We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Mah recently and have shared our conversation below.
Daniel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
To answer a question briefly, I knew I wanted to forego the security of a stable job in the oil industry in favor of the uncertainty of pursuing a martial arts film career after working as a choreographer on the film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once.’ However, just as important as the ‘when’ is the ‘how’… and that is, I’m afraid, a longer answer.
The directing duo known as Daniels first reached out to my team and me in the fall of 2019 because they were looking for a choreographers that could recreate the flavor of 80’s Hong Kong Action movies. At the time, I had been working as a Bunker Surveyor in the Port of Los Angeles for eight years while running the martial arts filmmaking YouTube channel Martial Club with my partners Andy Le and Brian Le. Naturally, the combination of a full time job and a full time hobby kept me very busy. I felt like my existence was stretched across two extremes: one that I loved and one that I tolerated. I routinely worked 60 hour weeks to turn a living wage but my heart always belonged to the martial arts. ‘Work hard,’ I was once advised, ‘then play when you’re retired.’ But how can one play when the best years of his life are behind him? I struggled with working in the oil industry because it forced me to lead an existence that wasn’t true to myself. Martial arts was life but how was I to make a living? I was stuck. I prayed about it often.
The answer to that prayer came in the form of a facebook message from Daniel Scheinert. He claimed that he and his partner, Daniel Kwan, were real directors trying to make a real movie and they wanted to see if we would help them. The message was suspicious, but my team and I decided to hear them out. Over the course of several meetings, they wined and dined us, regaling us with talks of alternate universes, bagels and butt plugs. None of it made much sense to us but we recognized the fervor in their voices. It was the same fervor that fueled Martial Club’s claims that we would one day change the world through martial arts movies. I decided to take a couple months off work in order to help my team choreograph for the movie. The process was filled with challenges but I found it very transformative. It revealed to me what I was and wasn’t ready for but I began to believe what my team was capable of- what I was capable of. Winter came and went, 2019 ended and so did my delusion that I could keep on living the half life I was living. Calling my boss to let him know I quit remains the hardest thing I have ever had to do. It was a leap of faith and to be completely honest, I haven’t landed yet. I’m still hovering over the void of potential failure but I have never felt more free, free to succeed and free to be me.
The future is uncertain but it holds promise. We knew we were working on a real movie! We had no idea that its post-production would be hindered by a global pandemic. I had no idea that I would be effectively unemployed for the next two years. We had no idea that our first motion picture would go on to win the oscar for ‘Best Picture’ among several others at the 95th Academy Awards. The one thing I did know was that I’d miss 100% of the shots I didn’t take.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Daniel Mah. For over two decades, I’ve devoted my life to the practice of the martial arts. I founded the martial arts filmmaking group Martial Club alongside brothers Andy Le and Brian Le. We started off in the YouTube space, generating content such as skits, tutorials and short films, all in the name of keeping martial arts alive. Eventually, the fight scenes we choreographed began to catch the eyes of legitimate filmmakers and the doors were opened for us to enter the film industry and leave our mark both in front of and behind the camera.
I am an actor, a stuntman, a choreographer, and writer and I work to usher in a new golden age of martial arts film. I am a student of a lost art- the art of telling martial arts stories that engaged the audience the way Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan did. The old school Hong Kong action movies captured the imagination of the entire world with their visual spectacle and their heartfelt emotional content because they were made by people who had devoted their lives to the pursuit of martial excellence. Directors entrust us with designing their action because we recreate the action of yesteryear with an uncanny level of fidelity and we bring a level of innovation that can’t be replicated.
I am happy to help filmmakers craft amazing stories and action but when all is said and done, I hope to tell my own stories- stories of how the martial arts live on in this world of technology and convenience. We want to inspire the world to remember the value of hard work and the power of an indomitable spirit!
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The road I travel is filled with bumps and obstacles. One of the biggest obstacles I faced in recent times was securing membership to SAG-AFTRA. When I worked as a choreographer for the film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ I was barred from working on the film as an actor because I wasn’t part of the Union. Trying to find acting work during the pandemic without a SAG card proved incredibly difficult.
Several opportunities to gain elegibility to join SAG-AFTRA came my way but ended up falling through for one reason or another. On one occasion, I managed to secure extra work on an Amazon Prime Original Series. It led to my first voucher out of three that I would need to collect in order to be SAG-elegible. I was en route to earning the second and third on the same project but a delayed flight prevented me from making it back to LA to do the necessary COVID testing, ultimately causing me to not be called back. Little did I know, that my next opportunity wouldn’t come for another half year. The next opportunity came in the form of a role in a movie to be shot in Mexico. It was the biggest role I had ever booked until that point and it was a fitting way to finally become elegible. Unfortunately, production difficulties pushed principal photography into Thanksgiving weekend of that year. Under normal circumstances, I would have forgone turkey to get my SAG card but it just so happened that I was best man to a close friend getting married that weekend. Loyalty to my friend won out and my next chance wouldn’t come until the following year. What’s more is that the projects I had foregone to do that Mexico film led to the TAFT-ing (a SAG shortcut if you will) of the people who did take those jobs.
The road to joining SAG-AFTRA was frought with difficulty but it was my faith in God that sustained me through all of it. I was certainly disappointed every time elegibility slipped through my fingers but I remain convinced that God had a very special set of circumstances that would lead to my eventual membership. When it did finally happen, who would have thought that I would have two comedians to thank? I was hired to train Jimmy O. Yang in martial arts for an upcoming TV show. I was even lined up to do stunts for said show but was denied due to, you guessed it, my lack of Union-status, I had to settle for extra work yet again. But Jimmy, being the grateful soul that he is, treated me very kindly and introduced me to the Director and the cast as his martial arts coach. This prompted his fellow cast mate and comedian Ronny Chieng to ask me to improvise a brief fight scene in one particular shot. This act was filmed and because of it, I was upgraded and TAFT-ed on the spot. This experience cemented in my mind the idea that things happen when they’re supposed to happen and that there’s a Director above who calls those shots. All we have to do is keep putting in the work and keep showing up.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I believe I was put on this earth and on this path for a very specific purpose. I strive for the opportunity to tell people who God is through my work in the film industry. I have utmost faith in the idea that God has planned every step I’ve taken to arrive at this point and that He also guides every step I have yet to take. I believe that He does the same for others and I wish to help them realize that. But, I realize that this won’t make immediate sense to many people so I’ll put it this way: I want to make films that inspire people to live life more abundantly. That can look like a variety of things for a variety of people. I hope that people will recognize the passion that I put into my work and that it will helpt them realize that they can emulate that passion and inject it into whatever matters to them. How wonderful would the world be if it was filled with people who live life to the fullest and strive to encourage others to do the same? That’s what I believe God can empower me to do through my work in film.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.facebook.com/martialclubfilms/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmah_mc/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DmahFromMartialClub
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MartialClub
Image Credits
Cover Photo: Andrew Chenault Photo 2: Sthanlee B. Mirador