WARRIOR: Enjoy This Behind-The-Scenes Fight Choreo Tease With Andrew Koji And Joe Taslim
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In the wake of the race riots that upended Chinatown in season two, Mai Ling uses her government connections to consolidate power, while Ah Sahm and the Hop Wei must find new ways to survive.
2022 has been a banner year for actor Jang Hyuk who just recently toured his latest action thriller, Choi Jae-hoon’s The Killer, in Los Angeles, as well as in New York City where he donned his best charm upon receiving the Daniel A. Craft award for Excellence In Action Cinema at the New York Asian Film Festival last month. In good company, Jang and his team also managed to bring along another celebrated title to mark the occasion at the NYAFF with a screening of Choi’s 2020 feature debut, The Swordsman.
The year is 1992 and it’s a Saturday. I’m thirteen years old and, like most weekends during that time in my life, I’m at the mall. When I wasn’t at the food court horsing around with my friends, or rummaging through the shelves of movies at the music store, I was at the arcade. The arcade was typical of the time period- dimly lit with only the glow from the various machines adding any real illumination to the darken amusement-filled space. It was always crowded and noisy, electronic boops and beeps mixing with loud laugher and even louder conversations as people crowded around the various arcade cabinets. On this particular day the crowd seemed denser, the laughter and excited chatter even louder. Something was happening.
Choi Jae-hoon’s newest period actioner, The Swordsman, took quite a while to arrive before reaching a local release a few months ago. Alas, leave it to Well Go USA to take the mantle with the smartest choice ever of acquiring a film prominently headlined by Volcano High and Empire Of Lust star Jang Hyuk, and The Raid and The Night Comes For Us star Joe Taslim.
David Bloomer/Cinemax
It’s been three years since production launched for Choi Jae-hoon’s feature directing debut, The Swordsman. The film is finally set to release in Korea on September 17 and judging by the first official teaser trailer, the film looks like it’ll be worth the wait!
The Night Comes For Us star Joe Taslim is first on the roster to be cast for Simon McQuoid’s upcoming Mortal Kombat film as key character, Sub-Zero. Production is officially slated to kick off later this year in South Australia.
Action star Joe Taslim is having an incredible run the last eight years since 2011 crime hit, The Raid. It’s brought him an even bigger spotlight on the world stage in film and TV and with hits like Furious 6, The Night Comes For Us and his current outing in Cinemax series, Warrior, Skakmat director Ody C. Harahap’s new action comedy, Hit N Run, now looks to add to the fan hype.
Actor Joe Taslim‘s proliferation this week is at its most timely. His co-starring role kicks off on Cinemax with the Friday premiere of Bruce Lee-inspired series, Warrior, while the action star’s lead Indonesian theatrical debut in upcoming action comedy, Hit & Run, finally takes off this summer.
As it stands, the future couldn’t be brighter for the fate of martial arts cinema on television. With Into The Badlands making its exit from AMC in a few weeks, Cinemax is officially next in line with its own roster led by breakout actor Andrew Koji in the new series, Warrior, born and bread from the mind of the late Bruce Lee and re-birthed through the auspices of daughter Shannon Lee, and creators Justin Lin’s Perfect Storm and Jonathan Tropper’s Tropper Ink.
Orson Welles said of friendship that, through it, we get to create the illusion that we are not alone. He said of women that through them men become civilized. I wonder what he would have thought of The Night Comes For Us, a film that illustrates friendship (both its value and fragility) through a harsh, deconstructive lens, and presents a young girl as the catalyst for its protagonist’s quest to civilize himself, that is, to regain his civility after a career of criminality and murder.
If you’re still on that Joe Taslim swag after The Night Comes For Us, be sure to look out for him in The Swordsman opening next year. Volcano High star Jang Hyuk leads the cast front and center, joined by Taslim and reuniting with fellow Ordinary Person cohort, Rampant co-star Jeong Man-sik.
You can pretty much look up any review online as of late and so I don’t really think my opinion about this film is necessary at this point. However, if there some who still care for it, I’ll say this much: The Night Comes For Us is as hyperviolent, fight-heavy and gruesome and as you would expect – maybe even to the point of overkill what with the abrupt stop/start pivot the film took amid the long seven-year wait in its languishing evolution.
If you’re like me, the past four years have probably proven to be one of the biggest waiting games you’ve ever played. It’s certainly been longer for acclaimed Mo’ Bro filmmaker, director Timo Tjahjanto since arduously birthing his concepts for The Night Comes For Us with the goal of bringing back The Raid actor Joe Taslim.
Right about now, every MA cinema fan’s favorite five words of late have been manifest into striking new action footage for Macabre and Headshot co-helmer Timo Tjahjanto’s new thriller, The Night Comes For Us. The official website for next month’s 51st Sitges Film Festival is currently host to said footage featuring the ceremonial return of actor Joe Taslim to the screen.
Conclusively, I couldn’t be more proud of Koji this week, and that brings us to the longstanding developments of Cinemax’s upcoming ten-episode martial arts drama, Warrior which is set to go before cameras in South Africa on October 22. Netflix series Fauda helmer Assaf Bernstein is directing from a script by Banshee creator Jonathan Tropper, in turn inspired by the unproduced work of late martial artist multihyphenate, entertainer and film legend Bruce Lee, and has since been shepherded by daughter Shannon Lee, founder and CEO of Bruce Lee Enterprises. Lee is executive producing as will Tropper via his Tropper Ink Productions banner, and Lin along with Danielle Woodrow hailing from Perfect Storm Entertainment.
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