In response to the Coronavirus pandemic, many big film productions had to shut down or be halted until health regulations declared it was safe to continue. Since lockdowns have led to the closure of a large number of cinemas worldwide, filmmakers were prevented from releasing their films as expected. Now they have to wait for the situation to gradually improve, but the waiting time is unknown.

 

In the meantime, smaller/local film groups have been making martial arts shorts on internet platforms such as YouTube. This goes to show the versatility of smaller productions as there is less crew involved, leading to much safer as well as less strict and bureaucratic processes than their big-budget counterparts.

 

In this program, we explore the work of MartialClub. MartialClub is a team of martial artists and filmmakers based in Orange County, California. Founded in 2011, MartialClub has been consistently producing and uploading various martial arts-related content onto their YouTube channel, including short films, skits, fight scenes, tutorials, and vlogs. Their first and foremost goal is to “spread the virtues and ethics of traditional Kung Fu in the modern age”. They have more than 600,000 subscribers on YouTube; a substantial amount, to say the least. The original team consisted of only 3 members, the Le brothers Andy and Brian, and their childhood friend, Daniel Mah. Today, they boast a large crew of 10+ members and counting.

 

MartialClub is known for their ability to create quality action films on very little to no budget. Their fight scenes are often compared to, and sometimes even surpass in quality, those of real feature-length films; a clear example of the fact that one does not need professional gear and funding in order to make good kung fu films.