In 2009 Jim Kelly, best known for his performance as Williams in the Bruce Lee‘s Enter the Dragon, starred in martial arts movie named Afro Ninja directed by actor, stuntman and fight choreographer Mark Hicks (Ultraviolet, The Expendables, Gamer, Terminator Salvation).
This is micro-budget film made by the guy who was the subject of the infamous afro-ninja youtube clip (almost 6 million views so far). Although he looks like a hapless goof in the clip, he’s actually a talented stuntman who just screwed up. He got much bad publicity from the clip and decided to turn a lemon into lemonade by spinning off a movie based on the clip. This is it.
What a lot of people don’t realise is that Hicks was given another chance to audition for the role, and he actually landed the part. He got to meet LeBron James and his childhood idol Jim Kelly. Months later, Hicks was stunt-doubling for the film XXX: State of the Union and later The Fast and the Furious franchise.
If you like kung fu movies and you have a sense of humor you might like this.
Plot: When our hapless hero comes into possession of an ancient magic sword, he is transformed into…Afro Ninja! Not only does he receive an infusion of amazing ninja talent, he grows an instant Afro haircut!
In a battle of good versus evil, he must defend the community from corruption and gangsters. With the help of divine forces, the most unlikely of individuals must stand for truth and justice.
Let me remind you who Jim Kelly is.
James M. “the Dragon” Kelly was born on May 5, 1946. He is an American athlete, actor, and martial artist who came to prominence in the early 1970s. He is best known for his performance as Williams in the 1973 Bruce Lee’s martial arts film Enter the Dragon.
Kelly was born in Paris, Kentucky. He began his athletic career in high school, competing in basketball, football, and track and field. He attended the University of Louisville where he played football, but left during his freshman year to begin studying Shorin-ryu karate. Additionally, he trained in Okinawa-te karate under the direction of Shihan Gordon Doversola. Kelly won the Huntington Beach Classic and credits Doversola with making him a world class fighter. During this time, other notables such as Joe Lewis would also train in the same martial arts school. After winning the middleweight title at the 1971 Long Beach International Karate Championships in Long Beach, he opened his own dojo.
As an actor, Kelly is best known for co-starring alongside Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. The role was originally supposed to go to actor Rockne Tarkington, who unexpectedly dropped out days before shooting in Hong Kong. Producer Fred Weintraub had heard about Jim Kelly’s karate studio in the Crenshaw district of Los Angeles, and went there to see him and was immediately impressed. Kelly’s role as Williams, an inner-city karate instructor who is harassed by white police officers, made a good impression upon directors and African-American males with his cool-cat demeanor and large afro.
This appearance led to starring roles in a string of martial arts-themed blaxploitation films, among them Melinda and Black Belt Jones. Most of Kelly’s film roles played up the novelty of an African-American martial arts master.He earned a three-film contract with Warner Brothers and made Three the Hard Way with Jim Brown and Fred Williamson, and Hot Potato, a movie in which he rescues a diplomat’s daughter from the jungles of Thailand. After his contract ended with Warner Brothers, he starred in low-budget films Black Samurai, Death Dimension, and Tattoo Connection.
After his appearance in 1982’s One Down, Two to Go, Kelly appeared in movies only rarely.
He was a professional tennis player on the USTA Senior Men’s Circuit. Now Kelly resides in Southern California and works as a professional tennis coach.
source: wikipedia, amazon
