Fight Scene with Uchi Chan

A few weeks ago, I had my first pure fight action job of the year. It was for a quirky Japanese TV show called "Life" and the main character was a Japanese physical comedian (who's actually quite a martial artist) nicknamed "Uchi Chan" because he also looks quite a lot like Jackie Chan. Here is one of his old fight scenes if you wanna check it out:


In this fight scene, it seemed like we were parodying either Jackie's Armor of God, or at least Indiana Jones, as he was trying to save an innocent girl and a professor looking guy from the bad guys- namely us. The fight choreography was fairly simple, but the set we had to do it in was the tightest I've ever had to work in. Literally, there was only enough room for 4 or 5 steps in any direction. To further complicate things, it was full of props that littered the floor, were hanging from the ceiling, and many were actually integrated into the fight scene (as they should be).

Every good guy's worst nightmare, lol. 

The stunt coordinator/choreographer for the day was Takeda Michihiro. I knew of him from my time working on Godzilla:Final Wars, and the Geki Rangers movie, but I had never worked under him before. Most of the action work I do in Japan is under the same few people or with the same few groups, so it was nice to work under someone who choreographs in such a different way and with such a different style.

Aside from the super tight space that we had to work with (and the fact that it consequently dictated that we take each and every step carefully), probably one of the hardest things about the shoot was that mid-way through the fight, Uchi had to throw full potato sacks at me, which I had to deflect before coming at him again. All that would be well and fine, except that the dust and particles coming off of them as I hit them was blinding, and I still had to (carefully) come at him so that he could get out of the way of my kick and still step the right way to position myself so that we could both naturally move in the right way to continue the sequence without bumping into anything or knocking over any props. That fact aside though, the choreo itself was fairly simple. Beyond that, my only other complaint was that I die (of course) halfway through the shoot, so that the next guy could come in, so I had to spend the later half of the shoot simply lying dead on the cold ground (and at one point, the other guy he was fighting accidentally kicked me in the head while I was laying there).Overall though, it was a pretty fun day to shoot. Everyone got along quite well on set, and while the stunt coordinator was strict, he was also squarely in his stunt players corners, and let us know it. (Some, if they are trying to kiss the director's ass, won't really care too much about you- doesn't happen a lot, but it does happen). Uchi was also great. At this point, he is in his fifties, and isn't doing nearly the physical kind of stuff that he was doing before... (Much like Jackie Chan)...but I do hope to get a chance to work with him again.

Armed Girl Fight Scene

So last summer, the action coach who trains me wanted to get everyone together to film something, and he invited me to take part. More than anything else, I think he was making it just so that we could get more time actually doing this in front of a camera (where different takes and angles come into play), and I think he just had an idea for something that he really wanted to try.

It was nothing serious, just a bunch of action guys having fun with a cheap camera on a very very hot day. At the time that we filmed it, it was about 90 degrees, super-humid, breezeless, and cloudless. In the field that we were in, there wasnt so much as a single tree to stand under for shade. It was raw...but fun to do nonetheless. Anyway, if you'd like to check it out, I decided to take my part of it, subtitle it, score it, and throw in some sound effects just for the hell of it. Enjoy :)

Saturday Night Action Training

 Just a short vid of a few action sequences I was running through on Saturday night with Hataya (the random Japanese guy who appears with me on How to Defeat Dudes) at a Pass Guard Training Session. (Pass Guard is a MMA/Kickboxing/Jiujitsu based action team). This is pretty much how I spend my Saturday nights ;)

Stunt training in Seattle

Yesterday was my first day of training at the United Stuntmen's Association Intenational Stunt School in Seattle. About 6 months ago, while I was training at the Society of American Fight Directors Winter Wonderland Workshop, I met the owner, Dave Boushey, and he said that it would be great for me to come out, so I decided to jump right on it. The training is 22 days and covers 15 disciplines of stunt work, including flame stunts, high falls, trampoline work, and of course, my personal favorite and specialty, fight choreography. Unfortunately, do to my schedule, I missed the first 2 days of the school, and arrived half-way through the third, literally fresh off the plane from spending the past 3 days flying Tokyo-Dallas-Michigan-Seattle. (I actually showed up at the training hall with all of my luggage).

They had spent the past two days learning a fight and were preparing to showcase it in about an hour. After having spent 5 years studying incredibly complex fight sequences in Tokyo however, the one they were doing wasn't too difficult (although the stylistic differences did take a bit of getting used to), so I just took the 30 minutes to learn it, practice it a few times, and an hour later performed it like everyone else. Personally, I felt my performance was kind of lacking (at the time I had a sore back from carrying my luggage for 3 days, and I hadn't slept yet), but I actually got applause for the performance. I think more than anything people were just impressed that I figured it out and could perform it as well as everyone else in only an hour.

Still, it was a great way to start off my training. Coming in two days late, I thought I would be at a disadvantage and would need to bust my tail to catch up, but it actually worked out even better because it allowed me to start off my making an excellent first impression. So far so good...Now the challenge will be to keep my level of performance for the rest of the school. Next up is training with clubs and knives. We'll see how it goes!

Training with Yuji Shimomura

I had a chance to work out with my favorite action director, Yuji Shimomura this weekend. After I returned to Japan after the March 11 quake, we met up briefly just to catch up, but this was my first time training with him. Actually, it was our first time training together in a few years.

I had told him that I am currently pursuing my expert status in knife fighting choreography from Art of Combat in Lansing, and asked him if he was working on anything that we could collaborate on. As he didn`t have anything lined up requiring that kind of choreo, he suggested we just get together, train, and possibly film a test. I met him at the PassGuard training gym (where I usually do my action training) and we got to work on it for a little while.

Everytime I work with Yuji, he absolutely amazes me. 1) because of his incredible physical skills 2) because of the depth of his philosophy on action and 3) because he`s just such an intelligent and good guy. While the choreo that I`d come up with wasn`t bad, he had A LOT of suggestions to make it better, and it made me want to completely go back to the drawing board.

We didn`t actually get to filming the test... but in a way I`m glad, because that will give me a chance come up with some way cooler sh-- before the next time I meet him. Really looking forward to committing something to film soon!

Letters to No One Short Film

Right before I left Michigan to head back to Tokyo, I had a chance to work as an actor and fight choreographer for a short film called Letters to No One. Staged in a post-apocolypic era, the story revolved around a girl trying to get an artificial heart that she believes can save the life of her little brother, and it reminded me a bit of Book of Eli but with the added punch of having the lead played by a petite female. (I was playing the story's main antagonist, Vernes.) All in all the project was a lot of fun to do. We filmed everything around Ann Arbor and in Downtown Detroit, and the sets they got were awesome. (The only downside being that the detoit locations lacked heating and it was freezing on set most of the time).

As a fight choreographer it was also really interesting because 1) it was my first time creating choreography for something shot on film, and 2) because the nature of the story and characters dictated action that was much more realistic than the fantastic Hong Kong style that I had been trained in. In regards to the first point, most of my experience in action had been on projects shot in DV, and as a function of that, there's a lot more room for experimentation. On DV cameras you can just shoot, erase and re-record as much as you like, whereas on film (which has a limited stock that's really expensive to replace) every single take costs money. As a function of that, when you are working with limited resources, choreography utilizing a single master cut (with smaller cut-ins) is a lot more financially efficient to do than using a bunch of smaller cuts sequentially and then just putting them all together piece-meal. As a function of this, in order to make things run smoother, I created overhead 'fight maps' (such as the one pictured) so that the camera crew, actors and directors could all know how the fight was going to proceed beforehand and mistakes could be minimalized.

In terms of the second point, it was interesting in that I came to realize just how stylized the training I had in action really is. While I was always coaching the actors to make bigger movements and finish with pose outs, the director was constantly telling them the opposite, and encouraging to just 'keep it real'. Thus far, this seems to be the biggest reoccuring theme since returning to the states, working in American cinema, and training in western stage combat. The philosophies on portraying 'fight action' in the west, and 'martial arts action' in the east seem to be in stark contrast of each other in a lot of ways, and I can see why groups from both sides can get frustrated working with each other if that isn't clearly understood from the beginning. (Which happens from time to time).

In any event, I'm still waiting to get the finished result back, and am excited to see how it turns out once sound effects, music and editing have all been added in. Mad-props to Guru Kalaj of MMAForge.com who supplied us with training Knives, and Twistarts Gymnastics of Dewitt for use of their mats for stunt falls. Will defiantely post it once it's done!

Sukeban Hunters Hits Theatres!

The latest film project I did, Sukeban Hunters hit the theatres in Shibuya this weekend, and I`m looking forward to getting in to theatres to check it out. After checking out the new trailers on the website, (which were head and shoulders better than the last one released for both films) and getting a glimpse of the final product, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how much more polished it looked with the sound and visual effects in place. Just goes to show you the difference between the rough cut and the final (and why a lot of directors don`t want to show their rough cut to their actors ;)In any event, I`m excited to see them both in their entirety.

Unfortunately, Im in the middle of rehearsals for my first major theatre production, and have two all-day practices next weekend, so Im just going to have to wait a bit.

Duel in Hell


Final Death Ride Battle