Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast

Martial artist Brett Chan has enjoyed a steady rise in the film and television industry since his first appearances fighting with the Ninja Turtles in the late 1990s. A veteran Hollywood stunt performer with over 150 credits to his name, Brett has worked as a fight choreographer, stunt coordinator and second unit director on a number of action-packed TV shows. He has brought his wealth of martial...

When Loren Avedon answered a call to the Jun Chong Martial Arts Academy on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles late one night in 1987, little did he know that the call would prove to be life-changing. With only a matter of days until filming was scheduled to start in Thailand on the sequel to the 1986 martial arts hit, 'No Retreat, No Surrender', both of the film's contracted stars - Kurt McKinney a...

Stu Bennett's transformational story from a shy, skinny kid growing up in the north of England to five-time WWE Intercontinental Champion and 'King of the Ring' - known by his pro-wrestling name, Wade Barrett - seems like a dream come true. The story belies years of hard work and even harder knocks; a steady climb from the amateur circuit in the UK to securing a contract with the biggest wrestling...

The key to success in the stunt world, says Hollywood action star Tara Macken, is to be an all-rounder. Tara's resume is testament to that philosophy. Raised in the jungles of Borneo, Tara's adventurous spirit started at a young age. It has remained with her throughout her professional career, where she has found work as a dancer, gymnast, model, actor and stunt performer with over 100 films and T...

In the late 1970s, Richard Norton - martial artist and bodyguard to the stars - faced a crossroads in his life. He could either stay in Melbourne, Australia, and continue with his nine-to-five job, teaching martial arts in the evenings - a life he very much enjoyed - or follow the advice of singer Linda Ronstadt and move with her to California. It was a decision which would prove life-changing. On...

When a stunt performer couldn't get the right shot needed during a 70ft fall on the set of Vietnamese superhero movie, Lôi Báo (2017), the film's action director, Vincent Wang, made a quick decision. With time running out, Vincent relieved the stunt performer of their duties, strapped himself to a harness and performed the stunt himself - much to the shock of the rest of the crew. He nailed it fir...

Tired of scrolling through streaming platforms trying to decide on the next thing to watch during lockdown? Then let the martial arts action star Scott Adkins help you, as he discusses his favourite fight films of all time on today's episode, including five bonafide classics and five lesser-appreciated head-kickers. During our chat - his fourth appearance on the show - we discover how he almost en...

You could say it was Jackie Chan that first brought together the Manila-based martial arts power couple, Sarah Chang and Vincent Soberano. They first met at the Jackie Chan Stuntman Training Centre; a huge complex in Tianjin, used by people from all over the world to train in the martial arts and make it in the movies. Vincent - a former professional fighter and pioneer of mixed martial arts in Ch...

Through his trio of martial arts films - Merantau (2009), The Raid (2011) and The Raid 2 (2014) - filmmaker Gareth Evans helped to put Indonesian action cinema on the map, launched the careers of a new generation of fight stars (including Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian and Cecep Arif Rahman), and created some of the most exhilarating, inventive, and game-changing fight sequences of mo...

Welcome to our annual, festive End of Year Show for 2019, featuring the Life of Action author and fight movie expert, Mike Fury. It has been another action-packed and diverse year for martial arts movies, from off-beat indie comedies (The Art of Self-Defense) to big Hollywood franchise-based actioners (Hobbs and Shaw, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum), not to mention the return of the traditional...

On his very first day working on a Hong Kong action film set, Jude Poyer saw someone rushed to hospital when a stunt went badly wrong. Instead of seeing this as a bad omen, Jude - who had relocated to Hong Kong at the age of 18 to follow his dreams of working in martial arts movies - stayed in Hong Kong, where he would be based for the next eight years, working with some of the biggest names in ku...

When ex-US Marine and martial arts instructor Chris Collins took his Wing Chun pupils to see the film Ip Man 3 in 2015, he joked that he would be appearing in the next film in the Ip Man series - if another sequel was ever made. Fast-forward several months and Chris is sitting in front of director Wilson Yip, who is offering him a role in the fourth and final instalment of the hit kung f...

As a lifelong fan of Bruce Lee, the chance to play a starring role in HBO's Warrior TV series - based on a story by the late kung fu movie star and executive produced by his daughter, Shannon Lee - was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. And he relishes every scene in his role as Young Jun; the entitled, violent, and arrogant heir to Chinatown's Hop Wei gang, a criminal syndicate operating in&n...

Alexander Fu Sheng would have celebrated his 65th birthday on 20 October 2019. A poster-boy for Shaw Brothers' unique brand of high-octane martial arts action films throughout the 1970s and early 80s, Fu Sheng died tragically young at the age of 28 in a car crash on his way to a night-shoot. Like Bruce Lee before him, his young death immortalised him as another tragic martial arts film star, taken...

When Hollywood stunt performer Heidi Moneymaker was asked to flip a car three times in mid-air while doubling for the actor Saoirse Ronan in the 2013 film, The Host, she approached the job in much the same way she approaches all other aspects of her work: fearlessly. Heidi is the real deal. Operating in the shadows, she is a genuine action hero who has entertained millions around the world in some...

We have been reporting from the Fighting Spirit Film Festival since it started back in 2016. Now in its fourth year, the event has grown to become the UK's largest martial arts movie festival; a two-day celebration which welcomes some of the genre's biggest names and best talent. As well as screening some of the hottest new feature films from around the world, the festival also provides an opportu...

From the age of four, Mindy Kelly has dedicated her life to the martial arts. Since moving to Hollywood, she has made her name as both a stunt performer and coordinator, working on music videos for the likes of Lady Gaga, Childish Gambino, Skrillex and Metallica, to performing for major action movies like Alita: Battle Angel, The Dark Knight Rises and Transformers: Age of Extinction. Now Mind...

Today we welcome back the martial arts movie star, Scott Adkins, who makes his third appearance on our show. Scott and the director, Jesse V. Johnson, have been responsible for some very impressive work over the last few years, including Savage Dog, Accident Man, The Debt Collector, Triple Threat and their latest, Avengement, which sees Scott provide one of his most intense acting performance...

It was while doubling for Milla Jovovich on the set of Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in 2015 that Olivia Jackson's life would transform forever. A promising young stunt performer, model and Muay Thai kickboxer from South Africa - whose film credits included Mad Max: Fury Road, Guardians of the Galaxy and Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Olivia narrowly escaped certain death when a motorcycle stun...

After watching Thailand's Ong-Bak and Indonesia's The Raid, the producer, stunt coordinator and fight choreographer Sonny Sison had an epiphany. Where were the Filipino action films promoting their indigenous martial arts styles, like Ong-Bak did with Muay Thai, and The Raid with silat? Determined to do the same for his home country, Sonny left Hollywood and boarded the next plane to Manila, takin...

When Chuck Norris convinced his martial arts buddy - the 11-time world kickboxing champion, Don "The Dragon" Wilson - to consider a career in the movies, he could never have dreamed how quickly his life would transform. A winning audition for the king of exploitation cinema, Roger Corman, led to a multi-picture deal which would see "The Dragon" become the leading martial arts movie star in the hig...

Shannon Lee was only four years old when she lost her father, the international martial arts superstar, Bruce Lee - but her father has continued to have a lasting impact on her life. As the CEO of the Bruce Lee Family Companies and Chairperson of the Board of Directors for the Bruce Lee Foundation - a not-for-profit social enterprise - Shannon has been responsible for upholding the legacy of her f...

Celebrating the best (and worst) that martial arts movies had to offer in 2018, join us for our festive round-up of the year with the action movie expert and author of 'Life of Action', Mike Fury. As well as counting down our top five favourite martial arts movies of the year, we discuss the stories that grabbed the headlines in 2018, read out some listener's comments compiled from across our soci...

When Bruce Lee died 45 years ago at the age of 32, his death was shrouded in mystery. To this day, theories still abound as to the circumstances surrounding his passing and the events leading up to it. Writer Matthew Polly has his own theories, along with many other revelations about Lee’s short but incredible life which he has published in a new biography, called 'Bruce Lee: A Life', which is ava...

Buffy's stunt double and former Power Ranger, Sophia Crawford, earned her spurs as a stunt performer working in Hong Kong's raw and relentless action movie industry in the early 1990s. She found herself part of an era of exceptional, female-fronted martial arts films, working with the likes of Moon Lee, Sibelle Hui and Yukari Oshima, performing all of her own stunts in conditions that were sometim...