Action movies have always occupied a favored spot in the minds of fans, since time immemorial. Heroes attempt the action genre and if they succeed at it, they generally go to the next level in the star race.
Off late, there is this fad of using foreign stunt masters and fighters to give that extra pace and effect to the fight scenes. With fans increasingly getting exposed to English films and other martial arts films, they won’t settle for anything less. When they see implausible fight sequences, they just laugh it off.
With Billa 2 being noted for its marvelous stunt scenes choreographed by foreign stunt masters, we decided to dig more and find about the foreign stunt masters and fighters who have dazzled in popular recent Tamil movies.
German stunt master Stefan Richter was responsible for the dangerous helicopter sequence in Billa 2 while stunt master Kecha Khamphakdee and his Jaika Stunt team is also a part of this gangster movie.
Yuen Woo Ping, the action choreographer in films like The Matrix, Kill Bill Vol.1, Kill Bill Vol. 2 & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was Endhiran’s stunt coordinator. The train stunts were jaw dropping truly.
In 7aum Arivu, the main villain Johnny Tri Nguyen who played Dong Lee, is an acclaimed martial arts expert. He has performed stunts in the 2002 blockbuster Spiderman, in addition to many more movies.
In Jiiva’s upcoming superhero movie, a team of kungfu artists were involved in a very special scene. Before the shoot for Mugamoodi commenced, both Jiiva and Narain underwent special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China. The climax fight sequences are choreographed by Tony Leung Siu Hung, a veteran stunt coordinator from Hong Kong who has worked with the likes of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
Andy Dixon, of Transporter 2 fame, was involved in those gripping chase sequences in Dasavatharam. Hai-Kido which is a Japanese martial art was also part of the action in this landmark Kamal starrer. For choreographing these shots, Sonny Loke Chuan Sun who is a master of Hai-Kido was brought all the way from Japan to USA.
For his upcoming Vishwaroopam, Kamal has roped in Lee Whittaker for the climatic action blocks. Lee is known for his spectacular work in Pearl Harbor.
Tom Delmar, of Snatch and Braveheart fame, was involved in the Vijay starrer Velayudham for giving that grandiose treatment to the action scenes atop the train.
In addition to all these foreign names directly getting involved in Tamil films, some of our highly acclaimed fight sequences in movies like Anniyan, Polladhavan and Ayan were also inspired by some legendary Hollywood action movies.
The fight scene in the martial arts school in Anniyan reminded us of Kill Bill 1, the Congo fight in Ayan had traces of Bourne Ultimatum and the bare body fight of Dhanush in Polladhavan’s climax gave us glimpses of Brad Pitt from Snatch.
At the end of the day, inspired or not inspired, the action on screen must give us the kicks and one must say each of these movies mentioned above had hair-raising action sequences. Hats off to the stunt men for that.
Off late, there is this fad of using foreign stunt masters and fighters to give that extra pace and effect to the fight scenes. With fans increasingly getting exposed to English films and other martial arts films, they won’t settle for anything less. When they see implausible fight sequences, they just laugh it off.
With Billa 2 being noted for its marvelous stunt scenes choreographed by foreign stunt masters, we decided to dig more and find about the foreign stunt masters and fighters who have dazzled in popular recent Tamil movies.
German stunt master Stefan Richter was responsible for the dangerous helicopter sequence in Billa 2 while stunt master Kecha Khamphakdee and his Jaika Stunt team is also a part of this gangster movie.
Yuen Woo Ping, the action choreographer in films like The Matrix, Kill Bill Vol.1, Kill Bill Vol. 2 & Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was Endhiran’s stunt coordinator. The train stunts were jaw dropping truly.
In 7aum Arivu, the main villain Johnny Tri Nguyen who played Dong Lee, is an acclaimed martial arts expert. He has performed stunts in the 2002 blockbuster Spiderman, in addition to many more movies.
In Jiiva’s upcoming superhero movie, a team of kungfu artists were involved in a very special scene. Before the shoot for Mugamoodi commenced, both Jiiva and Narain underwent special training in martial arts with experts from the Shaolin Temple in China. The climax fight sequences are choreographed by Tony Leung Siu Hung, a veteran stunt coordinator from Hong Kong who has worked with the likes of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.
Andy Dixon, of Transporter 2 fame, was involved in those gripping chase sequences in Dasavatharam. Hai-Kido which is a Japanese martial art was also part of the action in this landmark Kamal starrer. For choreographing these shots, Sonny Loke Chuan Sun who is a master of Hai-Kido was brought all the way from Japan to USA.
For his upcoming Vishwaroopam, Kamal has roped in Lee Whittaker for the climatic action blocks. Lee is known for his spectacular work in Pearl Harbor.
Tom Delmar, of Snatch and Braveheart fame, was involved in the Vijay starrer Velayudham for giving that grandiose treatment to the action scenes atop the train.
In addition to all these foreign names directly getting involved in Tamil films, some of our highly acclaimed fight sequences in movies like Anniyan, Polladhavan and Ayan were also inspired by some legendary Hollywood action movies.
The fight scene in the martial arts school in Anniyan reminded us of Kill Bill 1, the Congo fight in Ayan had traces of Bourne Ultimatum and the bare body fight of Dhanush in Polladhavan’s climax gave us glimpses of Brad Pitt from Snatch.
At the end of the day, inspired or not inspired, the action on screen must give us the kicks and one must say each of these movies mentioned above had hair-raising action sequences. Hats off to the stunt men for that.
