Marked For Death, 1990
Welcome back to a proper martial arts edition of Kung Fu February on Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers! Dion & Blake are back and taking on a cult classic, featuring the man, the myth, the legend, Steven Seagal, in his 1990 iconic film, Marked For Death!
The boys unpack the 3rd film in Steven Seagal‘s catalog, discussing his backstory and more importantly, they discuss the martial art he practices, Aikido and it’s history, and Dion‘s connection to it. They then take the way-back machine way down the alley to 1990, and analyse the movie/marital arts scene at the time, and how bad-ass Seagal was. They lay out the argument of why we need a director’s cut of this film, on this all new proper Aikido installment of Saturday Night Movie Sleepovers!
EXTRAS!
Here, here and here is Dion back in 2010 when he met Seagal.
Check out the founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba aka O-Sensei, doing unbelievable looking things, using his martial art.
And here’s some more footage of him in Japan, in the late 80s.
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I just finished this episode. I wasn’t sure how I was gonna feel about this one because I wasn’t a Seagal fan growing up. I was a Van Damme kid. I think the only movie of the pony-tailed wonder I liked was Under Siege. But this episode has made me think I should give Seagal’s older films a try…at least the early ones. Sure, the guy’s a nut-bar now, but people liked him for a reason.
If you guys wanna laugh, check this out: when I was listening to this episode at the City Register, I was talking with my friends about whether they were Van Damme or Seagal fans back in the day. While Van Damme won out, it was closer than I expected. It came down to our Jamaican friend named Twain. I asked him who he preferred and he emphatically said “Van Damme. I hate Seagal.” I said “It was Marked for Death, wasn’t it?” and he said “Motherfucking Marked For Death!” I died laughing! Let’s just say he did not appreciate the depiction of Jamaicans when he was growing up. He’s also not a fan of Predator 2, but I have got him to admit the sword cane King Willie had was cool.
Hey Jose! Great to hear from you. Yeah, back in the day people certainly had camps of who they liked, Seagal or Van-Damme. Very polarizing. And we can certainly see why your friend wouldn’t like Predator 2 and Marked for Death. Ha. Thanks as always Jose, you are the man. -Dion