THE HIT LIST - August 17, 2015

Well, Monday night has arrived and I pretty much consider myself well-rested seeing as how I ended up back in blogger-mode on Sunday night. Some days you burn out, and on others you just start clicking...it's funny, really.

Anyway, with our return to the start of a new week, the Hit List is back just as well, lending nods to a meaty handful of stunt professionals every week in attribution to their hard work shown in reels and shortfilms alike. Alas, the new stunt reel playlist for the week is now up and running with reels by Donovan Sheehan, Boris Martinez, Marco Pancrazi, an awesome action reel by Raze co-star Allene Quincy, Jacob Sebastian Malm's latest reel featuring his Turandot stunt team from the summer in an illuminous new fire showreel, and actor David Sakurai in a new Vimeo-exclusive action reel of his own assembled from several of his recent action projects, including Dark Samurai and Echoes Of A Ronin!

David Sakurai Way of the Sword from サクライ on Vimeo.

Now onto more web content with some more specials, and if you were watching the last reel carefully, you may have recognized Andy Le who can also be seen among his principle team members at Martial Club in a new video up and running by Just Kidding Films where they learn all the ins and outs of Tricking. And if you know Just Kidding Films, you know your face is going to hurt plenty by the end. Enjoy in all it's delightful laughs!

I seldom spot fan videos, although when I do, quite a handful of them present just the right amount of flair attributed to the respective works they acknowledge. It's a case in no way dissimilar in actress and stuntwoman PeiPei Alena Yuan's latest love letter to martial arts action star Donnie Yen by way of the opening B-Boy sequence in Yuen Woo Ping's 1995 Hong Kong action comedy, Mismatched Couples. Yuan also happens to be a dancer, and her credentials notwithstanding (i.e. Step Up 3D, Battle B-Boy), her talent speaks for itself. Watch and leasrn!

Now let's get into some more action-oriented material with a nifty handful of trailers - one including some updated and rather crazy cool poster art as of late.

Aside from making other videos, Rising Tiger Films's latest, Black Scar Blues, has clearly been a more concentrated effort at something larger in scale. The film is directed by Leroy Nguyen who stars along with Edmund Shum and Queen Sayat, and focuses on two drug traffickers whose bond of friendship is slowly eroded through a series of events when personal ambition, lust and greed get in the way.

Nguyen will be presenting the film later this year at the Urban Action Showcase and Expo in New York City for the last of its year-long festival run boasting a slew of laurels and accolades well-earned, including as recently as the past two weekends in California at An Anti-Hero Production Genre Film Festival and The L.A. Neo Noir Film And Script Festival. Hopefully by then, the short will be released on YouTube unless it acquires a decent on-demand or purchase platform beforehand. In the meantime, it's got a fresh new trailer now running online with an updated poster, and once more, it has a quote. By me! And you're welcome.

We also have a new behind-the-scenes featurette with Nguyen explaining the four year-long process in working up to the high creative plateau presented for the film's final fight. Having seen it for myself, I have to say it really does deliver the desired effect.

Other trailers just beneath include the second promo for Dance Nocturnal creative Jyo Carolino's new action short, I Am Spartan, Tokyo-based action actor Chuck Johnson's upcoming surreal action comedy short, Fists Of Absinthe, and 3 Strands Of Rope Productions's Assassin/Darkside, sequelizing actor Calvert David Miles's 2014 awarded short, Assassin: Origins.

New short action vids are also circulating the web this week, and kicking this next leg off on the Hit List is League Of Legends themed short, Udyr's School Of Kung Fu, initially released back in May from Art School Dropouts and Fighting Panda Productions. Actor and fight choreographer Joey Min leads this one and its one adding to his resume of years of awesome action shorts and films, which makes it all the more awesome and honoring that he's now a part time contributor to Film Combat Syndicate to provide his perspective of action on film from time to time.

Check it out below as well as other new action projects this week, including Narayana Cabral's Spy Vs. Spy with Angela Bend and Danielle Stahl, the long-awaited release, Grave Error featuring Darren Holmquist and the one and only Eric Jacobus, and...well, probably the sickest Mortal Kombat fan short you'll ever see online..ever. And if you know RackaRacka, you know this ain't gonna no PG-13 shit. So consider yourself forewarned!

Finally, a few new action shorts have also been unveiled this week in slightly longer duration. Azi Rahman's cerebral action thriller, Drake is now online starring Cengiz Dervis in the role of a man trapped in his own mind amid spiritual battle with inner-demonic forces. The action is largely fueled by the music for a more dramatic affect so don't expect any foley effects as the stuntwork is solely visual.

And last but not least, gladly continuing the vision of R-rated superhero fanfare with brutal and gory action sequences is the latest sequel offering from Workhorse Pictures, Storms Of Carnage: The Black Panther Unleashed Part 2. Actor and director D.A. Jackson reprises his role once more opposite K. Jackson in a story of espionage, betrayal and the moral paradox that arises when battling evil, ultimately pitting the Black Panther against opponents on both sides of the spectrum, humans and mutants alike.

Fans familiar with the source material may either love or hate this one depending on the viewer as these things normally tend to be slightly more controversial than intended (see Adi Shankar's Power/Rangers). For what it's worth though, this one has quite the admirable traits for something truly worth the enjoyment as it's full of special effects, explosive action and dramatic intensity to accomodate the epic final fight between our embattled couple.

Twenty minutes and counting, folks. Press play and enjoy!

There is at least another short that I haven't gotten around to yet as it's forty minutes long and dated only by about few years, but I will share that one next week. For now though, if you have time to kill then last week's Hit List may be worth your remaining minutes at the moment. Above all else however, do subscribe to the channels above, and if you or someone you know makes awesome, QUALITY action and stunt reels, films and shorts like these, send them to us at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com!

THE HIT LIST - February 9, 2015

This week's Hit List was another adventure. I managed to do this while accomplishing five write-ups this week for my friend over at The Action Elite and I still have a ton of work to finish regarding interviews I'm working on putting together. So, hopefully you'll like what's presented here. It's another epic mix of stuff and some of it may be a little too R-rated for your tastes, but I hope I made up for it in the end. At any rate, these should still be great vids to enjoy along the way.

First off is a real from an awesome director who has already cut his teeth quite well in stunts and fight choreography. Remember the name Beau Fowler and be on the lookout for a trailer later this week for his most recent proof-of-concept action sci-fi short, Chameleon. His most recent director's reel from late last year has a few highlights from that very project among several, and the reel itself has quite a few other goods as well. Check it all out below along with other reels from Mohamed Benabdellah, Aridani Del Rosario Medina, Jay Kwon and Umar Khan!

Post by Umar Khan.

Over here, well, I don't know much about teeterboarding, although it seems Damien Walters and his crew pretty much have it down packed. Check it out below and go freerunning with Dylan Baker just beneath!



Looking into some shortfilm material, there are two new trailers and several other videos out this month that I found from two very impressive projects and creators. The first is a teaser for an upcoming shortfilm titled Dogs, an action-packed collaboration between Rising Tiger Films and Deadly Dymes hosting a story of loyality and betrayal, featuring Edmond Shum and actress Yara Brown. I've written about Rising Tiger before and have even sampled their public and exclusive work, and truthfully, the work they're putting out is only getting better an better, so I highly advise paying attention as the months pass.


Beneath that one is a three-fer I'd like to share - the first is a teaser to the student-produced independent shortfilm, Jagon, about a warrior in search of a powerful rosary. Produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württembürg and SWR's own Hannes Hohn and Johannes Kunkel and directed by Murat Eyüt Gonültas, the teaser briefs us with some truly high-quality stunning visuals to boot. The YouTube channel its hosted on has some very cool behind-the-scenes and motion-capture choreography featurettes, and it looks like its all shaping up to be something truly special. Movie Do's own Eskindir Tesfay and Tolga Degirmen are credited for handling the action, and can also be seen in a new pre-viz choreography video for Degirmen's own group, Impulse, as well as the latest new message martial arts short from Movie Do and Movie-Do and Budosportcenter in Münster, Germany titled On Second Thought.




You may recall the unveiling of a poster for a James Bond-inspired shortfilm titled Sapphire from independent filmmaker Colin Emmerson over a week ago. It was supposed to release the following day but technical issues crippled any release plans thereafter and our dear director needed a few extra days to fix what needed fixing by its release earlier last week. The short is an inspired look at Bond-style action with an otherwise experimental take on how the classic M-16 agent would bode with audiences as non-white lead. This time, actor, stuntman and choreographer Jean-Paul Ly is taking the lead in this lovely dance of death, and the response has been nothing short of positive. If this is your first viewing, this may delight you more than a medium Vodka dry martini... shaken, not stirred that is.


The next video comes from independent filmmaker Shaun Charney whose latest collaboration with Nathan Lee and Ishida Sachiko happens to be one of the most entertaining. I've covered Ishida a time or two and by far, this one is her most hardest-hitting video yet, and as per most of Charney's videos, the ending is definitely worth a giggle.


Feel free to click here and familiarize yourself with Australia's own Đồng Thanh Alliance in Syndey where fight choreographer Trung Ly worked on a sampler which published last month. We have a new video now available and it features a choreo sampler for the recent award-winning short film, Hit Girls with actress Maria Tran front and center.


Aside from all the giant robot v. monster spectacle in Guillermo Del Toro's Pacific Rim, the film did have a few little fight gems in it as well, and here we have some cool concept choreo by longtime fight choreographer Brad Allan with performances by Max Savaria and Eli Martyr opposite stuntman and up-and-coming actor Alain Moussi. Take a look at a few of the techniqhes and you might get an idea where this particualr sequence might take place.


Tsiknes Films is a channel I came across a few weeks ago while browsing some of their videos, of which there are several as of last month. From the looks of it, they appear to be newly established although their work looks pretty good so far. Their latest, Hide And Seek should serve as a good enough sample.

Think that old game you used to play in grade school... and then add weapons into the mix. The result is pretty gruesome and otherwise thrilling. Check it out!


It's not exactly disingenuous to allege that that filmmakers like Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel have gained themselves a bit of cult fandom over the years, and their recent thriller, Killers, is a good example of this with a similar tone added to the following short, Vendetta: Part 1. The project is the first of a two part project from Canadian film groups Black Ice 140 and Wuji Films, written and directed Kyle Wong who stars opposite Joshua Zacharias in a story of two assassins vying for a place at the top. Quite the NSFW stuff here although not too gory to be honest, but discretion is advised otherwise. Take a looksy and keep an eye out for the sequel later this year!


Last year was a good year for actor, martial artist and filmmaker Leroy Kincaide to release his newest shortfilm, Freeman: New World Order, which has since been stated to be on its way to feature-length development. Details are pending in that regard, so in the meantime, Kincaide is still creating content of his own, and as such, has put together a little entertaining test fight gem with Freeman co-star Grant Steven, and its an excellent piece of work for the few minutes it lasts. Take a looksy!


Seems its gotten a bit grim down here, so let's pick it up with the next two videos now in the world of gaiming: The first video, Little Mac V. Dark Ness was an intro to a stage show called Gamers Against The Gridmark. DC Stunt Coalition designed the action for this particular project which originally premiered at MAGFest 2013. The second video just beneath is a clash of two game universes featuring an epic cosplay sword battle between Link and Marth now hosted on the official channel Ismahawk (home to creator Danny Shepherd's Nightwing series).



Up next is independent filmmaker Bryan Sloyer whose filmmaking has become pretty impressive in the last few years. He's gotten very creative and I love the rate at which he plays with certain ideas that now give a lot of his test fights more style and intensity with certain themes and how they're set up, and his latest, Looper: Part 1, is a wicked example of this. Kage Yami, Anthony Hoang and Amy Sturdivant star in the epic battle of foresight that ensues below!


For the next, we have Finnish filmmaker Mikkö Löppönen's latest take on what happens when love at first sight occurs between two people with a...well, a particular set of skills in a cramped space. Watch the new action short simply titled Hississä (or, Elevator), with performances by Jesse Liskola and Jaana Joensuu.


As you might guess with director Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service now servicing movie patrons in theaters, there plenty of fandom o go around. With that in mind, VFX film producer and director Freddie Wong is back in collaboration with the one and only Yung Lee of Gak Attack directing the gentlemanly, yet brutalizing action seen in the brand new short, London Brawling. See it below, and by all means, go see Kingsman: The Secret Service. I know I plan to!


The laughs continue with the next video from our friends over at Martial Club. By all means, their specialty is exactly what their brand presents, which means they get a ton of inquiries about martial arts and their latest video covers a very important topic, hilariously spoofing an example of exactly the kind of learning environment you ought to avoid. Alas, it's time to Enter The McDojo with Andy Le, Daniel Mah and the one and only Brian Le!

Master Ken, you may have just met your match!


And finally, if you're curious to learn more about the latest feature work from actors Emmanuel Manzanares, Jose Montesinos and Sari Sabella in the upcoming Hong Kong action comedy homage, Unlucky Stars, my recent review should make for a good testimony. Beyond that, there are two final videos to this list: The first is Manzanres's latest via LBP Stunts Chicago, 挑战者 (CHALLENGER), an electrifying test fight short of epic proportions bringing together LBP's own Shawn Bernal with action actors Aaron Toney and EMC Monkey's own Malay Kim. The second and last, though far from least, is Montesinos's newest online gem, Sour Cream with performances by Sabella and Janna Davi. Principally it's not action-related, but it is as entertaining as Montesinos's work has always been, ans as I saw fit, there was no way I was NOT going to sharing it. You'll just have to watch and see why.



CLICK HERE to view last week's Hit List in case you missed it. Otherwise, subscribe to the channels above stay tuned in for next week's Hit List. If you or someone you know has QUALITY content you would like to share on Film Combat Syndicate, e-mail me at filmcombatsyndicate@gmail.com