Close Up – Steve aka Rishisune

I spoke to Steve recently about the project and I wanted to find out more about his views about Land of the Kami. Read on and enjoy:

Your character Rishisune was created with you in mind. Are you happy with the result and what was your initial reaction when you were introduced to your character?My first word, COOL! The similarities are uncanny. I do like to use my legs when fighting and I am also very competitive and constantly trying to improve myself as well and love every martial art invented. The most amazing similarity has to be that you picked Paul as my older brother, since I met Paul that is what he has been like, hopefully it will come across like that in the film, we are very good friends.

Land of the Kami is a short action movie with numerous fight scenes, could you tell us what you will bring to your character and Land of the Kami in terms of fight choreography?Since I was a kid I have watched film after film of martial arts and action, if I never watched the likes of Jean Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan or Marc Dacascos I would never be where I am today or met the wonderful people I have. With this in mind I have a wild imagination and am constantly thinking of fight scenes or ways to make fights more interesting and ways to make them more realistic. With the team we have working on the project, we are all on the same page and reading from the same book when it comes to our personalities and we get on so well, when it comes to fighting along side my big brother. I have been doing that for years with Paul as he is already like my older brother. I think also the techniques I have learnt from my martial arts will help create the character I have been given.

I know you have been training and researching a lot for this role. Can you tell us more?I am a fitness instructor by trade so I live and breathe the gym, hitting the weights 3 times a week and using specialised medicine ball work outs and plyometric workouts to help with my jumping. I have also kicked up my martial arts training and worked hard on the punch bag working my legs and hands, and working through some ideas with Paul on Jo and Bo work and some fight choreography. I have an endless supply of film and I’m watching all the time to get new ideas and new things to try, as well as having crazy ideas that pop into my head and try out.

I would like to ask more about you as a fan of action cinema. Do you remember the first martial art movie you ever watched at the cinema?

Mmmmmm a tough one, I have watched a lot of martial arts films on video as a kid, I thank my uncle for that, he was an action nut, in fact I was named after my uncle so you could say it was fate ha-ha. The first one I went to see at the cinema as a kid had to Rumble in the Bronx with Jackie Chan. I was 12 at the time and took a girl to see it, she was only a friend, but boy she never went to the cinema with me again, and it wasn’t exactly Ghost ha-ha. To this day my girlfriend hates when we go to Blockbuster video.

Did your passion for action cinema start then or was it before?

Definitely before! My first film I watched was a Jean Claude Van Damme movie. Every Sunday we would all go round my Grandmas and Granddads for Sunday dinner, me, my brother, my mom and my dad, and also my Uncle would be there. Before our dinner we would watch the A-Team, without fail then after dinner my Uncle would treat me to a film and to day it was A.W.O.L. and the start of my addiction for the bloodthirsty, gut wrenching, bone breaking action in films that I desired.

Can you remember the first martial arts movie you bought on video? What about you’re first DVD? (Please give an anecdote)

First film without a doubt Police Story and my first action DVD had to be Die Hard, the first one. I saw Police Story around my best friend’s house for the first time when we where 11 and proceeded to hound him for it ever since, in the end he swapped the video for a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle figure, Donatello I think.

As the youngest member of the crew you are rapidly catching up with your knowledge of action cinema, I know this is going to be tough but can you list your:

a) Top 10 UK and European action movies

Lock stock and 2 smoking Barrels
Snatch
District 13
Brotherhood of the Wolf

I’m out haha.

b) Top US action movies

Rocky (all of them)
Die Hard (all of them)
Kickboxer
Predator
Blade (all of them)
Only the Strong
A.W.O.L
Hard to Kill
Demolition man
Bloodsport

c) Top Asian movies

Warrior King
Ong Bak
Police Story 1 and 2
Dragons Forever
Hard Boiled
Enter The Dragon
Project A 1 and 2
Big Boss
Game of Death
Armour of God and Operation Condor

What are the worst action movies you have ever watched?

Transporter 2, need I say anymore! Good idea in the first one, bad CGI in the 2^nd. And I have to say Batman Begins. I love the film but the action scenes sucked, it had all the promise in the world to have fantastic fight scenes as we know Bale can deliver but the editing was poor and ruined it for me.

Now be honest, you know they are bad but you love watching them. Which movies are your guilty pleasures?

Anything with Gary Daniels in, he is great but the film are less than crap ha-ha.

Do you have a theory in terms of what makes a great action movie and why some are so bad?

It has to be down to the build up and the editing. If you have action stars or stunt co-ordinators that can fight and really move then show what they can do, it makes the audience see what should be seen in terms of action.

And the build up to a fight scene has to be perfect, we have to see little things in there personality, the way they move, the way they act and this shows the audience ‘’that boy when he kicks off it’s gonna be good’’.

I love your enthusiasm in this project. Would you like to get involved in action film making? Could you tell us more about your dreams?