Martial Club is still proliferating their brand in the fields of martial arts, health and wellness, stunts and action cinema. To date, they’re still committed to their YouTube audience while working on their own endeavors, which no less includes their very own feature film.
Team member Andy Le announced the project in November 2018, as a declaration to unilaterally grow and evolve toward making their own opportunities happen. “Martial arts action cinema was the platform that inspired me to do martial arts. And so we wanna create the same.” said Le at the time.
Le says he is currently writing the project in the channel’s newest video. The team has been assembling their own content for their YouTube channel – including a Fist Of Fury-inspired short which he says is about a year or so overdue – while working on what Le says in the video were “opportunities that we just could not have turned down”.
There’s no particular information being made available to the public about the film, while Le insists the effort will be a true-to-heart one.
“I’ve been working on an idea for like over two years, three years now, and it’s always changing, everyday, because everyday you’re growing, especially if you’re going through different experiences, and you’re gonna write a martial arts story that is very personal for you…” said Le.
“It’s gonna be a process, but I’m working on it.”
The remainder of the video comprises of segments featuring members Brian Le and Daniel Mah who culminate the primary trio for the team that’s been around since 2011; Their eponymous team moniker pays tribute to the late Lau Kar Leung’s legendary 1981 Shaw Brothers kung fu classic of the same name.
Making a feature film on top of producing their own independent content are just a few of the measures Martial Club aims to take in etching its footprint into history. The team shares inherent DNA with a plethora of filmmakers who’ve found their voice online since the likes of Zero Gravity and The Stunt People took to servers to upload .mpegs to fan forums dedicated to independent martial arts movies at the turn of the century, long before YouTube ever became thing.
For Le, expressedly, it’s the embodiment of the team’s roots prior to their popularity and chance to make things happen with the likes of Jackie Chan, Donnie Yen, Andy Cheng and as recently as this past year with Michelle Yeoh. Their latest shortfilm, “Ip Man: The Intercepting Fist” (released in celebration of Ip Man 4: The Finale) is close to topping its 3-million view count since streaming in December last year.
With YouTube, the team is looking to galvanize their niche going forward in hopes of what they achieve will be a new rebirth of martial arts cinema into the mainstream, even in the wake of the industry’s uncertainty regarding the threat of Covid-19. Le spoke of a recent team meeting about the future for the kinds of films in their wheelhouse – his brother, team member Brian Le sums the crux of that meeting best, adding “Mark my damn words. Martial Club will revolutionize martial arts action cinema.”
Their select credits include AMC’s Into The Badlands, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, Andy Long-starrer Luc Van Tien and Bao Tran’s upcoming kung fu comedy, The Paper Tigers.
Watch the video below.
Lead pic: A.J. Deleon