Jawan (2023)

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Jawan (2023)

Hindi-language Indian action epic which crosses generations, hairstyles, and musical genres. Bollywood legend Shah Rukh Khan – aged 56 – defies the laws of aging (and gravity) playing two characters in the same film; a father and son ex-soldier vigilante duo who use extreme methods to make political statements and inspire social change in modern India. He holds up a metro train in order to con a rich scoundrel into donating his wealth to help India’s poverty-stricken farming community. He kidnaps the health minister to prove how much the state hospitals are lacking in basic provisions and vital equipment. In …

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Polite Society (2023)

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Polite Society (2023)

Refreshing, kooky UK indie from Nida Manzoor – making her feature film directorial debut – about two warring sisters in a British-Pakistani household in London. Teenager Ria Khan (Priya Kansara, exemplary) is a kung fu obsessed wannabe stunt performer with her own YouTube channel – “Khan Fu” – who finds it tricky to adjust to the news that her beloved older sister, Lena (Ritu Arya), is arranged to be married to the mummy’s boy, Silam Shah (Akshay Khanna). In a sinister twist similar to Get Out, there’s a brewing sense that not all is what it seems in the Shah …

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Ballerina (2023)

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Ballerina (2023)

Jeon Jong-seo steals the show in this slick Korean revenge thriller which follows the trend for bad-ass, female-led Asian punch-a-thons like The Villainess and the excellent series My Name. As ice-cold killer Ok-ju, she ends up smashing, shooting and flame-throwing her way through a gang of Korean drug pushers in her quest to find and kill Choi (Kim Ji-hoon), a billionaire playboy with a side-hustle in rape and revenge porn. One of his victims is Ok-ju best friend (and lover?), a ballerina named Min-hee (Park Yu-rim), who ends up taking her own life after being assaulted by Choi, sparking Ok-ju’s quest …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 97: End of Year Show 2023 with Mike Fury – Part Two

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 97: End of Year Show 2023 with Mike Fury – Part Two

In Part Two of our annual End of Year Show – featuring the author of Life of Action, the action movie expert Mike Fury – we discuss our favourite fight-centric action films of 2023. Which film will be crowned our favourite of the year? 

We also read out comments from Fu followers around the world who have been telling us their favourite martial arts movies of the year over email and social media. We also discuss some of the films that we disliked in 2023, and look ahead to the martial arts movies we are most looking forward to in 2024.

For …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 96: End of Year Show 2023 with Mike Fury – Part One

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 96: End of Year Show 2023 with Mike Fury – Part One

Ho ho ho and happy Christmas to all the Fu followers around the world! Welcome to Part One of our annual End of Year Show, featuring the author of Life of Action Vol. 1 and 2, Mike Fury.

In ‘Part One’, we discuss the martial arts movie news that has been grabbing the headlines in 2023 – from Donnie Yen and Jackie Chan‘s many new projects, to Michelle Yeoh‘s success at the Oscars and the 50th anniversary of Bruce Lee‘s death – and remember the famous people we lost this year. We also play clips from some of the many great guests …

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 95: Marko Zaror

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 95: Marko Zaror

“I was so sure that this is what I loved to do, that there was no doubt in my mind that my life was going to be related to this.”

From Chile to Mexico to Hollywood – and back again – Marko Zaror‘s incredible rise in the action world reached a new crescendo in 2023. Known as the ‘Latin Dragon’, Marko’s scene-stealing performance as the main heavy, Chidi, in Chad Stahelski’s masterpiece, John Wick: Chapter 4, saw him duel on-screen with fight legends Hiroyuki Sanada, Donnie Yen and Keanu Reeves; meanwhile, back in his home country of Chile, he reunited …

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The Fist of the Condor (2023)

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The Fist of the Condor (2023)

A soporific, ambitious meditation on why we study the martial arts; is it for power and ego, or to achieve something more transcendent? Originally designed as a sequence of vignettes, Marko Zaror plays twins in a yin-yang conceit – one brother is supposedly pure of heart and mind, the other is murderous and jealous. In his pursuit to steal the sacred manual of the “Masters of the Fist of Condor” – a style created by Zaror for the film, based on the national bird of Chile – the evil Zaror beats his own brother half to death and kills his …

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Redeemer (2014)

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Redeemer (2014)

The fourth film from the Chilean action partnership of director-writer Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and martial artist Marko Zaror, Latin America’s answer to Isaac Florentine and Scott Adkins. This movie, more than any of their others, attempts to wrestle with quite serious, existential themes, like free will, justice and divine retribution, produced in a Catholic country where religion still plays an integral part of daily life. The redeemer of the title is a feared, hooded, spectral figure doling out justice with his fists and feet, a vigilante (played by Zaror) taking out neo-Nazis, drug dealers and other nasty people. He performs …

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Mandrill (2009)

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Mandrill (2009)

Chilean writer, director and editor Ernesto Díaz Espinoza and martial arts star Marko Zaror spoof James Bond movies for their third Spanish language indie actioner. The references are well-worn, with composer Rocco doing good work in adapting the John Barry style, and Zaror sprucing up nicely to play smooth-talking, ass-kicking super spy Antonia Espinoza, aka Mandrill. He’s the kind of guy who seduces a woman in a swimming pool before blowing someone’s brains out. As a kid, he witnesses the death of his mother and father at the hands of a drug baron known as ‘Cyclops’, subsequently crafting his Lothario …

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Kiltro (2006)

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Kiltro (2006)

A zany action indie from Chile designed as a vehicle for martial artist Marko Zaror, who also co-produces. As well as making space for Zaror to show off his moves – not to mention his well-toned body – writer-director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza also simultaneously conjures up a dorky teen romance, a violent revenge saga by way of Sergio Leone, and a Highlander-esque mystery about a strange secret society, the sum of which adds up to barmy, esoteric fun. Luckily, Ernesto also laces his film with gags which helps to undercut some of the more earnest moments. Zaror plays fighting-mad street …

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