Enter the Beaver: Lee Demarbre and the debut of Can-Fu

TAKE ONE, June-Sept, 2004 by Patrick Lowe

The idea for JCVH came one evening during production on Aztec when Driscoll and Demarbre were driving to Toronto to buy a Steenbeck. "As we were driving," explains Ian, "Lee had Michael Jackson's Thriller album playing for some reason. That music fired off a sequence of synapses in my brain, and the words Jesus Christ vampire hunter came out. We realized it was too good a title to waste." And so JCVH saw the light of day in true independent, guerrilla-style filmmaking. It was shot on a Bolex during weekends and off-hours, with a volunteer cast and crew, donated services, the assistance from the Independent Filmmakers' Co-op of Ottawa, plus a smidgen of government assistance from local agencies. This is all the more impressive if one considers the scope and ambition of the martial--art sequences, which are the film's piece de resistance. Granted, lacking a bigger budget or the martial arts expertise of, say, Yuen Wo Ping (Iron Monkey), the extensive fight scenes, mostly by an amateur cast, contain more than a few visibly missed punches and lame throws. But Demarbre never slackens the pace and keeps it coming fast and furious. Plus, the fights do improve. Each scene gets wilder, choreographed with an off-kilter panache resulting in moments worthy of the Drunken Master films.

Asked about file logistics of choreographing martial arts on the cheap, Demarbre explains, "There were a few karate guys, but mostly I asked friends to pretend to be like Jackie Chan. I'd rather have an actor pretend to know martial arts, then a martial artist pretend to act. It's movie kung fu, not real kung fu. I cut it up, not to be flashy or to cheat, [but] to follow Sammo Hung's lead that the camera should be the third arm in the fight." For the atheists scene, I tell Demarbre that it looked as if he called up every judo club in town, inviting anyone interested in being Brute Lee for a day. "Actually, for that scene, I invited every bouncer in town who was bugging me for a year to punch Phil, because he's a regular at some of these places," he laughs.

With the success of JCVH, Demarbre is now putting the finishing touches on Harry Knuckles and the Pearl Necklace, where the Spanish Super Fly does battle with a bionic Bigfoot, as well as Harry's own evil twin brother. Demarbre is promising an even wilder and funnier ride, with more action sequences, including such interesting tidbits as Harry battling a gang of half-naked nuns on Hwy. 17, Santos's wedding ceremony (in a wrestling ring) and an appearance by Lloyd Kaufman, president and founder of Troma. Plus, there's an unofficial cameo by Jean Chretien, whom Demarbre got on film by sending his cast out to Parliament Hill on Canada Day to shake hands with the PM. "Very guerilla style," he recalls. "I was standing there in broad daylight, holding a Bolex camera with a pistol grip and big lens on it, which kinda looks like a gun the way I was holding it. [As] I was pointing it at the PM in this big crowd, I looked up at the rooftops and there were men up there with rifles and binoculars. There must've been a sniper pointed at me."