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Ho Ho Ho: A Merry Impact Christmas from the stars...

24th December 2014

Yippee-kai-ai! This year, action stars and old friends of Impact reveal their best presents and the fondest memories of the festive season...

Twas the night before Crimbo and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse. For a lot of people getting into the holiday spirit might involve watching a classic Christmas movie like “White Christmas', “A Christmas Story', but for Impact readers it's more like Die Hard (hey, it IS  a Christmas movie, dammit!)...

Over the last few weeks, we've asked a few friends and film people for their thoughts on their favourite presents... with some predictable Christmas themed action or martial arts movie related memories. Below (and with some updates to come over the holidays), we thought we'd share some of them with you...

In the meantime, John Mosby, Mike Leeder and the Impact team wish all our readers health, success and good luck in 2015...

 

Merry Christmas Scott AdkinsActor and star of such films as Undisputed, Ninja, The Expendables 2 and countless more,  Scott Adkins: "The best Xmas themed Christmas present I ever got was when Channel 4 and Jonathan Ross showed original language Jackie Chan films across the whole Christmas Holiday - those were the days!! Also getting a camcorder at age 13 for Christmas kick-started my love for making action films and 6 hours of VHS home made martial mayhem soon followed!"

British stuntman and action coordinator Jude Poyer, whose credits include everything from Jet Li's Hitman through Monsters 2 The Dark Continent recalls some of his favourite Xmas related Hong Kong movie moments: "My favourite Christmas moment in a Hong Kong movie is in Ringo Lam's City on Fire . Undercover cop Chow Yun-fat and his gang have robbed a jewelry store. They speed off in their getaway car , and are chased  by the cops through the busy streets of Kowloon to the strains of "Joy to the World". The carol is still playing as the car chase turns into a shootout..."

Cult Director Ross Boyask of Left for Dead, 10 Dead Men & Warrioress says: "Around Christmas time I tend to bring out classic films to watch, especially action films set over the Christmas period. The best of these is of course, Die Hard, which has really never been topped as an action film, but let's not forget Lethal Weapon, Batman Returns, The Long Kiss Goodnight, and The Last Boyscout.

This Christmas in particular I'm excited about watching these films on blu-ray for the first time as I'm curious to see how much more detail I notice in the films. In terms of martial arts movies, I'll normally select a mixture of classics such as Dragons Forever and Fist Of Legend, and mix in some more recent films that I may not have seen or only seen once. This year that includes Special ID and Kung Fu Jungle."

Merry Christmas

Ip Man 2's Darren Shahlavi soon to be seen battling Jean-Claude Van Damme in Pound of Flesh, and Tong Po in the Kickboxer reboot recalls one of his favourite Xmas memories: "I met an ex of mine just before X-Mas, and on Christmas morning when we opened gifts most of them were martial arts related, I got an awesome Bruce Lee statue and poster and workout gear and I bought her the Bruce Lee collection on VHS and rubber Nunckaku. X-Mas was spent watching Bruce Lee and drinking plenty of egg nog! And getting a lot of bruises - Great way to bond...!!

Actress and Film-maker Maria Tran (Hit Girls, Maximum Choppage) recalls: “For me Xmas 2012 holds a very special martial arts movie themed memory, as most people were taking it easy with their feet up after their Christmas dinner, myself, fight choreographer Trung Ly and the rest of the team were diving into final prep for 4 weeks of high imapct amrtial arts movie making on Roger Corman's Fist of the Dragon at Ace Studios in Nanhai. It was cold, but we had plenty of good cheer and the Christmas and Martial spirit were in full effect that year!'

Stuntman, fight choreographer, stand-up comic and author of Fight Choreography: The Art of Non-verbal Dialogue John Kreng delivers a heartfelt Xmas martial arts memory that changed his life:

"Growing up in Washington DC/Maryland, I remember a blizzard that had closed down the whole city, I was stuck at home suffering from cabin fever and it was also a time in my life when I was trying to figure out a purpose. I knew deep down inside I wanted to get into the film industry, but did not know how and what I needed to do to become a Stunt/ Fight Coordinator.

During that snowstorm, The American Theater was a first run Chinese Movie Theater in DC, that was showing a Jackie Chan triple feature- Spiritual Kung Fu, Fearless Hyena and Dragon Fist. Knowing how entrepreneurial us Chinese are (we never close because of bad weather or a holiday and essentially- a family member has to die for a business to close for the day!), I decided to take a chance and when I got there, I was relieved to see a long line of people waiting to get in. The owner greeted every one of us thanking us for coming to his theater under such terrible weather conditions.

At that point in my life, I was a teenager who was hungry for that special type of kinetic energy only a kung fu movie could bring to the screen. So I stayed and watched all three movies, twice! Why? A great kung fu movie can give the magic to the audience and empower them, if they have to courage and understanding to do something with that energy. I walked out of the theater feeling emotionally full and satisfied by the kinetic energy Jackie put into those movies.

I look back and have fond memories as I think of all those times going to see kung fu movies and assorted midnight screenings religiously, almost every weekend for many years. I had to pay for it the next morning, because I would have a hard time waking up to go to school, while fighting to stay awake during class. But it did not matter to me because of the kinetic energy that was fed to me the night before on the screen. It was my film class, but I did not know it at the time. That was an innocent time for me, where my passion and love for the kung fu movie genre was very genuine and pure. But, with the pressure I received from my traditional Chinese family to be something of worth to save face (aka guilt) actually made me rebel against them and I got into the entertainment industry , even though it was against their wishes.

All those movies I saw growing up filled my head with (what I thought at the time was) a strong crazy dream to make a living by “creating something from nothing,” and making audiences react by getting them to scream, hoot, and holler at the screen, like I did. It’s because of the influence of all the great fight designers from the 70’s and 80’s like Yuen Woo Ping, Sammo Hung, Yuen Cheung Yen, Jackie Chan, Lau Kar Leung, Robert Tai, Tong Gai, Tommy Lee, Cory Yuen Kwai, Bruce Lee, Lam Ching Ying, etc. that still continue to inspire me. I’ve also been lucky to have met quite a few of them and have also the extreme honor to have worked with some of them. I’ve still got a lot to learn with what I do as a filmmaker, but it’s their creative energy from their work that keeps me going to find my groove, even when times get tough.

So to create a fused quote between It’s a Wonderful Life and a kung fu movie… 'When a kung fu movie villain gets kicked in the head and dies in a film, a martial artist working to be a film fighter gets a SAG card..!'"

 

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