Your favorite contemporary martial arts audio commentator

[saltysam]

He's credited as an extra on IMDB but  i know that's not always accurate

[legendarycurry]

1 minute ago, Killer Meteor said:

I gave the old Bey Logan/Jon Benn commentary for WAY OF THE DRAGON a listen yesterday. It's quite fun, with Logan atoning for constantly telling people the fat bearded thug was superfan Rick Baker, and at the very end he does his Barney Rubble impression.

I find the Logan commentaries in hindsight I actually liked most where those where he was not alone. Be it the anecdotes of Jon Benn, the effortless charm of Christy Chung on Red Wolf, the chaos in the dismissive douchiness of Mark King at odds with Logan's praise on OUATIC, or the chill nature of Gary Daniels talking about how good Full Contact is.

The commentary with Mabel Cheung and Alex Law is especially good to me on the Moon Warriors disc, because they have an excellent memory of and insight into the production and Logan becomes more of a interviewer rather than a Highbinders hype machine or biography reader.

I also remember liking the Ichi The Killer Commentary, because Alien Sit seems so cool and Logan is less prominent to the track's benefit.

Would have wanted to hear the ones with Tsui Hark, Gordon Chan, Donnie Yen and Roy Horan.

Side note, his " Leslie Cheung tribute" on the Once a Thief disc is hot garbage, basically " I thought his death was a hoax because it happened April 1st, here are some HKL releases he is in"

The Anita Mui appreciation was heaps better on Moon Warriors DVD because it actually featured him in discussion with an individual that knew and worked with Mui and understood her impact.

[Killer Meteor]

Re the new 88 blu-rays of DOUBLE IMPACT and CODE OF SILENCE

Are Kim Newman and friends going to be doing the contemporary MA commentaries now that Leeder and Verna  have left? I love, LOVE Newman's horror stuff, but I'm not aware of him being especially interested in or knowledgeable about martial arts cinema.

[MobFu1972]

I actually enjoy  Bobby Samuel's commentary Alot..... Especially his Sammo Hung stories 👊👊👊‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

[Knetan]

Cheers for the mention and kind words @Yihetuan. Whether I do these with Phil Gillon or Paul Fox (I'm Kenneth Brorsson by the way. Hello.), we are not capable of being as prolific as the big boys, the machines of the audio commentary-world. For a few reasons, we all work fulltime, have personal lives, the podcast takes up time, we're old, but we also feel it's fulfilling to be selective. To do a project, record a commentary on something that has a hook, a built-in topic. It doesn't mean we can get a full account of day to day production tidbits but we do try and paint a picture of cast and crew without it coming off as having printed the filmographies five minutes prior to the recording and inject whatever trivia we can, discuss release, reception, alt versions and such. Our turnaround isn't quick either, because we'd like to be as thorough as we can. How it comes off? Well, the select few who have reviewed our tracks, given social media, forum feedback etc have largely been kind. I'm sometimes not sure how the tracks are perceived but we try and put on a show with information, context, some fun and really the main goal was always to spread our voices outside of the podcast to a degree. Small degree is fine, and that seems to be working.

Edited October 3, 2023 by Knetan

[Niklaus Vogel]

Frank's anecdotes on his commentary on these two recent titles are worth the price of the Blu-Ray alone:

SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT--He talked about meeting Joyce Godenzi at the New York Asian Film Festival and taking her to the famous Macy's on 34th Street to buy shoes for Sammo Hung (He was that year's recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award and Joyce went with him).

MAGIC CRYSTAL--In a hilarious scene, Natalis Chan went to a bank to try to hypnotize the bank staff to give him money. Apparently that's the same bank that Frank's late mom would go to every month to pay for his elementary school's tuition and he would tag along.  He said the bank is still there when he was in Hong Kong earlier this year.

No other commentator can tell stories like these. They really enhanced my connection to these films and the filmmakers in a more personal way.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Niklaus Vogel

[MobFu1972]

Frank and Robert Samuels are my favorite guys👍👍👍

[ironfistedmonk]

I like when there is more than 1 person doing the commentary as they can bounce off each other, I'd love to hear a commentary with a group of drunk fu fans just chatting shit, it doesn't have to be all that informative just entertaining.  The best audio commentary I've heard was on a UK release of Dog Soldiers, they had quite a few of the cast and crew who had all been drinking and it was like being down the pub hearing them talk bollocks for 90 minutes

[Niklaus Vogel]

On 11/14/2023 at 1:40 PM, MobFu1972 said:

Frank and Robert Samuels are my favorite guys👍👍👍

Then you need to hunt down the Tai Seng Martial Arts Theater DVDs and the MASTER SWORDSMAN TV series DVD where Frank did the commentary with Ric Meyers and Bobby Samuels.  They were a lot of fun and on the last 2 or 3 they actually had to EAT while doing the commentaries because they were recording like 3 commentaries in one day and they didn't have time to go out and eat, so they ordered takeout and ate while recording.  Frank would comment and then say something like "Can you pass me the General Tsao's chicken Bobby?" It was hilarious. 

[Hasimir Fenring]

On 11/15/2023 at 5:22 PM, ironfistedmonk said:

I like when there is more than 1 person doing the commentary as they can bounce off each other, I'd love to hear a commentary with a group of drunk fu fans just chatting shit, it doesn't have to be all that informative just entertaining.  The best audio commentary I've heard was on a UK release of Dog Soldiers, they had quite a few of the cast and crew who had all been drinking and it was like being down the pub hearing them talk bollocks for 90 minutes

24 Hour Party People, at least the UK releases, has a video commentary with multiple former Factory Records people. Been 20 years since I saw it, so sadly can't remember it it descended into chaos or not.

[KUNG FU BOB]

I'm not into picking favorites because I know a lot of the people who do them (and I do find merit in most of them). In this situation, I'm more comfortable praising what I dig and saying nothing negative about what I don't care for.

I wanted to mention that I recently listened to the commentaries for both CHINA O'BRIEN films (the Vinegar Syndrome release) which feature Frank Djeng and John Charles. I don't think I've heard John doing one of these before, but he is a welcome addition and certainly added to the conversation- knowledgable, well-spoken, and a fun commentator. You guys may know him as the author of Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios (which I bought as a hardcover way back in 2000)* or from his work for the wonderful Video Watchdog Magazine. I'm curious if he's done other ACs.

*It appears to have been rereleased as a softback in 2009 with a different cover.

[Knetan]

We need more voices, and John is a welcome one. Was an avid reader of his site, own his book, and he vouched for me and Phil as we started working with Vinegar Syndrome. Good man.

[Killer Meteor]

I used to love John Charles' site HONG KONG DIGITAL...last review was 2006!

http://www.dighkmovies.com/index.html

 

[Knetan]

Glad it's still up after all these years.

[Niklaus Vogel]

5 hours ago, KUNG FU BOB said:

I'm not into picking favorites because I know a lot of the people who do them (and I do find merit in most of them). In this situation, I'm more comfortable praising what I dig and saying nothing negative about what I don't care for.

I wanted to mention that I recently listened to the commentaries for both CHINA O'BRIEN films (the Vinegar Syndrome release) which feature Frank Djeng and John Charles. I don't think I've heard John doing one of these before, but he is a welcome addition and certainly added to the conversation- knowledgable, well-spoken, and a fun commentator. You guys may know him as the author of Hong Kong Filmography, 1977-1997: A Reference Guide to 1,100 Films Produced by British Hong Kong Studios (which I bought as a hardcover way back in 2000)* or from his work for the wonderful Video Watchdog Magazine. I'm curious if he's done other ACs.

*It appears to have been rereleased as a softback in 2009 with a different cover.

John also did MR. VAMPIRE 3 with Frank on the Eureka set, ELECTION 1 and 2 with Frank on the Australia Chameleon set, and THE LAST BLOOD with Frank on 88 Films. All great tracks.  And John is low key, mellow, yet pleasant to listen to in that Canadian way (John is Canadian).  I hope he does more tracks too. And yes you want to get the softback of his book which has a MUCH BETTER cover!  

Edited 4 hours ago by Niklaus Vogel

[Knetan]

Yea I think John is the first to say that the hardcover art is... special. 

[Niklaus Vogel]

27 minutes ago, Knetan said:

Yea I think John is the first to say that the hardcover art is... special. 

Which is the Canadian way of calling something hideous.