This week’s list has some amazing new content out this week, including one video which has only seen its way to film festival audiences. It got pretty busy for me this week and it’s going to get a little more busier with the write-ups I’m working on for another site, so hat tips to those of you who pointed me in the right direction for a few of these gems. This list is going to be a little more star-studded, and a few of these videos were exclusive to Facebook so I hope their playability remains and I hope you enjoy these entries. Shall we?
The first video I’m listing here is likely one of the most important you’ll see this week, especially if you’re a Toku fan. MMPR, director Dominick Sivili‘s long-awaited fan series has been in limbo for quite a while, and it’s only now that he’s getting things back on track. Independent projects always garner their fair share of challenges and hurdles and much to Sivili‘s dismay, things hit a brick wall late last year that left plenty of fans wondering whether or not this series was still happening. As of Saturday, here he is, in his own words…
Now that we’ve got that covered, let’s go freerunning with Pavel Petkuns, Grzegorz Antkowicz and Grzegorz Szymański!
Up next, her latest starring role and producer stint with director Cuong Ngo’s Ngay Nay Ngay Nay: The Lost Dragon may not be all that appealing as a fight flick as opposed to a family-friendly fantasy comedy romp, but there’s always the hope that we will see more of actress Veronica Ngo with her acknowledgeable screenfighting veneer as per her performances in films like The Rebel (2007), Clash (2009) and Once Upon A Time In Vietnam (2013). Hence, her reel from last year has always been nice to look at, and hopefully her upcoming role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2: The Green Legend will leave us something special in that department as well!
Kicking things off next, martial arts action favorite Ron Smoorenburg has a new reel out for the year. It’s a mix of old and new material for the actor best known for going toe-to-toe as the rooftop kickboxer opposite Jackie Chan in the 1998 globe trotting action comedy, Who Am I?, and it’s very refreshing to see Smoorenburg still getting around. He’s currently based in Thailand where he lends his services as a stuntman and actor in and around Southeast Asia, and you’ll be able to sample some of this in his new reel which also includes a nice little sideshow with at least one particular photo that already has my interest sparked.
Take a look!
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If there was ever a director I could think of who has the zest and the vision to be a truly amazing filmmaker in the years to come, it would be Stephen Reedy. He first popped up on my radar with San Francisco-based martial arts team, The Stunt People with their 2004 indie action short, Undercut, prior to their feature length action romp, Contour, which remains a classic to this day if you love martial arts movies. I hadn’t seen or heard anything thereafter until 2013 when he re-emerged with actors Eric Lim and Dennis Ruel for Lim’s inspired fantasy short, The Forge, which is not only one of the most visually stunning pieces ever put on film, but certainly heartfelt with a truly captivating message based on Lim’s own story of triumph over tragedy.
Reedy‘s work is one keep on your rack for immediate reach, so if you haven’t seen Undercut, Contour (a.k.a. The Agent) or The Forge, I highly suggest you look for them. Comedy, drama, action, and by all means, shit falling and female humans, and a guy getting his faced chopped off! Yes, Reedy is a man quite capable with a lens, and his most recent reel is an electrifying sample of that, showcasing old, new and upcoming goods. Peep it!
…Of course, we can’t continue this list from Reedy without also including the latest one knitted together from actor and stuntman, The Stunt People founder Eric Jacobus. Already lighting up the internet with his latest action sequel short, Rope-A-Dope 2: Return Of The Martial Arts Mafia with producer Clayton Barber, Jacobus continues to earn massive appeal with the niche, and he’s not done yet. A third is on the way along with any number of shortfilms and a feature, including another Kicktionary which certainly has fans kicking with excitement themselves. And as a noteworthy mention, obviously without Jacobus, there would not have been Contour, a film that helped mold my appreciation for the online independent action community nearly a decade ago which is something I expressed in my most recent interview with him earlier this month.
Martial arts action movies are Eric Jacobus‘s specialty, or his name is not Eric Jacobus. That said, I’ll be damned if he’s not at least a candidate for an American remake of a certain Indonesian crime thriller. He’s got the chops, and I, for one, am proud to see him come this far. On that note, watch his new reel and then tell me he doesn’t deserve your attention. And then go get counseling for that cocaine habit of yours.
Earlier last week I was introduced to a 2009 short featuring Puerto Rican action star Jose Manuel titled The Witness. It garnered plenty of momentum for a feature film in 2012 which insofar has allowed for the potential of a sequel, but remains stagnant due to the regional stagnation of the action film industy, like many other parts of the world. Alas, indie has since been the way to go, and for Manuel, who helped bring The Witness to the foray of action fandom as Puerto Rico’s first-ever martial arts movie, it seems he’s one of a growing few taking the mantle as a brewing filmmaker, ripe and fresh with all the growing knowledge needed to become one of the greats. I should know, because I sampled some action from his upcoming short, Driven To Kill, and needless to say, aside from the fact that Manuel moves like a beast, his adherance to everything that makes Hong Kong action what it is in its greatness is a true sign that Puerto Rico has a rising star on its hands, and he and the talented people within his company, North Compass, derserve to be nutured. At best, their latest reel should offer proper motivation.
And here, Spain, much like Puerto Rico, is another area of the world that bares a talented of community of martial arts entertainers. That said, meet Aridani Del Rosario Medina, a practicing martial artist and filmmaker largely inspired by people like Jackie Chan and Eric Jacobus. Medina began working his way up after taking up martial arts in 2003 and landing a few stints in stunts for projects in Spain as the years passed. Ultimately, he found himself in better company by 2012 upon starting Spain’s very own, Brotherhood Films, and they haven’t stopped since.
As of last December, their latest shortfilm, Soul Of Vengeance is online, with choreography and camerawork rough around the edges, but it’s watchable and pretty entertaning. Medina himself stars as the villain showing off his acting and fighting chops opposite lead actor and co-producer Mike Santana. Subtitles included.
Director Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service is hitting theaters this week, and what better way to exemplify the decorum of such stout heroics than award-winning gentleman tricker, Ingun Yoo? Yoo himself is one of the most prolific athletes in his field and he’s got a fanpage with links to any and all credentials that highlight his current successes, as well as a channel where you’ll find even more goodies. In the meantime, here’s Yoo lending a pain-inducing etiquette lesson to a much deserving individual.
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Real quickly, this next video was a trailer that eventually arrived back in June of last year. The name of the project is a dramatic action short titled Daddy’s Love from writer, producer, director and actor Sam Lorn which centers on a father’s grieving return to his dark side in the wake of the death of his young daughter at the hands of international human traffickers. According to the film’s Facebook fan page, it’s based on a true story, and while I would have shared this video earlier on, not much is being said about the film itself while it currently remains in production. At any rate, the trailer serves up a nice little platter of hard hits, grit, brutality and intensity to set up what is to come.
Following up from last week are two new videos featuring appearances by Rustic Bodomov, Vaughndio Forbes and Andrew Dismuke: The first one involves what happens when you can’t get your friend’s coffee order right, and the other is really just a simple case of right and wrong. Both generate their fair share of giggles and it’s great to see these guys play so well together.
I did a lot of searching and scrolling, and I spotted the title which drew my interest aside from its generic appearance. For all I knew, it could have been some spam video someone left on YouTube for kicks, but what it’s worth, I’m glad I clicked it. Featuring performances by choreographers Bikash Kumar Singh and Rupesh, the video is a rough edit from an upcoming shortfilm they’re working on, and you can certainly tell that they have somewhat of a handle on shooting good action. Check it out below and be sure to spot the behind-the-scenes footage of that same fight scene just beneath, and let’s hope we learn more about these guys much sooner!
Hat tip to producer Henry Chu who got my attention last week through my fan page on Facebook which led to me to a highlight reel for an upcoming shortfilm from filmmaker Henry J. Kim titled All Men Are Thieves starring Frederick Szkoda and Lanny Joon, with fight choreography by Thomas Tan. It’s a character thriller centered on two career criminals who become partners and brothers in a plot that will ultimately test their loyalty with one another.
Since his film school days, Kim has naturally grown into his own style of filmmaking inspired by known auteurs like Spike Lee and Robert Rodriguez. It’s a formula he’s learned to apply very well in quite a few shorts he’s worked on already, including his 2009 Bonnie & Clyde short pic, No Rest For The Wicked with Szkoda starring alongside Kat Gardiner, which is pretty solid work, and it never really occured to him to enter it into festivals which is unfortunate. At any rate however, I’m sharing that one just below with the highlight reel for All Men Are Thieves for which the final product, clocked in between thirty and forty minutes, is due to hit festival screens in March.
A Means To An End is the latest action short from independent filmmaker Jensen Tung who’s been making his own shorts for sometime now. By his own accord, he’s earned some acclaim for his work in his native Vancouver, and where a lot of the action is involved in his current repetoire, there have been a few improvements, particularly with the action to accommodate the drama. Check out his latest below!
The official channel for French indie film group, Team Martial Blades, only has one short film uploaded, so they may very well be a new group. However, their latest, Oroborus-Origins looks pretty impressive, which leads me to believe they might have some history in this field prior to this. I don’t really know it etymology of the word (Oroborus in one iteration, symbolic of a serpent eating its own tail) has anything to do with it, to be honest. And, much of the choreography looks pretty rough here and there, even though it is watchable and also impressive in some areas, including how it all leads up to the final fight; I’m not giving away the set up, so if it leaves you wanting more by the end, then who am I to argue? Take a look!
And last but most certainly not least, four years, twenty five film festival screenings, eight awards and one nomination later, producer and director Jennifer Thym’s winning post-apocalyptic action horror short, Bloodtraffick has arrived. Bloodtraffick centers on the story of a human warrior in search of her sister on dystopian planet Earth where angels are now on the losing side of an epic war with vampires. Once Upon A Time In Shanghai star Philip Ng directs the action with The Man With The Iron Fists co-star Grace Huang narrating and shooting her way through the action opposite Lady Bloodfight and Vor co-star, actor Kirt Kishita playing the vampiric villain. Huang is an absolutely perfect fit for a role of this caliber and for what its worth, one can only hope this gets turned into something much bigger.
Subscribe to these channels and click HERE for last week’s Hit List in case you missed it, and if you have a QUALITY video you would like to share in the form of a shortfilm, test fight, teaser, promo or a reel or the like, email us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.