Big Bad Film Fest 2025: GLADIATOR UNDERGROUND, PRISONER OF WAR, Koichi Sakamoto & More Round Out The Action Festival’s Third Edition!
The third-annual BIG BAD FILM FEST returns to Los Angeles on August 22!
dy sao
Big Bad Film Fest 2024 Review: In BANGKOK DOG, Chaya Supannarat’s Debut Bites Just Enough To Match Its Bark
8 min. read I have been eyeing the progression of actor and martial artist D.Y. Sao – almost for as long as I’ve been on this platform. His credits extend a little further back including a small role in R.L. Scott’s 2010 sequel endeavor, Champion Road: Arena, and some several years later he’d be the subject of several indie web and film crowdfunding ventures as a member of Usurp Productions at the time. In recent memory, the Cambodian-born Long Beach townsman found himself in a more momentous space with the likes of martial arts filmmaking troupe, Martial Club. The actor also did two feature films with late director Pearry Reginald Teo: 2021 revenge thriller Fast Vengeance, and indie action dark fantasy, Shadow Master the following year, both which also saw the involvement of Chaya Supannarat in a producing capacity to add to her extensive miscellaneous film set credits. The latter […]
Pearry Teo’s SHADOW MASTER Coming Soon To The UK
Dazzler has begun signaling action fans in the UK for its upcoming release of Pearry Teo’s dark fantasy martial arts thriller, Shadow Master. The film, rejoining Teo and Fast Vengeance star D.Y. Sao, will release on Blu-Ray and DVD and Digital Download beginning January 30. Pre-order links are available here and here, while you can also check out my review of the film from its U.S. release late last year via Saban. From producer Prachya Pinkaew, the filmmaker behind modern martial arts classics, Ong Bak, Warrior King and Chocolate, comes a new hero from a world of supernatural horror… Arrested for the massacre of cultists, the mysterious An is brought into custody. Hired as a Night Watchman, An started out roaming the halls of an abandoned hospital, supervising the squatters that lived there. But he soon discovers that the residents are victims of a cult who kidnap children for ritualistic […]
SHADOW MASTER Review: D.Y. Sao Is Revenge, Resurrected In Pearry Reginald Teo’s Stylish Martial Arts Action Horror
Director Pearry Teo is no stranger to action, while most of his resumè is largely comprised of horror films. His latest, Shadow Master, combines some of the best of both genres, plugging in his penchant for costume fanfare, religious folklore, and graphic novel allure as the all-consuming backdrop for a story brimming with darkness and violence, and topped off with high-octane martial arts action. Teo is joined by the efforts of producer Chaya Supannarat, along with executive producer Prachya Pinkaew, best known for directing several Thai action hits over the years which gave rise to stars like Tony Jaa and Jeeja Yanin. That the film was once set to shoot in Thailand at one point before pandemic restrictions became an issue resulting in the production’s move to a more stateside locale within the U.S. certainly makes Pinkaew’s involvement a little more magnanimous, especially given the talent on hand. For this, […]
D.Y. Sao Emerges As SHADOW MASTER In The Official U.S. Trailer!
Welp, that was quite fast. One week after Germany’s Splendid Film rolled out the red carpet for its release, North America is now taking the mantle with an official trailer featuring new footage from Pearry Teo’s latest dark martial arts action thriller, Shadow Master, and with some artwork that seems a bit more fitting this time around via Saban Films. Slain during a ferocious fight and reborn with supernatural powers, one man stands between demonic forces bent on hastening the Apocalypse and a ragtag group of apartment dwellers protecting their children from certain peril. SHADOW MASTER is an outrageous mix of haunted house chills and martial arts thrills featuring jaw-dropping fight choreography that rivals The Raid: Redemption and Ong Bak. Actor and Cambodian martial arts stylist D.Y. Sao stars in the film, reuniting with Teo in their second venture after Fast Vengeance. The film also stars Layton Matthews and Luciana […]
HANUMAN: SHADOW MASTER Trailer Teases Beastly Martial Arts Action
Far be it for me to suggest that krauts can’t indulge in their share of martial arts action fandom if not sooner than others I suppose. Either way, it’s now in the hands of Splendid Film label as the most recent German-dubbed trailer is now online for martial arts actioner, Hanuman: Shadow Master, arriving on German DVD and Blu-Ray from November 25. The film marks the latest from The Gene Generation and The Assent director Pearry Teo, who rejoins actor and Kbach Kun Boran Khmer stylist D.Y. Sao who stars opposite late actor DMX in Teo’s quietly-released Tubi revenge thriller, Fast Vengeance. Produced by Chaya Supannarat, Hanuman: Shadow Master also joins Teo and Sao together for the first time with rising stars Brian Le and Daniel Mah (Everything Everywhere All At Once), and with Prachya Pinkaew of Ong Bak fame sitting in as exec producer. After being slain defending his […]
Brothers At Arms Test Their Might In Episode Two Of CAMBODIAN KILLERS. Watch It Right Now!
It was last October that actor, martial artist and filmmaker, Usurp Productions’s own D.Y. Sao took a leap forward in telling his own story with the new action miniseries, Cambodian Killers. While experimental at its core, the project has so far been a telling phase of progress for Sao as he moves up in film, and, like other indies, it does drive the imagination toward wondering how even more awesome it would be in its perpetuity if the right people came on board to help make this into something bigger. Having partly partaken in this project myself, I’m pretty biased here and I would proudly welcome it. Billed with a cast of talented actors in action cinema with Sao leading, Cambodian Killers focuses on a tale of brotherhood, turmoil, drama and danger that ensues when Joker, a reformed pugilist living in Cypress finds himself at odds with Aiko, a powerful […]
AOF 2015: No One Is Safe In The New Trailer For Upcoming Action Comedy Short, THE SCUTTLEBUTT ASSASSINS
The Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles will be host to this year’s Asians On Film Festival which kicks off in a few weeks. Among the screenings to be held is the latest action comedy short, The Scuttlebutt Assassins from Wusah Productions in association with Ursurp Productions with actors John Wusah and James Edwards starring as a couple of blasè killers out and about…killin. Meh. No biggie. Wusah wrote and produced the short with a soundtrack by Kobayashi Mike. Ursurp’s own Mark Poletti designed the action sequences with DY Sao who co-directs with cinematographer Wen Ren. Check out the trailer below and headover to the Eventbrite page for your tickets to AOF 2015!
KNIGHT IN THE RAIN: Help Blue Kanji Films Crowdfund Their Debut Martial Arts Sci-Fi Feature
Just on the heels of a major launch party this week in Santa Fe, California, independent production company Blue Kanji Films is gearing up with two months of crowdfunding ahead for their first-ever feature film production, Knight In The Rain. The project marks the latest debut for actor and filmmaker Wilder Herms, returning to the set once again with actor and martial artist D.Y. Sao after earlier starring in R.L. Scott’s 2010 martial arts thriller, Champion Road: Arena. The project is currently underway with a concept teaser, with the goal of hopefully raising anywhere from $66k to stretch goals at or beyond $100k to begin production next year for a 2016 release. Set in futuristic San Francisco, Sao himself will lead in a story as Luke Knight, who, with the help of colorful friends, must fend against an evil corporate CEO and crime lord and his minions, and while the plot […]
Watch The First Episode Of Indie Martial Arts Action Webseries, CAMBODIAN KILLERS Right Now!
Actor and stuntman D.Y. Sao has offically launched his latest dabble in independent filmmaking with the first episode of the new webseries, Cambodian Killers. While nothing short of an experiment in film for Sao, what we get from the footage nontheless graces us with a flurry of high-impact fight choreography with a promising cast to boot. Of course though, every good martial arts film project needs a good story, and so based on Sao‘s own concept, the official series synopsis is available below, written by yours truly! Cambodian Killers presents a riveting, action-packed miniseries with a tale of crime, danger, the bonds we make, and the family we keep in the name of honor. It has been ten years since the seven-member champion high school kickboxing team, the Cambodian Killers, reigned supreme in Long Beach. A team held together under the tutelage of their master, Kru Tong, the team’s training […]
D.Y. Sao And Tony Sre Do A Little Friendly Sparring In A New Miniseries Teaser For CAMBODIAN KILLERS
As far as teasers go, actor, martial artist and stuntman D.Y. Sao‘s latest labor of love is nothing short of a minor taste of what’s to come. Cambodian Killers is his new indie-produced experimental foray into a mini webseries before moving on to other projects, and it looks healthy so far based on his performance opposite EMC Monkeys’ own Tony Sre. There’s no plot being announced yet, so the teaser is all we really have to go on. Cambodian Killers is being poised for an October airing, so check out the teaser and subscribe to Sao‘s channel in the portal below.