“People want to watch something different. That’s why I just try to be myself.”

What a year it has been for the stunt coordinator, fight choreographer and second unit director, Kenji Tanigaki. Not only did he craft the action on two more Rurouni Kenshin films – called Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning and Rurouni Kenshin: The Final, both available now on Netflix – but he also worked as second unit director and fight choreographer on the Hollywood blockbuster, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, and helped out on the Hong Kong action hit, Raging Fire. The latter saw Kenji work again with Donnie Yen, who he calls his “master”. His work with Donnie stretches back to his days as a young stunt performer in Hong Kong in the 1990s. A student of martial arts screen legend, Yasuaki Kurata, Kenji made the bold decision as a young man to relocate from his home in Japan to Hong Kong in an attempt to make it in the film business. He learned Cantonese, took hits as a background actor, and was the first person from Japan to become a member of the Hong Kong Stuntman Association. His real passion, however, lay behind the camera. Spotted by Donnie Yen, Kenji became an active and vital member of Donnie’s action team, and the two have been inseparable ever since, creating the action on some of Donnie’s best fight films; from his early directorial efforts Legend of the Wolf (1997) and Ballistic Kiss (1998) to the hard-hitting, game-changing SPL (2005) and Flash Point (2007) – not to mention Legend of the Fist (2010), Dragon (2011), Special ID (2013) and so many more. As Kenji increasingly works on his own projects around the world in markets including Japan, Hong Kong, China and Hollywood, we can’t wait to see where his martial arts moviemaking talent will take him next. Follow Kenji Tanigaki on Instagram, and read more on IMDb.

Kenji Tanigaki and Takeru Satoh on the set of Rurouni Kenshin: The Final.

Kenji Tanigaki, Andrew Koji, Haruka Abe, Henry Golding, director Robert Schwentke, Iko Uwais and Takehiro Hira at a press conference for the launch of Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021).

Kenji Tanigaki and Donnie Yen working on Special I.D.

Kenji Tanigaki with his sensei, the martial artist and film star, Yasuaki Kurata.

Kenji Tanigaki holding his 2018 Golden Horse Award for Best Action Choreography for the Chinese action film, Hidden Man.