Unarmed But Dangerous [2009]

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TS: We are the only people, to my knowledge, in the world that have made a film like this and a few people I have talked to have said we have also created a new genre “Flidsplotation”! When this film comes out maybe there will be a few more made which will be brilliant as there are a lot of talented actors out there who have disabilities and they need to be seen and heard. In that respect, it’s difficult to see how Kung Fu Flid can do anything except disappoint. It singularly fails to live up to its marketing yet it doesn’t actually go far enough to confound expectations. To reach its aims, the study relies on qualitative methods that guarantee the necessary openness for irritations from the field and allow for conceptual modifications that render theoretically guided drafts of categories more adequate in view of the data. Qualitative content analysis combined with elements of discourse analysis has been chosen as the primary method. On the foundation of the understanding generated by this method, a non-positivistic sequence analysis that sheds light on the dynamics of political communication was conducted. The details of the methods and their methodological justification are described in the next section. terms set in italics indicate that they are employed as a catachresis for a word of another language or speech community.

Suddenly there is a banging on the door downstairs. When Jimmy answers it, two men burst in and there is a scuffle which leaves Lu shot in the stomach and one of the intruders extremely badly injured. In fact we subsequently learn that Jimmy, in wrestling the bloke’s gun away, shot him in the balls. Phil Hobden: ‘Kung Fu Flid’ is very much a unique action film. What initially attracted you to the project? More importantly, Trump’s states that he uses the term “Chinese virus” as a reaction to Chinese officials’ accusation that the virus “was caused by American soldiers.” In response to a journalist’s doubt whether Trump is not worried that the use of “Chinese virus” could have caused “dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans,” Trump maintains that he uses the term not in a xenophobic or discriminating way but only to indicate that the virus originated in China, assuring that he has “great love for all the people from our country.” Interestingly, Trump responds to a question about a White House official’s alleged use of the term “Kung flu” by asking the reporter who this person was and, obviously not acquainted with the expression, to repeat the term. Terry Stone: I met Xavier Leret and Mat Fraser about 2 years ago and although when we first discussed the film I thought it was a totally insane concept and it took me 2 years to get my head around it, the more we discussed it the more I thought this would make an outrageous and ballsy film and I like to take risks and not just do what everyone else is doing. Now we are planning 2 more films to create the world's first Flid trilogy.

Skills

In the context of societal polarization, the term “populism” receives increasing attention—as a political battle cry and an analytical instrument in academic discourses. The term denotes a rather fuzzy concept that, however, is organized around a core meaning. Populists are considered persons, groups, and organizations that present themselves as advocates of the imagined community ( Anderson, 2006) of the people who they contrast with allegedly corrupt elites. These examples also show that Trump uses the accusations of his opponents to victimize himself. Trump depicts his accusers as acting out of political reasons, endangering the wellbeing of ‘the people’ for their own goals. This is also exemplified by the following exchange from July 22: “Question: […] Would you like to respond to Joe Biden, who, today, described you […] as the first racist to be elected President. […] Trump: […] it’s interesting because we […] passed criminal justice reform, something that Obama and Biden were unable to do. We did opportunity cities.” The theme “Trump administration’s response to COVID-19” allows for insights into who Trump is, rhetorically, siding with. The sub-theme “Economic side of COVID-19 handling” is particularly insightful. One of the earliest topics that appears in Trump’s public statements is that he is supporting workers. On March 17, Trump states, “[m]y administration has taken decisive action to support American workers and businesses. We love our workers.” Until August 24, the topic appears 15 times in Trump’s statements. From June 17 to September 13, Trump constantly claims praise for rising job numbers. On March 20, Trump already announces that he will help students to cope with the situation by suspending interests on student loans. This theme becomes very repetitive between August 8 and August 12. It was the launch event for something or other. I was working for the Regional Arts Board at the time and we had maybe put some money in. There was free wine so, naturally, I went along. I’m fairly positive that must have been Mat Fraser. There are actors in wheelchairs, one-legged and one-armed actors, blind actors, deaf actors but as far as I know there’s only one thalidomide actor. His most prominent role was probably in the TV series Metrosexuality but he was already known in some circles for his fringe work including his provocative one-man show Seal Boy. He has also cropped up in things like Iron Maiden-directed Crowley not-biopic Chemical Wedding.

The dataset shows that Trump violates the expectations of political correctness in numerous situations. This is most obvious when Trump uses the terms under consideration and becomes particularly visible as a breach of expectations when he is criticized like during a press conference on March 18: “Question: Why do you keep calling this the ‘Chinese virus’? There are reports of dozens of incidents of bias against Chinese Americans in this country. […] Trump: Because it comes from China. Comment: People say it’s racist. Trump: It’s not racist at all. […] It comes from China. That’s why. […] I want to be accurate. […] I have great love for all of the people from our country. But […] China tried to say […] that it was caused by American soldiers.” Trump banalizes the use of the terms just like in the following quote from March 26: “I talk about the Chinese virus and, and I mean it. That’s where it came from. You know, if you look at Ebola, if you look at […] Lyme. Right? Lyme, Connecticut. You look at all these different, horrible diseases, they seem to come with a name with the location. And this was a Chinese virus.” On March 30, Trump again affirms that he locates the origin of COVID-19 in China with the help of the expression “Chinese virus” to repudiate the claim that the virus originated among US soldiers. Identifying his own statements as “very strong against China,” Trump evokes the impression that he stands up against injustice in spite of unfavorable consequences. I stood next to Mat Fraser at a bar once. I’m pretty sure it was him. He’s quite distinctive, with the little arms and everything. There are of course other people in the world who were born with similar Thalidomide-induced disabilities but he’s the only one I know who acts, and this was the bar at Nottingham Playhouse. Ah yes, the daughter. Well, two things. First, there is no explanation of, or reason for, the daughter’s kidnap. More to the point, Xavier Leret cast his own daughter in the role and, sorry to say this, but she can’t act. And that’s a big problem for the film. Lola isn’t called on to do very much, she barely has any dialogue, but she does feature quite a bit - let’s face it, she’s the McGuffin - and the film will only work if we see how much danger she is in and how much she could suffer, especially at the hands of Cristol who is understandably bitter about losing (part of) her own child.Kung Fu Flid’ may get the Daily Mail crowd up on their podiums but with a host of the UK’s best acting and fight talent both in front and behind the cameras, a knowing, referential script and some hardcore action, it will be a film that will get people talking for all the right reasons.

But that’s not what we get. Kung Fu Flid actually turns out to be a fairly straightforward low-budget indie British gangster picture. Starring that short-armed bloke who was on the telly. It’s got a few fights, yes, but it’s not by any stretch of the imagination a martial arts film. It’s about as far from Zatoichi as you could get. The latter type would be exemplified by something like Charlie Band’s The Creeps(sorry to keep giving short actor examples, they’re just obvious ones that I know about). Phil Fondacaro is never, let’s face it, going to play Dracula. So what does he get to play in The Creeps? A very short Dracula. By the same token Mat Fraser, that bloke off that telly show who has those weird little arms, is clearly never going to play an action hero. Jimmy races desperately to save Lu although once again I can’t work out how he knows where to go. There is a bizarre diversion at this point as he takes a ride in a taxi driven by a slightly loopy devout Catholic who witters on about things and has a small Christ figure on his dashboard. I couldn’t work out the point of the character - perhaps it’s meant to be a comic interlude - but the plastic Messiah later becomes relevant. I caught up with the films Producer and co-star Terry Stone and director Xavier Leret to talk about the what, how’s and why’s of what’s set to be this years most talked about Independent action film. The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. Publisher’s NotePH: There have been a spate of low-budget (by Hollywood standards) action or gangster films made in the UK over the past 5 years. What is it about the genre that appeals to UK independent filmmakers? XL: Two more Flids. I'm helping some friends out on the 'Codfather', 'Exit Strategy' (a friend of mine was kidnapped outside of Fallujah just as heads were rolling), 'Burning Tree Drive'... Look, it just seems very odd to make a film about a man with vestigial arms fighting people in which not one of his opponents ventures to comment, before, during or after a fight, that it ought to be easy to beat a guy with vestigial arms. The reason why characters think they can beat Zatoichi or the One-Armed Swordsman is because those characters apparently present no threat on account of either (a) being blind or (b) having only one arm.