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"I kick ass for the lord" - Fighting Priests


DragonClaws

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DragonClaws

 

Throughout Martial Arts cinema history there have been fighting priests. Roy Horans assassin in Snake in The Eagles Shadow(1978), being the first one to spring to my mind. How many other Asian and Western Martial Art films, feature similar characters?. A.P George played another fighting clergyman in the 1988 cut and splice movie Evil Destroyer. Michael M. Foley as Father Daniels in The Divine Enforcer(1992) is another good example. I also recall Jude Poyer playing a killer dressed as a priest in Hitman(1998)?. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Otets Nikolay in Honoured Priest: Confessions of A Samurai(2015). More recently we had Dominque Vandenberg playing fighting clergyman in The Mercenary(2019). The 2019 movie The Fighting Preacher, might also fit the bill?, but its a title I've never viewed.

Can anyone here name any other films/characters that fit this theme?.

 

 

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Not a kung fu priest, but Michael Rooker plays a two-fisted pistol-packin' priest in Bram Stoker's Shadow Builder.

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DragonClaws
9 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Not a kung fu priest, but Michael Rooker plays a two-fisted pistol-packin' priest in Bram Stoker's Shadow Builder.

 

Priest(2011) might be another title? but I cant recall if there's any Martial Arts in that one?.

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Chu Liu Hsiang

No intricate MA but Dolph Lundgren plays a weird fighting preacher in JOHNNY MNEMONIC. 

PS Love the thread's title :D 

 

 

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It's not really a priest, but rather a rabbi. I'm absolutely unable to remember the title of the movie, but it seems that it's a movie with Mel Gibson, in which there is a rabbi with red hair doing martial arts at a moment...

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DragonClaws
9 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Dr. Graham Player (aka Gam Bok-Yin) played a hung gar expert priest in Daniel Lee's Star Runner.

 

Thanks for this one @DrNgor, I might have to start compiling a list at this rate.

 

9 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

No intricate MA but Dolph Lundgren plays a weird fighting preacher in JOHNNY MNEMONIC. 

 

Thanks for the suggestion @Chu Liu Hsiang, Dolph Lundgrens performance was probably the best thing about that movie.

 

9 hours ago, Chu Liu Hsiang said:

PS Love the thread's title :D 

 

It's lifted from the Horror movie Braindead, I've included a clip of the scene the dialogue appears in.

 

8 hours ago, ShawAngela said:

It's not really a priest, but rather a rabbi.

 

All religeons and variations of Christianity can be included, it doesnt matter that he was a rabbi. I'm not sure which Mel Gibson movie, this character could be from?.

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Super Ninja

Patrick Kelly (my guess Australian actor) plays father Antonio in Taiwanese basher Fury in Storm (1974) aka Django im Reich der gelben Teufel.

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DragonClaws
On 3/11/2021 at 3:35 PM, Super Ninja said:

Patrick Kelly (my guess Australian actor) plays father Antonio in Taiwanese basher Fury in Storm (1974) aka Django im Reich der gelben Teufel.

 

Nice one @Super Ninja, not another title I need to seek out. Was it Patrick Kelly who also appeared in Brian Trenchard-Smiths mid-70's Hong Kong film documentary?.

 

Can anyone else thinking of any other characters that fit the theme?.

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NoKUNGFUforYU

Let's go way back, 1930's Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan, who teaches boxing, stands up to gangsters and at the end kicks ass on said gangsters.

"Father if you weren't wearing that collar I'd-"

"How about I take this collar off right now"

Later Mickey Rooney sucker punches a kid and thinks he can fight. Father Flanagan puts him in the ring and Rooney gets a life lesson, shall we say, with one of the real fighters.

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Super Ninja
14 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Nice one @Super Ninja, not another title I need to seek out. Was it Patrick Kelly who also appeared in Brian Trenchard-Smiths mid-70's Hong Kong film documentary?.

 

Can anyone else thinking of any other characters that fit the theme?.

You might be thinking of Grant Page. According to both imdb and hkmdb, Patrick Kelly only appeared in Fury in Storm, which btw got a German bluray release and was the source movie used in IFD's Ninja Operation 6: Champion on Fire. German blu is a couple of minutes shorter than the shitty version available on YT.

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DragonClaws
17 hours ago, Super Ninja said:

You might be thinking of Grant Page. According to both imdb and hkmdb,

 

You are right, thats exactly who I've mixed him up with.

 

On 3/15/2021 at 3:44 PM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

Let's go way back, 1930's Spencer Tracy as Father Flanagan, who teaches boxing, stands up to gangsters and at the end kicks ass on said gangsters.

 

Great example, do you think we should include fighting priests in from Western non Martial Arts movies?.

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NoKUNGFUforYU
On 3/16/2021 at 10:43 AM, DragonClaws said:

 

You are right, thats exactly who I've mixed him up with.

 

 

Great example, do you think we should include fighting priests in from Western non Martial Arts movies?.

There's definitely a discussion of just thinking your a born bad ass versus getting intensive training in the manly art of fisticuffs. The more low key kid who is simply an orphan is a much better fighter in the ring vs the sucker punching punk played by Rooney. Basic technique wins over just bullying. Boxing is a martial art and was very popular in China even in the 1900's. A lot of this separation of styles is simply made up by politics and nationalism. I saw a demonstration once from an old master in San Francisco. He had created a style of boxing punches and kung fu kicks. They did straight line forms of jabs, kicks and punches. Many kung fu masters will teach their students arcane kung fu moves but had boxing training in the US military or wherever- James Wing Woo, Leo Fong, john Yee, some tai chi guys that I have forgotten- oh Richard Lee, Bruce Lee's elder trainee in JKD (he was much older but a student of Bruce). Richard caught Bruce with a good shot to the face and Bruce flew into a rage. Bruce was not a good sparring partner when he boxed.

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 I'm going to recommend "The Divine Fury(2019)". And awesome film that lived up to all the hype I had for it. Cannot wait to see the sequel.

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DragonClaws
On 3/24/2021 at 5:49 PM, DarthKato said:

 I'm going to recommend "The Divine Fury(2019)". And awesome film that lived up to all the hype I had for it. Cannot wait to see the sequel.

 

Thanks @DarthKato I'd forgotten all about this movie, is the sequel in production now?.

 

On 3/20/2021 at 9:13 AM, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

There's definitely a discussion of just thinking your a born bad ass versus getting intensive training in the manly art of fisticuffs. The more low key kid who is simply an orphan is a much better fighter in the ring vs the sucker punching punk played by Rooney. Basic technique wins over just bullying. Boxing is a martial art and was very popular in China even in the 1900's.

 

It's a film I'll have to watch at somepoint, thanks for the head's up @NoKUNGFUforYU.

 

This scene isnt from a Martial Arts movie, but it fits the theme like a glove.

 

 

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2 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

 

Thanks @DarthKato I'd forgotten all about this movie, is the sequel in production now?.

 

You're welcome. I couldn't find anything on the sequel. All that has been teased right now is the name, "The Green Exorcist"

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Andre Morgan (yes, the producer) plays a priest in When Tae Kwon Do Strikes.

 

Don't think he does any fighting though. Gets beaten up by Sammo as I recall.

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DragonClaws
On 3/30/2021 at 1:10 AM, Markgway said:

Andre Morgan (yes, the producer) plays a priest in When Tae Kwon Do Strikes.

 

Don't think he does any fighting though. Gets beaten up by Sammo as I recall.

 

Thanks for the suggestion @Markgway, as far as I recall he doesnt do any fighting.

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Not a priest, but halfway through the Assassins and the Missing Gold trailer, Max Zhang fights a nun. Sadly, the film still hasn't seen the light of day...

 

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