Category: Action Genre
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My favorite car chase scene of all time – Gone In Sixty Seconds (1974 version)
This is the original Gone In Sixty Seconds. It’s a case study of a director putting himself on the line by starring in his own film and doing his own stunts. According to Ron Moore the film was financed with money made from stolen cars, at a budget of $150,000. When you see the video,…
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Zhao Wen Zhou ditches Special Identity shoot
Apparently some changes to Special Identity aren’t to Zhao Wen Zhou’s satisfaction. Dip quotes at the forum: Terrible news just broke out today. Vincent Zhao has left the set because he’s dissatisfied with the changed script and director. What I could make out using Google Translate is that the crew only had time to shoot…
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Alternate American History – if America had Peking Opera
There are a lot of reasons to be nostalgic of for the pre-60s America. Here’s mine: Acrobats like Lou Wills. Check out the hyper-twists and standing back-fulls. You could transplant this guy into 2005 NASKA and his only dead giveaway would be the gigantic grin on his face.
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Quick template for a film synopsis – and why 90 minutes for action films
Since I’m juggling ten different concepts and have to choose two for our next project lineup, I have to find quick ways to organize them and present them to interested parties. I’ve developed a rough template that I’ve started using when formulating a synopsis, which is a combination of Save The Cat styling and my…
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Action film requires the biggest conflicts
Robin Hanson at Overcoming Bias recently wrote: In my culture, most stories are not about work life, and the few stories that are focus on a narrow set of unusual jobs like soldier, detective, politician, artist, doctor, lawyer, or teacher. Why? One explanation is that work is usually boring. But this seem weak to me.…
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Weekly Rareness – Tang Tak Wing in College Kickboxer
The Captain has posted some bits from College Kickboxer, one of those odd Chinese-American co-productions in the early 90s with an American aesthetic and Hong Kong-styled action scenes. Star Tang Tak Wing moves like a young Sammo Hung with a Tan Tui flare. From what little I searched, the film seems to be out of…
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Panna Rittikrai and the origins of Thai “real contact”
If you’ve watched Tony Jaa, you understand the term “real contact.” Though Sammo Hung had been doing it in the early 80s, Thailand was hardly slow to the plate. Panna Rittikrai, the choreographer behind Ong Bak, directed/produced/actionized (just pretend it’s a word, you know what I mean) 15 or so ultra low-budget martial art films…
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J. J. (Jordan) Perry on Haywire, stunt business, and filmmaking
JJ Perry has been all over the stunt industry. From doing stunts as Sub Zero in the Mortal Kombat film to fight choreography in Haywire, his credentials speak for themselves. Here are some interviews where he basically reiterates the Action Kickback Model, that audiences today are smarter about martial arts than just 10 years ago…
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Rareness of the week – “Wild Girls” with Michael Chan
rrden3 always delivers some rare content, mostly from his vast collection of Hong Kong film recordings from TV in London. He’s a regular contributor at the SP forum and the clips he uploads are always stellar and give a good, alternate view into the golden age of Asian action films (roughly 1973 – 1995). Since…
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The Raid action scenes surface – Indonesians do it better
Just when you thought Thailand had the monopoly on Asian people beating the hell out of other Asian people, Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais show up and do it Silat-style with The Raid, only better. Check out the clips and notice that the camera angles have one purpose: to get that shot of choreography. Compared…