The last samurai

[foolinthedeck]

this is a real question honest!
first of all though, what a great film. i loved it. by far the best film i've seen in years, but then it is from the director of glory and legends of the fall - two of the best films of all time and two films that are guaranteed to make me cry.

excellent fight sequences, a bit iffy at the beginning but gets better, much better.. wont spoil anything much but basicly it deals with things that could have been extremely camp and overdone in a subtle realistic way.

despite the fact so much of the fighting is with swords, it actually beats my favorite jet li flicks for the fight scenes i think... will have to see when its out on dvd.

ANYWAY!!!

there is a scene when tom cruise is watching people in samurai village training, and you see a group of men about to fight hand to hand. Now, in most of the film people bow japanese style with hands by sides, but here the guy in the middle gives the palm over hand salute of the (is it the qing or ming dynasty) 'chinese'. its that moon and sun salute or bow that most of us use in wing chun - now the fighting doesnt seem like kung fu, but this salute was very apparent - does this show anything? did samurai also use the salute? is it common to karate and jujitsu too? cross pollonation of cultures? the actor is chinese? film mistake?

well its not as interesting as the film.
i recommend it 500 stars.
regards

[PaulH]

500 stars...Wow! Must be something! While I believe the Gung Ho Tom Cruise is no where as manly looking as the royally dignified Aragorn of the incomparable and Ultimate Lord of the Rings movie, I will give this upstart movie a shot. The last Samurai may well be indeed the last as it does not survive long on a WC forum if our moderator is working hard! Ha! Ha!

[foolinthedeck]

there are other forums about the film. my question relates purely to the salute.

[Ernie]

ftd
one of the reasons i like wing chun was there were no salutes or ranking or uniform , you trained in what ever you had on just like any other day in your life .

didn't know people saluted in wing chun , beyond a hand shake and a what's up .
caught me off gaurd with this one

as for the flick , it had heart

[Mr Punch]

The actor was Japanese, and a well trained martial artist.

I suspect it was a traditional mudra hand position as found in many koryu (old schools of bujutsu). For example, I think katori shinden yagyu musoo ryu has nine basic hand salutes and a score of others. In some schools thy are supposed to have magical purposes, in others, they are military signals or have religious significance. Most seem to come from ancient Hindu customs, and I've even heard that some of the hand positions represent sanskrit letters and symbols, as does a lot of deep esoteric Japanese Buddhism.

Oh yeah, for that matter, their are nine basic hand positions in Buddha statues in Japan too, though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything...! :D It's getting late!

There are scores of mistakes and innaccuracies in that movie, but they come from Hollywood, and probably more specifically (and disappointingly) Zwick, not his actors.

I enjoyed it though.

[foolinthedeck]

thanks mat

[yuanfen]

On Mudras-(some esoterica)-responding to Mat's good post and foolinthe decks appreciation...

Mudras origins are in India- and they have roots in Hunduism but were transformed and adapted in Buddhism and travelled with the transmission of Buddhism to China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Mudras are part of "internal" development though their outward manifestations can be seen in moving meditation, ritual, martial arts, healing, yoga, dance, sculpture-art, statutes and other forms of communication.
While the "seal", "stamp" aspects are often focused on the hand-
the hand finally seals the entire posture and includes expression-even the eyes. Like many things mudras can have dual nature-
blessing/curse, wounding/healing (in the martial arts).
In the artial arts ---the sealing--- delivers the right energy at the right time.
To share a sense of the equivalences---
in wing chun-

the straight palm motion after the first pak in slt, or the shortened version (Top hand) in po pai jeung- parallels the
(abhaya mudra). The blessing sign in many statutes and an attacking/defending martial energy when needed.
The bottom hand can be "dana" or giving. Wu(prayer palm). tan fok can be seen as mudras. Same for the sam pai fut in biu jee.

Understanding mudras can heighten deep uderstanding of energy in motion and directing it.

[Mr Punch]

Thanks Joy, I was hoping you'd turn up!

And interesting info bout the wing chun, mine could sure do with a prayer or two! :D