GREG ESPINOZA: David Kurzhal, also known as The Viking Samurai.
DAVID KURZHAL: The one and only.
GREG ESPINOZA: How are you doing today?
DAVID KURZHAL: I’m doing great, thank you.
GREG ESPINOZA: So, I hope I’ve got this right. You’ve done roughly eight films; The Last Kumite, Battle Planet, Elite Target, Bloodstorm…
DAVID KURZHAL: That’s coming out soon, yeah.
GREG ESPINOZA:That’s coming out, but you’ve got other films in various stages of post production.
DAVID KURZHAL: Uh-huh.
GREG ESPINOZA: In this film, Hard Redemption, you’re the big bad. Tell me a bit about your character.
DAVID KURZHAL: The character of Solomon, they speak about him, they talk about him. You know he’s a powerful character. You don’t see him, and then he all of a sudden shows up at the end. And you know stuff is going to go down in a very big and bad way, especially with the hero. Actually, the heroes, because you’ve got Bryan, (Preston Yeung) and you’ve got Bryan’s teacher, James (Jino Kang). So, they’ll be no match for Solomon.
GREG ESPINOZA: As you’re the villain of the piece, what you do to put yourself in the mindset of the character? Do you see yourself as the hero of your story?
DAVID KURZHAL: Of my own real story? In real life? Absolutely. or do you mean…?
GREG ESPINOZA: In the movie. Definitely in the movie.
DAVID KURZHAL: In the movie I think you have to. Even a bad guy in real life doesn’t think he’s the bad guy. Like The Joker thinks he’s the good guy, and Batman’s the villain. I think to have the right motivation, in general, people don’t think they’re evil, or the bad guy. North Korea doesn’t think they’re evil, they think America’s evil, right?
GREG ESPINOZA: Absolutely.
DAVID KURZHAL: Of course, getting into that character. I’m doing something good. Bryan is supposed to be part of the family, part of the gang. He wants to break away, but he can’t do that. And we’re gonna show him why. Teach him a lesson, give an example to other people. There has to be some kind of honor and loyalty when you join a family like that.
GREG ESPINOZA: How did you come to be hired on this film? Did you seek them out, or was it through an agent?
DAVID KURZHAL: You know that’s a really good question. Because of David J. Moore, who I’ve gotten to know over time through my YouTube channel. We did a lot of networking through the YouTube channel, talking about the 80s and 90s action and martial arts films. There’s a guy named Justin Hawkins who introduced me to Sheldon Lettich. And I think Sheldon is the one who introduced me to David, because David J. Moore is his publicist. And I first got connected with him because we were going to show Sheldon Lettich’s short film Firefight – interesting bit of trivia, because it stars Frank Dux as an actor in that movie, Frank Dux of course was in…
GREG ESPINOZA: Bloodsport. Absolutely.
DAVID KURZHAL: And it had Simon and Phillip Rhee. Brian Thompson. You know before these guys did anything. Very Interesting trivia – anyway, that short film disappeared, and then I had built a rapport with Sheldon, and he said why don’t we just premiere that film on your channel, The Viking Samurai channel, so it was a great honor. Anyway, that’s how I got connected to David, and he sent me a couple of his books, great books. We’re into the same stuff, as far as the action and martial arts, especially from that era. And he’s seen some of the stuff I’d been doing, he’d seen me on Instagram and YouTube. “Oh, this guy’s like a martial artist and trains in real life.” And then I started doing movies like The Last Kumite, so he had recommended me to Jino. David J. Moore wrote the script, and I don’t know what kind of deal he had with Jino, if he wanted someone else to make it, or if eventually it ended up in Jino’s hands, or if it was like that from the inception. I don’t know all the history, but I do know that’s how I got in. You meet somebody, you meet somebody, you meet somebody, to doing other unrelated work, but in that kind movie genre. And then a recommendation, like “hey, this guy could probably be pretty good in a film,” and we’re having a great time shooting it, you know.
GREG ESPINOZA: It’s all about the connections.
DAVID KURZHAL: Definitely.
GREG ESPINOZA: Can you tell me a little bit about your process in blocking your fight scenes with Jino?
DAVID KURZHAL: Oh, we’re both lifetime martial artists. so we have a lot of really great grappling. That’s his department. He’s done jiujitsu for 20 years. I come from a TaeKwonDo background, Kenpo karate, Krav Maga. We implement a lot my flashy TaeKwonDo kicks. He’s got lot of his too, because he also has an Akido background. We just really gelled well together. He was 90% of the choreography. I had my suggestions, but for the most part, he blueprinted it, and I just added a few things that would be specific that I thought I could do well.
GREG ESPINOZA: You’ve been a lifetime martial artist as you’ve just stated. How did you fall into acting? Did someone discover you and say, “this guy is awesome, I’ve gotta have him in my film.”
DAVID KURZHAL: <laughs> Yeah, I wish that’d happened back in the day. I guess in a roundabout way, did it with The Last Kumite. See, this whole acting pursuit is something I tried to do back in the day when I went to film school, and I was doing acting classes, and auditioning, but I always felt I’m not going to break in that way. I’d have to find a different way to break in. Fast forward, after a time it ended up being the YouTube channel with what we were talking about, all the networking connections. and then there was a a guy named Shawn David in Germany that was making a film called The Last Kumite, and he reached out to me back in the day, and at the time I was working on an unrelated project, so I was focused on that. So I wasn’t getting onboard initially for the Last Kumite. Long story short, i think it was meant to happen, I think it was destiny, because I did end up getting a very nice role in that. Literally, if somebody had thrown the script on my desk and said pick whatever character you want, I would have picked the character of Marcus Gantz, that I ended up playing. I really feel like it was fate. I guess because of what I covered on my Viking Samurai YouTube channel, action/martial arts films of the 80s and 90s, he (David) loves the 80s, wanted to bring back an 80s-style martial arts film, which he did, because it’s an homage to Bloodsport and all those great films back in the day. He sensed my passion and he was checking out some of my stuff, “say, you’re a really good martial artist. I’d like to get you involved.” That’s pretty much how it happened. Yeah.
GREG ESPINOZA: Now what kind of long term plans do you have in action films? And what’s next for you?
DAVID KURZHAL: I think big, right! I want to get to the level of Jason Statham or Vin Diesel. I want to get that big. You might as well shoot for the stars, because maybe you’ll land on the moon. Shoot high, shoot big!
GREG ESPINOZA: It’s a good goal.
DAVID KURZHAL: Definitely. And I’m very passionate about this. Like I said, it’s something I wanted to do back in day. Now I’ve got some traction. People have seen some of the films and I’m getting good feedback. I’ve been doing everything myself, so I’ll actually look for a manager and/or agent next year. See it’s all about building a name. everyone wants to see what kind of social media presence you have, how many followers. Another big passion of mine is that competitive spirit. I see all those influencer boxing matches, right? The biggest one right now is Jake Paul and Mike Tyson. Anyway, a few years ago, I got this idea in my head because I’m connected to a lot of boxing guys, like trainers and world champions. I need to get one of these big fights because I’ve always been interested in boxing even though I come from a traditional martial arts background. Long story short, I had played a big part in manifesting a huge match against one of the greatest boxers of all time, Sugar Shane Mosley, that’s happening on September 28th. I want and need that challenge in my life. At the same time, it’s going to boost my popularity. You know, and I think it will help the movies. Because I have equal passion for both. So it all kind of works together.
GREG ESPINOZA: That sounds amazing. Last question: Your Viking Samurai channel on Youtube is popular. How did you pick the Viking Samurai name? Is there an underlying story or philosophy? Or did it just sound cool.
DAVID KURZHAL: Both! It sounded very cool. And I’ll tell you where I took that name. People recognize me in public from the YouTube channel. I literally had two people in Italy, of all places, in 2022 when I was on vacation, recognize me because of that YouTube channel, know me as Viking Samurai. You know, which is crazy. I mean it’s cool, and it’s a very memorable name. It is kind of based on my mixed ancestry. I do have Northern European in the blood, and Japanese. Technically, I’m more German and Korean.Though it’s funny, the guy I’m staying with while we’re shooting this film, Sifu Mark Gerry, just for fun asked Alexa, “who’s Viking Samurai?” And Alexa (Amazon) said I was half French and half Japanese. So I don’t know where that came from? I’m half European and half Asian, but the samurai and the vikings evoke that warrior spirit. I’m kind of the yin and yang: The Japanese seem more honorable and peaceful, right, compared to the vikings. You know what they do, pillaging villages and stuff.
GREG ESPINOZA: Right. As opposed to the Bushido code.
DAVID KURZHAL: Exactly. And like you asked, the name just sounds cool. It’s really become something.
GREG ESPINOZA: It’s your brand.
DAVID KURZHAL: It *is* my brand. And they’re talking about Viking Samurai versus Sugar Shane Mosley, that’s what they’re talking about.
GREG ESPINOZA: Well, I think that wraps it up.
DAVID KURZHAL: Yeah, that was great, man.
GREG ESPINOZA: Very cool meeting you, thanks so much for your time.
Hard Redemption is now streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime:
https://www.amazon.com/Hard-Redemption-Jino-Kang/dp/B0GVZMJ8SQ
Please check out the Viking Samurai channel on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@VikingSamurai