| Overview: | International martial arts fans, get ready to meet the next major player on the scene: Chilean fighter and stuntman Marko Zaror!
Zaror stars here as Zamir, the leader of a gang of thugs known as the Kiltros. More a gang of idle layabouts than a gang of criminals, his time with the Kiltros leaves Zamir plenty of opportunity to obsess over Kim, the half-Korean high school girl who he once saved from being raped and has been fixated on ever since. Kim, for her part, has no interest in Zamir beyond playing on his obsession for her own entertainment, at one point maneuvering him into fighting all the students of her father’s tae kwon do dojo simultaneously. When the villainous Max Kalba appears on the scene, intent on taking his revenge against Kim’s father and his martial-arts sect -- who he blames for his dead wife’s infidelity-- Zamir is forced to finally grow up and stand up to protect the people he cares about.
Blending typical South American verité film styles with spaghetti western theatricality and a healthy Hong Kong martial arts influence, Kiltro was a major box office and critical success in its native Chile, establishing both Zaror and director Ernesto Espinoza as major players there. An atypical martial artist in that he is built like a truck –- he won major stunt awards for his work as the Rock’s body double in The Rundown -– Zaror is nonetheless incredibly quick and agile, employing a unique leaping and spinning fight style. The instant the film hits its tipping point, with Zamir standing firm to protect those he loves, it becomes strikingly obvious that Zaror has a powerful screen presence and his martial arts skills are impressive. Bluntly put, nobody Zaror’s size should be able to move the way he does, and that he does it without wire or camera assist (though some of his support players do) is simply astonishing.
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