So here’s some cool stuff to get the week started. Vladislav Rimburg, fight choreographer extraordinaire, graces us with a prior unreleased little jem he made back in 2010 with Andy Long and some other good folks you may recognize. Enjoy, and happy Monday everybody!
If you come to this site enough you know how much I love and appreciate the many martial arts stunt people/actors whom I’ve covered over the years. This video pretty much contains my favorite folks, one and all. They are tremendous talents one and all, in front and behind the camera, and it’s badass to see them together at once, even in a previs. My question is, previs for what? Ah, now that’s a question! Amy Johnston, Dennis Ruel, Vonzell Carter, Bryan Sloyer, Jerry Quill, Shawn Bernal, Brendon Huor, and Sam Puefua rock this all the hell out, with exciting choreography by Vlad Rimburg and Emmanuel Manzanares. Really, so much great work went into this. Check it out, and then watch it again. Great work, gang!
My new question for you, Vlad: So when do we get Part 3 Chapter A?
The original Osu, which came out in 2014, was a fantastic bit of fight choreography that really showed off karate in a way I haven’t seen since the excellent film Black Belt. It was exciting to watch and reminder of how good traditional karate can look onscreen when done right. Fast forward to 2016, and Vlad, along with stuntman Brendon Huor present another jaunt into the world of Osu, and this is even better than the first short. The fighting here is clear, concise, and beautiful to look at. All of the performers, Brendon Huor, Nate Hitpas, Tony Vittorioso, and Micah Karns really do a fantastic job as the pros they are. I’m glad Vlad chose to leave out the blood in this one. While that fit the mood of Osu, Osu 2 is going for a different feel, and any blood effect would have taken from that.
Once again Vlad and company knock it out of the park. As if anyone expected anything different! Check out this masterpiece of karate below. Sonny Chiba would be pleased!
Now this is a shot to the senses! A western that plays like something out of a video game, a trippy future film, and a kung fu shoot-em-up that brings the normal brilliance from Vlad Rimburg and features the talent of Eric Lim, Dennis Ruel, Natalie Padilla, Gui Dasilva, Jimmy Chhiu, Mike Moh, Brendon Hour, and Brian Le. Director Stephen Reedy just launches this short film right at you, and it’s a lot of fun, playing like the steroid-fueled brother of Scott Pilgrim, The Good The Bad and The Weird and Millionaires Express. The fights are awesome, but I’ll say it right now, it’s NSFW, so proceed carefully! Check out the video below!
Whew! I only spent 3 days in Monrovia, California for the Action On Film Festival, but I had memories to last a lifetime and met so many wonderful people! The festival is held at the Krikorian theater, and let me tell you, its a beautiful theater! The days were hot ( not nearly as hot as Texas was!) but it was just gorgeous outside:
AOF is in its 11th year, and there are a LOT of films shown, and its a testament to festival creator Del and Theresa Weston that so many filmmakers attend the show! Del is a personality, one so big how could he NOT create a thing like AOF? Such a good guy! He welcomed me with open arms literally the moment I arrived!
I literally got off the plane early Friday morning, and after a small jaunt to Venice Beach ( hey, it was my first time in Los Angeles) I went to the festival and the whirlwind began! I finally met Kely McClung (Blood Ties) a longtime facebook friend, and now a friend for real, plus his makeup artist Nadia, who will be working with Kely on a short film called Loop. Kely was at the festival as his feature film Altered was showing (it was really good!) I also met a lot of wonderful actors, actresses, directors and producers!
Left to Right: Kely McClung, Michael S Moore, Actress Jodie Lee, Makeup Artist Nadia Berchtold, and actor Robert Factor.
Saturday Night saw a lot of action, culminating in the screening of UnLucky Stars! My review can be found here, and it was just as much fun watching it a second time around! Unlucky Stars now has distribution, so hopefully you’ll all be able to see it soon! I was finally able to meet the cast and crew, and I was stoked! These are guys I’ve been pounding the drums for nearly since Kiai-Kick’s inception, and here they were! A great group of guys:
Left to right: Vladislav Rimburg, Sari Sabella, Michael S Moore, Emmanuel Manzanares, Dennis Ruel, and Gui DaSilva
If you’re new to the website and don’t know their work, here are a few things to watch:
DAMN RIGHT. I also met Bryan Sloyer, who is becoming quite the filmmaker himself!
So the screening went well, and afterward who should we see in attendance? None other than RICHARD NORTON! (Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars, Mad Max: Fury Road, China O’Brien and so many more!) Such a gentleman and very humble, but the man is a legend of martial arts cinema!
Richard Norton is so cool he gets his own toplight!
There were some truly great short films, like Battle of Wills by David Noh (awesome story and ending!), Wrath of God, and The Real Miyagi, about Karate Master Fumio Demura, was tremendously good. I can’t recommend that documentary enough.
I had to leave Sunday night, but my experiences were once in a lifetime. Or was it? Now that Cornered has shown, I have already started work on my next/first feature film. What is it? Well…
So I’ll see you next year, right?
Talk about a tide-me-over until Episode 7! With some of my favorite stuntpeople, LBP Stunts Chicago’s Brendon Hour and Mickey Facchinello, and with Tony Chu, Gui Dasilva, Noah Fleder, Jimmy Chhiu, and Yoshi Sudarso, with fight choreography and directing by the great Vlad Rimburg, playing in the world of Star Wars!
So should you watch?
For me this like Christmas in springtime. Never ask me how many times I’ve watched this. It’s waayyy too embarrassing. And now, JJ Abrams, now you know. So get it together for Episode 8! In fact, you have your stunt people and choreographers right here…
