KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 91: Froukje Tan / Areel Abu Bakar

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KFMG Podcast S07 Episode 91: Froukje Tan / Areel Abu Bakar

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)

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Kung Fu Lion (2023)

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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Walid (2023)

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Walid (2023)

This starts slowly and then gets really wild in the final act – a little too wild, perhaps, given how measured and earnest the movie begins. Walid (Megat Sharizal) is a nurturing, virtuous man of god who teaches poor, immigrant children how to read and write. He befriends Aisha (Putri Qaseh), a poor, illiterate country girl and refugee living with a no-nonsense mother (Feiyna Tajudin) who is not afraid to kick some thugs into touch if they step near her chicken coop. Despite being told otherwise, Aisha accepts candy from a stranger – the oldest paedophile trick in the book …

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Knights of the Zodiac (2023)

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Knights of the Zodiac (2023)

If this is Sony’s attempt at finding a new young adult franchise full of spectacle, spandex and superheroes to rival that of Disney’s Marvel films, then we’ve got off to a damp start. This adventure, based on the popular 1980s Japanese manga Saint Seiya, completely neglects the first rule of superhero school – to have fun – and is instead lumbered by a clunky script completely lacking in humour. Instead of leaning into full-blown fan service (it waits until the very end to really cut loose with gnarly costumes, buildings blowing up, lightening storms and so on), this long-awaited live-action adaptation …

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Wolf Pack (2022)

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Wolf Pack (2022)

Michael Chiang’s fast-paced actioner is a bit too trigger-happy to ever convincingly work as a tense conspiracy thriller, and never settles into any of its set-pieces or character development long enough for the action to have any real impact. Instead, we have a handsome cast somewhat wasted on a routine desert-based shoot-’em-up which will undoubtedly be forgotten about as soon as the credits roll. For those paying attention, then; the story concerns multifaceted young medic, Ke Tong (Bruce Lee, My Brother star Aarif Rahman), a selfless yet troubled freelancer operating for something resembling Doctors Without Borders who is kidnapped via …

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Enter the Clones of Bruce (2023)

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Enter the Clones of Bruce (2023)

The ‘Bruceploitation’ film – a much-maligned and bizarre sub-genre of the kung fu movie boom – is given a detailed, heartfelt and humorous retrospective in this entertaining American documentary, the first to unite many of its leading lights, including new interviews with Taiwan’s Bruce Li, Korea’s Dragon Lee, Myanmar’s Bruce Le, Hong Kong’s Bruce Liang, and a wonderful moment with Japan’s Yasuaki Kurata, who seems perplexed to see himself billed as ‘Bruce Lo’ on a one-sheet for The Tiger’s Claw. Even Angela Mao makes an albeit brief appearance, billed sometimes as the ‘female Bruce Lee‘; plus Ron Van Clief (aka ‘the …

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

A big tonal shift for the second G.I. Joe movie, which starts as a comedic bromance between Duke (Tatum) and one of his new team members, Roadblock (The Rock). They attempt to out-alpha each other in macho displays of target practice, until Duke is ended in an ambush in Pakistan, orchestrated by the shape-shifting Zartan (Arnold Vosloo) who disguises himself as the president. With Tatum graciously bowing out of the franchise, his replacement is certainly an upgrade in the testosterone levels, with The Rock stepping in to lead the Joes on a merry rampage to restore their credibility, reinstate the real president, …

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

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G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

Taking its cues from another almighty yawn of an action franchise based on a Hasbro toy – Transformers – this live-action debut for the G.I. Joe brand somehow manages to be incredibly annoying, loud, and boring all at the same time. The Mummy filmmaker Stephen Sommers attempts to inject a fun sense of James Bond-like jeopardy into proceedings – aided by maniacal villains hellbent on world domination, stealing nuclear warheads fitted with weird nanotechnology and launching terror from their underwater bunker – but the film never quite settles into a groove, with literally every kind of spectacle thrown at the …

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Hidden Strike (2023)

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Hidden Strike (2023)

Despite being filmed in 2018 – originally a vehicle for Jackie Chan and Sylvester Stallone called Ex-Baghdad – and with a whopping $80m budget (huge for a Chinese film), this explosive action movie was destined for the big screen both in the east and the west, but was instead held in a post-production quagmire for years, going through numerous name changes (including Project X-Traction, Project X and, briefly, S.N.A.F.U.) and a global pandemic to emerge, quite unceremoniously, on Netflix without any marketing and with a completely different title. So what happened?

Chan’s waning star in the west could be a factor – …

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Golden Swallow (1968)

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Golden Swallow (1968)

Excellently staged, evocative and brutal sequel to King Hu‘s 1966 smash hit, Come Drink With Me – partially shot in Japan, which adds to its rather obvious leanings towards the chanbara film. The first film was a delicate, historical swashbuckler which sparked a postmodern revival in wuxia cinema not seen since the silent era. Chang Cheh – the ‘yin’ to King Hu’s ‘yang’ – takes over directing duties for this sequel, a calculated response to Hu’s decision to leave Shaw Brothers. Hu’s Taiwan-made indie masterpiece, Dragon Inn, may have beaten this film at the box office, but Chang’s sequel is …

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