THE HIT LIST – January 25, 2016

My weekend started off as a bust on Saturday with that hugely ridic blizzard. The snow here was treacherous and almost impossible and with work in between, I’ve found myself putting this Hit List together late in the evening.

Gladly, it’s here now and all is well and normal. As such, we begin this week’s latest entree of stunt and tricking reels with stellar demonstrations by Matt Emig and his latest quartet for a sync tricking session, followed by Sam Parham, Lee Huang, Steffen Jung, Judd Wild, Krista Jasper and Joe Chacon. The last reel in the list comes from fight coordinator Kazu Patrick Tang with scenes cut from his work on the 2013 action thriller, Dragonwolf – The film itself is no hit, but the action itself is worth every second.

Push play and enjoy!

Next up is an exciting new playlist full of fantastic fight experiments. The first playlist comes courtesy of stuntman and fight choreographer Geo Corvera who managed to get eight folks together for three cool new videos now up and running on his channel.

The playlist beneath features content from Bryan Sloyer in the company of Nick Krawiec and Amy Sturdivant, Christopher J. Robinson and Nate Stalinski, Off The Ground Theatre and JonHallPhoto for their single take action short, followed by Wadi Jones‘s garage brawl with Krystle Martin and Nathan People, Eric Jacobus with a new Tekken testimonial by way of half-human cyborg – Bryan Fury, EMC Monkeys‘s latest Rush Hour “4” spoof and Jared Kirby’s Poker Night courtesy of the Film Fighting students for NYC Combat For Stage And Screen.

The last fight piece in the playlist comes from director favorite, Gareth Evans in a short-but-sweet reunion with fellow film cohorts Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman, along with actress Hannah Al-Rashid. The latter three paid a visit to Evans over in his native Wales last summer where they reportedly spent up to a week together working on an in-house experimental action short that achieves the same level of screenfighting quality Evans is known for shooting whilst staying in the confines of PG-13/12A violence. This, next to three days of filming along with scoring, sound and editing thereafter by Fajar Yuskemal and Aria Prayogi, now culminates for us a special five minute black-and-white tale of a warrior’s epic battle against two assassins to preserve a peacemaking treaty. As you would predict, the scene is nearly everything you would hope for from Evans and it leaves you pining for more in the years since The Raid 2.

Enjoy the playlists!

And now for promotional goodies, and this time from filmmaker Ken Dinh who has slowly been working his way up as a filmmaker along with actor and martial artist Peter Pham from time to time. They’re currently based in Texas where they’ve established their latest production company, IcyBolt Pictures, and they’ve lined up this Spring to host their new short, Xoá (Erased), the story of a woman who ultimately learns the truth about her abusuve husband stemming from a tragic incident ten years earlier.

Kim Nguyen and Peter Pham lead the cast and while despite Dinh’s best intentions toward a feature film, the final cut is tentatively expected to last up to 45 minutes. Alas, that won’t be all we here from Dinh in the months ahead. Pieces are moving, and Xoá (Erased) just happens to be one of them. So, watch this space, and in doing so, the latest action-packed and *very* NSFW trailer.

And now, off to the list of shortfilms going around, and there are a few that stand out this week. First up is Seth Worley whose latest, Go Bag, delightfully caught me by surprise. The project is essentially what happens when a special agent accidently loses her gear and is forced to think fast with the help of a complete stranger’s bag of items. Cammie York stars in this one and it’s easily one of the smartest and most clever shorts you will ever see.

The next and last is a recent installement from The Rocketjump Show and its creatives showcasing their fondness for silent film and vaudeville. Yes, that’s actor Josh Blaylock, a poor bartender in World War II with an empty Tip Jar and all he wants to do is go to the Fun Fair. Well, he’ll have to get past his greedy boss, a spy named actress Ellary Porterfield, and the NAZIs hot on her tail. Whoops!

And last and far from least is Machinima’s newest online re-release of director Joey Ansah’s Street Fighter: Assassin’s Fist, a refreshing take on the popular Capcom fighting game franchise starring Ansah opposite Mike Moh, Christian Howard and Akira Koieyama. If you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years with no knowledge about this project, I sincerely hope you devoted yourself to practicing Satsui no Hadou in that same period…otherwise I just feel sorry for you.

Watch it right now ahead of Ansah’s March premiere of Street Fighter: Resurrection on go90, or buy Ansah’s extended feature film cut right now on Blu-Ray and Digitial HD courtesy of FUNimation or wherever movies are sold!

Don’t forget to subscribe to the channels to follow all of their amazing content, and check out last week’s amazing hits if you have some time to spare. In the meantime, if you yourself are a filmmaker with a knack for making fantastic stuntreels, action shorts and concepts in fight choreography, have at it. Shoot something, and if you think it deserves a place in the Hit List, send it to us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!