I had the chance to watch Shaolin Soccer the other day.  It was all in Chinese, but fortunately there were subtitles.  Unfortunately, the subtitles were in Korean.  Still, I have to say I enjoyed watching.  Like Stephen Chow’s other films (I’ve only seen three, the other two being CJ7 and Kung Fu Hustle, both of which I also recommend) this is a fun and creative take on the genre.  Despondent after the death of their master, a group of kung fu experts go their separate ways.  Most are unhappy with their life outside of Kung Fu.  Enter “Golden Leg” Fung, former great soccer player who arrogantly abused those around him during his career.  During a game he missed the game winning penalty kick, he is brutally beaten by fans and receives a career ending injury (no wonder the Chinese don’t have a good soccer team).  Years later he is poor and working as a servant to his now rich former teammate whom he had been so abusive towards before.  This part was interesting.  The now rich guy was obviously the bad guy, but I felt a twinge of justice being served.  I didn’t hate the bad guy and I didn’t really like the good guy.  You do feel sorry for him, but there isn’t much to like.  It makes for an interesting viewing experience.  One day “Golden Leg”, who had just been denied his chance to coach a soccer team for his boss in an upcoming tournament, comes across a homeless Stephen Chow, part of the group of kung fu experts I mentioned before.  I don’t want to ruin it by telling the whole story here, but suffice it to say, Golden Leg convinces Chow to recruit his former (now aged) kung fu brothers onto a soccer team to compete in the tournament.  This recruitment process is fun to watch, as they are each resistant at first.  Chow has a good sense of humor that he weaves well into the story.  Also fun are the training sequences and the competition scenes.  By far my favorite moment in the film is during their first tournament match.  The opposing captain laughs when he sees the rag-tag looking group of old guys facing him.  We hear the whistle blow as we see him laughing, and then behind him we see the ball bounce into the net.  The timing was great!  Hilarious.

A more interesting point from my martial artist’s standpoint is that kung fu (and martial arts in general) apply to every aspect of life.  As Master Han said in the re-released Karate Kid, “We practice kung fu in everything we do.”  While martial arts is not for everyone, it does seem to be for everything.  I cannot think of an aspect of my life that is not aided through my martial arts training.  This theme is present throughout the movie.

It is a fun film.  You should watch it.  I intend to do so again with English subtitles next time.

Several of my students recently competed in a karate tournament and in getting ready for the  competition, we decided to watch one of the best karate movies ever, The Karate Kid.  With the  re-release of this movie looming, I wanted to add my opinions here in Kungfu-topia.  Having  spoken with August (possibly the biggest Karate Kid fan I know) about this release and I have  mixed feelings.  First, the original Karate Kid was not broken.  They got it right.  If you want to  see how wrong a remake can go, just check out Hilary Swank in The Next Karate Kid.

Second, the kid in this rerelease doesn’t learn karate.  Taking the name just to make money from the Karate Kid loyal seems terribly wrong.

Still, there is hope.  I always loved the way the original presents the art of karate.  It is more than fighting.  Those who train for understanding, for the art, emerge victorious over those focusing only on the martial.  August told me he is excited to see a movie released to do this again for a new generation.  The previews look promising in this regard.

The jury is still out.  I will report back after I have seen the film.  Nothing can replace the original.  It will remain required reading for my karate school where I quote the movie at least once per class.  This brings up my final point, The Karate Kid is one of the most quotable movies of all time.  Be it Kreese or Miyagi, there are dozens of quotable quotes that echo through the decades.

-Wax on, right hand. Wax off, left hand. Wax on, wax off. Breathe in through nose, out the mouth. Wax on, wax off. Don’t forget to breathe, very important.

-STRIKE FIRST, STRIKE HARD, NO MERCY SIR!

-We do not train to be merciful here. Mercy is for the weak. Here, in the streets, in competition: A man confronts you, he is the enemy. An enemy deserves no mercy.

-Get him a body bag! Yeah!

On that note, what are your favorite Karate Kid quotes?  Everytime I watch it, I hear a new one.  I am excited to hear from you kungfu-topians.  Also, once you have seen the new release, let me know what you think.

No more for today.  Come back soon.  Start early.

I recently had the opportunity to visit South Korea.  I felt that it was imperative to the success of my trip that I learn a bit about the culture before I stumbled headlong into it.  Fortunately, I had a solution.  What better way to familiarize myself with this rich, unique, and very different culture than to watch a film that clearly displayed their culture?  I chose Best of the Best.

Best of the Best is the tale of the US karate team as they prepare to compete against the Korean tae kwon do team, who “enjoy complete government support and funding” and whom they have never beaten.  If you ever wanted to create a compelling argument for not using untrained actors to play martial artists, this would be all you would need.  There are however plenty of notable names.  Eric Roberts is the incessantly crying main character, Alex Grady, James Earl Jones is coach Clouzo, the worst coach of any kind ever, and Christopher Penn is the profane cowboy Travis Brikley.  Phillip Rhee (by far the best martial artist of the bunch) plays Tommy Lee, not the drummer but the tae kwon do instructor with the troubled past.

This is by no means a good movie, but it is fun and it is possibly the most quoted kung fu Friday movie ever.  Here are a few of my favorites:

Alex: Tommy! No! Coach! Coach! He’s gonna kill him!

Tommy: I wanna kill that son of a bitch.

Alex: Then kill that son of a bitch.

Tommy: Alex! I’m afraid!

Travis: You shouldn’t block with your face

Best of the Best also features the best bar fight scene ever!

Best of the Best is worth the watch. While the fight scenes featuring the “actors” aren’t very good, the rest are pretty descent.  There is plenty of 80’s cheese, a training montage, and a climatic final battle.  I give it a rating of 7 roundhouse kicks to the face.

I went to see Ninja Assassin for my birthday.  After seeing the preview, I had high hopes.  I wasn’t disappointed.  Ninja Assassin gave me everything I wanted, ninja, explosions, and extreme, gratuitous violence.  What else could I want for my birthday?

Honestly, I really enjoyed this film.  It tells the story of Riazo, played by Korean pop star Rain, an orphan who is brought in by the Black Sand Ninja clan, from his training from his eventual defection from his clan.  Lots of flashbacks and training sequences smattered about between the intense action sequences, I just really liked the movie.

Within the first minute, the tone is set as the top of a triad gang member’s is lopped off with his body spurting blood on his friends.  Repeat for the next 99 minutes and go home happy.

I also like how the movie follows the ninja henchman paradox.  This theory states that the toughness of a ninja is inversely proportional to the number of ninja present.  While one single ninja represents an unstoppable killing machine, in large groups they tend to die rather easily.  We also see the impact of this theory in that as the ninja henchmen are killed off, the individual ninja get tougher and tougher.  So a small piece of financial advice to you, a ninja bodyguard is a better investment than an army of ninja henchmen.  Just an FYI.

So, in summary, see Ninja Assassin.  It is worth it.  It is gruesome and fun, everything you would want it to be.

During my recent trip to the orient, I had the opportunity to train in several different martial arts schools in both Japan and Korea.  This was an amazing experience, but it is not what this blog is actually about.

This post is actually about the origins of the martial arts we practice.  As a Goshin Jutsu stylist, I have some experience with controversial martial arts origin stories.  Goshin Jutsu was invented, based on other traditional martial arts, in northwestern Pennsylvania.  There are two distinct histories of my style, one true and one entirely made up.  This has caused a great deal of internet “debate” as to the authenticity of the style (much of this comes from a single source, some guy with a chip on his shoulder), raising the question, how much do we actually know about the origins of our martial arts?

As I was preparing to go to a Haedon Kumdo school to learn some Korean sword techniques, I decided to give my friend Coons a call.  For one, he was dealing with all of the post-comiccon ridiculousness, and secondly, he has been studying kendo for a while now and I thought he might be interested.  During our conversation, he informed me that kumdo is just a misspelling of kendo, as the Koreans had taken it along with their empty hands martial arts from the Japanese after the occupation.  I would just have chalked this up to more of Coons’ crazy ramblings and paid it little attention had it not been for the fact that several of the Koreans that I talked too told me that exact opposite story.  When they [my Korean friends] found out that I practiced a martial art based on Japanese karate, they each told me about how Japanese karate is in fact based on Korean Tae Kwon Do.  Further, in visiting a Muay Thai kickboxing school, the instructor there informed me that both karate and tae kwon do where both actually based on Thai kickboxing techniques.

It is no secret that we martial artists are, in general, an arrogant lot.  We love telling (and some do make up) stories.  So it is really no surprise that we all think our style is the best and in some way the original.  I have my own ideas as to how these origin stories really  played out, but I am more interested in you, Kung Fu-topians.  What stories have you heard about either your own martial art or about martial arts in general?  What have you been told or read?    Add your own story to Kung Fu Topian lore.

Special thanks to those gracious instructors who let me live my dream and train with you.  Thank you for stepping over the language barrier and welcoming me into your school.

Ok, let me start by saying that this is in fact the real title as it appears on the DVD box and on the start menu. Let me follow with, it doesn’t involve in ANY WAY Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee isn’t in the movie, he didn’t write or produce the movie, and it was in fact released 4 years after his death. I did find out later that it does star Bruce Li, although he isn’t credited in my copy, a Bruce Lee clone of the Bruceploitation period (i.e. Bruce Li, Bruce Le, etc.). Bolo Yeung (Enter the Dragon and Bloodsport) also apparently appears somewhere in the movie (Thank you IMDB) but I didn’t see him. Maybe he was one of the guys in the gorilla costumes…

Which brings me to the review. Basic plot synopsis, a Shaolin monk is banished from the temple. He starts a casino and begins taking advantage of the locals. After a series of nasty events with the villagers, Master Fok (that’s really his name) and his assistant (Bruce Li) are called in to help. Their task is to save a young woman who has been kidnapped to the villain’s brothel. The two kung fu masters are forced to battle their way up a mountain past henchmen, an entire aboriginal Malaysian tribe, and a pack of mountain apes trained in Kung Fu. Fortunately, their human style kung fu was more powerful than the apes gorilla style and the day is saved.

This all begs the question, what does it take for dressing up in gorilla suits and filming a kung fu fight scene to sound like a good idea? I mean really? At some point, some one, somewhere had to say, “Dude, I have a great idea! It’s something that’s never been done! I’m talking about a gorilla fight scene!” See what I mean? It just can’t possibly sound smart.

Nevertheless, it is still fun. If you are looking for high drama, or even something that makes sense, don’t bother. However, if you are reading my blog, you are likely looking for neither of these, so go for it. Don’t bother watching the whole thing. Save yourself the time and just skip to the gorilla scene and laugh until you cry.

Bad Guy: Well now. You dare to come here, dare to oppose us. You forget the girl. You’re gonna get hurt. You got that?

Hero: Guess so, but still, I’ve got to check with my friend. See what he thinks.

Second Bad Guy: Hmm… and where is this friend?

Hero: [lifts his fist] He’s here. He says no!

——

Update!

I found it! You have to see it to believe it!

The

Forbidden Kingdom came out in 2008 and I paid the money and went to the theater to see it.  I mean two of the biggest names in the current kung fu movie genre (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) were finally together on screen, yet the fact that they are both well into their careers and both are established names world-wide, it was likely just a shameless plot to capitalize on their popularity and make a few bucks without having to spend time or money on writers or directors.  Still, lack of plot and story has never been a deterrent for me when it comes to kung fu movies so, with some trepidation, I went and I was pleasantly surprised.  Not as epic as it would have been if it had been made 10 years prior, it was still a very enjoyable movie to watch.  The characters were fun and the story was pretty good.  It had the silly “Crouching Tiger” wire fighting that I hate so much, but it wasn’t over the top and in general the fight scenes were entertaining. 

The general idea behind the plot is that a kid obsessed with kung fu movies is sucked into a mystical ancient Asian land and charged with the task of returning a magical staff to the Monkey King (Jet Li) who was imprisoned 500 years ago by the Jade Warlord.  It sounds cheesy (and really it is), but it never pretends to be something it isn’t.  On his way he meets a drunken beggar (Jackie Chan), Sparrow (a pretty young girl whose family was killed by the Jade War Lord), and a monk (also Jet Li) who help him on his way and train him in kung fu. 

All-in-all, it is a fun movie and worth watching at least once. 

Hello again. Ni hao. Konichiwa. An Nyoung. Welcome back. So I have spent a great deal of time this summer in deep meditation (and by deep meditation, I mean slacking on my blog). But now I’m back. And in honor of my triumphant return, I would like to tell you about my personal favorite movie in the kung fu genre, Jet Li’s Fist of Legend.

Jet Li pays homage to Bruce Lee through this remake of The Chinese Connection (1972). Though the plot is different (you should watch both) the premise is the same. In 1937 Japanese occupied Shanghai, the master of the Jing Wu school has been killed. Chen Zen (Jet Li) returns from boarding school in Japan to sort through the mystery behind his master’s death. We meet Chen Zhen in class in his Japanese boarding school as the local Kendo club invades the classroom to force the Chinese to leave. This film does a nice job of highlighting the racial tensions of the occupation. A sweet fight scene ensues in which Chen Zhen disables all of the kendo players and provides a physiology lesson by dislocating a variety of joints in each of his opponents. This just sets the tone for the rest of the movie. All of the fight scenes are epic, the characters are interesting and well developed, and there is even a (tolerable) love story so you can watch it with your significant other.

Jet pays his respects to Bruce in a few other ways as well. We see hints of Lee’s fighting style, especially in the final fight scene, Jet discusses some of Bruce’s fighting philosophy in his fight with Funakoshi, and he even does the cool back-flip kick popularized by Bruce.

All in all, this is just a great movie. It was released in 1994, before Jet Li gained a lot of popularity in the US, so it is not really well known, but if you like kung fu movies (and if you are reading this, you likely do) you should watch this movie. You’ll love it.

“That’s right, I’m Chen Zhen…the best.”

It is a sad day in Kung-Fu-Topia. Two venerable stars of kung fu cinema have passed on to that great dojo in the sky today. Shih Kien (96), best known from his role as Han, the one handed villain of Enter the Dragon*, and David Carradine (72), of the Kung Fu series and more recently Kill Bill movies, both played major roles in the popularization of the genre.

For biographical info and filmographies check out:

Shih Kien: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0793384/

David Carradine: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001016/

*For his role as Han, he did not speak any English.  Instead he learned how the mouth movements for the English words looked and mimicked these movements so that the English could be later dubbed in.

“What was that?!?! What the @#$% was that?!? I mean… what was that?!?” These are the words of my friend Amy as we watched this week’s movie, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky. I had assembled a new team, as my original Kung Fu Friday team has grown apart over the years and, in general, these movies are not to be watched alone. These new recruits were bright eyed and enthusiastic enough at the start and I thought they were ready. I had everyone. Joe, Nick, Amy. The analyst, brash young gun, the girl to sneer disapprovingly. But they weren’t ready. I hadn’t prepared them enough. They didn’t know what I was leading them into. And what were they in for on this fateful night? What were they about to be unknowingly exposed to? Only the greatest piece of cinema ever created by human hands!

Some movies waste time on silly novelties like special effects or plot, but not Riki-Oh. Riki-Oh focuses solely on being awesome. That is it’s one and only purpose. From the prisoner falling eye first onto the conveniently located bathroom board-with-nails-stinking-out-of-it to the man who eviscerates himself in an attempt to strangle Ricky with his own intestines, Riki-Oh is awesome, start to blood-spattered, gore ridden finish.

Alright, that being said, to truly enjoy this movie one must first turn off your senses of logic and reason and release your current conception of reality. This is essential as your current schema is insufficient for grasping what you are about to undertake.

(This acurately describes the feeling experienced while watching Riki-Oh)

I’m not going to go into to much detail regarding the story as I want you to go out and watch this movie (I mean right now. Finish reading my review, leave a comment, then go to Amazon or Netflix and order this movie.), but I will take you through the basics. Set in the “not to distant future” of 2001, prisons “like parking lots” are privately run. We meet Ricky, a super powered master of Chi Gung (The art that takes strength and grows stronger and stronger), as he is being lead into one of these corrupt prisons in shackles. He sets off the futuristic metal detector because of the five bullets lodged in his chest. When asked why they are there, he simply says “souvenirs.” From here the craziness ensues. A kindly old prisoner takes a hand-held wood plane to the face and we are off to the races. I can recall, with no real effort, 20 individual moments where I was both shocked and amazed.

This movie is certainly not for those with a weak stomach, but the immense amounts of gore are so over the top that it isn’t hard to parse apart the ridiculous, the terrible, and the awesome.

The prison is run by a warden (with an obese, spoiled, comic relief son) and his one eyed, hook handed assistant warden. Each cell-block is run by a super powered prisoner. Ricky battles his way through them all, discovering and destroying the opium fields that finance the prison, leading to a flashback explaining how he got into prison in the first place.

*Side note: This flashback is actually misdubbed. It shows Ricky’s girlfriend being kidnapped by a heroin dealer and inexplicably throwing herself from the roof of his hideout. Ricky kills the dealer (while wearing a very stylish camouflage poncho), taking 5 bullets to the chest. It leaves out the part where they addict her to heroin, which makes the suicide make more sense. I prefer the nonsensical version.

The point when I realized that this was the best movie ever made was where Ricky, having been cut in the arm, reaches into his cut and reties his own tendons in a nice neat bow. That was it. ‘Nuff said.

So go out and watch Riki-Oh. Right now. You won’t be disappointed.