Kung Fu Games (2024)

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Kung Fu Games (2024)

Five martial artists in kung fu uniforms wake up in a windowless room with no idea of how they got there. They are periodically released from the room into seemingly different locations, and forced to fight for their lives against various lethal opponents. Each environment seems to resemble notable scenes and backdrops from classic kung fu movies, like the bamboo forest in A Touch of Zen, or the golden ninja from Five Element Ninjas. As the battles continue, their number slowly depletes. It is soon revealed that they are, indeed, on a sound stage, being forced to fight by a rich …

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Panda Plan (2024)

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Panda Plan (2024)

Presenting Jackie Chan, the philanthropist, in a sickly show of gurning corporate brand-building which will test the patience of even the most hardcore of Chan fans. Jackie has now seemingly done away with even the most flimsy pretence of playing two-dimensional characters. Here he simply plays “Jackie Chan”, the ageing international action star who seems to live a life not too dissimilar to the ker-razy characters he plays in his films. The premise is flimsy to say the least: he adopts a baby panda from a Chinese zoo and mercenaries break in and attempt to steal it. There is at …

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The Shadow’s Edge (2025)

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The Shadow’s Edge (2025)

Larry Yang’s second film with Jackie Chan (following 2023’s schmaltzy hagiographic Ride On) is a twisty crime caper which, despite being an epic two and a half hours, never outstays its welcome. This is a grittier, bloodier Jackie Chan film than we have been used to seeing (no CGI pandas here, that’s for sure), and its thoroughly pleasing to see Chan (at the age of 71) refusing to settle down with his pipe and slippers just yet, turning in the type of violent/goofy martial arts cop film he might have made in his athletic heyday. Many of his more recent, …

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Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

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Karate Kid: Legends (2025)

An enjoyable exercise in retrofitting two iterations of The Karate Kid story into a wholly new chapter: the 2010 remake which introduced the character of kung fu teacher Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), a proxy for the show’s original Asian American sage, Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita); and the original 1980s film series and subsequent Cobra Kai TV show, which continued the duelling relationship between star pupil Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) and his high-school nemesis, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka). It is a credit to the film that it feels both akin to the same cinematic universe while also competing as a worthy entry on …

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 108: Tribute to King Hu

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 108: Tribute to King Hu

“No one has really captured the pinnacle of the artform of wuxia filmmaking like King Hu did… That’s why we’re still talking about King Hu, because he did it better than anybody else.” Michael Berry

King Hu is one of China’s most influential filmmakers, famous for his historical martial arts films which helped to popularise the wuxia (‘martial chivalry’) genre in the 1960s and 70s with classic films like Come Drink with Me (1966), Dragon Inn (1967), and A Touch of Zen (1971), for which he would receive the ‘Technical Grand Prize’ at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. His work has inspired …

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Raining in the Mountain (1979)

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Raining in the Mountain (1979)

Undercover agents, double-crossing monks and corrupt officials duck, dive and duke it out within the hallowed halls of a Buddhist monastery in King Hu‘s last significant film. Made in South Korea simultaneously with Legend of the Mountain, this is a martial arts movie only in the loosest sense (the first fight scene occurs nearly an hour into the film), with action scenes filmed in the wuxia tradition, choreographed by Beijing Opera-trained Ng Ming-tsui, who was part of the Seven Little Fortunes with Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan. Always keen to dabble in genre, Hu’s film is more of a caper …

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Painted Skin (1993)

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Painted Skin (1993)

King Hu‘s swan-song sees him finally shoot in mainland China (Hu was born and educated in Beijing) after years of working in exile, for a film based on Pu Songling’s hugely popular 18th century ghost story, The Painted Skin. It’s a story he had originally wanted to adapt in the 1960s, before making the superb Dragon Inn. This isn’t a scratch on his other work. Stylistically, its closest companion is probably 1979’s zany supernatural caper, Legend of the Mountain. A Chinese Ghost Story star Joey Wang is somewhat inevitably cast as a possessed concubine who wears a mask of human …

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 107: Christina Newland – Live in Woking, ‘Hard Target’ special

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 107: Christina Newland – Live in Woking, ‘Hard Target’ special

“He has a certain quality about him that makes him more appealing to a wider audience than just men wanting to watch an action hero shoot things, [and] he was more approachable to female audience members.” Christina Newland

In the pantheon of great Van Damme action flicks from the 1980s and 90s, Hard Target (1993) undoubtedly stands out as one of his best. As hunky Cajun ex-Marine, Chance Boudreaux, the mullet-wearing ‘Muscles from Brussels’ is able to strut his more sensitive side while also exhibiting the sort of superhero antics that would put Schwarzenegger to shame, like firing a pistol while standing on …

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 106: Sébastien Foucan – Live in Canterbury, ‘Drunken Master’ special

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KFMG Podcast S08 Episode 106: Sébastien Foucan – Live in Canterbury, ‘Drunken Master’ special

“I don’t think about stopping. It’s part of me… I will stop when I die.”

Parkour pioneer Sébastien Foucan can be credited for bringing Parkour to the masses. His seminal UK documentary, Jump London (2003) – and its follow up, Jump Britain (2005) – sparked a cultural phenomenon which would see youngsters take to the streets in wild, acrobatic, hair-raising abandon; running, climbing and leaping across their urban environment in scenes we still see on our streets today. For Sébastien, a movie career followed, with stand-out roles in action films including Casino Royale (2006) and The Tournament (2009).

Those perceptive enough to see …

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Force of Execution (2013)

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Force of Execution (2013)

Reductive, brain-rotting actioner in which Steven Seagal plays an aging criminal in a turf war with a Mexican drug cartel, and Ving Rhames plays a fresh-out-of-the-clink badass called ‘Iceman’, but you can call him ‘Ice’. So far, so familiar. But the far more interesting subplot involves Seagal’s lackey, played by Bren Foster, a martial arts wunderkind who messes up a hit and ends up out of the gang and onto the streets, battered and boozed and with broken fingers. He is nursed back to health by Danny Trejo, a chef who also dabbles in black magic who sticks a poisonous scorpion …

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