Australia’s First Urban Action Adventure screening in LA!Come and meet one the Australian independent filmmakers of this gungho guerrilla made feature film created from downtown Western Sydney, Australia.
Time: 7.30pm
Date: Friday 9th of October, 209
Location: Echo Park Film Center
1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd)
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Cost: Free! But limited spaces, bookings essential.
To book in, please email maria.tran85@gmail.com with your Name, email, booking numbers.
Or call 4158893219.
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Media Release – September 2009
Australia’s first urban kung fu action adventure is now in LA for a one night screening! Since late September, “Maximum Choppage: Round 2” has been screened over 12 nights to large audiences all over Austalia (Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane) finally, with the support of community arts organisation Information & Cultural Exchange (ICE), this fanatically funny film is going to be screened to Los Angeles audiences.
The maker of this epic no-budget, first-time youth film, producer/ actress Maria Tran will be traveling with it. “There’s been such as buzz in the air about this Kung Fu action comedy film. Its no-budget and made by Aussie young people” comments Timothy.
Made by an artist collective called Rumble Pictures based in Cabramatta in Sydney’s West – Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is their offering to the recent explosion in popularity for Kung Fu Films. “We definitely want to get feedback from this creative city and meet up with Brisbane film makers and emerging artists” comments Maria Tran.
Not since the cult 1975 film The Man From Hong Kong has Australia produced its own Kung Fu film. Tired of the solid foreign diet Rumble Pictures decided to produce their own tribute to the martial arts films of the 70’s and 80’s using the local urban streets as their back drop. Offering a reinvention of the Kung Fu genre but taking direct inspiration from the classic 70 and 80s narratives of Jackie Chan, Rumble Pictures are proud to present Australia’s first “no-budget, but epic ambition” action Kung Fu film.
Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is a 70 minute urban action adventure exploring the great story telling corner stones of love and pride. Two arch rivals fight with swords over a girl in down town battle! Within a story line dedicated to accommodate as many kick ass kung fu show downs as possible, the result is fast, furious and funny.
The producers, Rumble Pictures, have ensured that the fundamental essence of Kung-Fu action is not lost nor compromised in their ploy to pay such homage. What results is a preservation of the slapstick fun and comedic notions of the earlier work of Jackie Chan highlighted with the animated cues of Steven Chow’s Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle. Writer and Director Craig Anderson from the ABC’s Double the Fist noted the film’s presence as an innovative montage of action and comedy.
“Here’s a truly funny film that acknowledges its roots. An old school Kung Fu film in its purity!” he says. Maximum Choppage: Round 2 is an independent film four years in the making. It makes no apologies for its ‘rough around-the-edges’ approach to cinematography that pushes the boundaries of guerilla-style filmmaking – action sequences at its most organic.
In the project’s initial stages when resources were limited, camera dollies were replaced by skate boards and home mattresses dragged into the street to use as crash pads as people dove off council bins! The cast and crew of the film comprise mainly of young Asian Australians from diverse backgrounds of Western Sydney.
More significantly, these contemporary groups of filmmakers are either martial arts experts or have had a fondness towards the genre of films. All fights and stunts are performed by the cast themselves. “Every week a group of us would meet up on a Friday night to watch old school kung fu films and develop ideas to somehow bring back the elements of what is now missing in contemporary Kung Fu films,” Director Timothy Ly says. “We wanted to make films that inspire young people, particularly from Asian backgrounds, to pick up their own cameras and do it better than us.
We get sick of all the negative and stereotypical profile that we get so we wanted to create an action film that uses the urban Australian environment as our set – we don’t hide from the urbanism of our surroundings we wanted to focus on it and high light it, we like the idea of two guys fighting over a girl with swords in suburban Australia!” One of the main focuses of the film is to portray the 2nd generation migrant experience in Australia.
The film’s fun and positive format does not emphasise its oriental roots as much but more its expression of cultural identity and diversity on home soil. Most recently, Rumble Pictures has completed their Australia’s first Kung Fu TV series “Downtown Rumble” as aired nationally on ABC-JTV.
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