Featured Features

Q&A: KING OF KUNG FU

king
king

Firstly i would like to thank everyone that put questions forward for my first session on Asian Movie Pulse, myself and everyone on the site would like to thank you for your continued support and hope we can all continue to grow together and make this one of the best sites on the net.

If you put questions forward and they didn't make it this time, do not worry as we will keep them for the next Q&A session in the near future. So here we go, i hope you enjoy everyones questions and the answers i put forward.

Q1:Do you think the martial arts movie industry has declined over the years, Will we ever have a new consistent jackie chan and jet li movie star? – By:Nile Dragon

A) Hi Nile, it is a bit of a strange one as we know in the 70's till the late 80's, martial art movies were on fire. We had 2 companies competiting against each other (Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest), both producing major stars and movies for a long period of time. movies kind of drifted away in the late 80's and 90's and went more into modern day action, which is fine but the choreography wasn't really on par with what we seen previous. In todays martial art cinema most of the major stars are getting old now, but we do have other great stars out there such as Tony Jaa, Wu Jing, Jeeja yanin. Will we ever see another Jackie Chan or Jet Li again? I am not sure, them guys trained every day for 10 years to prepare them for the industry, something actors dont do anymore.

Q2:Do you think technology , CGI , special effects as ruined the martial arts movies – Tiger

A:Some people might know my feelings towards these kind of things such as 3D, CGI ect. I prefer to watch kung fu movies the old way, Ip Man was a great example of how kung fu movies should be done in the future. To much CGI for me, just puts me off, it all depends also on how good the kung fu stars are in the movie itself. These days many of the actors in martial art movies dont really have a background in martial arts training, so they will need a bit of help by throwing in CGI. Like the first Expendables movie, there was so much CGI i just couldn't watch it all. Maybe people will disagree and that is fine, but i prefer the old fashioned way, real skilled fighters in great martial art flicks. Tom Yum Goong 2 (Tony Jaa) will also be in 3D with special effects so we will see how that goes.

Q3:who would you like to see fight each other in movies? – Brant Amacher

A:Good question, Id love to see Yuen Biao take on Donnie Yen in a future Ip Man movie, both of them have excellent wing chun skills, think that would make a great fight. Id also like to see Tony Jaa vs Jet Li, both of them have high skill levels and them two going at it would be epic. But my main one would be the 3dragons (Jackie/Sammo and Biao) once again going toe to toe in a traditional kung fu movie, all 3 playing rvial kung fu masters.

Q4:Who are your favorite Martial Art stars outside of Asia? – Kevin Lewis

A:Id say my favorite is Jean Claude Van Damme, i have watched his movies since the early 90's. The guy is excellent with his kicking ability and delivers them with so much power they would probably take your head off lol. Also he as made some great films, Bllodsport, Kickboxer, Awol, Unisols, Hard target to name but a few. Other fighters i enjoy watching are Cynthia Rothrock, she as great timing in her movies, she was never afraid to try something new and always delivered. She said fighting Yuen Biao in Righting Wrongs was very easy because both there timings were the same. Two others id mention are Dolph Lundgren, a real life tough guy with years of fighting experience and the newer of the bunch Scott Adkins.

Q5:Who is your favorite Kung Fu star and what is your favorite Kung Fu movie? – jeannieboo

A:My favorite Kung Fu star of all time is Jackie Chan. The guy as been on top of the list since 1978 with the releases of Drunken Master and Snake In The Eagles Shadow. What he has done for cinema worldwide is untouchable, creating the kung fu comedy genre or taking it to the highest level, then creating Modern Day action movies with high impact fight scenes and incredible stunt work make him my all time favorite. My favorite Kung Fu movie is no surprise to anyone, its The Prodigal Son (Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching Ying). It was this movie that really got me into the whole Kung Fu genre, when i watched it i was blwon away, not just by the action, but the directing, acting, script everything. This still remains my favorite and also my favorite Wing Chun movie to date.

Q6:Is the martial arts genre predominantly an Asian thing? – Maria Tran

A:I dont think so, well not any more. I mean of course many years ago, people only seen Martial Art flicks made by Asian movie makers, Bruce Lee was the guy who brought Martial Arts to the world and it exploded. I think since more Asian actors have gone on to make International movies (Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat) and also different styles of kung fu in movies like in Crouching Tiger, The Matrix, Kill Bill ect it as opened up so many doors for other film makers to explore. Quintin Tarintino is a Kung Fu fan and he as put his name to a number of movies to be released in America like Hero, so more people get to see this style which brings a bigger audience and much more demand. Now all over the world everyone is trying to do Martial Art movies which is great, trying different styles and ways to top the next. Martial Art movies once was just within the Asian movie lovers but in the past 10 years or so it as deveolped into something much, much bigger.

Q7:What do you predict as the next cycle of fighting styles on screen? – Maria Tran

A:I would love to see someof the older styles brought back to the big screen, such as Snake, Mantis, Monkey Fist. It was great seeing Wing Chun used again in movies like Ip Man, as that is one of my favorite styles to watch on screen. I used to train in Muay Thai when i was younger, so i was glad to see this again with the likes of Tony Jaa. Myabe even a new movie based on most of the weapons, like the ending of Legendary Weapons Of Kung Fu (Lau Kar leung) and The Odd Couple (Sammo Hung).

Q8: How long have you been studying or studied Martial Arts? – Anthony Hickman

A:I started training in Muay Thai when i was 5 years old under trainers Jeff Burns and Tony Moore. I studied for nearly 10 years having a few fights in that time. I kind of trained myself since then, having problems with my knee in the past slowed me down a bit, but that is ok now. I am now sorting out going JKD lessons and also going a Kickboxing class soon, so i hope to start training again asap.

9:What if any film classic would you like to change and why? – Marianne McNeill

A:Great question, i dont think there are many classics that id like to change, but if i could change one thing from a movie it would be that the original Karate Kid had a real lead actor who looked like he could actually fight. I mean in the first movie, he was training to become this tournament champion, then the follow ups he should be believable, but for me he wasn't. I think they should have gone with a real skilled fighter, just my opinion of course. I mean in the latest Karate Kid, even Jadan Smith looked a better fighter than the original guy, although that might be down to the fact that Jackie Chans stunt team taught him how to fight.

About the author

kingofkungfu

Hi my name is Justyn Hughes, I have been involved or watched martial art kung fu movies most my life. I started muay thai when i was around 4-5 years old for ten years. I became a fan of kung fu flicks after watching prodigal Son in the mid 90's and that blew me away. Some of my favorite stars are: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, lam Ching Ying, Lau Kar Leung, Ti Lung, David Chiang, Chen Kuan Tai and many more.

King Of Kung Fu (Justyn Hughes)

Favorite movie: The prodigal Son

  • Good Q & A session, Thanks for answering my question, this is becoming my fav site to visit fot martial arts movies, some others either dont update anymore, dont provide reviews, news or updates or are cluttered and hard to navigate. Keep up the good work King of Kung fu!

  • Nice Q & A – What about my question though : ( – Martial Arts and CGI?? is it being ruined? also i watched Expendables 2 the other day and man did Jason Stratham look great in that – a future star?

  • Subscribe to Our Newsletter

    >