We recently connected with Mark Stas and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mark, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

In my life I took two decisions, not knowing what it would bring in my future. In the end it were these two changes I made, which changed me more than I could imagine, and gave me fantastic opportunities.

The first decision in my life was when I finished my studies in Belgium, I had a freshly new job as a physiotherapist. I was already a very dedicated martial artist since 10 years, when I discovered through an article this fantastic southern Chinese martial art, Wing Tsun. The article explained the theory and mentioned that the best schools were located in Germany. I was so intrigued that I needed to see by myself: I found this Wing Tsun academy in the Germany city, Aachen. And it was such a mind-blowing discovery.
This instructor, who was approx my size and not really impressive, showed that size doesn’t matter, if you have skills. And OMG! it was just like in movies. He was untouchable, could play and toss a much bigger opponent, showed ‘chi sao’ ( = reaction using the tactile reflexes ) at highest level. I thought that this was the art perfectly created for me. I had to learn this and decided to move to Germany to learn from this best instructor. Unfortunately to have this big change, my relationship ended, but I was so determined that without further thinking, I also quit my job and moved to Germany. I spoke very little German, didn’t have much money and had to find a new job. Luckily I found this miracle job in a physiotherapy center, which allowed me to pay my martial arts lessons and to live. But in order to be able to rent a small apartment, I had to ask half of my salary before I worked the first day. My boss was luckily very nice and I managed to handle these early difficulties.

The first months weren’t easy at all: I had to become stronger emotionally and had to be responsable with no one around to help, I didn’t have friends in the beginning but could train daily thanks to the assistent of my teacher, who was as passionate as me in martial arts training. I stayed many years in Germany, training daily and now almost 30 years later I thank this sacrifice in my life, which allowed me to become the martial artist I am today. My martial art, Wing Flow System would not exist without my hard training and profound knowledge in Wing Tsun.

The second change I made in my life was when I was contacted by a great action actor, Ron Smoorenburg, who discovered my martial arts videos on internet around 2016. He wrote me that he was very impressed by my skills and charisma and that I had to play in movies. At that time I had many fans writing me, so I didn’t take notice of him at first. But my curiosity told me to verify who this person was and what a surprise I got: he was the jacket lifting fighter with Jackie Chan in ‘Who am i’ and played in more than 120 movies.

He invited me over to Thailand, where he lived. Some time after, when I faced emotionally difficult moments in my life, I decided to take a break and go to Thailand for 3 months. Before heading for Thailand, I met some European stuntmen who told that I would not have a chance to play in movies, etc. And to go to Thailand would not help at all. This negativity affected me, especially facing difficult moments at that time. But I had nothing to lose and someone over there believed in me.
I wrote a biographical short movie about this difficult period and together with a great director Lorenzo Vanin, we made ‘At the Edge’, which I wanted to film in Thailand, since I would be there for a few months. Years later later this motivational movie won many awards such as Best Educational Film Award, Outstanding Achievement Award- Documentary, Best Inspirational Film Award and I won the Outstanding Achievement Award as an actor. I still receive messages of people who loved the message in this short movie.

So to go back to my trip to Thailand, my aim was first to go there to take a break and continue to train for myself and of course meet Ron, who I only knew from internet. There were no plans to play in movies at that time. When I met him, he wanted to see if I was that good as he saw in my videos. So we trained a little bit and there he was more than impressed. He presented my to a famous Thai stunt team, where I showed my style and they found it very interesting for new action movies. But unfortunately I didn’t get the deserved credit for my work and teaching. The luck was that at that period, Byron Gibson made his movie ‘English Dogs in Bangkok’ and Ron spoke to this producer to get me involved. He agreed and I created a fight scene with Ron. The producer Byron was so excited to see this fight scene, that he wanted us to make a second fight scene. These fight scenes became afterwards the highlight fights of the movie. Ron spoke to another moviemaker, Dean Alexandrou, who lived also in Thailand and was making his own movie, ‘Haphazard’ at that time. When he saw our fight scene, he wanted me also in his movie to play an asian killer. So suddenly I was in Thailand and without acting experience, I was now playing in action movies.

Never two without three: so destiny wanted me to meet this great American director, the famous Daniel Zirilli, who I also met in Bangkok.

So finally, difficulties in my life made me give up my life for a short moment without knowing what it could bring, but they gave me unforeseen but incredible opportunities. The latest movie I played in as one of the leads next to American stars such as Patrick Kilpatrick, Louis and Costas Mandylor is ‘Borrowed Time: Falling Apart’, co-directed by the legendary David Worth and Alan Delabie. I won awards for ‘Best Choreograpy’ and ‘Best Ensemble’.
In life, only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go. I learned to follow my heart and instinct, even if some persons in my life considered these changes as crazy. But life is unpredictable, and sometimes we will only understand the beauty of life when we allow the unexpected to happen. For me, to follow my heart guided me to these beautiful chapters in my life.

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?

Born in South-Korea, but adopted in Belgium when I was very young, my biggest passion since my childhood was and still is martial arts. Although I learned different martial arts in schools starting with Karate, and Taekwondo, to the southern Chinese Wing Tsun, I considered training in martial arts schools as learning the art, but I always did my homework on a daily base. The majority of my training, studying and research has always been alone at home. That’s what developed my capacity to create martial arts exercises or movements thanks to visualisation. When I lived with my parents, my small room was my main training hall and books were my first teachers. When I lived alone, I rarely trained in gyms, but always at home. Now almost 40 years later, I never lost this motivation to train. People ask me often how I can stay so motivated and full of joy in training. I think it is not only habit that makes me want to train on a daily base, but it helped me also through difficult moments in life. I love to detect how to improve my skills, execute better techniques and I pay particular attention how to use the body mechanism in every movement. Simply put, I love martial arts training and have the patience to become better. Although I was very competitive when I was young and wanted to be the best, I evolved and see martial arts training similar to those who practise Yoga very intensively: there is no competition with others, but mere a search to improve oneself.

I got the nickname of the Belgian Bruce Lee, not only in the Belgian news. Although I never practised Bruce Lee’s martial art, I am indeed a huge fan of his martial arts skills, his movies and especially the motivation and training dedication he got.
I was induced in some amazing Hall of Fames, for example in June 2023 at the 10th Lisbon Hall Of Fame where I received the highest distinction of this event: Legend in Martial Arts and Actor of the Year Award.
At the famous UK Martial Arts Show 2023, I was invited as a special guest and got the special award of ‘Superstar’
and in India, I was induced in their Hall of Fame, receiving the award of Grand Master of the Year for my martial art, Wing Flow System. In Brazil, I got a special tribute in the encyclopaedia of the Great Masters of Martial Arts (Americas & Europe Special 2022).

Thanks to my martial arts skills, I was discovered in the movie world. You can see my movie debut in English Dogs in Bangkok or Haphazard and I won movie awards as an actor and choreographer with ‘At the Edge’, ‘Emerging from the Shadows’ and ‘Borrowed Time: Falling Apart’ ( where you can me next to famous actors such as Patrick Kilpatrick or Costas Mandylor )z
So from a little boy who was fascinated by martial arts, I grew into a passionate martial artist, known all over the world and entered suddenly into the movie world: There’s no path to success. There can be a lot obstruction on your path, but the important thing is to follow your heart and be true to yourself in the process. Follow your passion but be prepared to work hard. To sacrifice doesn’t always mean losing in life, but don’t let anyone limit your dreams.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At one time I was contracted as a responsable in a famous food company. After a short while, I saw I couldn’t combine my passion with this job as much as I liked, due to very long working days and I decided to find a solution. I spoke to the commercial director, who was my responsable, and since there was no real solution, I didn’t see any other solution than to quit my job. He told me that he couldn’t understand why I would quit. He said I had a good job, earned well and simply for a martial art I would quit. I answered that it’s a decision I had to take for myself, where I didn’t want to sacrifice my happiness for a job and that I fully understood that he wouldn’t understand this. But a passion is more worth than only earning money in a company. So I quit and even till today, I always look to combine my passion with my other professional job. It’s not always easy but certainly worth.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My dedication in martial arts since almost four decades now, taught me that martial arts training can give me such a fantastic feeling and can help overcome more rapidly difficult moments in life. From the eighties till today, I see an evolution in martial arts and action movies. The beauty and efficiency in martial arts has been diminished drastically due to the growing popularity of combat sports and the related social media.

Martial arts has its place in the world as an educational tool as well as a combat art. Just like in nature: trees, flowers, grass, mountains and rivers are all different but co-exist together: it is just these differences that can create the dazzling view.
Too much time and energy is wasted in comparing martial arts with combat sports or styles. No perfect martial art nor combat sport exists, and no one is perfect. It is mere a choice in which direction one wants to go. Art speaks where words are unable to explain: it is not always necessary to convince others why you love what you do. Passionate feelings about something cannot always be measured nor compared. Tastes are subjective and never wrong.

After all these years, I am passionate in training and consider my martial arts practise as a gift in life which still brings me the fascination and beauty of expressive art. I met many high level masters, champions as well as beginners and ex-practitioners on my path, and it’s with joy that I share not only my knowledge, but more the passion a martial art can give, when we continue to train. I see martial arts training on long term in life and it cannot be compared to fast results many want. Isn’t it beautiful to be able to progress and to be able to improve continuously?

As martial artist, we have to be grateful to come so far: all the efforts and dedication are worth to be remembered, no matter the level reached. Self-doubt and comparison with others made many practitioners to quit martial arts or to feel unsure. It’s important to see where we started from and where we are now. But realising that we still can progress without harming the body or mind is as much important as mastering movements as quick as possible. If a goal is worth having, it’s worth taking time in your day-to-day life, necessary to achieve it. And as important: never let your ego interfere on your progress and grow as a martial artist. A big ego will not make you friends with others, but above all, your mind and calmness will not reach the necessary state of mind when growing into a fine martial artist. I saw excellent martial artists who blocked their path to others due to their own ego and fears. In my opinion, to reach a very high level in martial arts, skills and character go hand in hand.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.wingflowsystem.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/markstas_wfs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markstaswfs/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstas/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_LTS7mkRGP0wIqUp1lDmUg