Marko Zorar: From Chile With Fists

September 1, 2025 Jim McLennan feature, specials 0

Four years ago, I described Scott Adkins as “the best action star you’ve never heard of.” I’m pleased to report that his profile has increased significantly since then, not least due to a show-stopping turn in John Wick: Chapter 4. So it’s probably time to pass on that mantle: coincidentally, I would suggest the new incumbent might be someone else who could be seen alongside Keanu Reeves in JW4, although it’s fair to say, making less of an impression than Adkins playing a German in a fat suit. On the other hand, Marko Zorar isn’t just the best cinematic martial artist in his country. There’s a good case to be made he’s number one on the entire continent. Okay, it’s South America – not exactly a kung-fu hotbed.

Still, in some ways, that makes Zorar’s persistence and success all the more impressive. He was born in Chile’s capital of Santiago in 1978, his ancestry also including Peruvian and Palestinian elements, courtesy of his mother. He began martial arts training at the age of six, and made his feature debut in 1998 Mexican comedy, Juan Camaney en Acapulco. Zorar’s big break came in 2003, when he was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s stunt double in The Rundown. He then returned to his native country, and began a long collaboration with Ernesto Díaz Espinoza. They had known each since school, and first worked together when Espinoza was working as a production assistant on Into the Flames in 2002. Beginning with 2006’s Miragemen, and through this year’s Diablo, they’ve made six features together, with Espinoza directing and Zorar as the star. 

However, Zorar has not been restricted to local productions. He made his first English-language film in 2010, Undisputed III: Redemption – it was also the first, but not the last time, he shared the screen with Adkins. He appeared in Machete Kills, then teamed up again with Robert Rodriguez for Alita: Battle Angel, where he played motorball player Ajakutty. Sadly, most of his role there was cut, including his part in the Kansas bar brawl, though he can still be seen sitting at a table there. Zorar had the role of Chidi, bodyguard to the Marquis de Gramont, in JW4 and his most recent high-profile role was as Cayenne, opposite Josh Harnett, in well-received hijack flick, Fight or Flight. 

Zorar’s career will definitely outlive him. I say this with some confidence, because he is part of 100 Years, a film made by Rodriguez for French company Rémy Martin to promote their cognac. The plot remains a secret, enforced on participants by a non-disclosure agreement. The film is now locked away, to be released a hundred years after it was made, in November 2115. Until then, the film is being held in a safe behind bulletproof glass, in Remy Martin’s cellars. Zorar will be 137 years old by the time the short comes out. Slightly earlier, sci-fi action film Affinity, in which Zorar starred, had its premiere at LA’s Big Bad Film Fest on August 24th. So we’ll be keeping an eye out for that one down the road. 

Below you’ll find a list of links to our existing reviews of movies in which he appeared – regardless of how large or small his role was. Those are in chronological order. There are then four new entries, covering a quartet of his collaborations with Espinoza.

Mirageman (2006)

Rating: B

Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, María Elena Swett, Iván Jara, Mauricio Pesutic

Before there was Kick-Ass, before there was Super, before there was even the comic-book which would be adapted into Kick-Ass, there was Mirageman. Yes, in their first pairing, Espinoza and Zaror go down the “crap amateur superhero” path. And to be honest, this may well be an improvement on its well-funded and better known Hollywood descendants. There’s a classic origin story: Maco Gutiérrez (Zorar) saw his parents killed and little brother institutionalized as a result of street crime. One day, he interrupts the robbery of TV presenter Carol Valdivieso (Swett), and consequently becomes masked vigilante, Mirageman. Fortunately, he’s very good at kicking arse.

Unfortunately, he’s a bit crap at all the other elements that go into being a hero – such as coming up with a good costume.  Maco is painfully naive, simply handing out his email address ([email protected]) and unable to know who to trust. He ignores the overtures of wannabe sidekick Pseudo-Robin (Jara), and the person he puts his faith in most, ends up cynically using Mirageman for their own benefit. But his masked alter ego still becomes a local legend – not least, to his own brother – in part because of things like taking public transport around the city of Santiago. However, when a mission against a gang of paedophiles goes badly wrong, the hero needs to go off-grid and regroup. His downward spiral continues, and only the fortuitous intervention of Juan Moli (Pesutic) prevents the story of Mirageman coming to an unfortunate end. I guess every hero needs a redemption arc, including the not-so-super ones.

The joys here are numerous, albeit mostly to be found in the little things, like Maco drawing up a shopping list: “NECESSARY ITEMS: mask, gloves, belt, flexible pants, light slippers”. Or the pauses while he puts his costume on, with no instant changes in a phone-booth for Mirageman. In his starring debut, Zaror hardly says a word, letting his fists and feet do almost all the talking. This certainly plays to his strengths, making Maco the strong, silent type, with a heart of gold, though this leaves certain components underdeveloped, like the brother subplot. The limited resources are occasionally slightly obvious, though rarely in a way which impacted my enjoyment. 

Perhaps the most obvious iinstance of this, was wondering how a low-budget movie such as this afforded licensing a lengthy section of David Bowie’s Life on Mars for the soundtrack. Perhaps this could only have been made in South America – where music rights are cheap? But in general, the low-fi and can do approach is in line with the low-fi and can do nature of its hero. It might have benefited from a better villain: a group of generic child molesters is merely okay, I suppose. Regardless, what you have here is a charming yet gritty take (the in-film artwork is unexpectedly disturbing) on a genre that still seems fresh, despite having been done to death over the two decades since. Kick-Ass just had its ass kicked.

Kiltro (2006)

Rating: C+

Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, Caterina Jadresic, Miguel Angel De Luca, Alejandro Castillo

We have a new #1 in the “Worst haircut belonging to a Chilean martial-arts actor” rankings. Replacing the previous champion, Marko Zaror in Diablo, we have… well, Marko Zaror in this. He’s sporting a Hispanic mullet, with red hair extensions sewn into it. Either this was actually a period piece set in the eighties, or tonsurial culture took a very long time to travel down to the bottom of South America. Is it significant that I may remember this element when most other details have been lost in the mists of time? Perhaps. Certainly, after a brisk and original start, this runs out of energy, and becomes rather too familiar to succeed.

Zamir (Zaror) is in love with Kim (Jadresic): unable to win her love, he has to content himself with beating up her boyfriend. Her dad Teran runs a martial-arts school, and was a friend of Zamir’s late father. But everything is thrown into carnage with the return of Max Kalba (de Luca), bearing a grudge for past events. He starts chewing through everyone connected to Teran. Zamir is the last hope of saving him and Kim, though will have to train his skills, beyond what he learned on the streets. To this end, he finds a teacher in José Soto (Castillo), and eventually gets a nifty pair of shoes with blades on the heels, which can counter Kalba’s vicious sword-cane. At least he loses the red rat-tails. 

The opening is strong, with Zamir a quirky and unusual flawed hero. His more subtle efforts to court Kim are doomed to failure. He says to her “I saw you yesterday,” hoping she’ll ask where, so he can reply “In my dreams.” It goes horribly yet amusingly wrong, when she instead answers, “Obviously! You follow me everywhere I go.” Kalba makes for a good villain as well, looking like The Most Interesting Man in the World’s psychopathic younger brother. It’s a real shame when we enter the middle portion, where Zamir is training. All momentum is lost, and the film grinds to a complete and unentertaining halt for half an hour. Things rouse from their slumber for the expected face-off against Kalba; might be too late though. 

There’s a grab-bag of references to be found here, most notably a soundtrack which swings from Ennio Morricone-like to actual David Bowie [the use of Modern Love, while effective, may have cost more than Zaror]. It works best in motion, the hero turning into a human blender when his “On” button gets pushed, and Zamir starts spinning with those heel daggers. The rest is considerably more of a mixed bag. Espinoza appears to be trying to make both a kung-fu flick and a teen romance – never mind that Zaror was 28 when making it, a little old for his character to be dating a schoolgirl. It’s a tricky combo to pull off, especially when you add apparent elements of parody, and is inconsistent in achieving its goals. 

Redeemer (2014)

Rating: B

Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, José Luís Mósca, Loreto Aravena, Mauricio Diocares

This is clearly a martial arts film, and was not made within several thousand miles of Spain or Italy. Yet there’s something about this which has the feel of a spaghetti Western. Maybe not quite a top-tier one from Leone. But a very solid effort, perhaps by Sergio Corbucci. It has the same hero who really isn’t heroic, but is seeking redemption for some tragedy in his past, for which he feels responsible – not without justification. We don’t find out the specifics here until almost the end. It’s a bit of a double-edged sword. While it does give our (anti)hero an air of mystery, you’re not particularly given cause to root for him.

Instead, he’s just the Redeemer (Zaror), a vigilante with religious tendencies, some impressive tattoos, and a fondness for Russian Roulette. He helps the needy, just not in a “soup and a sandwich” way. His latest project involves Agustin (Diocares), a fisherman who found a bag of drug money, and is now in fear for his life, along with friend Antonia (Aravena). The Redeemer fends off the gang in no uncertain terms. However, there’s a bigger problem, in the shape of notorious hitman, the Scorpion (Mósca), who has some unfinished business with the Redeemer. This dates back to a point where… they were in similar lines of work, shall we say. Consequently, both are now out for revenge on the other: Scorpion thought he’d taken care of that business previously. 

Despite an obviously low-budget, Espinoza shoots things with style, beginning with a confrontation on desert dunes. We then get the first action sequence, with the Redeemer taking on a bunch of neo-Nazis, and this also sets the tone, the editing being kept light, and with some innovative violence [My favorite moment in that department, comes later, in a fight on the beach where hooks are not used for their intended purpose] I will say, the middle of the movie is largely irrelevant. Saving Agustin involves the Redeemer going up against a slew of minions belonging to American drug dealer Bradock (Noah Segan). He is annoyed by how everyone except him seems to have a cool nickname.

But this is just filling time and, to be honest, I found the Agustin subplot somewhat irritating. Inevitably, we end up where, in hindsight, it was always going to end up: the Redeemer versus Scorpion (top). It’s a fine fight, though I was also annoyed by the… extremely… slow… way… Antonia crawls over towards the discarded gun. Admittedly, she has been shot in the leg, as an incentive from Scorpion for Agustin to play Russian Roulette himself. But she still moves like a sloth coming to the end of a long shift at the DMV. It doesn’t matter much because the core of the movie is strong enough. You have an interesting sorta-hero, an impressive villain, and enough fisticuffs to move Chile up a number of spots in the FAFO country rankings. 

The Fist of the Condor (2023)

Rating: C-

Dir: Ernesto Díaz Espinoza
Star: Marko Zaror, Gina Aguad, Eyal Meyer, Man Soo Yoon

This is of Chilean origin, and clearly has a Latin American backdrop. Yet the story here feels very much like it could have been ripped from a Shaw Brothers film, made in Hong Kong during the early seventies. Sure, it might be wearing a poncho. But it’s as Chinese as chow mein. The setting goes back to the fall of the Incan empire to the Spanish. The last practitioner of the martial art of Rumi Maki headed south to preserve the ancient knowledge. Since then, the fighting style has been passed down the generations. Most recently, Mujer Condor (Aguad) chose between twin brothers Guerrero (Zaror) and Gamelo (also Zaror), picking one to be the next master.

This doesn’t sit well with the other brother. We are soon deep in a murky plot which goes back and forth in time, and the only way to figure out which siblingis which, is by the spectacularly bad wigs one – or possibly both, it’s hard to be sure – wears. Meanwhile, there’s a villain, Kalari (Meyer), who may or may not be working for one of the brothers. His impressive kung-fu skills are only slightly undercut by his eye-liner, which makes Kalari look like he just finished a double shift on the returns counter at Hot Topic. This all leads towards a final battle between him and Guerrero – or possibly Gamelo, it’s hard to be sure – though it’s very much “To be continued”.

I, however, won’t be continuing this one. While the action is solid enough, the rest of the film leaves a lot to be desired. There are elements, clearly inspired by seventies chop-socky, that don’t sit well with the modern era. Maybe it would have made more sense to have set it back in the days of the Incas, though I understand why the budget didn’t stretch to that. For instance, there’s a training sequence where the hero’s legs are tied together, and he has to scoot forward on his hands and do a high-jump (top). The effects used are… not good. I suspect deliberately so. However, this makes it very hard to take the rest of the movie seriously, as it clearly wants.

If it has simply stuck to one plot, things might have worked better. Either “good twin vs. evil twin” or “battle for control of a martial arts manual”. This manages to be both, as well as elements that don’t really help, such as various bits of family stuff. I did enjoy the mountain scenery, with the Andes offering a spectacular backdrop, and in general the Hispanic elements are nicely worked in, such as the legend of the condor. [They don’t have fists, of course – but nor do snakes, eagles or any of the other animal styles of kung-fu!] However, all the positives are pushed to one side, by a story that feels like it went through multiple iterations of Google Translate, from Chinese to English and on to Spanish.