the challenger series

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: PART THREE – An Interview With Ken Quitugua

2004 was a pretty invigorating year for me. We got our first computer and I suffered like hell everyday with dial-up until we finally acquired DSL which evidently made it much more easier for me to venture into online martial arts fandom at the time. It was new to me and quite phenomenal, and thanks in large part to one such skit was titled Battle Of The Stunt Monkies, a product of a very talented and diverse group known only as the premiere team that started it all on the cusp of the new millenium, Zero Gravity. Incidentally, it just so happens that member Ken Quitugua was one of the first people I began noticing before getting addicted to the content Zero Gravity was putting out. This, on top of my newfound DVD craze through sites like the now defunct HKFlix.com and hkdvdstore.com, and the still-active YesAsia.com added to my […]

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED: PART TWO – An Interview With Andy Le

Lee B. Golden III

Last month’s online shortfilm release, The Challenger, should serve as an exact reminder that there are people in the world – filmmakers who have an ardent love and respect for the craft to keep the martial arts genre alive. After all, it’s played a huge role in the lives of many people, and if that weren’t true, the genre wouldn’t have had the impact and global appeal it did in more than fifty years. Director Bao Tran knew this prior to working among the likes of Hong Kong film legend Corey Yuen Kwai and action stars like Johnny Tri Nguyen as of late. To that effect, I think it’s quite fortuitous that actor, martial artist and competitive tricker, stuntman, choreographer and master in the making, Martial Club’s own Andy Le, knew this too, and to see such like-minds collaborate to achieve something as solid and inspiring as a shortfilm preamble […]