If you’ve never heard of filmmaker and stuntman Vlad Rimburg, you’re missing out in the worst way! And his latest entry to his online resume, the short film “Osu”, Rimburg’s ode to all forms of Japanese and Okinawan Karate, is just one diamond in the treasure chest that is Rimburg’s YouTube Channel.
There’s a meticulous attention to detail in the highly classical nature of the techniques utilized in the film. In the hands of the film’s leading men Micah Karns and Nate Hitpas, every punch, knife-hand chop, kick, and block is executed the way you’d expect Mas Oyama or Gichin Funakoshi to utilize them in combat. It’s an approach very often drawn upon with kung fu-driven action but seen relatively infrequently with karate. For textbook-style karate combat, “Osu” is as good as it gets!
It’s amazing how some of the best action filmmakers rarely get the kind of resources that bigger-budget films do, and nevertheless manage to consistently show them up. There are action flicks with hundreds of millions thrown at them that have made it to theaters this year that aren’t half this good – cough – “Divergent” – cough. Part of that has to do with the lack of unnecessary shaky cam, but there’s also the willingness of the men executing the movements to put themselves through such physical punishment. More than a few of the blows our two combatants trade clearly make contact, and it’d hardly be shocking to find out that some of that blood on each of their gi’s is real!
Be sure to check out Vlad Rimburg’s YouTube Channel for more of the awesome action seen in “Osu”, including his spectacular tribute to HammerGirl of “The Raid 2”, and watch out for him in LBP Stunt’s Chicago’s film “Unlucky Stars” later this year:
In the meantime, someone in Hollywood snatch Vlad, Micah, and Nate up!
