THE HIT LIST - January 5, 2015

The new year has barely begun, and there's already tons of material floating around online with today's entry host to its usual amalagam of largely new and a few dated videos. Yes, it's insane, but it's also a wonderful (and delightfully explosive) reminder of what we can expect for the next 360 days. So, rest assured, lest you self-proclaimed sports and martial arts action fans find yourselves missing out on the immense amount of hidden talent online, there's a world out there full of artists looking to win your approval. And Film Combat Syndicate is happy to oblige.

If you're knowledgeable of the tricking community, the name Jeremy Marinas might ring a bell. He's hugely successful among other professional athletes in a career that has ultimately granted him a chance to work on plenty of feature films and shortfilm projects, namely Man Of Tai Chi (2013), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), and online shorts such as Death Before Dishonor and Garbage Day. If this is your intro to Marinas, then you've arrived just in time to check out his latest sampler below.

Up next is someone I've mentioned before. Again, another popular name in the martial arts community, actress and renowned martial artist and XMA purveyor Rayna Vallandingham has made quite a name for herself among millenials, having become the youngest black belt ever to win eleven (11) world martial arts championship titles by the age of ten. Needless to say, she's been a busy girl in the last three years,  and all prior to landing her latest role in actor and director Phillip Rhee's forthcomimg martial arts drama, Underdog Kids.

Her new demo reel is out and about this month, courtesy of Kickpics. Enjoy!

I think if it weren't for the rising popularity of parkour in the past decade through its communal buildup online, we would have less happier people in the world. I often look at these videos and wish this sport was known to me when I was much younger, as it really does seem to take you places, as does the latest contribution from parkour videographer and enthusiast Joel Eggimann with the new video, Adventure Stories, a testamemt to living life to its fullest purpose.

Check it out below, and if that doesn't fulfill your appetite, then feel free to gaze on two more videos just beneath, courtesy of Lynn Jung, and the traceurs featured on the Flow Channel's 2014 rewind video.

Actor and martial artist Gil Sanabria is someone I've had my eye on for a while now. Currently dabbling in a number of independent projects while working on building his career as a stuntman and fight choreographer, his latest reel should prove as a nice little introduction for you if this is your first time hearing of him.

Up next is a reel featuring a perpetual amount of previous and upcoming work from filmmaker Eric Nguyen over at Lunar Stunts Action Cinema. Shorts like Fair Game, Eat. Pray. Ninja. and El Guerrero are all prime examples of what Nguyen is capable of, and the potential that lies there. It'll be a blast to see what he comes up with this year!

Alas, we get fighting, and it's with great, GREAT pleasure to share the latest get together between action actors Gui DaSilva and Nick Benseman, and LBP Stunts Chicago mainstay Emmanuel Manzanares. It's been a few months since we've seen something from him, and from the looks of his first video of 2015, he's getting things off to a great start. I'm ready for anything!

This one was a late catch on Monday last week, but it still feels good to finally share with you straight from Shaun Charney's YouTube platform over at Dragon Phoenix Entertainment. Charney gets some screentime here alongside actress and model Ishida Sachiko and Slug Street Scrappers co-star Saito Mari. I've written plenty about these three in the past year, so a quick internet search will definitely take you where you can find even more of them on screen. Sample some of it below!

It's pretty clear that things are brewing for something new over in Australia with longstanding film producer Mike Leeder (One Million K-l-icks, Ultimate Justice) on hand. To date, the latest bit of proof has since arrived with recent new pre-viz fight choreography clip courtesy of action choreographer Trung Ly and his students over at Đồng Thanh Alliance Martial Arts in Sydney.

We'll be sure to find out more on what this will all mean come next year. In the meantime, push play!

This next video comes with the great pleasure of having already, finally, gotten a foothold of independent filmmakers Lester "Leroy" Nguyen and Edmund Shum. The two had a great Winter run last year upon making some sparks at the Urban Action Showcase and Expo in New York City while representing their production banner, Rising Tiger Films, and their award-winning Two Minute Fight category short, Baddest, is no exception.

Nguyen and Shum have other plans for 2015, including hopefully finding a proper platform to sell their latest labor of love, Black Scar Blues (and you can read more about that by clicking here), in addition to completing a slate of upcoming project after taking the creative helm of the female-centric action cinema platform, Deadly Dymes, with the first project, Exhit Wounds, officially on the way.

For now, though, let's see which of these Rising Tigers are Baddest!

This next one is quite the throwback, dating back to just a few years ago when wristband company, EFX, got together with Russian martial arts and tricking sports team, Street Union to create an advertisement. I found it on Friday morning last week and I figured this would be something worth sharing, particularly since there isn't a lot of recent content on this channel, and I certainly hope that this remarkable team is still active in some capacity.

At any rate, here is their 2012 EFX-RUS ad, Fight For The Bracelet, with Ilya Pozdnyakov and Mikhail Belskiy.

This next one is another in any number of online action shorts I've unfortunately overlooked in the past year. This one was written and directed by actor Roberto Lopez who first came on my radar with a hilarious and entertaining series pitch titled Dos Fat Guys with co-star Marcos Miranda. I certainly hope that one manages to pick up some steam at some point in the near future, but in the meantime, here's a little something Lopez put together ans unveiled online last summer titled Killer Wives, with Stephanie Vovou, Micole Aubertin Murray and one of my favorite people in the Earthrealm, actress and stuntwoman Kimmy Suzuki. And as you'll see, it'll take a lot more than act of national security to protect this man from his infidelity.

Killer Wifes from Stuntworks on Vimeo.

Over here...well, I guess it just goes to show that gratitude is much more open to interpretation these days. This one is called My Hero, the first video from the screenfighting and film production platform over at New York City's Cinematic Fight Studio, directed by Lang Yip with key performances by actress Judy C. Yang, actor Jeremy Rafal and Cinematic Fight Studio's own in-house fight professor, actor Adam Lee. Take a looksy!

The folks over at Martial Club had a great year last year putting out quite a few shorts while expanding themselves in competitive martial arts tricking. They've been around for several years now, having appeared in numerous collaborations, and even performing some stuntwork in the first of two principal episodes for the long-awaited release of Epic Rival's inspired new series, Clandestine.

In kind, their ambitions toward film also come entrenched in an immersive display of Asian philosophy and culture, embodied largely by a tremendous appreciation of, and respect for kung fu cinema. And at the top of the year, they have now returned with a brand new online gem that further sets the Martial Club example of this, led by actor and martial artist Andy Le in the new shortfilm, The Greatest Adversary 對頭. Check it out below!

An undercover cop desperate to keep his identity a secret until a deal goes bad and he's forced to fight for his life - That's pretty much the basic story setup as can now be seen in full with the release of director Fabien Carrabin's new long-awaited crime short, Iron. Filmed back in November 2013, producer, actor and stuntman Eddy Benguedih leads the way as he fights his way out of a hail of bullets and a squad of thugs bent on taking him out.

Cedric Teller (Elit Unit) directed the action, and while a few of the action sequences appear to be cut short for some reason, there are some highs to compensate for the lows, including good acting and great cinematography between certain shots. Perhaps all we really need now are some subtitles, because as of this write-up, there are none, although I imagine it would be fun to interpret, somewhat.

If you're familiar with the caliber of film and action talent from the folks over at German martial arts and film team, Young Masters and enjoyed recent online gems like Tribal Ties and Future Boss, you'll be glad to see just how they've kicked off the new year with the brand new shortfilm release, Mister. The project was last summer as a homage to Lee Jeong-beom's 2010 thriller, The Man From Nowhere, and would have released earlier if other time-consuming obligations weren't an issue.

Nonetheless, it's finally here, and presents another fine example of what great filmmaking can achieve for other hungry and inspired professionals. And in the case of writing/directing/action duo, badass in black Felix Fukuyoshi Ruwwe, and the guitar-wielding killer stylings of Lorenz Hideyoshi Ruwwe, there's nothing but potential, and I certainly hope they achieve even more greatness in 2015.

And last but far from least, martial artist and stuntman Bryan Sloyer has become much sharper in the past year I've been paying attention to his shortfilms, with respect to writing and character development, as well as music, editing and fight choreography overall. He made much of this clear in his previous project, One Rule, and now he's returned to put his cinematic growth on display once more with the new short, The Keeper, with key performances by Alvin Hsing and Jay Kwon.

Action and drama aside, Sloyer's upping the ante a bit this time around, and it's worth noting as we enter a new year with plenty in store from an inspired, and otherwise fully-fledged artist.

CLICK HERE to catch last week's year-end Hit List with a link to previous entries, and if you have a QUALITY action short or a trailer to a project you are working on and you would like it shared on Film Combat Syndicate, email us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com.