Last night was a special night for The Action Elite. Myself, J-Man, Sean and Jason were lucky enough to go to a screening of Tiger Claws starring Jalal Merhi, Cynthia Rothrock and Bolo Yeung. Jalal Merhi was in attendance and did a Q & A which I recorded most of the audio of.
I apologize for the quality, but I literally just used my phone.
Before the screening we went to the Vinegar Syndrome store which is right across the street from the theatre and is a cornucopia of delights for any fan of physical media; they have new Blu-rays, 4Ks, VHS tapes and a basement full of Vinyl. I got the Bruce Willis album the Return of Bruno LP for $5; Under The Boardwalk remains a favourite of mine.
I picked up a great variety of movies too which you can see the photos of below:
The Tiger Claws Trilogy collection I own, but I brought it with me and if you look closely Jalal was kind enough to autograph it for me.
If I see a random VHS tape of an obscure action movie then I have to pick it up and Air Rage starring Ice-T was only $4, so I had to have it.
I bought a t-shirt of Ninja III: The Domination which is now my favourite item of clothing. One of the many highlights of the night was I actually won a signed poster for Tiger Claws. The question asked to the audience was who co-stars with Jalal Merhi in Expect to Die? To which I responded David Bradley.
J-Man won the other prize, so we both got a signed poster and free copies of The Circuit movies.
Before the start of Tiger Claws we were shown some dailies from the film which have never been shown before featuring some more scenes from editing room floor. There wasn’t anything too spectacular, but it was cool trying to spot the various spots in Toronto where the movie was filmed.
Jalal also discussed The Circuit 4: Faith Fighter which is having its premiere in L.A. tonight; you may remember there was going to be a Circuit television series, but instead it has been turned into multiple films so I believe we ware getting sequels up to The Circuit 7 in the coming months and years.
When Tiger Claws started it was like being 15 years old again as that’s around the age I was when the film was first released in the 90’s. It’s still a massively entertaining action picture with regular fight scenes and it’s hard not to love the pairing of Jalal and Cynthia. Bolo Yeung was always a force to be reckoned with on screen making for an intimidating adversary and the final showdown is thoroughly satisfying.
My only gripe with the evening was an annoying bunch of people at the back who kept laughing throughout; it’s just plain rude and disrespectful. You know who you are…
Aside from that, a night like that is what I run this site for and it’s the kind of thing I would like to do more often as it is right in our wheelhouse. I want to give a shout out to Black Belt Cinema, The Revue Cinema and Vinegar Syndrome for giving us such a special night.
Here are some pictures from last night including J-Man, Jalal and myself as well as just some of the VHS tapes in the Vinegar Syndrome basement.
