Martial Arts

This week’s movie will be delayed, due to a lack of mindless movies. Actually, there are a couple of mindless movies released, but we’d prefer not to have our souls sucked out through our eyeballs, so we’ll be catching a DVD.

I like martial arts. I should clarify, actually. I like martial arts in movies. I’d probably like live demonstrations too, but I’ve never been privy to one. Generally, I like them more than other types of action films. Guns end fights quickly, so the only way to extend them is to have lots of people, bad aim, or heavy cover (or all three, depending on the movie). A martial arts scene can have two people, and take quite a bit of time, while never having it boring. The final fight in Fist of Legend, for instance, takes about 9 minutes.

This needs to be done with well-trained people, though. Two inexperienced people will simply be brawling (hit the other person until they stop moving). If I was into that, I’d watch more boxing or UFC, where it’s both more controlled and better.

If it’s well choreographed with good people, it can be epic. The advent of the internet means a lot of lesser known titles from Asia are more available here, and the improvement of special effect means that a lot of recent movies have awesome fight scenes.

Of course, that doesn’t stop movie makers from skimping on money or actors. Faking a martial arts scene is usually done by using quick edits, close-ups, and a shaky cam. I don’t know if that works for you, but it usually just leaves me confused about what’s happening.

One problem a lot of these movies run into is how to keep guns out. You can’t rob a store with only martial arts – someone is bound to have a gun. If they don’t, police will have them and will put you down.

One solution is to set it in the past, where guns haven’t been invented, or are unreliable. The other is to set it in a place where all people fight with no guns. Say, a tournament for instance. This seems to be a favourite of movie writers everywhere – have an underground tournament where the best fighters in the world (or merely whoever happens to be around) fight it out to see who’s number one, or simply for other people to gamble on. Why these people participate in or gamble on these fights is pretty ridiculous. There are perfectly legitimate ways (Mixed Martial Arts tours) of doing that for far more money than underground tournaments run by mobsters, criminals, or sorcerers from another realm.

Movies that have underground or little-known tournaments and fights include Bloodsport, Lionheart, The Quest (all staring Jean-Claude Van Damme), Mortal Kombat, Ong Bak, DOA: Dead or Alive, etc … It’s even lampooned in Balls of Fury, about an underground ping pong tournament. Fearless managed to do this legitimately, as did the Karate Kid and its remake.

Karate is probably the most well known, mainly for its above mentioned movie. Kung Fu is next, popularized by The Matrix and the recent availability of Asian movies. Judo or Jujutsu can be seen in the movies Flash Point and Killzone, and Capoeira can be seen by an opponent of Tony Jaa in The Protector. Aikido is practiced by Steven Seagal, and found in most of his movies.

If you want martial arts movies, there are a ton of them. Recent ones are on this list. Good martial artists include Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Tony Jaa, Donnie Yen, Sammo Hung, and many others. See any movies choreographed by Cory Yuen or Woo-Ping Yuen as well. They’re masters at that.

Another thing I’ve gotten into recently is Parkour. It’s to running around as Martial Arts is to Brawling. I like it because a lot of martial artists are good at it, and vice-versa. You’ve probably seen it at the beginning of Casino Royal, but here’s a taste from District B13.

And just for fun, here's another martial arts scene:

And and here's one from a stunt team called Zero Gravity: