KFMG Podcast End of Year Show 2023 with Mike Fury

Posted in Podcasts

It’s that time of year again – the time when we ask you, the loyal listeners of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast, to tell us your favourite fight films of the year.

Let us know your favourite martial arts movies of 2023 – and why – and your comment could be read out on our annual End of Year Show, featuring the author of Life of Action Vol. 1 and 2, Mike Fury. You have until 9 December 2023 to submit your comments, and you can do it right now through any of the following methods…

Send your comments in an …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 94: Ric Meyers

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“I practice my style, which is called ‘Ric Fu’, and the subtitle is, ‘don’t hurt me’.”

It has been over a decade since we last spoke in-depth to the author and kung fu movie expert, Ric Meyers – the man responsible for introducing much of America to the classics of martial arts cinema over a writing career spanning five decades. His books – including 1985’s ‘Martial Arts Movies: From Bruce Lee to the Ninjas’, 1995’s ‘The Encyclopedia of Martial Arts Movies’, 2001’s ‘Great Martial Arts Movies: From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan and More’, and 2011’s ‘Films of Fury’ project, which …

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Profile: Vincent Lyn

Posted in Profiles

Date of birth: 6 June, 1959 (British Royal Air Force Base, Aden, Yemen)

Full name: Vincent Raymond Percival Lyn

Chinese name: Yong Sheng (‘forever winning’)

Occupation: Musician, humanitarian, philanthropist, actor, martial arts instructor.

Style: Ling Gar Kung Fu (family style), Tai Chi, kickboxing.

Biography: Vincent Lyn is an accomplished martial artist, actor, author, pianist, and humanitarian. He was born in Aden, Yemen, to a Chinese father and a British mother. His mother was a classical pianist, and his father was an aircraft engineer stationed in Yemen with the British Royal Air Force. Because of his father’s profession, Vincent’s family relocated a lot, and by the age …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 93: Vincent Lyn

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“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)

Posted in Reviews

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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“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)

Posted in Reviews

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 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

Posted in Podcasts

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)

Posted in Reviews

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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