Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks
The fantastic story of how an ancient martial art, Chinese kung fu, conquered the world through the hundreds of films that were produced in Hong Kong over the decades, transformed Western action cinema and inspired the birth of cultural movements such as blaxploitation, hip hop music, parkour and Wakaliwood cinema.
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Main Cast
Alien Ness
Known For
Amy Johnston
Amy Johnston is an Actress and Stuntwoman. She is known for Female Fight Club (2017), Lady Bloodfight (2016) and Raze (2013). She is also known for her Stunt-work on Deadpool (2016), Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and Suicide Squad (2016).
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Billy Blanks
Muscular African American sports star, actor, media identity and inventor of the phenomenally popular "Tae Bo" fitness system, derived from his extensive martial arts training. Blanks was born in Eerie, Pennsylvania in 1955 amongst humble backgrounds and grew up as one of 15 children, battling dyslexia and tendon problems. However that didn't stop him from starting his martial arts training at age 14 and eventually achieving black belts in tae kwon do & several other arts, and winning numerous US martial arts tournaments. Blanks first popped up on movie screens in the mid 1980s in tough guy parts utilizing his athletic background and grim faced looks. Films roles included Tango & Cash (1989), Driving Force (1989) and A.W.O.L.: Absent Without Leave (1990). Things looked up in 1991, when Blanks scored the minor role of drug addicted running back "Billy Cole" in the explosive The Last Boy Scout (1991)....and further work followed often sharing lead billing in low budget - high action fare such as Talons of the Eagle (1992), TC 2000 (1993) and Expect No Mercy (1995). In the late 1990s, Billy's innovative and exciting "Tae Bo" workout routine swept around the world like wildfire, and propelled him into the position of one of the world's most recognizable and biggest selling fitness trainers. The remarkable Blanks continues to refine and promote his unique "Tae Bo" fitness system, and he operates the Billy Blanks World Training Center in Sherman Oaks, California. 7th Degree Black Belt Billy Blanks had one of the greatest karate fight records in the sport's long history. Blanks was a 7-time world karate champion, the first Amateur Athletic Union Champ in 1975, the 1984 Massachusetts Golden Gloves Boxing Champion, and the Tri-State Golden Gloves Champion of Champions. He was the captain of the United States Karate Team and won over 30 gold medals in international competition. He was the number 1 or number 2 rated full-contact karate fighter in the United States for almost seven straight years. His epic battles with "Nasty" Anderson are legends among martial arts fans. He posted over 300 career victories. In 1982, Billy Blanks was honored by being inducted into the Karate Hall of Fame.
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Brian Camp
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Brian Trenchard-Smith
Brian Trenchard-Smith is an Anglo Australian film and television director, producer, and writer, with a reputation for large scale movies on small scale budgets, many of which display a quirky sense of humor that has earned him a cult following. Quentin Tarantino referred to him in Entertainment Weekly as one of his favorite directors. His early work is featured in Not Quite Hollywood, an award winning documentary released by Magnolia. Among his early successes were the 20th Century Fox release The Man from Hong Kong, a wry James Bond/Chop Sockey cocktail, the Vietnam battle movie Siege of Firebase Gloria, and the futuristic satire Dead End Drive-In, a particular Tarantino favorite. BMX Bandits, showcasing a 15-year old Nicole Kidman, and Miramax's The Quest, starring ET's Henry Thomas, won prizes at children's film festivals in Montreal and Europe. He has also directed 35 episodes of television series as diverse as Silk Stalkings, Time Trax, The Others, and Flipper. Born in England, where his Australian father was in the RAF, Trenchard-Smith attended UK's prestigious Wellington College, where he neglected studies in favor of acting and making short films, before migrating to Australia. He started as a news film editor, then graduated to network promos before he became one of a group of young people that, as he recalls, "pushed, shoved, lobbied and bullied the government into introducing investment for Australian made films." He persuaded Australia's largest distribution-exhibition circuit at the time, the Greater Union Theater Organization, to form an in-house production company that he would run. The company made three successful films in a row, and his career was underway. In parallel careers, he was also founding editor of Australia's quarterly Movie magazine for 6 years, and has made over 100 trailers for other directors in Australia, Europe, and America. Among his 39 movies, 5 were commissioned by Showtime, including the remake of the World War II classic, Sahara, the highly rated, Happy Face Murders, starring Ann-Margret, and DC 9/11: Time of Crisis, with Timothy Bottoms as President Bush. His frequently repeated family drama for Lifetime, Long Lost Son starring Gabrielle Anwar, introduced future Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford to audiences in the title role." I knew from his first scene, he was going to be hot." In 2009, Trenchard-Smith shot Porky's - The College Years, a re-imagining of the famous 80's franchise of teen comedies. His recent ecological thriller Arctic Blast, starring Michael Shanks, was chosen to premiere at the 2010 Possible Worlds Canadian Film Festival in Sydney. Trenchard-Smith writes for filmindustrybloggers.com as The Genre Director, and is a contributing guru to trailersfromhell.com. He is married to Byzantine historian Dr. Margaret Trenchard-Smith, lives in Los Angeles, and is a member of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Known For
Cheng Pei-pei
Cheng Pei-pei (December 4, 1946–July 17, 2024) was an actress best known for her performance in the seminal 1966 King Hu wuxia film Come Drink with Me. It made her a contender for one of the first female action star. She continued to play expert swordswomen in a number of films throughout the 1960s. In 2000, she returned to international attention with her role as Jade Fox in Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. She followed this up with her portrayal of Long Po in the 2004 television miniseries Watery Moon, Hollow Sky, which was shown on Asian-American television as Paradise. She worked for Zhouyi Media in mainland China.
Known For
Chin Siu-Ho
Chin Siu-Ho (錢小豪) is a Hong Kong actor and martial artist. He is known for acting with Jet Li in The Tai-Chi Master and Fist of Legend. He is the older brother of actor Chin Ka-Lok (錢嘉樂) and younger brother of assistant director Chin Ka-Lun (錢嘉麟).
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Chris Poggiali
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Christopher Doyle
Christopher Doyle is an Australian-Hong Kong cinematographer who often works on Chinese language films. He has won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Film Festival, as well as AFI Award for cinematography, the Golden Horse awards (four times), and Hong Kong Film Award (six times). Doyle is an affiliate of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers. Doyle was born in Sydney, Australia in 1952. He left his native country on a Norwegian merchant ship at the age of eighteen, after which he took on a number of odd jobs including as a Kibbutz-nick cowboy in Israel, homeopathic doctor in Thailand, and “green agriculturalist” in India work. In the late seventies, Doyle was “re-birthed” as Du Ke Feng, which means “like the wind.” Following his time as a language student in Taiwan and having found work as a photographer, he was hired as a cinematographer on Edward Yang’s That Day, on the Beach in 1983. Since his “birth in art,” Du Ke Feng has worked on over fifty Chinese-language films. He is best known for his collaborations with Wong Kar-Wai, including Chungking Express, In the Mood for Love and 2046 (the latter of which saw Doyle walking off set mid-way through production). He has collaborated with other Chinese filmmakers on projects including Temptress Moon, Hero, Happy Together, and Dumplings. As his "alter ego" Christopher Doyle he has made more than twenty in various other languages and film cultures, working as director of photography on Gus Van Sant's remake of Psycho, Liberty Heights, Last Life in the Universe, Rabbit-Proof Fence, Paranoid Park, The Limits of Control. He also wrote, shot, and directed Warsaw Dark, Away with Words starring Asano Tadanobu, and Hong Kong Trilogy: Preschooled Preoccupied Preposterous, an experimental portrait of three generations of Hong Kong people.[5] He is currently filming The White Girl, another tribute to his adopted hometown of Hong Kong, with co-director Jenny Suen. On May 26, 2017 Doyle was honored during the 70th Cannes Festival with the “Pierre Angénieux ExcelLens in Cinematography” award, in tribute to his rich and influential career. The ceremony was co-hosted by filmmaker Olivier Assayas and actress Juliette Binoche, among others.
Known For
Cynthia Rothrock
Cynthia Rothrock (born March 8, 1957) is an American martial artist and actress in martial arts films. She holds black belt rankings in seven styles of martial arts and was a high-level competitor in martial arts before becoming an actress. In 2014, she was inducted into the International Sports Hall Of Fame. In 2016, Martial Arts History Museum bestowed Rothrock the official title of "The Queen Of Martial Arts." Rothrock was born in Wilmington, Delaware, and began training in martial arts at the age of 13. She quickly rose through the ranks, winning numerous championships in karate, kickboxing and taekwondo. In 1981, she was named World Champion in Forms and Weapons. In 1985, Rothrock made her film debut, alongside Michelle Yeoh, in the Hong Kong action film "Yes, Madam!" The film was a box office success and made Rothrock a star in Asia. She went on to star in several more Hong Kong films, including "Millionaires' Express" (1986), "Magic Crystal" (1986), "Righting Wrongs" (1986) and "Lady Reporter" (1989). Rothrock would return to the United States to further her acting career in many more martial arts films, including two "China O'Brien" movies in 1990, as well as "Lady Dragon" (1992), "Rage And Honor" (1992) and "Sworn To Justice" (1996). In 2024, Rothrock co-wrote, produced and starred in a crowd-funded martial arts western, entitled "Black Creek," for which there's also an accompanying graphic novel. Along with teaching martial arts, Rothrock is also a successful businesswoman, with her own line of martial arts clothing and accessories.
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Danny Chan Kwok-kwan
Danny Chan (Kwok-kwan Chan, Chinese: 陳國坤) was born on August 1, 1975 in Hong Kong. He is an actor, known for Ip Man 3 (2015), Kung Fu Hustle (2004), and Shaolin Soccer (2001).
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Danny Philippou
Danny Philippou and Michael Philippou (born 13 November 1992), known together online as RackaRacka, are Australian twin filmmakers, YouTubers, and stunt performers. They are known for their horror comedy YouTube videos. They won numerous awards, including the Best International Channel Streamy Award, Best Overall at the Online Video Awards, and the AACTA Award for the Best Web Show. Originally from Adelaide with Greek heritage, the brothers moved to Los Angeles in January 2019 but continue to make films in Australia. They made their feature directorial debut when they wrote and directed the supernatural horror film Talk to Me, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was released internationally from 27 July.
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Diana Lee Inosanto
Diana Lee Inosanto (born May 29, 1966) is a Filipino American actress, stuntwoman, martial artist and film director, sometimes credited as D. Lee Inosanto. She is the daughter of martial arts legend, Dan Inosanto and his wife Sue Inosanto. She is also known as the goddaughter of global icon, the late Bruce Lee (hence, Diana Lee).
Known For
Don Wilson
Don "The Dragon" Wilson (born September 10, 1954) is an American champion kickboxer and actor. He is most famous for his acting roles in action/adventure films, including eight titles in Roger Corman's Bloodfist series. Description above from the Wikipedia article Don "The Dragon" Wilson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Eric Jacobus
Eric Jacobus was born on March 29, 1982 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is known for his work on Death Grip (2012), A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) and Contour (2006). He has been married to Chiara Swartout since August 4, 2014.
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Eric Pellerin
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Fab 5 Freddy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Fred Brathwaite (born 1959), more popularly known as Fab 5 Freddy, is an American Hip hop historian, Hip hop pioneer and former graffiti artist. He was active in New York City in the 1970s and early 1980s, and later hosted the first hip-hop music video show on TV, "Yo! MTV Raps". Description above from the Wikipedia article Fab 5 Freddy, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Frank Djeng
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Geoffrey Stitt
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Grady Hendrix
Grady Hendrix is an award-winning novelist and screenwriter living in New York City. He is the author of Horrorstör, My Best Friend’s Exorcism (which was adapted into a feature film by Amazon Studios), We Sold Our Souls, and the New York Times bestseller The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires (currently being adapted into a TV series). Hendrix also authored the Bram Stoker Award–winning nonfiction book Paperbacks from Hell, a history of the horror paperback boom of the seventies and eighties, and his latest non-fiction book is These Fists Break Bricks: How Kung Fu Movies Swept America and Changed the World. He is a co-founder of the New York Asian Film Festival.
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Hing Chao
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Jacky Heung
Jacky Heung Cho (Chinese: 向佐) is a Hong Kong actor. He is the elder son of film producer/presenter Charles Heung and his wife Tiffany Chen.
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Jade Leung Chang
Jade Leung, born 23 November 1969 in Hong Kong as Leung Yuk-yin is a Hong Kong actress known for starring in kung fu and action films. She received the 1992 Best New Performer Award at the 11th Hong Kong Film Awards for her role in the 1991 film Black Cat.
Known For
Jeff Imada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jeff Imada (born June 17, 1955) is an American martial artist, stuntman, and actor. He has performed stunts in over 100 films and television programs and authored one of the first books published in the US about the balisong. Jeff Imada is trained in Jeet Kune Do, Eskrima, Tae Kwon Do, Tang Soo Do, Karate, Shaolin Kung Fu, Kendo and Boxing. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jeff Imada, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Jessica Henwick
Jessica Yu-Li Henwick (/ˈhɛnɪk/ HEN-ik; born 30 August 1992) is a British actress, writer, and director. She began her career in 2010 and is best known for her roles in Game of Thrones, Iron Fist, Love and Monsters, The Defenders, Silk, The Matrix Resurrections, The Gray Man, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and The Royal Hotel. Her directorial debut, Bus Girl, was nominated for a BAFTA. Description above from the Wikipedia article Jessica Henwick, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
Joe Cheung Tung-Cho
Joe Cheung Tung-Cho is an actor and director, known for In the Mood for Love (2000), Infernal Affairs II (2003) and Double Dragon (1992).
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JuJu Chan
JuJu Chan is a Hong Kong American actress, singer, Taekwon-Do athlete and Kung Fu actress. She is also a winner in the Miss Chinatown 2009 pageant, and has been called the "Female Bruce Lee" by fans. She received her masters degree in Film and Television from New York University. Wikipedia
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Ken Swift
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Lo Meng
Lo Mang (Chinese: 羅莽, born Lo Hin Lam on 23 July 1952) is a Hong Kong based veteran martial artist. Primarily known for starring in Shaw Brothers kung fu movies during the latter part of the 1970s and into the 1980s. He is a member of the famous ensemble known as the Venom Mob who were renowned for their martial arts and acting skills.
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Matthew Mallinson
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Matthew Polly
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Michael Jai White
An American actor and professional martial artist who has appeared in numerous films and television series. He is the first African American to portray a major comic book superhero in a major motion picture, having starred as Al Simmons, the protagonist in the 1997 film Spawn. White was born in Brooklyn, New York and moved as a teen to Bridgeport, Connecticut, where he graduated from Central High School in 1988. White started martial arts training at the age of seven and is now an accomplished martial artist, holding seven legitimate black belts in Shotokan, Tae Kwon Do, Kobudo, Goju Ryu, Tang Soo Do, Wushu and Kyokushin, with a specific focus in Kyokushin (although his style incorporates aspects of many different martial arts forms). His first major starring role and breakout performance was in the 1995 HBO film Tyson, as heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson. In 1997, he portrayed the eponymous character in the 1997 movie Spawn. His work in Spawn earned him a nomination for the Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Male Newcomer. White starred opposite Jean-Claude Van Damme in Universal Soldier: The Return. In 2001, he also starred opposite fellow martial artist Steven Seagal in Exit Wounds. In 2003, he starred in Busta Rhymes' and Mariah Carey's music video "I Know What You Want". Since 2003, in addition to his on screen roles, White has been doing voice work, including Static Shock, Justice League, and the Spawn animated series. White showcases his martial arts skills in the direct-to-DVD film Undisputed II: Last Man Standing. He also appears in Michelle Yeoh's Silver Hawk in 2004. His film, Why Did I Get Married? opened at number one at the box office on October 12, 2007. White played the role of the mob boss Gambol in the 2008 film The Dark Knight. He also starred in the film Blood and Bone and the Blaxploitation homage Black Dynamite, both released in 2009. White wrote the scripts for both Black Dynamite and his upcoming 3 Bullets in which he stars with Bokeem Woodbine. White will make his directorial debut and star in Never Back Down 2, which is slated for a 2011 release. In August 2005 he wed his girlfriend of two years, Courtenay Chatman. The couple have a daughter named Morgan Michelle who was born on December 24, 2008. Michael has two sons from a previous relationship. He is an avid chess player, as seen in his movie Blood and Bone.
Known For
Mike Leeder
Born and raised in the UK, a lifelong fan of Asian films, Leeder has been based in Hong Kong since 1990. In addition to serving as the Far Eastern Editor of Impact magazine, Leeder continues to contribute to such magazines as "Black Belt," "Inside Kung Fu," "Femme Fatales," and many more covering the Asian movie scene. He was also co-writer for "100% Jackie Chan: The Essential Companion," as well as contributing to a number of books on the genre. He has worked both in front and behind the camera on a number of films and television series in Hong Kong and Asia, and such documentaries as "David Carradine: A Martial Arts Journey," Sony's The Art of Action: Martial Arts in Motion Picture (2002), as well as several projects for Discovery Channel, Channel Four, and the Bravo network. His most recent projects include Jet Li's martial arts epic "Huo Yuan Jia" (aka "Fearless") which saw Leeder working both behind the scenes as casting director, and on the accompanying documentary "The Passion of Martial Arts", and as an a actor playing the role of Referee Randall. On Brett Ratner's "Rush Hour 3", Leeder served as Asian Casting Director working in association with Ronna Kress on the project. Other credits for Leeder include the movie "The White Wall", "Underground", "The Silencer", "A New Begining" and many more. Leeder continues to work as a Producer, Consultant and Casting Director for projects in Asia and internationally - IMDb Mini Biography
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Philip Ng
Philip Ng (伍允龍) is a Hong Kong actor who is also a master in the martial arts. Trained in Ving Tsun Kung Fu under the late Sifu Wong Shun-Leung. Philip is also a 6th generation disciple of Choy Li Fut Kung Fu, training from his father, Sam Ng. Philip is also a trained expert in Hung Gar Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Jiujitsu, and Escrima. He is also an accomplished fight choreographer, having worked some films in addition to acting.
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Ric Meyers
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Richard Norton
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Richard Norton (born 6 January 1950, in Australia) is a martial artist, action film star, and stuntman. Norton worked as a bodyguard in the entertainment business before pursuing an acting career. He has attained an eighth-dan in Zen Do Kai, Australia. His first screen appearance was in the 1980 Chuck Norris film The Octagon, and to date he has worked on over 70 feature films and television programs. Description above from the Wikipedia article Richard Norton (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Ridley Tsui Bo-wah
Ridley Tsui Bo-Wah is an actor, director, and action choreographer of martial arts films, best known as Smoke in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.
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Ron Van Clief
Ron "The Black Dragon" Van Clief is a martial arts legend. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1943, he started martial arts training in his early teens. At 5 feet 10 inches and 190 pounds, Van Clief was fast, powerful, and tough. He won 10 New York State Full-Contact Karate Championships. He won multiple Karate Point-Fighting Titles. By the early 1970s he had earned his 10th Degree Black Belt. His karate record was reported to be 110-8. In 1994 at age 51, he launched a comeback on December 16, 1994 fighting former World JuJitsu Lightheavyweight and Ultimate Fighting World Champion Royce Gracie. The Black Dragon landed one good punch, but was taken to the canvas where after a valiant battle was choked into submission, thus ending one of the greatest fighting careers in martial arts history.
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Ross Boyask
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Sammo Hung Kam-Bo
Sammo Hung Kam-Bo (Chinese: 洪金寶, born Hung Kam-Po, 7 January 1952) is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, producer and director, known for his work in many kung fu films and Hong Kong action cinema. He has been a fight choreographer for, amongst others, Jackie Chan, King Hu, and John Woo. Hung is one of the pivotal figures who spearheaded the Hong Kong New Wave movement of the 1980s, helped reinvent the martial arts genre and started the vampire-like Jiang Shi genre. He is widely credited with assisting many of his compatriots, giving them their starts in the Hong Kong film industry, by casting them in the films he produced, or giving them roles in the production crew. In East Asia, it is common for people to address their elders or influential people with familial nouns as a sign of familiarity and respect. Jackie Chan, for example, is often addressed as "Dai Goh", meaning Big Brother. Hung was also known as "Dai Goh", until the filming of Project A, which featured both actors. As Hung was the eldest of the kung fu "brothers", and the first to make a mark on the industry, he was given the nickname "Dai Goh Dai", meaning, Big, Big Brother or Biggest Big Brother. Was a member of the"Seven Little Fortunes" in Yu Jim-Yuen's China Drama Academy's Peking Opera School.
Known For
Scott Adkins
An English actor and martial artist who is perhaps best known for playing Boyka in Undisputed II: Last Man Standing and Undisputed III: Redemption and Bradley Hume in Holby City and Ed Russell in Mile High. Adkins has also appeared in Dangerfield, Hollyoaks, The Tournament and many other TV series as well as many films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Scott Adkins, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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Sébastien Foucan
Sébastien Foucan is a French freerunner of Guadeloupean descent. He is the founder of freerunning and considered an early developer of parkour.
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Soi Cheang
Soi Cheang Pou-soi is a Hong Kong actor, director and screenwriter. He has been mentored by Johnnie To throughout his career.
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Tim Kwok
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Vaughan Savidge
Known For
Wilson Yip
Wilson Yip Wai-Shun (葉偉信) is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker and screenwriter.
Known For
Bruce Lee
Bruce Jun Fan Lee (Lee Siu Lung) was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, CA while his parents were on tour with the Chinese Opera. Ultimately raised in Hong Kong, Bruce Lee was a child actor appearing in more than 20 films. At the age of 13, Bruce took up the study of wing chun gung fu under renowned wing chun master, Yip Man. Bruce left Hong Kong at the age of 18, came to the United States and made his way to Seattle, Washington where he worked in the restaurant of a family friend. He soon enrolled in the University of Washington where he pursued a degree in philosophy. Bruce began to teach gung fu in Seattle and soon opened his first school, the Jun Fan Gung Fu Institute. Two more schools followed in Oakland and Los Angeles. Concurrently Bruce married his wife, Linda and had his two children, Brandon and Shannon. In the mid sixties, Bruce was discovered while doing an exhibition at the Long Beach Internationals and a role as Kato in the tv series The Green Hornet soon followed. During this time, Bruce was also developing his own martial art, which he ultimately named Jeet Kune Do (translated: the way of the intercepting fist). Bruce's art was steeped in a philosophical foundation and did not follow long held martial traditions. Instead it had at its core the ideas of simplicity, directness and personal freedom. After The Green Hornet series was canceled, Bruce encountered resistance while working in Hollywood and so headed to Hong Kong to pursue a film career. In Hong Kong he made 3 films, which consecutively broke all box office records and showcased martial arts in an entirely new way. Hollywood took notice and soon Bruce was making the first Hollywood / Hong Kong coproduction with a film called Enter the Dragon. Unfortunately, Bruce Lee died in 1973 before this film was released. This film catapulted him to international fame. Today Bruce Lee’s legacy of self expression, equality, and pioneering innovation continues to inspire people all around the world.
Known For
Chuck Norris
Carlos Ray "Chuck" Norris (born March 10, 1940) is an American martial artist and actor. After serving in the United States Air Force, he began his rise to fame as a martial artist and has since founded his own school, Chun Kuk Do. As a result of his "tough guy" image, an Internet phenomenon began in 2005 known as Chuck Norris facts, ascribing various implausible or even impossible feats to Norris. Norris appeared in a number of action films, such as Way of the Dragon in which he starred alongside Bruce Lee and was The Cannon Group's leading star in the 1980s.He next played the starring role in the television series Walker, Texas Ranger from 1993 to 2001. Norris is a devout Christian and politically conservative. He has written several books on Christianity and donated to a number of Republican candidates and causes. In 2007 and 2008, he campaigned for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who was running for the Republican nomination for President in 2008. Norris also writes a column for the conservative website WorldNetDaily. Description above from the Wikipedia article Chuck Norris, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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David Carradine
David Carradine (born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk travelling through the American Old West. He also portrayed the title character of both of the Kill Bill films. He appeared in two Martin Scorsese films: Boxcar Bertha and Mean Streets. David Carradine was a member of the Carradine family of actors that began with his father, John Carradine. The elder Carradine's acting career, which included major and minor roles on stage, television, and in cinema, spanned more than four decades. A prolific "B" movie actor, David Carradine appeared in more than 100 feature films in a career spanning more than six decades. He received nominations for a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award for his work on Kung Fu, and received three additional Golden Globe nominations for his performances in the Woody Guthrie biopic Bound for Glory (1976), the television miniseries North and South (1985), and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 2, for which he won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor. Throughout his life, Carradine was arrested and prosecuted for a variety of offenses, which often involved substance abuse. Films that featured Carradine continued to be released after his death. These posthumous credits were from a variety of genres including action, documentaries, drama, horror, martial arts, science fiction, and westerns. In addition to his acting career, Carradine was a director and musician. Moreover, influenced by his Kung Fu role, he studied martial arts. On April 1, 1997, Carradine received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Description above from the Wikipedia article David Carradine, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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Gareth Evans
Gareth Huw Evans is a Welsh film filmmaker and action choreographer. He is best known for the Indonesian action crime films Merantau (2009), The Raid (2011), and The Raid 2 (2014), and for bringing the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat into world cinema through these films. He is also known for co-creating, co-writing, co-directing, and executive producing the Sky Atlantic/AMC action crime drama television series Gangs of London (2020–present), alongside Matt Flannery, based on the 2006 video game of the same name.
Known For
Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan (Chinese: 成龍; born 7 April 1954), Chan Kong-sang, is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, filmmaker, comedian, producer, martial artist, screenwriter, entrepreneur, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons, and innovative stunts. Jackie Chan has been acting since the 1970s and has appeared in over 100 films. Chan has received stars on the Hong Kong Avenue of Stars and the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As a cultural icon, Chan has been referenced in various pop songs, cartoons, and video games. Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. Chan was born on April 7, 1954, in Victoria Peak, in the former Crown colony of Hong Kong, as Chan Kong-sang (meaning "born in Hong Kong") to Charles and Lee-Lee Chan, refugees from the Chinese Civil War. He was nicknamed Paopao (Chinese: 炮炮, literally meaning "Cannonball") because he was such a big baby, weighing 12 pounds, or about 5.4 kgs. Since his parents worked for the French Consul to Hong Kong, Chan spent his formative years within the grounds of the consul's residence in the Victoria Peak district. Chan attended the Nah-Hwa Primary School on Hong Kong Island, where he failed his first year, after which his parents withdrew him from the school. In 1960, his father immigrated to Canberra, Australia, to work as the head cook for the American embassy, and Chan was sent to the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School run by Master Yu Jim-yuen. Chan trained rigorously for the next decade, excelling in martial arts and acrobatics. He eventually became part of the Seven Little Fortunes, a performance group made up of the school's best students, gaining the stage name Yuen Lo in homage to his master. Chan became close friends with fellow group members Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, the three of them later to be known as the Three Brothers or Three Dragons. At the age of 17, he worked as a stuntman in the Bruce Lee films Fist of Fury and Enter the Dragon under the stage name Chan Yuen Lung. He received his first starring role later that year, in Little Tiger of Canton, which had a limited release in Hong Kong in 1973.
Known For
Jimmy Wang Yu
Wang Zhengquan, better known as Jimmy Wang Yu and Wong Yu-lung, (born March 8, 1944 - died April 5, 2022) was a Chinese actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Wang rose to fame in 1967 with his starring role in The One-Armed Swordsman, a martial arts film produced by the Shaw Brothers Studio. The Chinese Boxer (1969), another film he acted in, is credited as the first Hong Kong action film that kickstarted the unarmed combat genre that took Asia by storm in the 1970s.
Known For
Keanu Reeves
Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break, and The Matrix franchise as Neo. He has collaborated with major directors such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referring to his 1991 film releases, The New York Times' critic, Janet Maslin, praised Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles." A repeated theme in roles he has portrayed is that of saving the world, including the characters of Ted Logan, Buddha, Neo, Johnny Mnemonic, John Constantine and Klaatu.
Known For
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, DStJ, PC, FRS, HonFRSC (née Roberts; 13 October 1925 – 8 April 2013) was a British stateswoman and Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies known as Thatcherism. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. Thatcher studied chemistry at Somerville College, Oxford, and worked briefly as a research chemist before becoming a barrister. She was elected Member of Parliament for Finchley in 1959. Edward Heath appointed her secretary of state for education and science in his 1970–1974 government. In 1975, she defeated Heath in the Conservative Party leadership election to become leader of the opposition, the first woman to lead a major political party in the UK. On becoming prime minister after winning the 1979 general election, Thatcher introduced a series of economic policies intended to reverse high inflation and Britain's struggles in the wake of the Winter of Discontent and an oncoming recession. Her political philosophy and economic policies emphasised greater individual liberty, the privatisation of state-owned companies, and reducing the power and influence of trade unions. Her popularity in her first years in office waned amid recession and rising unemployment. Victory in the 1982 Falklands War and the recovering economy brought a resurgence of support, resulting in her landslide re-election in 1983. She survived an assassination attempt by the Provisional IRA in the 1984 Brighton hotel bombing and achieved a political victory against the National Union of Mineworkers in the 1984–85 miners' strike. In 1986, Thatcher oversaw the deregulation of UK financial markets, leading to an economic boom, in what came to be known as the Big Bang. Thatcher was re-elected for a third term with another landslide in 1987, but her subsequent support for the Community Charge (also known as the "poll tax") was widely unpopular, and her increasingly Eurosceptic views on the European Community were not shared by others in her cabinet. She resigned as prime minister and party leader in 1990, after a challenge was launched to her leadership, and was succeeded by John Major, her chancellor of the Exchequer. After retiring from the Commons in 1992, she was given a life peerage as Baroness Thatcher (of Kesteven in the County of Lincolnshire) which entitled her to sit in the House of Lords. In 2013, she died of a stroke at the Ritz Hotel, London, at the age of 87. A polarising figure in British politics, Thatcher is nonetheless viewed favourably in historical rankings and public opinion of British prime ministers. Her tenure constituted a realignment towards neoliberal policies in Britain; the complex legacy attributed to this shift continues to be debated into the 21st century.
Known For
Michelle Yeoh
Michelle Yeoh Choo Kheng (born Yeoh Choo Kheng; 6 August 1962) is a Malaysian actress. Credited as Michelle Khan in her early films in Hong Kong, she rose to fame in the 1990s after starring in a series of Hong Kong action films where she performed her own stunts, such as Yes, Madam (1985), Magnificent Warriors (1987), Police Story 3: Supercop (1992), The Heroic Trio (1993), and Holy Weapon (1993). After moving to the United States, Yeoh gained recognition for starring in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) and in Ang Lee's martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. For her role as an overwhelmed mother navigating the multiverse in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, becoming the first Asian woman to win the award. Yeoh won a Golden Globe Award and a SAG Award as well. Her performance also garnered her nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Critics’ Choice Movie Award, among other accolades. Yeoh's other notable works include Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Sunshine (2007), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), Reign of Assassins (2010), Kung Fu Panda 2 (2011), and The Lady (2011), where she portrayed Aung San Suu Kyi. She played supporting roles in the romantic comedies Crazy Rich Asians (2018) and Last Christmas (2019), the Marvel Cinematic Universe films Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017) and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Gunpowder Milkshake (2021), Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022), The School for Good and Evil (2022), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023), A Haunting in Venice (2023), Wicked: Part One and Two (2024 and 2025), and Avatar 3 and its sequels (2025 onwards). In television, Yeoh has starred in Marco Polo (2014-2016), Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2020), The Witcher: Blood Origin (2022), American Born Chinese (2023) and The Brothers Sun (2024).
Known For
Nabwana IGG
Nabwana Isaac Godfrey Geoffrey (IGG) produces, directs, shoots, writes, and edits action films from his home in the slums of Wakaliga, Uganda. A self-taught filmmaker, IGG's film education consists of one course in computer repair (he was forced to drop out after the first month due to lack of funds) and his own trial-and-error experiences with cameras and editing equipment. He began filmmaking at age 32, just after the birth of his first child. While supporting himself and his family as a school teacher, IGG founded Ramon Film Productions (the name is derived from his grandmothers, Rachel and Monica, who raised him and saw the family safely thru Uganda's civil war). Based in the small home he shares with his wife and co-editor, Harriet, and their three children. RFP has produced over 44 feature films since 2005 (as of Jan 2015) and is best-known for Who Killed Captain Alex: Uganda First Action-packed Movie and Tebaatusasula. Trailers for IGG's work have gone viral, but the films themselves remain largely unseen outside the slums surrounding Kampala, Uganda.
Known For
Run Run Shaw
Sir Run Run Shaw GBM CBE, also known as Shao Yifu and Siu Yat-fu, was a Hong Kong entertainment mogul and philanthropist. He was one of the most influential figures in the Asian entertainment industry.
Known For
Yuen Wo-Ping
Yuen Woo-ping (Chinese: 袁和平; pinyin: Yuán Hépíng; alias: Yuen Wo-ping; born 1945) is a Hong Kong martial arts choreographer and film director who worked in Hong Kong action cinema and later Hollywood films. He is one of the inductees on the Avenue of Stars in Hong Kong. Yuen is also a son of Yuen Siu-tien, a martial arts film actor.
Known For
Movie Details
Production Info
- Director:
- Serge Ou
- Writers:
- Grady Hendrix, Serge Ou
- Production:
- WildBear Entertainment, Screen Queensland, Screen Canberra, The Post Lounge, XYZ Films
Key Crew
- Executive Producer:
- Todd Brown
- Archival Footage Research:
- Serge Ou
- Executive Producer:
- Nate Bolotin
- Executive Producer:
- Bryce Menzies
- Executive Producer:
- Michael Tear
Locations and Languages
- Country:
- AU; US
- Filming:
- AU; US
- Languages:
- en