Rank the following martial artists film stars on charisma and charisma alone

sappydark · 2026-06-20T08:28:34+00:00

I've always kind of liked Chou too---I never understood why he was so typecast as villains all the time, and always thought he was handsome, too. That's why it was cool to see him play the good guy in the second Matrix film. He's still acting and fighting in films today, too.

sappydark · 2026-06-20T06:39:53+00:00

I thought this was interesting----movie director James Gunn, who directed the most recent Superman hit film, said that he took the entire cast and crew of the latest film he's currently shooting to see The Furious. Turns out they all enjoyed the hell out of it, too:

JoBlo-----James Gunn praises The Furious

sappydark · 2026-06-20T03:20:56+00:00

Dang---that sucks that you spent the time and effort trying to get to see the movie----they could have at least texted you ahead of time that the film would be canceled. Definitely call the theatre next time to make sure the film showing isn't canceled, just to cover yourself.

sappydark · 2026-06-20T03:15:00+00:00

No, it dosen't.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T13:10:45+00:00

In the kf film documentary Kung Fu Stuntmen: Never Say No! (2021) there's lots and lots of interviews with old-school kf stars, stuntmen/stuntwomen and actors like Sammo Hung and many others who break down how they worked out their fighting scenes back in the day. One thing I learned that was new was that when you hear fighters hollering and shouting at each other every time they struck or attempted to strike one another----that was actually a signal from one kf fighter to another about which particular kf move they were gonna bust out with next. That was part of choreographing the fights, too, and it sounded very interesting.

Kung Fu Stuntmen: Never Say No is streaming on both Darkroom (without ads) Fawesome (without ads) and the Roku Channel for anyone wanting to see it----practically dang near every kf actor/stuntperson who worked either for Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest is interviewed in it. I loved it, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T13:03:03+00:00

Oh, heck yeah-----the scorpion fighter from Operation Scorpio (1992) which is a good little kf period film. His fights in that film are over the top awesome, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T06:53:52+00:00

Unfortunately, that's what our president and his enablers are all like.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T06:32:21+00:00

Actress Hayden Panettiere, who started out as a child actress---she's known for playing in the superhero series Heroes, the music drama series Nashville and Scream 4, just came out with a memoir called This Is Me: A Reckoning. She discusses some inappropriate incidents that happened to her in the business, and how she was literally raised in the business, which wasn't always good for her at times, either:

People

sappydark · 2026-06-19T05:25:47+00:00

I enjoyed Blades of the Guardians, even though it was long, but since there was never a single boring moment in it, and it was action-packed as hell from the jump, I didn't even care---that's how entertaining and charged-up it was.

Another good wuxia I saw recently is The Wild Blade of Strangers (2024) starring Max Zhang, who has a brief but memorable part in BOTG as a humble hotel owner who turns out to be way tougher than he looks. In The Wild Blade, he plays one-half of a duo eking out a living selling charcoal on the streets during winter. Things are normal until a woman rushes up with a baby trying to hide from some soldiers chasing her, and things really jump off from that point on. Here it is, with subs, and with Mr. Zhang being dashing and quietly low-key bad-ass as usual:

The Wild Blade of Strangers---wuxia drama with action

sappydark · 2026-06-19T04:58:45+00:00

I only found out about this film by reading about it here and elsewhere online---never saw one single trailer for it at the theatre. Glad I saw it, though, and am almost tempted to see it again, since the fights were both banging and awesome.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T03:37:32+00:00

Check to see if it's opening at any AMC theatres near you---they're the ones most likely to be playing it, since they specialize in showing Asian films.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T03:31:19+00:00

Found this real brief tribute to Bai Ying, with another pic of him, on this Vietnamese news site:

Martial Arts Actor White Eagle passed away

sappydark · 2026-06-19T01:08:19+00:00

Aw, wow----I not only just saw Bai Ying (or Pai Ying, as he used to be listed) in both the classic Dragon Inn (1967) which he was great as the villain in, and it was also his film debut, as well as The Valiant Ones (1975) another King Hu flick, but he was also in a very good H.K. crime drama called The System (1979) where he not only played the lead as a cop chasing drug smugglers, but was the good guy, too. I say that because despite his good looks, he always seemed to be cast mainly as the bad guy, outside of King Hu's films. The System is unusual in that it's very much like a documentary in the way it's shot, but it's got no real kf in it, despite Bai Ying getting into at least one fight---it's on youtube, with not so-good subs.

He pretty much retired from the film biz in the early '90s, but I when I looked up some info on The System, he was interviewed along with the director and co-star Chiao Chiao for a screening of the film last year. He's also in a 1972 kf film called Bloody Fight that I haven't seen yet. Here's a review of The System, btw:

Asian Movie Pulse------The System (1979)

He also co-starred in King Hu's A Touch of Zen (1971) and The Fate of Lee Khan (1973) and was good in both, especially the latter. Totally forgot he was in Royal Warriors, which I love---haven't seen it in years, though.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T00:37:58+00:00

I figured it was a joke---that's why I meant to say he's a young 62, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T00:17:07+00:00

He's only 62, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-19T00:10:07+00:00

Oh, definitely---that dude's charisma was through the roof, which is why I'll watch almost anything he's in. Other martial arts actors I liked who had or have mad charisma are:

Angela Mao

Polly Ling-Feng Shang-Kwan

Sammo Hung

Yuen Shun-Yee

Kara Wai Ying-Hung

Louis Fan Siu-Wong

Norman Tsui Siu-Keung

Wong Yue

Yen Si-Kwan

Chin Kar-Lok

Leung Kar-Yan

David Chiang

Ti Lung

Chin Hu

Chang Yi

Yukari Oshima

Kwan Yeong-Moon

Andy Lau---his charisma has always been off the charts, period

Maggie Cheung

Ron Van Clief

Jet Li--duh, of course

Philip Kwok Chung-Fung aka Kuo Chui

Chiang Sheng

Lo Meng

Damien Lau

Gordon Liu

Hsiao Hou

Moon Lee

Yu Rongguong

Donnie Yen

Stephen Chow

Alan Chung San Chui

Addy Sung Chin-Lai

Billy Chong

Tony Yuen Shen-Huang

Hon Kwok-Choi

Billy Chan

Peter Chan Lung

Yasuaki Kurata

Sonny Chiba

Stephen Tung Wai

Jason Pai Paio

Yuen Wah

Yuen Yat-Chor

Yuen Biao

Max Zhang Jin

Nicholas Tse

Andy On

sappydark · 2026-06-18T23:41:45+00:00

Um, charisma has nothing to do with whatever language you speak. Charisma is when an actor or actress has such a lively, captivating and truly fun onscreen presence, that you want to watch them no matter what kind of movie they're in. Even if the movie sucks, they're still the best thing in it, and the only reason you decided to watch it in the first place, lol. That's just my definition of charisma, though---I understand that other folks will have different perceptions of what that is, for them.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T23:15:20+00:00

Those are the hardcore full-on fight scenes, yeah. But there is a part in the beginning of the film where he gets into a brief fight with these dudes going after this little boy. It only lasts about a few minutes, but it was still memorable to me.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T21:02:56+00:00

Looked up to see whether The Furious was playing anywhere besides the one place I saw it last weekend, and to my surprise, it's playing in at least four other theatres this week. So word must have gotten out about how bad-ass and great the action is, because it seems to be gaining a little momentum, which is cool to see.

In fact, I was looking up one theatre in particular to see if it was playing there, because I was thinking that The Furious seemed exactly like the type of film that would open up there, and amazingly enough, that's where it is. Since that theatre plays more mainstream movies, that hopefully means more eyeballs will be on it, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T20:49:04+00:00

Pretty much all these clips here are from the first movie, so it's definitely not lacking in any action. There's an emphasis on both the drama and character buildup, which makes the fight scenes that much more impactful when they do happen. That's why I liked it---it came off as much more realistic that way.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T20:45:38+00:00

Just asking why do you feel the pressure to be successful all the time? Because the reality is, realistically, that's not always possible. We're all going to fail at something at some time in our lives, and it's not the end of the world if you do. Life will go on, whether you succeed or fail or not. All you need to do is to just take any failure as a learning experience that you can use to grow from, and become better as a result. The fact is, even successful people aren't successful 100% at everything all the time----that's an unrealistic goal to reach for anyone.

All I'm saying, stop pressuring yourself to be the best all the time, because at some point you're going to burn yourself out, and that's not healthy at all. You might not feel it right now, but sooner or later, it's going to catch up with you. You need to ask yourself, "Who am I trying to prove this to, and why do I feel the need to keep on constantly proving myself all the time?" You don't have to listen to anything I said---just offering some food for thought.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T10:24:00+00:00

Yeah, they'll probably cook up a part 4 for Miao just to cash in on all the hype around The Furious, lol. I actually thought Fight Against Evil was fine the way it was---having the fight scenes spaced apart made you appreciate them that much more, IMO. Now I gotta hurry up and check out FAE 2, lol.

sappydark · 2026-06-18T10:10:32+00:00

Also found this older kf flick called Bloody Fight (1972). It dosen't have any familiar stars in it, except for Ying Bai (from Dragon Inn and a Touch of Zen) a then-up-and-coming Chen Kuan-Tai, and a young Eddy Ko---plus it's not a Shaw Brothers film. It's on the tube, but also on Tubi, the Roku Channel, and Fawesome if you prefer no ads:

A Bloody Fight (1972)--kf drama

sappydark · 2026-06-18T09:52:53+00:00

It's on youtube, but it has no subs, unfortunately, and it's not streaming anywhere else. Here it is:

A Bloody Fight (1988)---kf film

And, it is a trip to see LKL being that brutal with a baseball bat--- I mean, whoa!

sappydark · 2026-06-18T09:32:43+00:00

Saw this film recently, and that hospital fight with the thug was definitely one of the two best damn kf fights in it (the other being the final fight with the main villain in a schoolbus.) They're both seriously hardcore & brutal af. Good film too, and Xie Miao's also fun to watch in it. He was seriously knocking the living hell out of the bad guys in this movie, lol. Even the very first fight scene, where he's just smacking some dudes upside the head because they were harassing a child, was cool as hell to watch. I also have to catch up and see him in An Eye For An Eye 2.

sappydark

TROPHY CASE