Callina Liang Street Fighter kick training
by Anjali Filmi: Callina Liang
Kicks were the whole job for Callina Liang in STREET FIGHTER. Two hours a day went in before she reached Australia, then four hours daily across six weeks until action scenes were shot. Her trainers said kicking convincingly is tougher than boxing, so she took that as a reason to push further. Reps did the heavy lifting. Resistance bands sat on her legs while she figured out staying steady on the single leg she kept kicking in and out with. Spinning and jumping variations came with falls, a few of them, and bruises across her body. Her legs bulked up since that was all she trained. Therapeutic is how she describes it, and the routine has stayed in her life.
Transcript (en)
So can you talk about the kind of martial arts that you had a master in order to kind of bring that fighting style to life? Two hours of training every single day before I got to Australia, and then it was four hours every day for six weeks before we set action on camera. You know, my trainer, they were telling me, they were like, it's actually the hardest to make it look like you're a pro at kicking than if you were to, you know, play a boxer, it's easier to look like you're a pro at boxing. I'm like, okay, great. So let's work even harder. I learned so much. I think reps just really helped me out. I had resistance bands on my legs and just like, I had to learn how to balance on the one leg. I was kicking in and out just all the time, learning cool moves. I fell a couple of times too, I remember. I just, I had bruises all over me, but like the spinning kicks, jumping kicks, all sorts of kicks. And it helped with bulking up my legs because ultimately all I was working on was my legs. So it just, it went hand in hand, whether I liked it or not. So yeah, but I found it very therapeutic. And now I keep up with the training and it's a part of my life now, it's great.
