KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 93: Vincent Lyn

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 93: Vincent Lyn

“You’re having to relearn martial arts for film. It’s completely different… and there’s no instruction manual. You’re learning as you go.”

Vincent Lyn‘s short career in Hong Kong action movies may only span a few years, but his good looks, martial arts abilities and acting skills saw him work with some of the biggest names in the industry, operating at the height of their powers. The list includes Donnie Yen, Yuen Woo-ping, Corey Yuen, Cynthia Rothrock, Cynthia Khan, Simon Yam, and Jackie Chan. He admits he had no idea that the films he was making would go on to become …

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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

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John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

With the fourth film in the escalating, epic and extraordinary John Wick saga, director Chad Stahelski proves that bigger, sometimes, is better. For example, during the film’s final act, he turns central Paris into his own playground, crashing cars around the Arc de Triomphe, firing guns along its floodlit streets, and throwing stunt performers down the steps of the Sacré-Cœur in a breathless and hilarious sequence – probably the best in a movie full of exquisite action set-pieces (although the impressive long-take shootout inside a Parisian chateaux is also a thing of astonishing, violent beauty). The film then culminates in …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 92: Vi-Dan Tran / Lorenz Hideyoshi

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 92: Vi-Dan Tran / Lorenz Hideyoshi

“I won’t give up producing cool shit and fan films, because it’s for the community. If we can inspire young filmmakers with our craft, that’s the best prize.” Vi-Dan Tran

Over the last decade, Germany has become a hotbed of aspiring young martial arts talent who have seen their careers grow from DIY short films on YouTube to massive Hollywood productions. Cologne-born Vi-Dan Tran is a wushu practitioner and Hong Kong movie fan. His passions led to a career in stunts and eventually membership of the hallowed Jackie Chan Stunt Team, working with the man himself on movies like The Foreigner (2016) …

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Plan B (2016)

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Plan B (2016)

An excellent German martial arts comedy which is both an engaging original concept and a heart-on-the-sleeve tribute to 1980s Hong Kong action cinema, with references to John Woo and Jackie Chan as well as western touch-points, mostly Quentin Tarantino, Guy Ritchie and Edgar Wright. Given its neon aesthetic, synthesiser score, ensemble cast, and its meshing of a contemporary crime story with broad knockabout comedy, it often feels – possibly deliberately so – like a missing ‘Three Dragons’ movie, with comedic beats that land just as accurately as the finely tuned fight scenes. Given that the film is led by three …

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The Blonde Fury (1989)

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The Blonde Fury (1989)

The only Hong Kong movie to star a westerner sees Scranton’s very own Cynthia Rothrock tear up the screen in her ass-kicking prime, laying waste to gweilo fighters like Jeff Falcon and Vincent Lyn at the height of the genre’s ‘golden age’. The film is also famous for being a complete mess; a cobbled-together mix of different edits which was restructured and embellished following news of Rothrock’s ascent in Hollywood. With Cynthia scheduled to work with Sylvester Stallone and William Friedkin on a project which, unfortunately, never materialised, the original cut (directed by Sammo stunt team stalwart and Cynthia’s boyfriend, Mang Hoi) …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 91: Froukje Tan / Areel Abu Bakar

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 91: Froukje Tan / Areel Abu Bakar

We have a directors double bill on this episode of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast, featuring conversations with two filmmakers who have both released independent martial arts movies in 2023.

Froukje Tan is a Dutch filmmaker who specialises in telling family-orientated stories which are accessible to all. Her new film – her first in the directors’ chair for over a decade – combines her knowledge of child development and the martial arts, herself being a long-time practitioner of southern style kung fu. Set in her home city of Rotterdam, Kung Fu Leeuw – or Kung Fu Lion, to give the film …

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Kung Fu Lion (2023)

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Kung Fu Lion (2023)

A delicate coming-of-age drama set in Rotterdam about two frustrated teenage boys who train at the same kung fu school. Jimmy (Tyrell Williams) is sifu’s star pupil who becomes something of a troublemaker, eager to fight with bullies and use his kung fu for power and prestige. His ego is bruised when wushu wunderkind Li Jie (Haye Lee) joins the school – the new kid in town with great martial arts skills who Jimmy quickly sees as a threat to his own sense of self. To curb their rivalry, sifu (played by Lau Kar-leung‘s nephew, the Hung Gar expert and …

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Walid (2023)

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Walid (2023)

This starts slowly and then gets really wild in the final act – a little too wild, perhaps, given how measured and earnest the movie begins. Walid (Megat Sharizal) is a nurturing, virtuous man of god who teaches poor, immigrant children how to read and write. He befriends Aisha (Putri Qaseh), a poor, illiterate country girl and refugee living with a no-nonsense mother (Feiyna Tajudin) who is not afraid to kick some thugs into touch if they step near her chicken coop. Despite being told otherwise, Aisha accepts candy from a stranger – the oldest paedophile trick in the book …

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Knights of the Zodiac (2023)

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Knights of the Zodiac (2023)

If this is Sony’s attempt at finding a new young adult franchise full of spectacle, spandex and superheroes to rival that of Disney’s Marvel films, then we’ve got off to a damp start. This adventure, based on the popular 1980s Japanese manga Saint Seiya, completely neglects the first rule of superhero school – to have fun – and is instead lumbered by a clunky script completely lacking in humour. Instead of leaning into full-blown fan service (it waits until the very end to really cut loose with gnarly costumes, buildings blowing up, lightening storms and so on), this long-awaited live-action adaptation …

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Wolf Pack (2022)

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Wolf Pack (2022)

Michael Chiang’s fast-paced actioner is a bit too trigger-happy to ever convincingly work as a tense conspiracy thriller, and never settles into any of its set-pieces or character development long enough for the action to have any real impact. Instead, we have a handsome cast somewhat wasted on a routine desert-based shoot-’em-up which will undoubtedly be forgotten about as soon as the credits roll. For those paying attention, then; the story concerns multifaceted young medic, Ke Tong (Bruce Lee, My Brother star Aarif Rahman), a selfless yet troubled freelancer operating for something resembling Doctors Without Borders who is kidnapped via …

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