THE HIT LIST – May 9, 2016

…One included finishing an anime series, and the other was completing this week’s latest round up of The Hit List. There’s a smaller number of projects this week – only a few to be exact, but there are some worthwhile throwbacks I’ll share in the mix for the time being, including a colossal reel attributed to Corey Yuen’s 1986 Hong Kong action classic, Righting Wrongs by Hong Kong stunt veteran and filmmaker Jude Poyer. The ensuing playlist beneath comes with the good graces of many of today’s amazing talents including Godefroy Ryckewaert, Khalid Ghajji, CC Weske, Adam Lytle, Mason Sharrow, Donald Brooks Jr. Christian Petersson, Nik Pelekai, Angele Caron, Erika Keck, international freerunning and martial arts stunt and film troupe Quiet Flame Stunts and stuntman Andy Pilgrim.

As far as promotional goods go, we do have a few small teaser bits. The first is for the upcoming series, The Fallen Empire, from Genius Films and Truly Indie Studios with Estefania Rebellon and Evan Taylor Schmidt crossing over from two famed game properties as Lara Croft and Nathan Drake. The series comes from executive producer Steve Pisa, a screenwriter, stunt coordinator and martial arts guru whose credits include When The Fever Breaks, Six Feat Down Under, and the hit feature film, The Lackey.

The second is for the upcoming German martial arts drama, Passage, featuring Andy Long Nguyen and filmmaker and fellow independent actioner Lorenz Hideyoshi-Ruwwe. The specifics are pretty nil but Nguyen and Hideyoshi-Ruwwe have always (ALWAYS) turned in solid work and quick YouTube search can easily verify this if you fancy it. In the meantine, Passage just underwent a private cast and crew screening and will hit the internet soon!

Rounding out the Hit List this week are five action goodies, and the first arrives with a slick little meta action short called Dopplegangster featuring Geoff Meech in a Vimeo exclusive.

The ensuing Youtube playlist beneath consists of a cool little knife-fighting conceptual sequence from Thailand-based The Action Guys, a new test fight skit from Team STAMA in Switzerland, and the gang over at Ismahawk getting their Marvel fandom on a la First Person Iron Man. The last is a 2012 shortfilm from the folks over at Martial Club with DayDreamers, and incidentally, a theme easily understandable if you’ve ever immersed yourself something so much that it literally transported you elsewhere as it it actor and martial artist, Andy Le.

Enjoy the goods below!

Last and far from least are three newly released shortfilms and the first presents stuntwoman, actress and filmmaker PeiPei Alena Yuan against an all-female line-up in Yoga Pant Brawl. I honestly can’t remember when this one was wrapped but it feels like an eternity, so needless to say I was excited to finally see this link in my notifications as each of the stuntwomen showcased in this project are people I’ve written about before. So, in pure dork fashion, this was very rewarding, as well as funny, sexy and entertaining. Check it out below and follow the project on Facebook to learn more about as well as the companies behind the costumes, Capo Nata Apparel and Transfuze.

Yuan is joined by Tamiko Brownlee along with Natascha Hopkins, Cassie Lee Minnick, Heather Bonomo, Thekla Hutyrova, Elisabeth Carpenter and Michelle Jubilee Gonzalez. Enjoy!

Dayside Productions is up next and it appears they’ve taken upon the bright idea of turning Nintendo mainstay, Link, into the protagonist of his own gritty Hong Kong cop thriller with down-and-dirty MMA fighting. The project itself is very small scale and the acting is silly, but their hearts are in the right place here as adapting The Legend Of Zelda into something of an Asian crime flick is hilarious, albeit very entertaining, and the choreography isn’t that bad. So, I’m pretty pleased enough to share it. 

Finally, we have the latest arrival from U.K. filmmaker Beau Fowler whose resumé carries a stunning arsenal of cinematic visuals, including none other than the dystopian sci-fi action short, Chameleon. The project has since accumulated a slew of wins and nominations from the festival circuit, including Bests in Director, Cinematography and Performance categories with actress Francesca Fowler starring as a rebel trapped in a secret Tokyo prison, desperate to convince her fellow cellmates – warriors fallen from grace (Jonathan Power and Amed Hashimi), to trust her plan of escape.

Of, course your best bet is to not drop the ball and watch the story evolve with all of the smaller things that are happening here, aside from Igawa Togo’s haunting performance as a well-tooled prison interrogator, and some sheer fight choreography and stunt direction by Jean-Paul Ly and assistant coordinator Katrina Durden. I screened this one a little over a year ago and you can read my mini-review here for further insight. Otherwise, I assure you can bet your money on some of the best stuff you’ll see in film to come from Ki Films with Fowler continuing to lay the groundwork for some solid filmmaking to come. For that, I recommend following Fowler’s official Ki Films Facebook page for further upcoming content…and do check out Chameleon while you’re at it. 😉

Feel free to feast on last week’s Hit List treats if need be, and sub to the channels for more videos and goods. And, as always, if you or someone you know has an exciting stunt reel, fight choreography concept, teaser or shortfilm you think has Hit List appeal, hit us up at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!