Good and Bad Martial Arts Movies

I was watching the Karate Kid last night on ABC Family and I thought, this movie is going on 25 years old but it is still a good movie.  I will admit there is some cheese to it.  But at its core the movie is a story about a student and a teacher.  The rest of the movie is a bit bland and sterotypical in its story about the evil martial arts school, stealing the antagonist’s girlfriend, and the protagonist trying to fit into a society that he doesn’t feel he fits into.  The teacher student parts of the movie are what moves the story because it is the story.  I think where the Karate Kid succeeds is where other martial arts movies fail.  Most martial arts movies are about martial arts and fight choreography, where the Karate Kid is about a story first and Karate/ martial arts second.  That is why this movie works after 20+ years, it is a good story.

 Other good martial arts movies, in my opinion:

The Good

1.  Rocky - The story of the underdog given one shot to make his mark.  It is a great story and a great movie.  Unfortunately the movies get worse as time goes on Rocky 2 is fine, three is bad, four is awful, 5 is unwatchable and I didn’t see the last installment even though part of it was filmed in the building I work in.  However, this first film really does a great job of sucking you in.

2.  Raging Bull/ The Contender -  Both good boxing stories and worth the time.

3.  Million Dollar Baby - Unusual story of a woman boxer.  The movie stars Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman and Hillary Swank - that is enough to take the two hours out of your day.  This follows a Karate Kid format in that it is a story about a teacher and a student in which boxing happens happen. 

4.  Chushingura - story of the 47 Ronin.  The movie is visually stunning and the story is happens to be the national story of Japan.  It is like the battle of Thermopylae for the Greeks, it is part of their cultural identity.  I own this one and like it a lot.

5. Seven Samurai - This is one of the classics.  We are all familiar with it and I feel bad taking up an entry spot but it deserves a spot on the list.

 6.  Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon - Now here is the formula film makers should look to in making a martial arts movie, start with good actors.  Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun Fat are good actors and their performances made this movie.  The stunning visuals helped alot and even though there was a lot of wire work in the movie it seemed to fit.  This movie engages you start to finish and the fight sequences are great.

7.  Gladiator - Now some might look at this funny, but it is a martial arts movie and a good one.  Russell Crowe may be an idiot who throws phones at people in real life but he can act.  This is a good movie about a Roman general who finds himself turned gladiator.  The combat sequences are simply stunning.  Great stuff.  Again, good story with good actors.

8.  Star Wars - Star Wars is a kung fu movie in space.  The main protagonists practice a mystical martial art complete with samurai style sword fighting.  This comes complete with warrior-esque codes of conduct and a good versus evil dichotomy.  Some may say space opera but I know a kung fu movie when I see one.

The Bad - these are the movies that offer some good martial arts but poor stories making an over all bad movie

1.  Anything with Tony Jaa.  Tony Jaa is a great Thai martial artist and his movies are stunning in terms of his martial arts prowess.  But are they good movies in their own right?, not so much.  They are stupid and poorly conceived films in terms of their stories, they just are an excuse to watch Tony Jaa break some skulls in dramatic fashion.  This is similar to most Jett Li movies.   Jett Li has given us some good stuff but not great stuff and I am not sure if I am willing to sit through much of his stuff a second time.  But I do give a nod to Hero as being decent.

2.  Chuck Norris/ Stephen Segal- Two names that don’t usually go together.  Chuck Norris may have a fist behind his beard but he can’t act.  He knows it and says so.  His movies have huge unintentional humor factors.  Some of his fight sequences are good but the movies have poor stories, this is the same with Stephen Segal.  Good action, poor stories (usually very bad).  The only saving grace these days is that he goes direct to DVD so I don’t have to be forced to watch previews.  It is sad because Segal showed such promise early on.

3.  Jean Claude Van Damme -  The amount of van dammage that this man has done can’t be overstated.  He has made some miserable movies.  Terrible stories with predictable fight sequences.  Here is the part where he does a split and punches the guy in the groin, I think he did this in every movie (it may have just seemed that way). 

The Ugly - these are the movies with poor stories and poor martial arts that are dung heaps of movies.

1.  Gymkata - this may the worst movie ever made in any genre.  Strong words I know, but if you ever saw it you might agree (but if you haven’t seen it don’t, you can’t get that time back).  It is Olympic gymnast Kurt Thomas turned martial artist on a secret mission for the U.S. government.  It is laughable.  At one point he is being chased by a bunch of crazies in a walled off town and what does he find in the middle of the town a pommel horse.  Remarkable.  The unintentional humor value is extreme.

2. Street Fighter - Raul Julia was a good actor it is unfortunate this was his last movie.  Any movie based on a video game is running uphill from day one.  When you cast Jean Claude Van Damme in it there is one extra obstacle.  This movie was based on a fighting video game and the martial arts in it were terrible.  Just bad, start to finish.  At least there was no tease of it being any good.

3.  The Quest -  Jean Claude Van Damme in a quasi- Blood Sport remake with Roger Moore looking for a last paycheck.  This was terrible and near unwatchable. 

Teaching Helps … a lot

I usually don’t go to class on Wednesday, but as my wife had a big test on Wednesday morning, I begged off my Tuesday schedule so that she could prepare on Tuesday night.  So I went the next day, Wednesday.  I read or heard somewhere that you retain 10% of what you hear, 20% of what you see and 70% of what you teach.  The act of teaching makes you really think about what you are doing.  Conveying information puts an extra burden on the conveyor to fully understand what they are tryng to get across.

Last night was no different.  We had a new student in class, T.  T is an older guy coming back into the martial arts after a long absence.  (sounds familiar.)  I was helping Sensei get him into the swing of things by working with him on some techniques.  I remember when I first came back I had such a hard time getting the techniques together in my mind.  I really had to lean on others to help me with that, as well as all the crazy sounding names for the techniques.  I still think it would be easier to number them than to have all the crazy sounding technique names … falcons, maces, storms, destruction this and that.  It can all be a bit overwhelming, but I digress.  T was having some of the same issues I was trying to piece together the movements.  It was more troublesome for him as we were doing some purple belt techniques last night that are more complicated and longer than the yellow belt techniques he would be working with on most nights. 

Shuffling back into a cat with dragging hooking parries, followed with figure 8 back fists, rising elbow and a finishing claw is fine if you have had the practice to get up there, but it can be overwhelming on the 4th class.  Being paired with T, I had to make sure he was understanding the material and that he didn’t get frustrated with it.  An easy thing to do if you are working above your comfort level.  As is usually the case, I learned more about the technique than I thought I knew when I was trying to explain it to T while we worked back and forth.  I think by the end of our work on it we both understood it better.  So I have to say thanks T for helping me to understand the art a little better.  Also, Sensei paired me with the new student for a reason, I appreciate his trust and his motives for doing so.  He knew that by explaining I would learn more than my simply going back and forth with the advanced students.  A great class.

Cross Training to Something to Love

When I started back into martial arts this year, American Kenpo specifically.  I did so because I needed some cross training that would keep my interest.  I had started running in March at the depressing weight of 293 pounds.  It was a slow and painful journey from 293 to my current weight of 255.  What I found along this journey was not so much that I am a runner of decent potential.  I started walking and running and now I can run 13 miles, evidenced by my half marathon finish a couple of weeks ago.  But more than that, I have found my love of the martial arts again. 

American Kenpo was supposed to be a filler to kill the boredom of running that I suspected would arise as I continued.  The boredom never occurred in running and I found my training in American Kenpo to be wholly satisfying in many ways.  I wish there were more kata and weapon sets, but the history of the art through the Mitose/ Chow and later Parker line favors short self defense techniques over kata.  These techniques are practical and effective.  Master Chow said, “Kenpo is for the streets.”  Practical is at its core.  I have to say I like it.  American Kenpo is different from the Chinese Kenpo I studied for many years but it still has the soul that I am familiar with.  I would prefer to have the ability to train with the Guan Dao (Sword staff), Iron fan and Chinese spear.  But looking at what is there it is hard to be too critical.  My training, with my excellent Sensei, has really helped me to grow not just as a martial artist but as a person. 

My training keeps me coming back week after week.  I learn more each time and this motivates me to learn more, to perfect what I learned previously, to work on my flow, speed, power and confidence.  All of these also help me in my law practice.  As my confidence and attention to detail grow in my Kenpo training I bring those attributes to other parts of my life.  I am a better lawyer today than I was 6 months ago.  That is better for my clients as well as for myself.  I forgot what it meant to be a martial artist, or warrior if you prefer.  I am beginning to remember.  It seems odd to think that all this started because I thought my cross training might need a shakeup.  Funny how life works.  I was looking to fight boredom and instead I found myself all over again.

Finding my Flow - Where did it go?

 Lately I have been looking for my flow.  I feel a bit like Bruce Lee Roy from Berry Gordy’s the Last Dragon.  The hero in the story is looking for the golden glow that only a true master can find.   I am no where near that sort of level.  But I am still searching for my flow, rather than a glow.

    Removing the herky jerky from my movements is more problematic that I thought it might be.  I can feel my head going up and down as I do my movements.  I might as well send my opponent a telegraph.    Dee, deet, dee  … here he comes.  Being a bobber on the water is a sure fire way to catch a boot to the head, or something equally unpleasant. Well maybe not a tax audit, but I might get my feelings hurt.   Keeping my body quiet in terms of movement has been hard work.  The constant changes in height is just poor technique and bad basics.

  It can be frustrating to know what you are supposed to do and not be able to do it correctly.  Calming my body had been a challenge.  I know how to line up my punches and kicks but keeping my height constant has been a challenge.  It seems natural to me to want to rise up as I move.  I believe that when you are in stances the forward movement makes you want to rise up as you step forward.  Moreover, this little problem makes my kata look bad.  I look like an airplane with engine trouble.  The good news is that I have identified the problem.  As they say in the 12 step programs, admitting you have a problem is the first step.  Hi my name is Rob and I bounce up and down when I do kata.  Hi Rob.  I think I know where I am going to be focusing my efforts over the next few weeks.

I like to do self evaluations every couple of months.  I try to evaluate my technique to see where I have come from and where I am going and how I am going to get there.  I have taken to taking some private lessons from my Sensei to help me see where my problems are.  Anything worth doing is worth doing well.  For now I have to work on keeping  my lower body quiet as I move.  If anyone needs me I’ll be practicing.

Kenpo Freestyle

Getting used to contact takes some doing.  The thing about Kenpo (American or otherwise) is that you have to get used to taking some shots.  Well I can’t really speak to all Kenpo as I don’t know much about Shorinji Kenpo; however, the Kenpo that comes from the James Mitose/ William Chow variety has contact at its core.  Not the call an ambulance type of contact but controlled contact.  So each night you will take some elbows, punches and backfists to the body, back, legs and arms.  Nothing long lasting but enough so you know you have been hit.  Part of the idea being that you don’t know what it is like to be hit until you are hit.   This is much the old Judo maxim of the best training for judo is judo.

In a typical American Kenpo class techniques will be worked on a partner and while working the techniques you will take a few shots from your partner.  This will also be done on random grab/ hold and strike counters.  In this type of scenario, your partner will randomly attack and you will need to defend.  This is more of a free style format.  I find this to be more useful than sparring.  Sparring as most are familiar involves the wearing of protective gear and follows rules that prohibit some types of strikes as the goal is to score points.  Sparring is fine and it develops alot skills that are useful in self defense situations.  But it is artificial and needs to be viewed with a little bit of a jaundice eye. 

I prefer the freestyle no gloves practice to sparring.  First, it gets you used to being hit, which is necessary.  As Mike Tyson said, “everyone has a plan until they get hit.”  Getting used to being hit is necessary to be able to keep your wits when you are hit for real.  Second,  the random attacks removes the rote practice of martial arts.  It can be easy to get too wrapped up into techniques for their own sake.  This is the practice of techniques to set attacks and then correcting your partner for not attacking correctly.  No one is going to attack just so on the street, so you have to learn to adapt.  Freestyle practice removes the rote thinking.  This is not to say that the practice of techniques is not useful because this is the core.  But the applying those techniques in a freestyle format is more valuable.  Finally, you learn what works for you.  Not everyone can wear the same pair of pants.  The same is true for self defense.  Some people excel at longer distance kicks and punches, some are better grapplers and so on.  Freestyle lets you explore your own preferences and abilities (as well as weaknesses to work on).  You have to be self critical during this training to see where you are getting hit and why, what is working and what isn’t.  This is the intellectual side of the martial arts, the examination.  If you just watch and repeat you aren’t really making the progress you could be. 

Making Adjustments

When I began martial arts at the age of 16, it was easy to pick things up.  When I was younger I could easily transfer what I was looking at into action.  Not perfectly but I had the idea of what I was supposed to be doing.  Today, at 39 things are different.  I have only been back into martial arts for about 5 months but I have found I have to be deliberate in my efforts to learn.  It is a more ponderous affair.  I first have to watch the technique a couple of times, then I have to have some one pound me with it for a few more times, then I can work on it class back and forth.  Then to cement it into my mind I have to practice at home and repeat the name of the technique as I am doing it.  Then I dissect the techniques as to the hows and whys.  Then at times I will go to you tube and try to find a video to get some more understanding of the technique in question. 

American Kenpo is great in that the techniques are the same no matter where you go as Grandmaster Parker wrote down what was required for each belt in a book he published in the 1980’s.  Granted there will some variations but the names and general concepts of the techniques are universal through the American Kenpo system.  So good for me and my ponderous middle aged learning patterns.  So each night I practice my current belt techniques and then do a lesser amount of the previous belt techniques.  I spend more time on the current belt techniques, but even the old ones I have to spend the time to keep the muscle memory alive.  Grinding the techniques into my mind is more time consuming but I think my level of understanding is more advanced than when I was younger.

When I was training in Chinese Kenpo and Kungfu earlier in my martial arts career, we used to say … “You can’t build a house on a crumbling foundation.”  Effectively, your foundation (read basics) have to be good or everything you try to build on those basics won’t be effective.  So the time I spend honing my basics will serve me when things become more advanced.  The hundred plus repetitions of each technique I do each week help in more than just remembering the technique.  I get to hone my basics.  Well this is what I tell myself.  I think it is worth it.

Remembering it is supposed to be fun

I am a serious guy.  I know this about myself and sometimes I have to remind myself to relax.  I have noticed recently in my training that I was getting to the point of training and pushing myself for its own sake rather than the enjoyment of the art.  As I was making it through the 12th repetition of the the same form, I stopped.  What am I doing.  I mean I enjoy kata and the exercise I get from it but I was going a bit far.  Sometimes you want to burn yourself and see what you can endure (much like the half marathon I ran on Sunday).  However, this should not be every workout.  I have been guilty of pushing for its own sake as of late and I haven’t stepped back to really enjoy what I am doing. 

The feeling of just getting it is nice but if you are pushing yourself all the time you don’t take the time to enjoy it and then the moment is lost.  You won’t get it back.  Slow down and experience it.  The flag posts along the way will still be there but they will mean more if you enjoy the ride along the way.  When the end becomes the purpose of the trip everything that happened along the way to get there seems to matter a little less.  I have to remind myself of this in my training.  I have enjoyed my American Kenpo classes to date and I don’t want to get lost in the grind of getting to the next belt and so on and so on.  Then by the time I get where I am going I will be burned out.  Training for a lifetime is my goal. 

As a result, I have been thinking of some things to spice things up to make my training more interesting.  I will update when I make some more decisions on this but I think I would like to add some weapon training during my private lessons to enhance my experience.  I will think specifically over the next couple of weeks.  In the meantime I will be trying to relax and enjoy what I am doing a little more.

Change of Plans

I had originally planned on racing in the half marathon in Baltimore on October 13, 2007.  However, after the Philadelphia Distance Run on September 16, it is clear that I have some injuries that need to heal.  Specifically, my right heel and ankle and a bit of a mess from over use.  I need some down time.  Not complete downtime, but a step back.  I usually run 20 to 25 miles a week.  Not an outstanding number but it is mine.  I will gear back to about 15 for the next month.

The silver lining of missing this race is that I can now go to the seminar with Grandmaster Tatum at my Philadelphia Kenpo School. I have not seen Master Tatum in person, only on video, and I am very excited to see him in person.  Additionally, my sensei will be testing for his 5th degree black belt which he has graciously opened for viewing to his students.  I did not want to miss this opportunity and I am glad to be able to see it in person.  So in a way this injury is a bit of a blessing, although we never want to be hurt.  In this case it opened a couple of other opportunites that I might not have experienced if I had not been injured.

A struggle through class

Usually I am gung ho for class.  However, last night I was still fighting 13.1 miles of fatigue from Sunday.  It really took out my right ankle and heel; I am still feeling the effects.  As usual, once you start you are glad you came.  I got into the class which was rapid fire techniques done on a partner.  I was working with a shorter gentleman, I like to work with different sized people as it causes me to adjust techniques for the opponent.  At 6′ I am slightly on the tall size but not so much, I am kind of upper middle.  But I am still sporting too much weight, we will see in a couple of months. 

I felt a bit clunkly from my post run lower leg issues.  I had a real hard time flowing through my techniques as  I couldn’t shift my weight properly (read my weight shifts were slow and resembled a hippo on sleeping pills).  As a result, my flow on the hand techniques were lacking power and speed.  But I did the best I could under the circumstances.  I learned a few more techniques which puts me at 50% to the next belt.  I think I just got this one.  I will need to do more perfection beyond just learning the techniques.  I have noticed that my technique needs some refinement in the areas of rounding corners and flow.  There is more of a kung fu element in kenpo I have noticed in this new list.  The linear movements more representative of Japanese striking arts is disappearing in the new sets and being replaced by more kung fu elements.  Kenpo is an art of dual Chinese and Japanese origins, so I should not be surprised.  My training in Chinese Kenpo was similar.  Begin with linear and advance to a more kung fu type system.

When I got done I felt better than when I came in and that is a good sign.  Sensei wanted to borrow my copy of Chushingura (the story of the forty seven ronin).  It is a great movie visually stunning with some nice samurai sequences during the last 40 minutes or so.  It is worth the time. 

Psychological benefits of martial arts practice

Personally, I have always felt better when I have been training.  It seems there are reasons for this, please follow the link to a literature review article on the subject.

Psychosocial Benefits of the Martial Arts: Myth or Reality? by Brad Binder Ph.D.

http://userpages.chorus.net/wrassoc/articles/psychsoc.htm

As one might expect, continued long term participation reduces hostility and has a calming effect on the practioner.  Additionally, the article suggests improvement in self esteem, confidence, independence and self-reliance.  I have been sold for years; however, it is nice to know that this is being studied by the academic community.