Most who have seen the recently released Mortal Kombat II agree: the fight between Liu Kang and Kung Lao is the best in the movie.
Liu Kang, played by Ludi Lin, and Kung Lao, played by Max Huang, are in full martial arts movie star mode as they zip about a big screen adaptation of the iconic Portal stage from the Mortal Kombat video games. Kung Lao, revived as an undead Revenant after biting the dust in the previous movie, fights for Outworld against a fired up Liu Kang. The once best friends are now deadly foes, destined to fight to the death.
Huang and Lin are in top form here, but the fight itself — without spoiling anything — is the movie’s most effective at fusing VFX into stuntwork. Liu Kang displays plenty of fire power, but Kung Lao’s razor sharp hat, perhaps the most iconic weapon in all of Mortal Kombat, steals the show. It darts this way and that as if it were a third member of the fight. The way both Huang and Lin work with it as well as against it while battling each other is truly impressive. As a result, Liu Kang vs Kung Lao is the centrepiece of Mortal Kombat II — and it leaves us wanting more.
In an interview with IGN, Huang revealed the eight-month prep work for his return as Kung Lao, this time as a villain, and his fight with Ludi Lin. He told us that he actually trained with a shaolin monk to help him get into character (in the games Kung Lao and Liu Kang are Shaolin monks). “I wanted to give Kung Lao more depth and I wanted to bring him back to his origin,” Huang explained.
Preparing for the fight, the pair used an iPhone to record each other while trying to capture the same framing for all the movements we see in the movie. Huang and Lin filmed their fight scene for a solid week. Huang, who performed almost all his own stunts, called the experience “brutal.” At one point — day six, he said — he was lying on the floor and was meant to get up, but just couldn’t. “I was like, okay, I just need one minute,” he said.
But his experience filming Mortal Kombat is a cake walk compared to his decade-long work as a member of the great Jackie Chan’s stunt team. “In China, we used to have sometimes 16-18 hour days of nonstop working, and you would be lucky if there was coffee around on set. It’s just like, ‘Boom, boom, boom, one shot after another. And I feel like when I come to Hollywood, it’s almost like a vacation to be honest. You work with Jackie Chan and you’re not surprised by any other action design or action team.”
On screen, Kung Lao effortlessly interacts with his hat, commanding it as if with his mind. It moves extremely quickly; as a viewer it’s sometimes hard to keep up, but the hat makes the fight truly special. Of course, mastering the hat took a great deal of work. Thankfully for Huang, his background in Chinese kung fu gave him a natural advantage.
“The philosophy in Chinese martial arts is always to enhance the weapon as part of your body,” Huang explained. “And I try to do the same with the hat. The approach was to bring it all together and make the hat become part of Kung Lao instead of being separate.”
Huang distanced himself from the well-trodden idea that performing in fight scenes is like performing in a dance. Indeed, he insisted fight scenes aren’t even choreographed, when it comes down to it. “It’s actually the opposite and it’s very spontaneous,” he said. “It’s very reactive out of the moment. If you look at the UFC, you never know what the next moment will give you. There’s always a surprise that lies ahead.”
Instead, Huang tries to find “the truth of the moment” within his action scenes, rather than fuss over carefully choreographed movements. “I’m not really interested in choreography to be honest with you,” he said.
“I’m more interested in the connection between the two characters and what it is about,” Huang continued. “What do we want to express? I think that’s part of the reason why this scene works so well, because instead of just moving in a fancy way, this fight is telling a story.”
When you’re playing Kung Lao, you don’t just have to prepare physically, you have to do your video game research. For Huang, that came before he filmed 2021’s Mortal Kombat, and it revolved around Mortal Kombat 11. He looked at Kung Lao in that game, settled on his top five iconic movements, and studied those to capture the essence of the character’s style.
Based on what we’re treated to on-screen, all the hard work has paid off. “A huge amount of time went into this one,” Huang said of Mortal Kombat II’s Liu Kang and Kung Lao fight, “but I am personally pretty happy with the result. It’s probably the best fight scene I’ve done so far. It’s the fight of my life.”
Warning! Spoilers for Mortal Kombat II follow:
At this point, we’ll veer into spoiler territory for Mortal Kombat II. Liu Kang ends up using Kung Lao’s hat against him, tearing the Revenant in half in typically gory fashion. Eventually, Liu Kang seemingly ascends to godhood — something that won’t surprise anyone who’s played recent Mortal Kombat video games — and he vows to rescue his old friend from the afterlife (this is Mortal Kombat, it’s probably best not to dwell on logic).
The upshot is Kung Lao will return for Mortal Kombat III, and Liu Kang’s rescue act will be one of the main storylines in the sequel. Poor Kung Lao doesn’t have a particularly impressive survival rate; he died in each of the Mortal Kombat movies so far. It’s safe to assume Kung Lao will get another go in Mortal Kombat III, but what does Huang want to see happen to his character?
“Well, first of all, I hope that he doesn’t suffer another death!” Huang said, keeping his cards close to his chest. “Give him a break, let him live for a second. But yeah, there’s so many possibilities where this whole franchise can go.”
With Mortal Kombat III already in the works, perhaps the powers that be will also consider spinoffs. If that happens, Huang — like Lin — would love to see a Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks film. This would be an exciting prospect for fans considering Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks is a video game spinoff itself. The 2005 action adventure game sees players control the eponymous Shaolin monks Liu Kang and Kung Lao as they protect Earthrealm from the forces of Outworld. It’s easy to see a movie version do much the same, while fleshing out both characters’ backstories.
“Something that I personally would love to explore would be a Shaolin Monks spinoff,” Huang said. “Ludi has talked about it. I’ve been talking about it. It would be great to see those two characters’ origins and how they were raised by Bo’ Rai Cho and trained and exploring the White Lotus. Yeah, the lore of Mortal Kombat is huge.”
After his performance in Mortal Kombat II, Max Huang might just get his wish.
For more, check out IGN’s Mortal Kombat II review. And once you’re done with that, check out the biggest burning questions we have going into Mortal Kombat III.
Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
