Martial Arts movies are valuable even though they are often dismissed. People often turn their nose up when Martial Arts movies are discussed.
The Shaw Brothers Showed The Way
These moves stretch the ideas of physics and human performance. Running through the treetops in, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The Samurai that can slice a head off its shoulder and still stay in place for a moment only to slough to the ground. Or the perfect cylinder of human flesh punched out of the bad guy’s abdomen in the movie, “Kung-Pow.” Ok, not the best example.
Taking The Idea Too Far
These are movies. Most of the time we relax and enjoy them for what they are. Entertainment. But some people blur reality with fiction. I remember standing in line at a movie theater in Tacoma Washington. I was there to see the new Steven Segal movie. The guy in front of me was dressed as Segal, wearing Chinese kung-fu shoes and a ponytail. Dressed in black his emulation of Segal was spot on.
Here is how martial arts movies are valuable as a larger thing exists. If you can see a martial arts technique in a movie it is persuasive, you think you may be able to do that. Not fighting a half dozen henchmen in an underground labyrinth on a private island. But you got inspired to try the double spin kick.
If your mind can see the movie move, it becomes tangible in your mind. If something is a concept seeing it as achievable is unlikely.
Martial arts movies are formulaic and often predictable, but so.
In the early eighties, Sunday morning was Kung-Fu Theater, 11 am my time. I could see it. I was inspired not even being aware of all the things on the screen. And the visual, the persuasive, the example.
Take a favorite martial arts movie and go to a scene you like. Analyze the moves. Yes, we know it is fake. Making a movie means filling with jump cuts, many angles, and multiple takes. Again, So.
Find that move and go see if you can make it work? See if you can make it real. If you can make it work, great. If you can’t make it real, well we learn something in the process.
This isn’t a deep pondering of the biomechanics and intent of the movie martial arts techniques. The goal of the movie is to entertain you enough you will spend some money to see it. But we get to use the visual as a piece of persuasion that can nest in our brain.
An Action Christmas?
This is far greater than a concept. And it is fun. Yeah, have some martial arts movie-inspired fun and learn something in the process. You can use this time to discover martial arts movies are valuable. I still contend, Road House, is a martial art movie, not an action movie. And while I’m at it, Die Hard, is not a Christmas movie.
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KRIS WILDER
Kris Wilder is a martial artist based in Seattle Washington. He has authored many martial art books, including the classic, The Way of Kata. Making no apologies for his obsession of Football he can be found telling any who will listen about the nuances of the Canadian Football League.