone (1976)

Slightly bonkers movie with a strange supernatural twist and some great fight choreography. Dorian Tan’s mother is kidnapped by marauding despot Lung Fei, but his kung fu is not up to scratch to launch a solo rescue. Luckily he’s the son of General Stone – proud defender of a deceased Tang dynasty ruler, who continues to stand guard in statue form outside the king’s shrine. Tan falls down a well and ends up in a underground house of traps where the general comes to life and his statue mates teach him how to fight. Meanwhile, fellow Tang patriot Polly Shang …

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Hummingbird (2013)

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Hummingbird (2013)

A slightly more serious, character-driven turn for The Transporter and Crank star Jason Statham, who plays a homeless, alcoholic war vet seeking redemption for a previous incident in Helmand province, Afghanistan, for which he escapes a court-martial. He breaks into a luxury Soho flat to rebuild his life, steam-cleaning the owner’s designer suits and driving his Mercedes. The film is full of mixed morals. He escapes a violent past by becoming a hired street thug for a London-based Chinese gang, causing even more carnage by smashing up their enemies and helping their drug trade. He eventually uses their connections to …

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Profile: JuJu Chan Szeto

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Profile: JuJu Chan Szeto

Date of birth: 2 February, 1989 (Hong Kong)

Other names: JuJu Chan; JuJu Chan Yuk-wan; Juliana Chan; Chan Yuk Wan.

Occupation: Actor, martial arts instructor, singer, writer, personal trainer.

Style: Taekwondo, Muay Thai, Judo, Karate

Biography: JuJu Chan Szeto is one of twins born in Hong Kong. The Chan family moved to Boston when JuJu was three years old. She lived in various locations as a child, and developed a love of cinema from watching films with her father. She went to high-school in Hong Kong and studied at the University of San Francisco, attending the school’s karate club and graduating with a bachelor’s degree …

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