The Man with the Iron Fists

[GeneChing]

Dave Bautista - The Man With the Iron Fists "Brass Body" Character Trailer These are basically the same trailers, each with a few seconds tweaked to feature the 'new legends of kung fu'. There's only four in the fan spread graphic so tomorrow's might be the last one.

Tomorrow, we'll drop my interview. Note: this is completely different material than what is in the Nov+Dec 2012 cover story. It's the other half of my August interview with RZA. Stay tuned.

[GeneChing]

RZA on Director's Cuts, Creating Weapons and THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS

[JamesC]

So the posters will be placed aroun the cities and are free for anyone to take? That's a pretty cool idea

[GeneChing]

We are running a special sweepstakes for a THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS Prize Package for San Francisco Bay Area residents only. Follow the link for a special R-rated featurette. Online entries must be received by 6:00 p.m. PST on 12/05/2012. Good luck!

[GeneChing]

Our Nov+Dec 2012 cover story, RZA on The Man with the Iron Fists, is now online.

[doug maverick]

it is with great regret that i have to miss the opening weekend...freaking sandy... they are only playing this movie in manhatten, and i live in Brooklyn. hopefully they have the trains running by the weekend but its doubtful.

[GeneChing]

The house was pretty full this morning and the rest of the audience was having a good time laughing and enjoying popcorn. However, if you've never seen a Shaw Brothers flick, I can't imagine this would make much sense. From the opening titles to the closing credits, it is all about those classic films. Even the dialog mimics that stilted HK style, which I got but I don't think it will play well to a naive audience. It's a parody homage, an absurd fantASIA - there are a lot of nods and laughs - very, very Wu. This will have a hard time finding an audience beyond Wu/kung fu fans. There's some great ultravi with the kind of digital bloody sprays that make me chuckle. The choreography is very Corey, very comic book with lots of flying about. Weird sword fights. Cung has perfected his menacing ass-kicker role. RZA and Russell turn in decent performances - they look like they had a lot of fun with their roles. Byron Man was really funny and Bautista is solid as bronze. LL leads a gang of ninjettes so if you like films with gangs of ninjettes, you'll enjoy this. The soundtrack was pretty bumping and I had to stifle the urge to yell 'turn up the base!'

Hope things get better for you and everyone else affected very soon, Doug.

[GeneChing]

I can't imagine Cung will be able to enjoy the premiere that much as he's fighting next weekend.

San Jose fighter Cung Le plays role in latest Russell Crowe-Lucy Liu film
By Mark Emmons
memmons@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/02/2012 09:21:43 AM PDT
Updated: 11/02/2012 09:21:48 AM PDT


Mixed-martial arts fighter Cung Le works out with his trainer, Scott Sheeley,... ( Patrick Tehan )

As a youngster, Cung Le watched martial arts movies with his mother in their San Jose apartment, fascinated at how the good guys subdued villains with flying kicks. He even acted out the roles himself.

"He could copy all the moves," Anne Le recalled. "He was jumping around our living room, making all these 'swoosh' sounds when he kicked the air. I remember thinking: 'Wow, this kid has got talent.' "

Mom was on to something because Le now does his acting on the big screen. His biggest role yet in a growing résumé comes in "The Man With the Iron Fists," a warriors-and-assassins saga that debuts Friday, starring Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu.

"It's hard to believe this is happening," said Le, 40. "I'm enjoying every moment. I'm soaking it all in."

There's a lot to take in as Le experiences a strange convergence in his life of both make-believe and very real violence. He has one foot on the red carpet and the other planted inside the steel cage of Ultimate Fighting Championship. As the movie hits theaters, Le already is in China where he will headline a mixed-martial arts bout on Nov. 10.

It's a humbling moment for a Vietnamese immigrant who fled his homeland with his mother just days before the fall of Saigon and, after stays in two refugee camps, struggled to be accepted in his adopted country.

"This is what America is all about -- overcoming," Le said. "I'm extremely proud about what has happened in my life."

At a sculpted 185 pounds, Le is an MMA fan-favorite with his lightning-quick strikes that rattle heads and break limbs. His acting portfolio has grown because he convincingly plays tough guys in the beat-'em-up, kick-'em-down genre.

"Every fighter I know wants to be an actor, but I try to steer them away from that stuff because they have no idea how hard it is," UFC president Dana White said. "But Cung has talent and found a way to succeed in both. And it couldn't happen to a nicer guy."

The dual career path also is surprising because Le once was a painfully shy boy who dodged bullies on the Empire Gardens Elementary School playground.

"He was very skinny, and he didn't speak English very well," said Anne Le, 61. "When you're like that, they pick on you."

Their lives had forever changed in the final, harrowing days of the war in Vietnam. On April 25, 1975, Le was not yet 3 years old when they boarded a helicopter in Saigon. His grandfather, a law-enforcement official, had arranged for his family to escape the country.

Their odyssey took them to the Philippines and Guam before reaching Salinas and finally San Jose. For a time, 11 family members squeezed into a three-bedroom house.

As he sat in his San Jose gym recently, Le recalled the anger some classmates directed at him.

"The American kids didn't really understand what happened over there," he said. "All they knew was a lot of GIs had died. Other kids mocked what they called my 'yellow skin.' There was no way to avoid being targeted."

Anne Le enrolled him in martial arts classes around age 10 to build self-confidence. As Le learned to snap boards, his mother made him promise never to hit others.

"One day he came home with a big black eye because of me," she recalled. "He said, 'Mom, this is what you did! You told me not to defend myself!' "

Le was a standout wrestler at San Jose High when he dropped his father's surname of Hoang. His father didn't join them in the United States for eight years, and although his parents had another child -- daughter Nicole -- the marriage didn't last. Le now has no contact with him.

While Le always had aspirations of following his idol Bruce Lee into acting, his chance came after gaining prominence in the emerging sport of MMA.

He got a part in the 2009 film "Fighting" that featured Channing Tatum, who became one of Le's good friends. In addition to Chinese martial arts films, Le has appeared in "Tekken," based on the video game, and the science-fiction thriller "Pandorum" with Dennis Quaid and Ben Foster.

When a script calls for someone to fly through the air like a whirling dervish, Le is a natural. In "The Man With the Iron Fists," set in 19th-century China, Le plays a henchman with 1980s rocker hair who gets extended camera time in -- what else? -- fight scenes.

"The movie business is so tough," said Le, who is married with three children, including two from a previous marriage. "You can't start as a nobody and then just become a major star. It's just like fighting. You start as an amateur. But I feel like I've turned pro in the film world now."

But he also keeps entering the cage. Last November at HP Pavilion, Le was pummeled by a Brazilian fighter so badly that he left with a horribly broken nose.

Le joked that while he didn't fear for his Hollywood career, "my agent was thinking that." He rebounded with a victory in a July fight and now takes on former UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin in Macau.

"When the studios get really worried about me fighting, then I'll stop," Le added.

That's why mom hopes this movie will open doors.

"I can't wait until he stops fighting and just does films," Anne Le said. "Those are a lot better than watching him fight."

[doug maverick]

i wasnt directly affected. actually my neighborhood is completely fine. no power outages, down trees or anything..i live really high above sea level. but literally two miles away from me in coney island and brighton beach it was pretty bad. right now the city is about 75% back to normal. but there are no trains going into lower manhatten(i live in brooklyn, so im screwed) and i really want to see this in timesquare because thats where it all began in new york for kung fu movies... and also where rza, gza and the odb conceived the wu tang clan...so i hopefully ill be able to check it out this weekend, as i really want this to open well.. universal is already offering RZA two more movies to direct, so they are expecting this movie to do well. here is a map of manhatten so you get an idea of what its like...lol

[GeneChing]

I hope you can see it in Times Square. That almost sounds like a pilgrimage. I'll be very eager to hear your opinion of it. It's up against some stiff competition this weekend w/Flight and Wreck-It Ralph and the reviews have been lackluster for the most part. They didn't even hold press screenings out here, which generally bodes poorly for a film.

[doug maverick]

this movie is going to appeal to the alt crowd. flight hasnt been promoted too well. wreck it ralph will take the weekend. man with the iron fist just needs to make 10 million to be a hit. universal has done a good job and the online promotion of the film has been extremely well handled. i think itll be a modest hit. for its 15million dollar budget.

[Jimbo]

I don't know if it'll even make the top five, but the theater was pretty crowded for the early showing of it, if that's any indication. It definitely will not appeal to your typical American moviegoer, though. Although it might draw in the crowd who liked Kill Bill.

I found it entertaining. It's definitely an homage to old-school KF films, especially Shaw Bros films. Also a spoof in a lot of ways, as American homages to KF films inevitably are. Also inevitably, the fight sequences cannot compare to the Venoms films that are clearly its main inspiration. The long, complex one-shot sequences, CGI-free, clearly-shot choreography of those old classics is a lost art now, and this hammered that fact home (no pun intended).

I really hope this movie does well.

[doug maverick]

i severely beg to differ... i perdict itll come in 3rd. behind flight which will be second. and wreck it ralph which will probably be huge in first.


the number in my head for this movie is 8 mil. which is saying alot considering the east cost numbers will be spotty. 8million next to a cartoon and a denzel movie.. after a east coast hurricane...and with 15million dollar budget...thats a hit.

[doug maverick]

i severely beg to differ... i perdict itll come in 3rd. behind flight which will be second. and wreck it ralph which will probably be huge in first.


the number in my head for this movie is 8 mil. which is saying alot considering the east cost numbers will be spotty. 8million next to a cartoon and a denzel movie.. after a east coast hurricane...and with 15million dollar budget...thats a hit.

8.2 million and fourth place...i was a little off.. thats a modest hit considering the budget. itll probably gain momentum. i know it was effected by the storm cause the east coast was shutdown. staten island(shaolin, birthplace of wu tang clan) is still devastated.

i predict huge numbers overseas for sure.

[Faruq]

I liked it. Pretty funny. They even put MC Jin in there, and I never heard he was into martial arts, lol. Just like Russell Crowe. But the stroke of genius in the movie was to throw Doo Wai in there having nothing to do with martial arts; strap a ponytail on him and make him a restaurant manager, lol! Great stuff. It was just as comical with the fantastic effects and blood as it was action packed. The only thing missing was Lau Kar Leung and Mark Houghton who would've made it even better.