coinsidental star wars comparison???

[sk8fool]

In the episode one there's the character
Qui-Gon Jinn
which's name is similar to qi gong jing
in qi gong there are a trilogy of qi, jing being the first one which is used to form qi, in which qi is used to form shen. did lucas purposely through this in to tie in the force with qi gong or am I just fing nuts. (note I have not seen revenge of the sith yet, I'm waiting for my own little tradition of watching it)

[MasterKiller]

The name was influenced from qigong, but it has no deeper meaning than you assign to it.

[K.Brazier]

In Chinese Kuai gan, pronounced as the characters name mean a type of feeling you get when exposed to extreme and thrilling excitement.
Such as parachuting, traveling at high speed or sex.

When I first heard his name I thought it was some sort of inside joke(sex related).

[joshuahiroe]

They had a comparison TV special on the Discovery Channel, between CMA and star wars, in the US. I'm not sure but they still may be showing it.

[kejia nu ren]

I saw that special on Discovery Channel - interesting stuff. It laid out all the parallels between the basis of the Star Wars story and the life of the Sholin Monks...even down to the outfits. The force = qi, and the massacre of Jedis = the massacre of the Shaolin Monks during the Manchu reign over China, leaving only 5 alive. It only took Lucas 30 years to admit that his storyline didn't come out of thin air..though most of us have known for a long time the whole Star Wars saga had its roots in Chinese history :rolleyes:

[Becca]

So what if George Lucas based his movies with a bit of real history? It makes it more believable and easier to form an understandinding. If you took the time to look, most of the best Sci Fi is based off reality. The Vulcans were based of Confucianism. The Klingons were based off old Russians, ect. Star Gate SG1 was based off anient lore, as well. But most of the "B" SciFi was made up... The trend is pretty obvious, and only the very nerrow-minded would be offended by it. Though we modern humans like to think we are the first to come up with an idea, the fact is most of our ideas are simply a refined version of what has been known for hundreds or even thousands of years.

[David Jamieson]

I would encourage anyone to read any version of Parcifal, or Asgardian Tales, Robin Hood, Dante's Inferno, The Prince and various other -Hero Myths-.

It seems that George Lucas was consumed with b serial movies as a kid and later on drew the parralels of the persistent myths of mankind to write out his story in a sci-fi setting.

same stuff, borrowing from the entirety of Human conciousness and telling a story that is as old as time itself.

The zen connection is there, sure, those were the times when he started the stories. The dawning of teh age of aquarius and all that. But I wouldn't chalk Lucas up as a chinese historian by any stretch.

He's telling the same story as everyone tells in every age.

I'd wager you could map star wars to Lord of the rings on so many levels you'd go wtf??? He ripped of Tolkien! or for that matter...well, you see my point. Now go read some Joseph Campbell. :D

[MasterKiller]

*sigh*

The original Star Wars script is a rip off of several Akira Kurasowa flicks: The Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, and Sanjuro, and an American film called The Searchers. The original script was soooooo close to Hidden Fortress that they almost had to buy the rights to it. All the stuff he was forced to change (fiesty princess in disguise, etc...) later resurfaced in the prequel trilogy. So, I would say initially it was based off of Japanese, not Chinese.

Of course, he's got some Campbellian influence in there as well, but those elements are also present in The Hidden Fortress, so the line between Lucas' influences are not distinct.

Now, when Lawrence Kasdan enters the picture, he writes the heavily tao-influenced script for Empire Strikes Back. All of the ideas about the Force, the Dark Side, Vader being the Father (which he WAS NOT in Star Wars. There is filmed dialogue between Biggs and Luke suggesting Luke's father was killed in a battle)...ALL OF THAT COMES FROM LAWRENCE KASDAN!

Lucas was the idea man, for sure. But Kasdan created a lot of the ideas and motifs that Lucas takes the credit for.

BTW, that scene bewteen Biggs and Luke is in the Special Editions, but a pilot walks in front of them to cover the film gap where they took out the dialouge about Luke's dad being killed.