jon truei

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS: Feel-Good Comedy And Pandemonium At The IFC Center

I find myself in a slightly more challenging point in my life. By that, I don’t mean that the last several years of my life weren’t full of resistance and strain, indeed they were. To add, it’s why I can only count on one hand how many times I’ve done anything for recreation or fun in the last year and a half: Two. That’s it. Yes, I’m kind of a introvert, and I’m pretty busy with family matters and work, although that’s not really the point. As a journalist with my own independent platform covering genre film, I also find myself forgetting things. Some of this is due to overload. Other times its due to trauma, like that one time six years ago when I got a horrifying email that became the start of one of the longest and most gut-wrenchingly teachable moments ever etched into my brain. Some of […]

THE 44TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN: Take A Behind The Scenes Look At Jon Truei’s Latest Shortfilm

Lee B. Golden III

Originally published June 17: Secondary Education helmer Jon Truei’s cast and crew screening of his latest kung fu comedy short, The 44th Chamber Of Shaolin here in New York City was a blast to attend, although what made it even more heartfelt was just simply getting to see friends again, which is a blessing considering we all live miles, states and rivers apart from one another. Effectively, the screening event was ultimately where I got to reunite with friends Truei, actress and stunt performer Angela Jordan and Art School Dropouts’ Joey Min, as well as Willie “Bam” Johnson and Robert Samuels among those who attended the screening and the afterparty, and you’re wholly invited to catch up on the events of last April with coverage by clicking here. The project is still due for a feature adaptation which is a long ways from completion as the wheels are only just […]

BUT FOR ME, IT WAS TUESDAY!: A Night Of Indie Kung Fu Fanfare At The Angelika

Lee B. Golden III

I think at least one other important lesson I must always remember is that I don’t get out enough. It’s true. I’ve lived in New York City my whole life and I’ve never explored it enough to know my bearings when I venture out anywhere other than my usual familiar places when I do end up having to take the subway. The same goes for when I arrived at the Angelika Film Center for the second time since catching Snowpiercer years earlier and crossing paths with actor Gabriel Byrne as he was crossing the street. He had company at the time and so, yeah, nah, I didn’t intrude. I’ll also add that sometimes, JUST sometimes, Google Maps can be shit. So leave it to me to find myself walking past the movie theater twice and nearly turning the wrong damn corner. It didn’t help that there were a few exterior […]

THE 44TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN Review: Electrifyingly Nuts [Updated With Poster]

Lee B. Golden III

As far as shorfilms go, most are worthy of sharing a few written thoughts depending on their substance and potential. Jon Truei’s latest, The 44th Chamber Of Shaolin, produced by Mary Pomilla, stands as potent proof-of-concept that just about brings Truei full circle as an artist and kung fu cinema fan having once beared a Yahoo! username inspired by a Gordon Liu classic, and all while leaning into a bold mixture of outlandish comedy to couple with stylish martial arts action to boot. The 44th Chamber Of Shaolin dives right into the story of a struggling Sifu (Mario Marin), now fallen on hard times and is resigned to teaching on airplane mode in his backyard with his beleagured disciple (Samuel Dunning) performing most of the grunt work. It’s not until a young teenager (Marshieh Johnson) arrives to inquire about lessons to help defend himself against bullies that Sifu becomes fully […]

ECHOES FROM DOWN UNDER: Swords, Swings And New Beginnings With Maria Tran And Takashi Hara

Lee B. Golden III

I’m having a bit of a slow day here, so there isn’t a whole lot coming through in my inbox. All that aside, I thought I’d share this little tidbit from a rare night out I had on Wednesday evening here in New York City when filmmakers Takashi Hara and production partner Maria Tran of Australia-based Phoenix Eye Film Productions came to visit. The two had just wrapped up a journey with the Vingroup Elite Tour and had a gig shortly after at the New York International Auto Show this week, and so their schedule was certainly something to factor in our planning. We were supposed to link up on Tuesday evening and sadly, those plans got derailed that morning when a Brooklyn subway was terrorized by a lone gunman causing multiple injuries, several of which were critical and thankfully, none of them were fatal… You’d think a pandemic that’s […]

THE 44TH CHAMBER OF SHAOLIN: Filming Underway For NY Indie Director’s Kung Fu Comedy Proof Of Concept [EXCLUSIVE]

Lee B. Golden III

As prone as we are to including independent action films in our coverage, it was only a matter of time before I’d be back to covering New York-based filmmaker Jon Truei (Gamer’s Generation, Secondary Education), currently in production with kung fu comedy, The 44th Chamber Of Shaolin. Starring is Marshieh Johnson – son of celebrated Wu Shu master, champion and author Willie “The Bam” Johnson (WMAC Masters, Superfights, The Legend Of Kung Funk), along with Mario Marin, and appearances by action actors Angela Jordan and David Lavallee Jr., among others to be named at a later date. Truei has since completed ancillary footage as of last month, shot in collaboration with action director and Art School Dropouts founder Joey Min. Principal photography continues in Brooklyn, N.Y. this week as part of a proof of concept to help draw attention to hopeful feature financing. Inspired by the works of Hong Kong […]

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Support THE FORGOTTEN KINGDOM On Indiegogo And Help Joey Min Defeat An Army Of Deadly LARPers!

Lee B. Golden III

I’ve actually written about independent filmmaker, actor and martial artist Joey Min a few times. He’s been around nearly as long as any of the online content creators and stunt professionals I’ve enthused about in the last ten years and he’s definitely one of the most talented people I’ve seen on both ends of the camera, and having finally met him late last year certainly made for a memorable evening among friends in 2014. Alas, you can find out more about who he is through a simple Google search or a few runs on YouTube with shortfilm credits such as Fernando Jay Huerto’s Fighter’s High, Xing Yi Quan: Techniques And Applications with Keith Min, Mark Cheng’s Operation: Red Retrieval, Eric Lim’s Tokusatsu short, Secondary Education, and Bueno’s boundless OTT Tokusatsu action comedy feature, Gun Caliber to name a few. In the meantime, Min wants to hone in something very special […]

EXPLODING HEADS, TWONKERS AND ONE-LINERS: A Night Of Drinking With New Friends

Lee B. Golden III

From L to R: Joey Min, Sunny Smith, Jon Truei, Jon Cross, Eoin Friel, Edward Friel, and myself. Once again, I’m dead tired after a night of drinking, singing and shitloads of banter with good people, and I haven’t had a wink of sleep either at that. Nonetheless, I’m compelled to write briefly about my evening on Friday, November 7, 2014; I could have went to see Why Don’t You Play In Hell? by Sono Sion, but to be honest though, I really wasn’t up for another solo trip to the movies, plus the people I was with had plans of their own while only in town for a limited time, and so Friday night was played a little loosely. Thankfully, nobody got displaced, and for the most part, we all clicked. This weekend, writer and journalist Eoin Friel of The Action Elite had flown in from Canada to attend […]

DINNER WITH A RAGING DEMON: A Night Out With The Cast Of STREET FIGHTER: ASSASSIN'S FIST!

Lee B. Golden III

Waiting on a table at The Counter Burger on 10/12 around 10-ish; Back row (L to R): Jon Truei, Akira Koieyama, Kimmy Suzuki, Joey Ansah/ Front row (L to R): Me and Gaku Space This past Sunday night was probably one of the longest, finest nights I have ever had in a long, long time. Having not been able to attend this year’s New York Comic-Con, I was almost certain this was going to be another missed opportunity to meet some of the very people I write about, and fortunately, that all changed with a simple invite. Anyone who has read my blog at some point this year may have caught onto my rather vulgar and approving review of Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, the brainchild of co-stars, Christian Howard and director Joey Ansah which began its inception in 2010 with Street Fighter Legacy. The webseries was easily one of the […]

Growing Pains Pack A Punch In The New Indiegogo Promo For Webseries, FIGHTER'S HIGH

Lee B. Golden III

Nearly ten years in the making, independent filmmaker Chris Ryons is about to apply a fresh new vision to a webseries concept he has been developing since his his early years in film. That series earned its first application by 2007 in the form of Fighter’s High, an action comedy project that centers on a generation of teenagers that thrive in martial arts as a preamble to entering high school. The series is taking a different creative direction since 2007, but its origins come collectively on behalf of Ryons‘s influences over the years, namely his 20-year long love for martial arts in all its aspects, filmmakers like Chang Cheh and Yudai Yamaguchi, and the kung fu and Tokusatsu genres, and tournament fighting video games in general. “I always kicked around this joke about the original Power Rangers and how it seemed being a martial artist was a pre-requisite to get […]

Internal Chinese Kung Fu Delivers Artful External Brutality In The New Shortfilm, XING YI QUAN: APPLICATIONS AND TECHNIQUES

Lee B. Golden III

It was back in February in the early existence of Film Combat Syndicate that I got to share a dialogue with Hollywood stuntman, action performer and martial artist, Keith Min. A prominent member of LBP Stunts Chicago, much of Min‘s energy in martial arts is spent observing the core, internal philosophies of his teachings as an instructor in Chicago, trained in a variety of disciplines ranging from Baguazhang and Tai Chi, to his preferred style, Xing Yi, which can now be viewed in its cinematic aesthetic in the new kung fu action shortfilm, Xing Yi Quan: Techniques And Applications. As I interpreted before in my informative and poignant discussion with Min back in February, Min‘s internal principles are what embody his vision to be able to implement his training with students in a simple but effective, and enjoyable manner to students of all types and sizes. Min expanded on the […]

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LBP Stunts Chicago Keeps At Work!

Lee B. Golden III

The folks over at LBP Stunts Chicago still put out their own amazing sets short action choreo samplers from time to time when they’re not working on major Hollywood sets. Here are just a few recent ones they’ve brought to the internet, all three of which feature Alex Hashioka opposite Keith Min (pictured above), Jim Priz, new LBP screenfighting candidate Nicholas Foreman, and Greg Poljacik, with which the latter short was impressively filmed with only a Galaxy S4 smartphone. Hm…I’m almost tempted to see what I can do with my S3, but I’m no screenfighter, so I digress. ^_^ On another note, it’s been a while since I’ve spoken about Keith since interviewing him almost a year ago, so it’s pretty cool that I can share his most recent gig with LBP, additionally as a precursor to an upcoming project he worked on earlier this year with Secondary Education director Jon […]

Eric Lim Does Tokusatsu In SECONDARY EDUCATION

Lee B. Golden III

Following up his previous masterpiece, The Forge, is independent film actor Eric Lim in the role of an original Tokusatsu action comedy titled Secondary Education. Filmed between five days in July of last year while on location in at Eastern Regional High School in Voorhes, New Jersey, the short film sees independent filmmaker Jon Truei directing behind the camera with Lim in the role of Eugene Yamamoto, a high school science teacher forced to live two-lives in a single day between dealing with three kids stuck in detention, and battling actor Jae Greene (Maximum Impact) as the villainous Clawster. Secondary Education, now available through YOMYOMF’s YouTube portal, shows tons of spectacle and inventiveness and is well worthy of a look or two from a filmmaker who continuing to make great strides in 2013. Action director Joey Min created the spectacle for oft film partner, Truei who also co-wrote with Max […]

Oldie/Goodie Review – Fight Clip: NO WAY OUT (2009)

Lee B. Golden III

I recently had the chance to briefly speak to Joey Min, and Jon Truei, who, aside from their current careers, are also oft-partners in independent action filmmaking. Earlier this month, Min uploaded a fight scene clipped from a previously unfinished project with martial arts stunt performer, David Crosby, called No Way Out. The clip was originally shot in 2008 and uploaded a year later and features some truly fast paced, violent Hong Kong stylized choreography set in open field, featuring swordplay, knife fighting, and ultimately, feats of Wing Chun and Tae Kwon Do, from Joey and David, respectively. The scene also features an intense soundtrack adding a sense of underlying drama to a clip that looks like its part of a much longer story. And in my opinion, it should have been. Joey is a 20-year practitioner of Shaolin Kung Fu, along with some training in Hyakkuken and Kyokushin Karate. […]