Isaac Florentine
Isaac, for what reason did you return to the world of “Ninja”?
Isaac Florentine: About a year ago, one of the distributors at Nu Image came up with the idea of making a sequel to Ninja. He was the first to say, “Let’s make a sequel to Ninja!” A distant idea of a sequel has emerged. I pitched a few of my ideas, producer Boaz Davidson pitched a few of his, and David White, the screenwriter for the Undisputed film I directed, pitched a few of his, and Ninja 2 was born.
Why didn't Boaz write the script for this film? He was the screenwriter of the first part.
Isaac Florentine: He's got a lot of work to do right now.
Was Scott Adkins' return predetermined, or did you have to convince him that a Ninja sequel was a good idea?
Isaac Florentine: In this industry you can't be 100% sure of anything, but in this case it was clear that after filming the first part, he had to star in the second.
Do you consider this part a sequel or is it a completely different film?
Isaac Florentine: In terms of plot, it's a sequel, but in terms of style, this film... the first part was more like comic books in style, this part is more realistic. No wires, no fantasy... the character is in a more believable world, Scott's character becomes darker in this film. This is a sequel, but with a different style.
How do you intend to enhance the action and present the martial arts? Or do your plans only apply to them?
Isaac Florentine: We have a very good team, and it was a pleasant surprise. As you already know, this is not a big budget film. I had one limitation - I had to use locals, which, in principle, is not bad, because such films as “Ong-Bak” were filmed here. I involved all the locals. It was a very pleasant surprise that the fight coordinators were Tim Man and Brahim Achabbake. Tim is from Sweden and Brahim is from France. It's a pleasure to work with them. They are full of innovation, creative ideas, responsible, and the most amazing thing is how well organized they are. When they arrived, they outlined the action for me, showed me what they were capable of, and I realized that I could go to bed with peace of mind.
How did Tim and Brahim get involved in the filming crew of Ninja 2?
Isaac Florentine: My assistant is related to Prachya Pinkay, the director of Ong Bak. Last year she saw them working on a movie here in Bangkok. It was called "Kill 'Em All." She was impressed by their work and told me their names. Scott had heard about them, and I sort of heard about them. All the components were present. We all had the opportunity to work together. The work experience was simply excellent. I'm very pleased with them.
This is your eighth film with Scott. Tell us about your next work with him.
Isaac Florentine: You're talking to someone who has worked with him many times. We both know each other's strengths and weaknesses. He and I worked together so often that we don’t need to explain ourselves or explain anything to each other.
Kane Kosugi has been involved in the world of action films since childhood. Why did you cast him in Ninja 2? Tell us how it was to work with him.
Isaac Florentine: I've been wanting to work with Kane for the last few years. Now came a great opportunity. I knew exactly what he was capable of; I didn’t have any doubts about him. A rare combination when a person is a representative of two continents. He's American, but he's lived in Japan so long that he can pass for Japanese. He is capable of playing both characters. He can play a Japanese character and he won't have any difficulty with the accent. He can handle action too.
Tell us about the heroine Mika Hiiji. This time, what does her character have to do with the plot?
Isaac Florentine: In the first film, the events took place when Scott and Micah's characters were not yet married. In this film, he finds out that she is pregnant and she is killed. He considers himself guilty of her murder. Now he is very upset and it changes his personality a lot.
It turns out that this is the “Dark Knight” in the “Ninja” film series.
Isaac Florentine: Sort of. The first Ninja was based on... the idea of Batman... in a sense, Batman is also a ninja. The idea was for the ninja to become Batman. This was the case in the first part.
It looks like you guys packed this movie with as many fights as possible. Tell us about the battles.
Isaac Florentine: There's a lot of fighting in this movie. Someone counted 15. I didn't count them. There's plenty of action here! High-quality, legible action. We focused on the colorfulness and dynamics of battles, and not on their cruelty. Highly visible, technical fights. I always strive to ensure that the action is clearly visible on the screen. Then you can see the technique. As a practitioner and fan of martial arts, I want to see all the beauty of fights.
Tim Man
Tim, tell me about Mayat, your character from Ninja 2.
Tim Man: He's the main assistant to another character named Goro. His personal bodyguard. In the film, Goro is one of the main negative characters.
Tell us about your work on the fights for this film. I can already say that you are working on some pretty spectacular things here.
Tim Man: Well, there are a lot of fight scenes in this movie. I come up with all the fights, direct all the stunts, and take care of their safety.
What approach do you take to ensure that the fights are unconventional and unique? They looked impressive in the first Ninja. What are you doing to make the fights in this film even more spectacular?
Tim Man: I discussed this with Isaac. He told me that he didn't want the fighting style to be too Japanese. He wanted them to be a little more like Undisputed and The Raid. The first pre-visas I made were shot in exactly this direction, but when Isaac looked at them, he said: “Nope... we need to add more Japanese!” I thought, “Okay...” I was a little confused. It took me a while to understand what Isaac needed. Once I understood what he wanted, it became pretty easy to find the style he wanted.
What style did he need?
Tim Man: Basically Japanese style, but more realistic, more violent, similar to what his Undisputed was, but at the same time different from the first Ninja. With a combination of styles from Ninja and Undisputed.
The first Ninja was pretty gory, but Isaac told me they're going to stick with the PG-13 rating for this movie. How do you intend to adapt this fighting style and on-screen violence to this rating?
Tim Man: I actually didn't find out about it until a week or two before we started filming. Everything planned was going to be bloody and stuff like that, so I had to reduce the amount of blood, but it didn't affect the rest of my plans.
How did you feel about the film being rated PG-13?
Tim Man: I have nothing against it, but I would prefer it NOT to be PG-13. It would be even cooler, you know?
You're obviously familiar with Isaac's work?
Tim Man: Yeah, big fan. The way he makes his films. I think he's great. Most of the directors I've seen - I mean Western directors - really only scratch the surface of action. They'll set the main angle to show some of the action, but Isaac is actually in control of the action scenes. He tells us where to place the camera and how we should behave. Nice to watch. You don't see something like this very often.
Tell us about working with Scott Adkins.
Tim Man: What can I say? Everyone knows Scott. He is very talented. Capable of anything. As soon as I introduce him to the choreography, he has already learned it. He doesn’t have to do much preparation - he grasps everything on the fly. He is easy to work with.
Tell us about working with Kane Kosugi.
Tim Man: He's a very humble and nice guy. Very polite.
It's interesting that you star in the film and coordinate the stunts. Tell me, how do you manage this?
Tim Man: I'm lucky that I have a small role in the film, so I'm focusing on the fighting. I think that somewhere towards the end of the film I will be filming most of the episodes with my participation, so now, fortunately, I can take the fights seriously, and only then my role.
Tell me briefly about what martial arts you used to do?
Tim Man: I started when I was six years old. I started with judo and jiu-jitsu. At that time it was just pampering. I didn't understand why I was doing this. But then, when I turned eight, I took up taekwondo and met my first teacher. I started training very seriously. I studied his family's style. It was Vietnamese Viet Vo Dao style. After that I did boxing, wushu, and stuff like that.
How did you make your film debut?
Tim Man: I've worked on a lot of shows. While I was in Sweden I was contacted to take part in some behind the scenes work. Then I met with the stunt coordinator. We started communicating, this continued for several years, and I became his student. He taught me everything about the filming process.
How do filmmakers use your appearance? In films you look different from others, you have a very unique appearance. Are you going to play villains all the time? Would you like to play a positive hero someday?
Tim Man: I don't know. I like playing villains. This is much more interesting. I don't mind playing negative characters.
Tell us something about Kill of All.
Tim Man: I was just in Italy, finishing work on a film there. It was the first Italian martial arts comedy. During filming, the director contacted me and asked me if I would like to work as a choreographer in the Thai film "Kill of All". There was a character named Kid, and they were having trouble finding an actor. The director asked me if I would be okay with playing the role and I agreed.
What should fans of action and martial arts films expect from Ninja 2?
Tim Man: Oh, there's a lot of action! Lots of good fights. Scott always brings a good dose of good energy to fights.
Ross Clarkson
You worked as a cinematographer on seven of Isaac Florentine's films. You are not going to stop. Why?
Ross Clarkson: You wonder why, don't you? Isaac has many talents. He needs a suitable film crew for his work. This is the main reason why I work with him all the time. I understand what he needs, even when he gets a little tense. This doesn't bother me at all because I used to work in Hong Kong. There's plenty of support here. I hope the result will be good.
You've worked with many action stars throughout your career - Dolph Lundgren, Van Damme, Michael Jai White, and now Scott Adkins several times. What is it like working on action and martial arts films?
Ross Clarkson: It's difficult. Interesting. Because these guys are jumping up and down doing cool stunts. The workflow itself is interesting, when you have to make sure that they don’t fall out of the frame during shooting. From an operator's point of view, it's a little difficult, because they are quite fast.
I'm going to name a few films you've worked on. Share a few words about these films. First: "Direct Contact".
Ross Clarkson: For Dolph Lundgren, it was his own Die Hard. Everything was exploding. It contained many clips from other films. I directed all those other films. (laughs) The taxi chase is straight out of "Derailed." A bit of everything.
Mechanic.
Ross Clarkson: This was Dolph's second film as a director. He allowed me to influence him. Accepted many of my ideas. We often discussed a lot of things. Everything was worked out. The plot, the camera angles, everything. That's noticeable. The film looks good.
Replicant.
Ross Clarkson: Replicant was a great movie. Ringo Lam always brought the best out of Van Damme. I especially remember the ending with the ambulance chase scene. It just looked fantastic for a single car chase. The filming took at least 7 days, and in the end 4 ambulances were destroyed. And Michael Rooker agreed to raise the side of the ambulance during filming of the accident. And I said, “Dude, I'm with you!” Therefore, he hooked himself to the ceiling so that his face could be filmed from the side during the impact with 4 cars. It was funny!
You've worked with Scott Adkins several times.
Ross Clarkson: He has great potential. He just needs the right project for his career to take off. Undisputed 2 was supposed to be released in theaters. I met with one person who was present at the meeting. Then there were from 8 to 10 people sitting at the table. Only one was against the theatrical release. If the film had been released on the big screen, it would have changed many people's careers. But that did not happen. Not only was the film not released in theaters, its release was delayed. It was a real bummer.
Tell us about working on Ninja 2.
Ross Clarkson: This time the character has more personal intentions. He's out for blood. He has other motives. We shot in Japan, Thailand and Burma, so the film is less polished and more realistic.
What should fans of Scott Adkins, Isaac Florentine, and action films in general expect from this film?
Ross Clarkson: Of all the films I've worked on, it has the most action. Of the 36-day shooting schedule, only 10 days were spent not filming fights.
Frank DeMartini
Tell me how you got Ninja 2 into development.
Frank DeMartini: What happened was that after the first Ninja, there were always plans to make Ninja 2. Time passed, and things got to the point where the project was almost on the verge of liquidation. The first draft of the script had already been written, and I talked to Avi [Lerner]. He said we should go back to Thailand to make another film. I asked him: “What do you mean?” He said there were a couple of movies that could be made, and I said, “Okay, what about Ninja 2?” He replied: “Let's take a look. Let’s see how much it costs us, and then maybe we’ll rent it there.” I got down to business and started pushing the project forward. You, as a producer, have to make efforts to ensure that the project sees the light, and if I didn’t like it, if I didn’t help promote it, then it would all end there.
Tell us about working on this film with Isaac Florentine?
Frank DeMartini: I've known Isaac for probably 15 years. Even more. At one time, even before I started producing, I was his lawyer. Although we had known each other for many years, we had never had the opportunity to work together until now. Now it has happened, and finally we can take on what we have long wanted to do. There were a number of projects with larger budgets that we wanted to bring to life, but nothing worked out with any of them.
Did you like the first Ninja with Scott Adkins?
Frank DeMartini: According to the contract with Millennium, I have the right to be the first to familiarize myself with the working materials of the future project. In case of refusal, I can find another buyer. I watched the first Ninja and, yes, I liked it. I've always been a fan of Scott and wanted to make a movie with him. It's just the right time.
What attracts you to these types of ninja films?
Frank DeMartini: I've loved this genre since Bruce Lee. Sam Firstenberg (director of Revenge of the Ninja and American Ninja) was also one of my clients when I was a lawyer. I was involved in films back when he was making films with Sho (Kosugi). I like it. I like the atmosphere of Japanese culture.
If you listen to the word of mouth in the action movie world, you can hear what people are saying about Scott Adkins. What do you think about him?
Frank DeMartini: He's a true martial artist. When we made American Ninja, we knew that Michael Dudikoff was just an actor. Michael had no martial arts skills. Scott owns it. In real life, he can do things that other actors cannot. He is very talented. He is capable in terms of acting, and this is a big advantage over other similar guys.
What are you planning to do to make Ninja 2 different from the first part and look original?
Frank DeMartini: The first part was more like an anime, a cartoon version of a movie about ninjas. This is noticeable in the design of the locations and the plot. This time we want to make it a more realistic, hardcore revenge action movie. Although we are limited by the PG-13 rating, which is holding us back a little, we are trying to somehow get out of this situation.
Who decided to give the film a PG-13 age limit?
Frank DeMartini: It was done for marketing reasons.
What should martial arts movie fans, fans of Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine expect from this film?
Frank DeMartini: I think they'll be in for quite a show because our fight choreographer, Tim Man, is very, very good, and the fights will be extremely realistic and stylish, which is something that hasn't happened very often in recent action films. For example, everything was done the old fashioned way - there will be very little computer graphics in it. In the film, only one stunt used cables, everything else was done live. Everything was done for real, in the spirit of action movies of the 70s-80s. Hopefully we can surpass the first film. And then we will soon be able to film the third part.
Tell us something about working in Thailand.
Frank DeMartini: I love working in Thailand.
Author: David J. Moore
Source: outlawvern.com
Translation: EvilDollaR
Thanks for the links Celpaso
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Tags: Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear, Isaac Florentine, Scott Adkins, Tim Man
Tags: Ninja: Shadow Of A Tear, Isaac Florentine, Scott Adkins, Tim Man
Very interesting. And especially about how “Undisputed” was not released in theaters.
Thank you.