The Zombie Trainers Of Zombiepura: "We Have To Get The Actors To Let Go And Be As Scary And Disgusting As They Possibly Can"

Sunny Pang is the founder of Ronin Action Group. There, the stunt performers learn to do action for TV shows and movies. The group now has 11 members — four females and 10 dudes — and they are either freelancers or part-timers who train their asses off "for four hours every Saturday".

Though Ronin Action Group keeps him busy as a stunt choreographer, Pang is still keen to act. “I still love acting,” says the father of four who’s currently in the Netflix thriller The Night Comes For Us and the Nasi Goreng Western Buffalo Boys, Singapore’s submission to the Oscars in the Foreign Language Film category. “But I’m slowly doing more behind-the-scenes work as an action director. My si-fu once told you, you can never be in front [of the camera] all the time.” Pang says he also has plans to direct a movie.

Besides getting stunt performers mayhem-ready, Ronin Action Group is also the go-to place for actors for stunt workout. Pang declines to reveal too much about his celebrity clientele — which includes Andie Chen, Benjamin Kheng and Adele Wong — except “there is some arrangement between them because they’re old friends who have worked together before”. Neither does he want to disclose which actors aced their training. If he does, “they will get big-headed.”

Pang, seen here sparring with Ronin Action Group's Grace Teo, says he hopes he can nurture more homegrown stunt actors. “I really hate that [people are willing to] invest in a movie, but not invest in our people,” says Pang. “That upsets me. Why are we not promoting our own artistes?” So what qualifications do the aspiring stuntmen and stuntwomen need to join his team? “Skills, guts, determination, honesty… and loyalty.”