“Gladiator Underground” – Interview with D.Y. Sao and Director Chaya Supannarat

Hi D.Y. and Chaya, welcome to Kung Fu Kingdom. Hope you’re doing well today! Before we get started, what are your thoughts on our name Kung Fu Kingdom & our goal to inspire 100 million people around the world to study martial arts?

D.Y. – I think that’s great! I mean, I’m a truly believer that martial arts saved my life, so the way we can spread positivity and unity, martial arts is the way to go.

Chaya – Yeah, I think it’s a great thing, because one of the reasons D.Y. and I and the other guys got together was because we wanted to hype up the world about martial arts.

Awesome, thanks guys! Well, let’s go ahead and start with how you got started in martial arts? What different disciplines have you trained in?

D.Y. – I grew up in the projects in Long Beach, California, and so I needed to learn how to fight, so I watched a lot of movies to look at the techniques, because there was no UFC back then, and my family couldn’t afford martial arts classes. But then later on, martial arts makes you realize that the enemy is within, and that helped me cultivate myself. So, I got out of that mindset of me against somebody else.

The cast and crew of Gladiator Underground pose for a picture

It’s officially a wrap on Gladiator Underground!

I’ve been doing martial arts for 39 years. My dad taught me some basic Cambodian martial arts, and we couldn’t afford martial arts classes, so I picked up six basic techniques of karate. I also started just watching kung fu movies and learning from that, starting with “Iron Monkey”, “Tai Chi Master”, “Drunken Master II”. Then I got into Wing Chun when I was 17 and lo and behold, my experience at 13 studying films was an advantage when I joined Wushu and realized how to express myself using kung fu. In only two years and ten months, I made the U.S. National Wushu Team, and I owe it to studying how the masters communicate power, vulnerability, and how to communicate something when it means something to you. So, it was an advantage that I didn’t start just learning basics, I learned what masters did. Then I also got into Jiu Jitsu and kickboxing at South Coast Martial Arts, and so many people helped me, friends teaching Taekwondo, Kenpo Karate, and only when I turned about 30 did I start doing deep Cambodian martial arts. Now, my specialty is Cambodian martial arts and kung fu.

Chaya – I had some background in Muay Thai and karate, but I hurt myself unfortunately. I wanted to be like D.Y., but you can’t get as good as he is overnight!

So, how did D.Y. Sao and Chaya Supannarat come together as an action filmmaking duo?

Chaya – We’d known each other for about 8 years before D.Y. was in the movie “Fast Vengeance”, so we’ve known each other for about 12 or 13 years.

Related to that, how did Andy and Brian Le of Martial Club fame come aboard “Gladiator Underground”?

D.Y. – Yeah, I’ve known Andy and Brian for over two decades. I knew Andy since he was 10 when I was motivating him to pull off his first aerial, and then he becomes a kicking champion doing all these flips in the air. We each did our own thing, and then later in life, for some reason, it felt like we had the same vision. So, we started collaborating on shorts on Andy and Brian’s YouTube channel, Martial Club, and then we started helping each other do feature films. Those guys are my two favourite guys in the world. If anybody loves martial arts more than me, which is very hard to find, it’s those two guys, one hundred percent, hands down!

Yes, their martial arts enthusiasm is very evident! So, how was the making of “Gladiator Underground” different for you both compared to other movies you’ve made like “Bangkok Dog”?

D.Y. – You know, every film you make, you grow so much to build your arsenal for the next film. It’s also different because I’m a different person than I was doing “Bangkok Dog”, so you’ll see a different person in “Gladiator Underground”!

DY Sao with Andy and Brian Le on the set of Gladiator Underground

DY is very happy with how the next action scene is unfolding in Gladiator Underground.

Chaya – For me, in the making of both movies, it’s a big difference because I was new at directing an action movie, despite the fact that I grew up on action movies since I was a kid, but I wasn’t as involved in the action, I was more involved in the story. But from that experience, I went into “Gladiator Underground” like “Okay, now, I know that I can do emotional stuff, so how do I come in and tell the story visually?”, and that was really my goal with “Gladiator Underground”. With martial arts, there are ways to show movements that show the beauty of it, but there are also ways to enhance the movie story-wise.

So now that I know how to show the abilities of everyone, I can use new camera movements and angles, and look at it from “When do I push in? When do I come out? When do I flip the frames?” When you work with martial artists, you cannot just ask them to do the flip 10 times, you just have to plan ahead and see how you’re going to do it the other way around later on in editing. So, for me, I grew from standing on the side trying to watch the story only to incorporating the story into the movement and tell it visually my own way.

And actually, in the tournament in “Gladiator Underground”, there’s also a spinning wheel where fighters can add weapons into the mix. How did that idea come into the making of the movie?

Chaya – That came from our producer and writer Ariel Bleiberg. Originally, D.Y. and I were talking about the idea of a guy who lost his memory, wanders around the streets of Bangkok, and meets this one martial arts teacher. Then, in order to find out who he is and where he came from, he has to use his skills to enter a tournament. That’s the idea that D.Y. and I were talking about originally, and we pitched it to Ariel, and he came back with his own concept of avenging the grandmaster that we loved. When it came to the whole idea of the spinning wheel, the idea was that instead of just having you fighting the opponent, we wanted there to be another means for him to kill you to raise the stakes, which was Ariel’s idea, so that’s how the spinning wheel came about.

DY is ready to rumble in Gladiator Underground.

Chaya prepares for the next big action scene of Gladiator Underground

So, what would D.Y. and Chaya say was the hardest or most complex fight scene in “Gladiator Underground”?

Chaya – For me, it would be the round three free-for-all fight when all the different stages are brought in. We divided it into four stages, and raised the platform, and the hard part about that was time, since we didn’t have that much time, and at the same time, we had to shoot with two cameras on all four of the fights going on simultaneously, which was the only way to tackle that fight. We also had to film it in such a way that cameras didn’t catch each other, so we’d start out by saying “Okay, D.Y., you’re only going in this direction, so whatever you do, you have to fight towards that direction.” So, we were having fight scenes on four platforms in four different directions, and that was my most difficult day.

D.Y. – I agree with Chaya, that day was – we thought it was impossible. We had a meeting with the action director, and by God’s grace, it happened, and it came out really good. But yeah, I agree with Chaya!

Chaya – Yeah, me and the action director, Joseph [Le], we were like “Okay, this is the reason why I raised the platform so it’s not even”, so he and I could turn our backs to each other and both still shoot. Imagine us in the middle of a clock, and we just had to put our backs together and shoot in opposite directions.

Chaya makes sure everything is in place for the next action scene of Gladiator Underground!

Chaya discusses the next action scene of Gladiator Underground with DY Sao and Andy Le.

Were there any major injuries or mishaps during the making of “Gladiator Underground”?

D.Y. – No big injuries. You know, the regular bruises and such.

Chaya – Yeah, bruises here and there. The only major injury that happened on one of our movies actually was on “Bangkok Dog”, when one of the bad guys got his finger cut by D.Y.’s character. I thought, “Oh, that scream sounded so real”, but we couldn’t even tell, and the stunt guy didn’t even tell us at first. Later on, I asked him how he made that scream sound so real, and he told me he really cut his fingers in that scene, and I went “Oh s—t!” On “Gladiator Underground”, nobody got injured.

Andy Le vs Ron Smoorenburg in Gladiator Underground

D.Y. – But the stunt guys took some hard hits! These are really good professional stunt men, Thailand has really good stuntmen.

Chaya – That’s also one of the reasons we keep going back to Thailand, because when it comes to action, I really trust the stunt people there. Especially when it comes to taking hits and everything, it’s them.

Totally! Looking now at the release of “Gladiator Underground”, the movie made its grand premiere at the action-focused film festival of the 3^rd annual Big Bad Film Fest this year. How did the premiere of “Gladiator Underground” at 2025’s Big Bad Film Fest come about?

D.Y. – Well, Ariel was the one to set it all up. We always wanted to showcase the film at a festival, because we wanted to see it on the big screen, so the fact that it was in the theater and we can all celebrate, we’ll do it 10 times more if they want!

Chaya – I’d also like to give a shout-out to Big Bad Film Fest, because they had us last year for “Bangkok Dog”, and they invited us back this year, so we are very grateful for that, big time!

So, what other projects do you guys have coming up after the release of “Gladiator Underground”?

Chaya – I have some things similar to “Gladiator Underground” coming up right now, but it’s going to be a bigger world. I’m going to keep it tight for now and not spoil it yet, but there’s something like that being cooked up right now, right D.Y.?

D.Y. – Yep!

Chaya – We’re planning on creating something in the same realm, but in a bigger scope.

We definitely look forward to seeing what that entails. Well, as we prepare to sign off D.Y. and Chaya, who are some other big names in the martial arts movie world you guys would be interested in working with on future projects?

D.Y. – Oh man, I’d like to work with all of them. I mean, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins, Donnie Yen, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais, they’re all inspiring to me, and if I got the chance to learn from them, that’d be great.

Chaya – Same, same, but for me, the only difference is whatever, they’ve done in their movies before, if I bring them in, I would twist it. If I had the chance to bring all these great people together and give them roles they haven’t done before, and then push that forward, that would be my dream goal.

That sounds awesome, we definitely hope to see that all come together soon. Thank you so much for the pleasure of our interview today, D.Y. and Chaya. Congratulations on the reception of “Gladiator Underground”, and we look forward to seeing all of your action-packed projects in the future!

Chaya – Thank you so much Brad!

D.Y. – Thanks for having us today on Kung Fu Kingdom!