Cinema Life & Everything 15 Kamara Kaizen

foreign [Music] okay then came well thank you so much and welcome to cinema life and everything it's a pleasure to have you on thank you for having me right so on this slightly gray day but definitely not as gray as it was at the weekend yeah you're doing good and everything today yeah yeah doing great today um just had a quite a relaxed morning not too bad so just prepped and ready to go brilliant brilliant that's what I like here well just to start off with would you like just to tell the listeners and indeed the viewers on YouTube a little bit about yourself and we can uh crack on with your film choices yeah sure uh well my name's Kamara um from the Midlands from Wolverhampton you know that's nice in the film industry um mainly with the martial arts side of things um I do like dinner weapons and Firearms stuff as well and I'm transitioning slowly towards stunts but I do enjoy the acting stuff as well so uh background actually I used to be a dancer still I'm a dancer but I'm just not professionally following it anymore but yeah that was my thing for the longest time and yeah stopped doing that due to injury but uh you know things happen in life got back into condition so still dance now but main thing is the martial arts and their film industry so that is me what martial arts he currently studying at the moment and what have you studied I'm interested yeah was my first and my baby I'll be honest that he's like you know like the Kung Fu that was influenced a lot you'll find on film choices and stuff yeah and I think with my background with family as well because my uncles growing up they both study lagar as well which yeah they kind of it's almost like a family thing now so yeah and um but I've learned other things as well along the way so I've done a bit of like um karate I've done a bit of um BJJ as well like learning just the groundwork because I know it's important to have that as well these days so that's something that I'm trying to get more into now so that's the more recent thing that I'm trying to get into so yeah I was I I gotta be honest I know a little bit about Kung Fu but I'm probably not as well versed as I should be I did whatever room and show account karate myself how this is just a question of the off the top of my head how is it with the distancing because I've always found with Kung Fu it's very very good for grappling because you've got the hand trapping and the enclosed punching and karate was very much about samurai or taking Samurai falls back so it's all very long distancing because they're trying to avoid the sword all the time like the unarmed um the unarmed Fighters so was it what did you find the difference in ranges is there a lot of transition in between Kung Fu and karate or is it a very different sort of stance um I say because um it's um like it's like a hard style because you've got like soft and hard Kung Fuji stuff night night um loud guys quite derived from my hunger and it has like certain elements of her Shaolin so you've got some other hairstyles for the animal stars like Tiger Claw and like Phoenix eye just little things like that so I think utilizing when it's up close it's more of the fists and everything but yes while they kind of I guess make that distance unknown is that with the kicks so with the Kung Fu kicks are quite low low down the body it's like a lower part but with a loud guy you do have kicks I guess to the waist or kind of like trapping kicks as well so that kind of determines the distance of you know if your opponent is longer than you're taller than you you've got that you can work that out but then if you need to get in close you've got those fast strikes to get in closer and do what you need to do on the inside pretty much because because my my experience with Kung Fu was that you have the Arts that are just based completely let's take someone out quickly which is like a sort of Krav Maga sort of thing but then you also have the classical style so there's a bit more of a flourish to everything they've they've they've made it quite beautiful so it can get passed down from generation to generation and you develop the style of it and then you sort of make it your own I always find Kung Fu mesh those two things together quite well in a sense that you had the beauty to it but at the same time the low kicks to the near the oblique kicks and stuff like that all very very effective in real life back in the day and we had learned techniques and stuff and you know you're scratching your head you would think what could this technique actually be used for in a real life situation and he'll be like okay I'll show you and then just little things like punches with like you know you're not the one knuckle and you're okay you know it's not as stable as a full fist whatever but then just getting hit with that that my new like surface area when you get hit with it just to put diet the pain like internally feel it and yeah that was you learned like little things like that like hitting in certain areas who does little key points and just implementing things like that I think uh I know it made me appreciate Kung Fu and I guess the magic of it almost because people just kind of like the whole mystical side of it and you know you see all this stuff on like Kung Fu films and people flying about or doing like crazy things people getting taken out across but then it's like yeah it's fabricated it may look to look more amazing on screen but in real life in real terms if you did those moves it wouldn't be as you know as showy but the impact of those moves is just as powerful like the power in those little minor spaces at the moments it's like amazing so that's what I appreciate about it personally and you've absolutely transitioned yourself perfectly here so talking about the magic of kung fu right there we go could you please buy myself uh could you uh give us your free film choices today because these are well one is technically I when you said this to me I couldn't really say it is sort of a Trilogy and they'll fit together nicely as well so you can't really pick just one so could you give me your free inner sort of way five films I mean to be fair of that trilogy I've managed to break it down and I have picked my favorite ones so my first film and it was mainly because it was my introduction to martial arts and Kung Fu in general um my uncle struck me this film when I was I think I was like nine years old at the time and you know I've watched a few like 15 certificate films and I was like oh okay this is you know watch alien Predator but then I think it was um Drunken Master yes and that was I know like I think I'll watch that and the whole training montage that was we're going to that interview but that was the one that really caught I was like wow this is amazing so that's my first film Drunken Master it's at 1978 I think that was yeah I couldn't believe how old it was actually so yeah we've got that um what's the one now so the Matrix remember I said it's a Trilogy like it's amazing like the whole when it first came out it was it changed genres and it brought something new visually and everything to cinema but for me personally and that's controversial but I prefer the second one The Matrix Reloaded hmm mainly because again with the martial arts influence on that there was a lot of um artists that were used in that and you know the whole idea of the Matrix like I know you saw a Keanu use Kung Fu in the first one but the second one really kind of showed the different styles the weapons and like the visual effects that we used so yeah the second one for me Matrix Reloaded and finally the third film was The Last Samurai yes incredible well done well remembered yeah that's the one that like people are just like what really and I was like yeah like when I break it down and it's like oh okay it makes sense now okay well I'm really excited so free absolute Classics um I I love the fact both me and you have actually spoke about the Matrix and we still refer to it as a Trilogy completely forgetting there is a resurrections out there but there's not really very much martial arts in that one they didn't get really ping back which was a real shame so it's it's got its moments but yeah it's a tricky one to put in with the other three to be quite honest it felt like it ended the tail with the third one for me yeah I mean it's the fourth one it was interesting it was I guess it had its own trajectory that it was going but in terms of I guess what the Matrix and Compass like the soul of it I felt like that was slightly missing and like so it was um whooping wasn't in it and other elements that weren't there I mean Lawrence Fishburne wasn't in it and I don't know if those little elements kind of changed it a little bit but it was I mean if kids kids or younger generation hadn't watched any of the Matrix films went in at that they'll probably be like oh this is really cool but then when you've kind of experienced from 99 to whenever it was The Originals really true but that was just the culmination of Cinema is beautiful like visually VFX were a new thing kind of thing back then so even though it may not have aged as well now like it's still great to see it personally I'm just like yeah I love it I want to get talking about like but for the first one even the scene where carry on uh Carrie Anne Moss talks about um you know you can't die because I love you and then he stops the bullets I mean it's iconic I don't care if the effects of a little bit drop down now it's still all three films have Parts in there where you're they're just breathtaking and the heartney emotion is there so I I I'm completely with you on him okay so where should we start which one should we start with oh with a drunk Master because I feel like you've got some input on that as well so grandfather sorry I'm yeah so yeah Uncle so so um was it so it's obviously got a real good childhoodling there which I love as well so what made that one stand out to you why were you just like whoa I don't know what it was to think um back in the day I mean you know you had films out I think he had like you're not married Elm Street she had Predator aliens but you know what kind of films and I was like okay like I was young watching these films and I was like oh I should be watching these but this is amazing and it was like I know just something like naughty about watching those kind of films but then when I watched like I know when I watch Drunken Master it was weird because I mean those kind of films I guess the the old stuff I used to like watching the carry-on films so that was something else that kind of influenced it but then you had like characters like Vegas who and like you had that comedic side to it but then when it did get serious like the training montage he's like there's no cuts and you could see like the training he was doing and he could almost physically see the transformation of Jackie Chan within that film and for me that's something I've never seen before so I was a bit like okay this is crazy and it's like how my uncle's like next time we're talking about it and talking about Kung Fu and doing all this in the background and I was like okay I know you like do it and I was like so wait is this what you're learning class and they're like pretty much so I was like okay this is this is what I really like this and we said it was so I was happy as well because when I watched it again the other day I managed because back in the day all Kung Fu films were dubbed which which is which is okay but okay now you must attack my master and it's that weird sort of like emotionless voice but when I got to watch it the other day with subtitles and you really hear Jackie Chan screaming and stuff it's like oh okay this adds a another element to it but um the the takes you've mentioned that already I mean how Blown Away by you by that it's like I remember they were good but it's that's actually what Cinema is getting back to now and that's in 78 like the unending take the one camera they're angling everything so you're not getting any misses like everything look some of it looks pretty full on actually I thought my like completely in Raptors I'm beginning to end and that physical comedy in a style of a a Buster Keaton or a Harold Lloyd like you said the um the um carry-on films as well funny but at the same time all those techniques are like full-on they're not playing around back then there was I mean I know they had like certain techniques they'd use now but they didn't really have stunt people back then it was if you were fighting you were fighting in that film that choreography that you learned it was done and that was the take and I doubt I know I didn't I don't know I personally how they did it back then but I mean I doubt they did like 20 plus takes for a scene they probably just fired it out if you got hit you got hit kind of thing and you would keep going and yeah it was just the whole like I said the Hope was the Cayden thing and I was saying I think Jackie Chan's like sort of read his book on that he said he's Buster Keaton and um Charlie Chaplin people like that so it was kind of you could see a lot of what influenced him within that film as well and then would yeah like um his master bigger Sue and the comedy of that with the drunken style and the crack fists and yeah it was the whole I think the training montage for me is the whole thing with the little teacups and yeah to you know inverted um sit-ups and like fill the thing come back down and do that and it's just those little physical things I was like wait is that even possible for someone to do but you know now that you'd have like a cup and someone doing it maybe but this was like full on him doing it and it was just like okay this is not just an actor he's an actual real martial artist and I I remember that back in the day as well uh when I read uh I am Jackie Chan an awesome autobiography every everyone should read it who's interested in film and he mentioned that Bruce Lee had sort of cornered the market in the serious fighting style so he said well I will not try and be another Bruce Lee I'm going to be my own person and add the comedy in but I think it's only recently watching him again and even especially watching this the other day um he's not playing around like he he's in incredible physical shape like his his acrobatics his martial arts are all on point and as you said as well there's a few bits in that when I'm looking at it and especially in the final fight when the guy is stamping down on him and trying to get stamped on his head and I'm like he's not pulling that that is coming for his head you know what I mean the eyes on the Target and I'm like and you I like watching Jackie Chan's the outtakes at the end if you you realize a few times yeah he didn't get out of the way but those hits were real some of them and you just like oh it's like he's like he still Smiles about it all but I think he's he's had some serious injuries going on and stuff as well right he's like some serious business like you said when you've read his book as well like he says he's pretty much broke everyone in his body pretty much and I think is it Armor of God is one of the films where when he fell out a tree and like just stuff like that he could have had someone do it for him he could have had like other things and safety things in place like even play story but each doesn't and he goes for a hug with everything he does and I think he was one of my biggest influences anyway for film and getting into this kind of thing so just seeing how he kind of visualizes things and puts things together and now he's but he's well there's a stock coordinator and everything and he's got his own school and everything it's all those years of hard work of doing what he did back then it's massively paid off do you think as well does it inspire you in terms of his legacy because he has done it all like he's never he's NE even though it's like we are as actors and martial artists on screen you are giving the illusion of violence or the illusion of portraying certain emotions there is no hiding behind the fact that he is he's real he's really had to do the training to learn all this and he really is doing the fighting all right they're not fighting to kill but he has got all the techniques available to him so he's really got that Legacy of authenticity about behind him as well would you feel that is a big influence for you as well oh massively massively I mean that's the thing because when I was younger I mean that was the whole thing like I kind of stopped with concrete I didn't really stray from it because I guess it was like a traditional thing back in the day it's like you know you pick one and that that's you that's your style kind of thing but then it's just as you go and like you know people like Bruce Lee that are kind of branched out learned different things to kind of get a better understanding of the martial arts World in general not just you know just as a Kung Fu practitioner or anything like that and it's like Jackie Chan as well like he's done like boxing other things as well so to see how they kind of implemented like stars from like the East and the west and doing different things as well I think that that does inspire me because it's like you know it's showing that you don't have to be like a one-trick pony like you can have like your foundation but then build on it and then you can take it anywhere else after that so yeah I'll tell you same with the dancing as well like Bruce Lee Ballroom dancer loads of boxers now studying dance before they go into boxing just because of about footwork and it's so interesting how it doesn't even have to be martial arts how just different movement different forms of human expression how they really connect with each other in very strange ways that you don't really pick up at first but for me even with uh like say when I start looking at some Kung Fu and coming from a very grappling background but in suddenly realizing the hand trap and stuff I'm like that's exactly the same as wrestling with arm drags and risk takes and I was like it all but it sort of goes to a point and then they go oh no but this stops here whereas it's actually no you just open your hands and it becomes something else so make in those connections do you enjoy doing all that as well I love it like those little things like when you learn one thing do a technique in one style then you try something else this this seems very familiar right to me right now the case of just an open hand or instead of a forward fist it's a back fist just little things but then the strikes they still fall in the same way and it's just a little tweak and it's a different style along us so yeah happy that's what I think that's why Jackie Chan holds such a place in my heart as well I would love to have you thank you that he managed to go okay I've got all this Kung Fu I've got all these skills but I had the comedy in I had the physical the physical drama but also as well not make it to and in a way it almost gives a release valve to the audience a little bit because you have the bit with the drinking so he's all a bit drunk and comedic and a bit wobbly all over the shop but then there's no fake in the violence but for people who might not be into such like full-on striking violence you've got the you've got the more comedic sort of like oh but he's falling about it's a little bit slapstick a little bit cartoonish as well no definitely that is I think yeah he just like he said it just holds a cadilla glaze in my heart that what he does is just amazing and I don't think it'll ever be replicated again I know everyone's got their own like version of what happens but I mean like there's only one Bruce Lee for me there's only one Jackie Chan as well so you know I think he's so it up so well that even if someone did come along and tried to recreate that style it's he is the originator so it would always go oh you're it's like him saying okay yeah I took ideas from Buster Keaton there's only one Buster key and there will only be one Jackie Chan it's similar if anyone ever stood there and what it's like you're doing yeah you're doing Bruce Lee you're playing you're playing homage there straight away and that's because and as I showed you of the name I've completely forgotten the name of the boxer now but there's actually a boxer a manual or something I'm desperately trying on his second name but he had a drunk master style in boxing and it was like how that's actually played into real like real well Israel real martial arts but you're not actually into like a actual combat Arena as well it's absolutely incredible yeah that's it thank you very much so yeah look him up it's just the way we're not because sort of like when you go down a YouTube rabbit hole like I want to do before doing one of these things and I was watching these wobbly leg boxing style then put drunker Master back on I was like oh my God I'd love to have a chat to him I bet you hit that's one of his favorite films as well that will be and that'll be an interesting conversation and I didn't realize he fought Floyd Mayweather like yes really and that was one of his like man with his hardest fights apparently so you can see that unpredictable drunken style is almost it's you know you can you can um use it in different sports but it still is unpredictable regardless of what you know what capacity is in so yes it's an effective style do you like take a message from the Drunken Master at all like being an artist of Noah or developing your own form or getting really loose before you're having a fight is it a sort of like thing you take from that film at all like when you watched it did a message really resonate with you I think for me personally because um I'm still getting guilty right now sometimes but and you know when you're like training or sparring or if you do something or you're doing a bit of Courier and you mess up a little bit and you're like ah okay but then it's that with drunken style it's like you can mess up a little bit but it's almost like because you have that free-flowing style if you just transition it into something else or take a misstep in a different direction you can almost change the direction of what you're doing and it's it's not a mistake then it's kind of you're just redirecting what you're doing almost so it's kind of like you don't need to be perfect in life whatever you're doing like just taking a take another Direction you'll still get there what you know just it's gonna happen anyway that's a hell of a message that really reminds me of a Bruce Lee's be like water as well just a different way of saying it like you know you can just flow through life and there are no real any mistakes you like you say you're met it's true to you and that's the most important thing it's a hell of a message to take from a film well done oh so um would you like to go on to the next film at all what would we uh have a chat about another one then what would you like to go on to next oh what should we do next yes go for the air The Matrix Reloaded because I know that's always a bit like but the second one patient for it was so much and because the first one was so genre breaking but the washout skis really wanted to put the message in with all the martial arts so I think it threw a bit people how much talking I know the architect is always going to be a bone of contention with loads of people but you know I loved it I personally loved it as well so you know so yeah go on please so did you go see this in the cinema was this like a big event movie for you right okay let's hear about it then because this one came out in 2003 oh God I still went to see him soon did it I have to like do the whole I was born a year before title man but [Laughter] um yeah sort of in cinemas and I was just I think that was one of the first 50est difficult films I've seen in the cinema and then it was just the idea of like a film with like a pretty much like a slightly continuation from the first because there's not many films that have that kind of first ones done and then see what is boom right from that so that was like a new kind of thing for me anyway personally and then just another development of the characters like you know Neo kind of realizes the one and his development within like um what's it called what's the world called now um not Zion um it's kind of like how he's kind of integrated into I guess reality the real world and how you know they're talking about the machines it was interesting for me because if I put all three of them together the first one is more like in um the computer world like not reality the second one I answered man and machine and then the third one's kind of like complete reality the war with the machines and that so I feel like the second one is almost it's almost like the yin yang it's like the balance of like you've got the machine and you've got the man and it's kind of it comes together at a certain point and yeah that's for a second for me the second one that's why it kind of lands so like dear to me I was rhythm I've got to be honest my mind when we talk about them I cannot separate them now because somewhere on this shelf behind me um I got a fan edit and they edited all three films together and the uh anime into into the Matrix all stuck together all in a timeline and I I just when I watch it I just you know it's like a seven hour job here I'm like right if we're gonna do it there's no end to this Matrix so but yeah from what like what the the I was really impressed with the second one because Neo had basically become Superman or or Godlike and how do you get drama back into someone that you basically can't defeat how do you make a threat again this is something that Marvel films have a lot of trouble with how do you make the villain a real threat I think the Matrix did it absolutely perfectly yeah X I think um as well with the second one like I said because he was such a an indomitable character in it it was cut and the Agents they're kind of not scared of him but they're a bit more wary of him but then it was you had them was it the Merovingian and then you had the other characters involved their silver twins which you know they were like coded programs but then it was just like they could face new walls and stuff and it's like I said that kind of added that danger element because even though Neil couldn't be hurt everyone around him was still vulnerable and that's why it tapped it to tapped into with him and he's emotions with obviously the Trinity about Lawrence fishburns like Morpheus and the highway scene incredible indeed oh my God this is when you said the second one it's like I don't think there's anything to apologize right you've got Lawrence Fishburne on top of a semi with a katana what is wrong if someone had explained to me that was the only thing you're going to see for two hours I'd be like yeah I'm good with that I can watch this it's the same the grand hallway and all the weapons on the walls and then that kind of pays homage to the older sales at the Hong Kong Cinema do I work like when the fighting and the wires think you can tell obviously the fighting the sword I was like jumping up by and I was like that was very like homage to look like that um yeah that's genre Cinema so it's just yeah it's beautiful so that kind of played into that then the different weapons he was using he had the Macy's you had the swords and so it almost like went through different styles of like fighting different weapons and yeah I think that whole scene leaning into the Highway Scene after that was just it's a beautiful part of Cinema it never like I think keanu's longevity and the amount of weapons and like his brain he said his geese is very good at learning sequences but his mind for remembering stuff is like on another and how he can transition from hand to hand to weapons to guns back to like melee weapons again it's like what are you doing mate it is a like so you mentioned that early on about it the second one was a lot more into the traditional and all the different types of kung fu I think mainly because Kiana could do it because he wasn't so injured with the second and third one so yeah what bits really stood out to you I mean apart from the I mean were there any particular techniques you saw or things that he did in it or you're like yeah that really really speaks to me it's the part where he fights um uh is it Seraph Sarah yeah yeah that's the key maker yeah like old like Chinese tea house that fight with those two is beautiful I love it because that is very much a traditional kung fu fight between those two and it's just like the little techniques like I said the the lucky and the sticking hands and like the intercepting kicks just everything in that little section and does I'm sure there's a bit of well what you use when they're on the tables and stuff as well just the cinematography and that and it felt like even though it wasn't one cup but it felt like the way it was filmed it was very much the cut was very clean and it didn't look like there was many cuts it was just like boom boom boom all the choreography and like you said because Keanu learned stuff like really fast in Korea and that that was just a little perfect scene that was and then another scene that sticks out for me as well even though it's it's not massively age well now it's when he fights like it's like a hundreds or a hundred thousands yeah agent Smith yeah yeah little elements of you can use anything around you and implement it with a martial art like Kung Fu or something else and it just it shows in everything he does and it plays really well in that film so yeah it's yeah it's up there for me probably the music is really underrated sometimes and I mean the soundtracks were ridiculous the soundtracks were so good that I think they have powered many a gym workout but the actual background music they're wow and when like Neo does a strike that's so big it almost bends reality and you get like the the ripple effect yeah it's just it's it's iconic and you can I think it came at a time yeah okay someone has some of the effects are a little bit dated now but it married what was at the absolute edge of capability for computers with really bringing back in what had been forgotten about fighting and how you could portray fighting on screen with these long takes and it me and Gunplay and stuff as well and it mixed it all together absolutely perfectly even though you had all those elements as well the story on top of it was just solid as well I just I just really like it it had everything that you needed for I guess the quote-unquote Blockbuster film these days you had like amazing story like cinematography like music like character development as well because you had like the other even though Neil was kind of at his Peak all the characters around him were still developing which it was nice to kind of see because like Trinity was obviously still struggling with the idea he had a Morpheus was even though Neil was the one it was kind of like is is he Gonna Save Us still is this actually is he gonna say Zion and and then if anyone hasn't seen it spoil it but towards the end when back in reality and he stops those machines shuts him down but then he like goes into a coma and that's like how it ended so it went I remember I saw it in the cinema yes so it's kind of like you realize like his powers are not just in the computer World actually in reality but then it obviously takes out of him so when it ended I was just like I could not wait for the third one after that I just think like I'm always big on subtext in films as well you can watch all of these films even the Matrix and go hey that's cool that's but if you actually some people to get a little bit too far about living in a simulation but that's a whole nother conversation for another day but just the idea of Free Will um the idea of having to like like you say with Neo he has been given this position of absolute power but how the human comes to deal with that and how it affects him and how he is aware that even though he has the ultimate power all his friends around him could die and he and he's going to be respond and he's responsible suddenly with saving the planet so all of these ideas are discussed and yeah I thought I thought he did it wonderfully I mean yeah there are some long conversational bits in it but why can't you have a blockbuster that also makes you think and question and have a conversation after watching it as well exactly it couldn't have played by myself that is perfect and also I was going to say I completely forgot about it with the Matrix as well I feel like it pays homage to um fat and the whole like yes right yeah like um what's it um is it boiled hard-boiled hard-boiled very similar and definitely pays homage to that so yeah you can't can't forget him as well like that area was just amazing that we 21 Jackie Chan anyone ever copies Jackie Chan style be oh he's copying Jackie Chan anytime anyone jumps to the air with two guns it's John Woo and especially if there's slow motion doves flying in the background and stuff but the guy completely rewrote Cinema as the as the Matrix did when the first time anyone saw bullet time they were like what was that like no an incredible second choice so um this is and I was interested in this one the next one The Last Samurai because it's not traditional Kurosawa but again there's lots of elements of all of it so I'm Tom Cruise Blockbuster guy himself so why the Last Samurai very interested in this one uh so the last time right um for me personally it was the first film that um I mean I've watched films before and had like a got emotional films no that's the first song I'll be honest that made me cry like actually made me man and it's just I know there's something in it like because his handsome I did the soundtrack to it and there's just some the amount of raw authenticity to it the way it's like all plays out and it's not a case of oh it's a happy film everyone wins at the end it's it's a story and no it's events that I mean obviously it's Loosely based off real life events and stuff but then it's you know you think about all these things that happen the alternative Revolution when guns started coming in play a war I feel like you know it's Samurai and people that follow codes and it was that kind of you know seeing the new world coming and how the old world is going to kind of transition into it but ultimately seeing how the really kind of taken out at the same time but yeah it was it's just it's a it's a lot of there's a lot of emotional context in it like there's loads of quotes I mean Ken Watanabe amazing in it it's a yeah it was it was a wicked film and um hiriaku Snyder as well I think that was that was the first time I ever saw him yeah it's when he takes the bullet he takes the Bullet Hole and just goes and spits out the blood and just carries on I'm like Oh my goodies well I like that as well because the character development in that because at the beginning with the whole you know once they meet and everything and you see Tom Cruise take out I guess their second General I think this is his um brother-in-law or something yeah yeah and then all that happens and it's like hiriaku Snyder's character he's just like he's like a Foreign Devil he's just he just wants to kill him straight away but then every time he sees him the interaction between them too like when he's fighting one of their sons with the buccane and then and then like here we go absolutely like beats the hell out of him but Tom Cruise still keeps grabbing for his like blade in that and it's almost that resilience and then it's that it's the fight scene where them to actually draw in the bucket and then there's that recognition and then it's like you know what okay I'll see I'll see you as an equal now almost like I respect you whereas before that is kind of like you're the enemy so yeah it's like that development between them too is just like a really nice story tired of my back which is which has been there for well over 20 years commends to me a samurai film that's going to be one of their choices I'm like I've got I've got no issues and it is it's one of my favorites the way they like I say they drew a lot of elements from traditional samurai films like Kurosawa but then they brought it into a Western World they got the Western starringers that would be palatable to Western audiences but they really kept the themes of Honor sacrifice um discipline all you know but also being a poet and the fact that uh Ken watanabe's character wanted to see the perfect cherry blossom I thought they got so many little details so so right it's uh it's gorgeous it's just it and it's beautiful like you say I didn't realize Hans Zimmer did the uh the soundtrack but that makes a lot more sense now it's yeah it's a it's it's pretty much a perfect film it's one of my favorite films actually good choice what I like about it as well the whole kind of live because they even Implement stuff like because I mean everyone like you know when you think about like ninjas and everyone's like ninjas all right first but then it's the little things that you realize you know ninjas are used to kind of of you know take out the last little bits of the Samurai Clans that were about and stuff there were almost government agents at a certain points so it's like to see the real reason like you know why they were used for a certain one and it's just like oh okay so you know like there's a reason why like you know when you hear about Samurai ninja don't really get along or whatever it's like oh why is that but then little like that whole scene when the ninja come to the cannon before that kicks off it's like oh you can see why it was an issue like you know in like Japan back back in the day and stuff like that so I think and it's interesting as well it's like the ninja like their swords and that there because I think their blades are a bit shorter and then like ninja ninja turtle or something it's cool so it's yeah so they can carry them on their back and stab upwards yeah yeah so well I did some like research Google does you do I mean like the original like Ninja Turtle were just like broken Samurai blades so they'd like shorten them and use use the like Samurai's blades basically they're definitely defeated or taken out so it'll be like okay so that was interesting to learn that side of the history and like you know that I mean samurai swords in general are beautiful like you know the folds you know the whole technique of How It's all put together I mean even though you got swords now that are more durable like you're stronger whatever there's there's a certain art and like you said there's a certain poetry and everything they do it's very much there's an art to everything it's a way of life and it's like the whole like Bushido code and everything they do it's yeah it's there's something about that you're just like it just like hit myself hit me deep itself and be like okay this is yeah I think for me I can't remember the character's name now but the um the the master Archer who has his haircut at one point and they even got the whole thing about having your hair cut is a disgrace but like Tom Cruise was like it's more important also Tom Cruise's character it's more important that you keep your life than lose your honor but by the end he understands uh honor is key it is what it is what defines you it what defines your legacy at the end of the day and it's a beautiful there's so many amazing last fans in it but it never gets old it's all everyone and like you say hit so emotionally as well it's interesting as well you see the transition over Tom Cruise characters all growing or something like that that's it is an alcoholic he's drinking loads because he's you know the demons avoided to Native Americans and stuff but then how he's been literally a nurse back to health by the wife of the person that the samurai he slayed so it's kind of like there's that kind of thing with that and I think it's later on when the he's going back to Samurai Cam and three other guys like surround him and he hasn't got a blade or anything and then he takes all three of them out and he's like almost he you see it in his mind he and he's just seeing everything visually and it's almost like he's not suffering from the Demons of his past anymore it's like he's living what he does in the present now and it's not okay what he's kind of like he's accepted this is his way of life almost and I was just a bit like Oh I thought that was powerful damn I completely forgot about that scene as well I know what we were talking about dance I've done a little bit of dance like Japanese interpretive dance and also um uh martial arts as well and when you have certain like fights or techniques you see them playing out before you do them and do you get that from it like it encapsulates it really well he knew how this fight was gonna go in before he did it because he was like like you say he got into that state of Oneness he'd become become a samurai rather than just being haunted by his past yeah so yeah that was like a really interesting take I'll watch it again this weekend like just I was like no wait let me watch it again and yeah still promise to us yeah yeah foreign spoilers anyone but you could always pause this uh podcast now and go and see him I'm just going to mention it quickly um I get I don't know how you feel about this but I if I feel like I'm being um forced to feel a certain emotion if the music's building in a certain way and there's close-ups on certain people's faces I'm just like yeah oh God okay you're trying to make me cry but Hans zimmers now that I found out is his soundtrack it makes sense to me and the final ride on the machine guns and for me it was almost the oh it's giving me goosebumps again the years of discipline and their order and honor against this new age and this was it they have to and you you want them to make it because you know the soldiers aren't as well disciplined as they should be and the music builds and you're like I'll make it please make it and oh laughs foreign thing but they just they would not let go of the blade so when they fell they would still have the blade in the hand some of them like you know propped up on it and it's just yeah it's just a really iconic scene just the visuals of it the music and everything about it was yeah it was a lot of response from that you know what I don't think I've seen many Samurai films where they don't die at the end it is a link to a viking sort of thing there as well like the death in combat like a samurai when you become that it's your it's your duty and yeah I think if you were ever um disarmed that's a huge dishonor as well because it's your basically your soul is enshrined in the sword and stuff as well so to be disarmed is a a grave dishonor it's something they they can't be going with either so um yeah I mean I just I think yeah you've summed it up perfectly as well from just the the beauty in it like even the armor like I'm always big on films that have got their details right and just it it even like the slow motion fights at the beginning and stuff as well it it got I could see where they've got the references from but they'd updated it and made it a complete film itself so and Tom Cruise and all of the uh interviews he was very quick to say where the references were so I'm like brilliant you know it was it they they really did a good job with that one as well yeah I generally feel like for me personally that was peaked on cruise I mean a lot of these like Mission Impossible films and everything that action set pieces and that but I feel like this one really like it looked like it made him dig deep emotionally at getting into the character and almost understanding the culture more so you know when he's in his roles he likes to do everything 100 a million yeah he's intense but I can imagine he really kind of got into this role because you know the emotionals and the same scenes that you seem very like real and raw even down to the um the scene where um the wife um of the Samurai kills like deropes him and starts putting the arm around him just like the the emotion in that scene it's just you know I was getting the robes on and everything it's like that I know I've finally becoming a Samurai and it's just yeah when you see him walk out in like the red the red armor and that and all the other Samurai standing there and it's just um walks up to him and he just like attacks him on normal make sure it fits her up here he's like it just walks up yes it gets all the emotional beats perfectly well that was actually when Tom Cruise he went from The Last Samurai straight on to another film called collateral with Jamie Foxx and I do I do believe yeah I I completely agree with you those two that was for me a perfect meshing of movie star Tom Cruise we've been able to hit the emotional beats and just like he can go like in terms of his acting he can really go and in that like you say the the character Arc from a drunk haunted by the Demons of his past to finding regaining his honor and finding a reason for living again in the hands of his enemy is just it's yeah and it's a message that comes to you and they don't have to beat you over the head with it as well and it's yeah an absolutely stunning film so thank you so much for letting me watch that one again as well fine so is there I just wanted to ask is there anything sort of that you've seen recently or coming up that you're interested in at all has sort of like piqued your interest a little bit um in terms of um cinematography and like visuals like fighting at the moment um I'd say I mean honorable mention like Gareth Evans the guy who did the raid yeah you know Peak and the series is doing the moment games of London oh yes you can tell he's encapsulated that style and brought it to commercial TV almost because a lot of people like you know it's not really into martial arts films or you know smart lights in general that might not kind of encountered that sort of I guess level of visceral like action and violence but the way he's brought it into like a gang-related like uh draft TV and because I've heard a lot of people speak about it and they're just like oh my God have you seen like this have you seen how these fights happen and like how it looks so real but then it's like it's something that's been done but it's never been done in such a a commercialized way like you know it's on Sky one and you know I'll watch it with my family I did the first season and it was great so it's just like they were just like loving it and it's just it's nice to see more people talking about these sort of things now and the different cinematography and different levels of action so that's for me at the moment that's one of the things that I love watching so I can't wait for next season to come out but yeah no no I mean I've watched the first season on DVD and I I because as you can hear from my subtle accent I I live in like in like Lincoln now but I was brought up in East London so when I saw about this gangs of London I was like oh this looks good but then when the fights kicked off I was completely unprepared for it but loved it because they they're so like just like you say visceral and the long takes and stuff do you have I mean we've gone from like the Jackie Chan style which are like unbelievable One camera which that seems about a single cut to it and they're probably trying to kill each other all the way through till we went to like the Jason Bourne very jumpy um almost like a documentary quick cut quick editing style it do you feel like it's going back towards like the John Wicks now and stuff like that it's going back and the extractions on Netflix these long one takes do you have a preferred style or do you like the waiter it's going again where you're really see any actors having to get stuck in and stuff as well I'm enjoying the uh the way action's going now because I mean it's it's paying homage to what was and kind of bringing we've got new cameras now we've got new tech technology and everything so it's interesting too because the thing is like back then like I said the cameras weren't as good but in terms of you could miss something or you know you'll be in the middle of something and it's so kind of the quality wasn't there sometimes so that cut or take might not be seen as much but now because you've got these like 4K cameras like every little interest thing is seen on screen so if you're getting that amount of action that we had from back in the day with the technology that we're molding together now you get in there like I said the John Wicks we get in you know the gangs of London and I think it's nice it's almost like the old and new is coming together yes I think it's bringing us to a new almost like a new era of like fighting and um like Stone Cold theme films but the only thing I feel is suffering a little bit these days is storytelling but I guess you know ideas are it's hard to come up with an original idea these days because you know there is so much ideas and stuff out there now that's been done and you know Disney and a couple of things like to redo things and bring Classics back which is good because it brings a new generation to a classic film but then it's kind of like we need the original scripts and the new technology the new visual scenes that we get in we need those to come back together to kind of take it to the next World so that's hopefully the next couple years we're going to see more of that coming in I think you're exactly right I I think what's happened is that technology has taken a massive step forward and what was done back in the day for real like with Jackie Chan where it was legit one take you now have the computer development that you can edit stuff together so it looks like one take and the camera can be a lot more free free uh free um roaming and stuff so it looks like this camera's coming in and out of the action and I just think storytelling has to catch up a little bit somewhat but you're completely right when you have the emotional resonance matched in with the visceral and you care about the people that have in the fights it just hits a whole nother level I I completely agree like running onto a gun onto a bunch of Gatling guns on Horseback just hoping that you're going to get one swiper to sword in but that's what I feel like those two like Matrix loaded and The Last Samurai were good because at the times like they they met the the quality of what they had then with the storytelling so they had both and I think that's what it's almost defined them as films it's like they had that balance of Amazing Story Italian amazing action set pieces cinematography like it just incompassed all of that so yeah I think once you start seeing if like you know the storytelling everything else catch up with technology we've got now I think room for a treat one thing I do have to just ask before we finish up as well what did you because we've talked about the Matrix so we've got to talk about hints how did you feel as spotless if you haven't seen the Free matrixes by now what can I tell you what did you think about the ending of it that you know not not the new one like how it actually sort of ended for me when Neo sacrifices himself how did you feel about that um oh see that's the interesting one because I know I've seen everything that happened with that Trinity when yeah unfortunately like yeah she bit the bullet but yeah yeah when he um sacrificed himself and then you get the visual of almost like him got into the machines but it's almost like wings an angel yeah he looks like and it's like it almost has that spiritual message to it he's like he basically had to sacrifice himself for the greater good of man to I guess advance and I think what's interesting to that was I mean for me that's probably the only link but for me has the link to the fourth one because he's his sacrifice almost at a point has allowed Mana machine to live together yes because it's important to kind of such on you know like the machines are working with the humans a bit more and stuff like that so I feel like that sacrifice ultimately gave them the ability to be able to do that so yeah I think the fourth one it wasn't needed but it kind of encompassed the ending of the third almost so yeah yeah it was it was it was an interesting take I I just really liked it but yeah I think going into the fourth one and realizing that they'd got both Trinity and Neo's broken bodies and it's sort of rebuilt them back up I was like oh it felt like the sacrifice is like no you can't that that was the only bit that really hurt me I was like oh you can't do that and I they're still using them you know they're about ready to get the batteries up yet right now it's been an absolute pleasure and like I say an absolute cracking free choices you made there if people want to follow you get in touch with you is there anywhere where people can follow you and check your stuff out that you want to reveal or do you just want to stay in them yeah I mean I'm on Instagram my name's uh Kamara it's like k-a-m-a-r-a underscore Kaizen so that's k-a-i-z-e-n and again that's a Japanese principle for continuous Improvement so that's it I'll stick it all in the show notes and stuff as well but like I say mate it's been absolute pleasure flew past and thank you once again because you allowed me to watch two films and I'm probably gonna go and check out The Last Samurai this afternoon as well but it was a pleasure mate thank you so much all right you take care man it's good speech yeah bye now foreign