White Snake (2019)

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White Snake (2019)

Based on a popular Chinese fable, The Legend of the White Snake (aka Madam White Snake), which was first fictionalised during the Ming dynasty and has provided a wealth of interpretations ever since, inspiring Beijing Opera, literature, TV and film. Japan’s Toho studios and the Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong have both had a run at the story, as well as Tsui Hark in 1993 (see Green Snake) and Tony Ching in 2011 (see The Sorcerer and the White Snake, a 3D film starring Jet Li). This fast-paced animated version is a co-production between Chinese studio Light Chaser Animation and …

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Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

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Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991)

Expect macho, B-movie, buddy cop hijinks with this crazy action quickie (only 79 minutes!), one of the most enjoyable brainless pictures out there complete with big explosions, karate kicks, greasy muscles and cheesy one-liners. Its rampant chauvinism is juxtaposed by a surely intentional homoeroticism, with some hilarious dialogue like, “in case we get killed, I wanted to tell you: you have the biggest dick I’ve ever seen on a man”. The story concerns vengeful top cop Kenner (Dolph Lundgren), whose parents were killed when he was little by Yakuza thug, Yoshida (Tagawa), a snarling super-villain specialising in drug peddling and killing …

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KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 63: Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

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KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 63: Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

“I always thought I was a better teacher than a fighter.”

Martial arts legend Benny “The Jet” Urquidez was born into a fighting family. His father was a boxer; his mother, a professional wrestler. The second youngest of nine siblings, Benny had to fight to be heard, adapting quickly to the martial arts until, by the age of 14, he had received the first of many black belts across a number of different fighting styles. In the 1970s, he pioneered full-contact karate, which was later termed ‘American kickboxing’, paving the way for the sport in the USA. He remained undefeated throughout …

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Profile: Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

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Profile: Benny “The Jet” Urquidez

Date of birth: 20 June, 1952 (Tarzana, California, USA)

Full name: Benjamin Gilbert Urquidez

Nickname: The Jet

Style: Kenpo Karate, boxing, Shotokan, taekwondo, judo, aikido, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, Savate.

Biography: Benjamin Urquidez was born into an athletic family. He is the second youngest of nine siblings. His mother was a professional wrestler and his father was a professional boxer, and all of his siblings either took up boxing or have black belts in various martial arts. Benny, his sister Lily, and four of his brothers went on to become champion fighters. By the age of five, Benny was competing in pee-wee boxing, and at …

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PASKAL: The Movie (2018)

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PASKAL: The Movie (2018)

Solid if two-dimensional military film espousing the might of the Royal Malaysian Navy – aka PASKAL, an acronym which translates as Naval Special Warfare Forces. This plays like an earnest recruitment film and isn’t too concerned about the consequences of war, although it does reference its potentially damaging impact on the soldiers’ relationships. The breakdown of the film’s central male friendship is treated more as a narrative device to create a tough adversary for the film’s reluctant hero, Arman (Hairul Azreen), to face in the action-fuelled finale. The film references real military engagements involving the Royal Malaysian Navy; a conflict …

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Legacy of Lies (2020)

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Legacy of Lies (2020)

European spy thriller with some decent fisticuffs – delivered by the Accident Man and Triple Threat coupling of Scott Adkins and Tim Man – and a twisting storyline set amongst the backdrop of the poisonings of Sergei and Yulia Skripal by a Russian nerve agent, Novichock, in the UK in 2018. First-time writer-director Adrian Bol pulls no punches in taking a strong anti-Russian stance, where a covert Russian agency is shown to be silencing journalists uncovering governmental corruption. Adkins plays Martin Baxter, a former MI6 spy haunted by a ballsed-up sting resulting in the death of his girlfriend, leaving him to …

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The Driver (2019)

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The Driver (2019)

Indie outing for the Dacascos family, fighting zombies in Thailand. Mark plays the husband and father who works to protect a compound from the undead at some point in the future. “I used to kill for a living,” he says while driving, which pretty much sums up the only thing we learn about his character. His wife – played by Julie Condra, aka Mrs Dacascos, working together for first time since they met on 1995’s Crying Freeman – is bitten during a zombie attack, forcing Mark to grab his daughter (played by his actual daughter, Noelani Dacascso) and hit the …

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Profile: Joe Taslim

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Profile: Joe Taslim

Date of birth: 23 June, 1981 (Palembang, Indonesia)

Full name: Johannes Taslim

Occupation: Actor, martial artist, model.

Style: Judo, wushu, taekwondo, boxing.

Biography: Joe Taslim was born in Palembang, the capital of South Sumatera in Indonesia. He picked up martial arts at an early age, learning wushu, taekwondo, and eventually settling on judo. Growing up, he enjoyed going to the cinema, and this is where he started to harbour the ambition of becoming an actor. While still in high school, he won his first national judo competition, which eventually led to a career as a professional judo athlete. He was encouraged by his father, …

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KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 62: Joe Taslim

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KFMG Podcast S05 Episode 62: Joe Taslim

“I like a fight that feels real, rather than flashy. Every time I work on something, I say, ‘you’ve got to make the fight believable’.”

Joe Taslim always wanted to be an actor, even before he became a martial artist. Growing up poor in South Sumatra, Indonesia, his family only took him to judo lessons because they were free. With his dad as his coach, he would go on to become a national judo champion in a career spanning well over a decade. Ironically, it was his skills in the martial arts which would eventually lead him back to his true …

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Rise of the Legend (2014)

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Rise of the Legend (2014)

Stylish if slightly bloated reimagining of Wong Fei-hung’s beginnings which recasts the virtuous folk hero as a violent fighter in a Guangzhou (Canton) docklands gang in the 1860s, running errands for his crime boss, Lui (Sammo Hung). He decapitates a rival kingpin and thrashes the whole gang single-handedly, earning his boss’ trust and respect. Max Zhang, playing the boss’ son, drops in to take his revenge, and Wong thrashes him too. Its a daring, contrary approach to Wong’s filmic heritage from a writer – Christine To – well-known for her postmodern twists on the kung fu origin story. She gave …

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