More Human Weapon

[Yao Sing]

History channel is showing back-to-back episodes of Human Weapon and I got to see the one on Sambo. Man, I'm really liking it.

Now if I can just find a little old Russian guy with no name teaching in a public park I'll be all set. :D

The Silat episode is on right now and I've always had an interest but it was never available anywhere near the places I've lived. The Cambodia one was good too, don't remember the name of it though.

So how hard is it to find Sambo? Is it fairly common at MMA clubs?

[martialartspeon]

I like human weapon in general. The thing I dislike about it most is that they edit the hell out of the main fight at the end. I just want to watch the fight in whole. If they had that it would be a much better show.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Not another Human Weaponless thread!! :eek:

[冠木侍]

I like human weapon in general. The thing I dislike about it most is that they edit the hell out of the main fight at the end. I just want to watch the fight in whole. If they had that it would be a much better show.

One of the main criticisms about this that I noticed was that the end fights weren't up to snuff. The people who made such comments did so without taking into account things like editing and time constraints. They just used it as an excuse to bash the series.

BTW...the show is not currently on the regular History Channel anymore. Currently, they are airing repeats on History International Channel (check with you local cable provider). Nice! I get to catch up on all the stuff that I missed last time.

[jethro]

If you don't have the time, then you don't do it. Or you make the time.

[冠木侍]

Yeah, uh-huh...but they certainly did not have time.


So anyway, it seems that Fight Quest suffered from the same thing...the end fights were heavily edited and there was tons of footage that that had to be left on the cutting room floor. Some of the end fights, as people have tried to point out in HW, did not look like they put that much effort into them. HW did a great job in trying to educate the viewer about each respective martial art. It's too bad they only had an hour for each show.

I'm still glad they are showing it again.

[jethro]

Yeah, uh-huh...but they certainly did not have time.




Uh yeah... well that's my point. They should have made the time or they shouldn't have done it. Or hey, there's always the third option, make something crappy. That seems like a great idea:rolleyes:

[冠木侍]

Yeah, there is not enough time, so let's not even try :rolleyes: An even better idea, right? :confused: It's a good thing people don't just give up so easily. :)

It's a little to easy to just say 'make some time.' I would have loved a two hour (approximate) episode dealing with each art(as I'm sure others would have loved it as well) but you can't always get what you want. Maybe in a special edition dvd in the future :D

But anyway, since they had less than an hour, I would think that they have to fit in a lot of educational aspects and then leave some time for the fight. This is the part where things didn't pan out well. The end fights did seem to suffer and a lot of people did get the impression that not a lot happen. Based on the editing that was done and the limited amount of time that was available, the show turned out good (of course improvements needed) and it had paved the way for similar shows.

[jethro]

Putting out poor fight scenes is just lazy. Totally turned me off. They could have hired a good choreographer and got it done, but instead they settled for crap. There's plenty of good choreographers that can shoot really good fight scenes in less than a day's time. They could have made it work. I guess I'm just not big on making excuses for something that is so crappy.

[冠木侍]

Based upon your response, I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of the show; HW is definitely not a series that would utilize such a thing. Hollywood yes, History channel no way. So, WHY on Earth would they have need for a choreographer? If any of the fights were pre-arranged, then the show would not have merit. Whether or not people think the fights looked bad, they were REAL. What would be the purpose of learning a some type of martial art and then have your fight be pre-determined at the end of your journey? Any true martial artist would just scoff at such a thing. The thought is almost insulting. The thing that I appreciate from that show is that whoever fought in the end, win or lose, did so out of the warrior spirit.

Unless your looking to fix fights, the outcome depends on who's better (based on any number of variables). I'm going to take a wild guess and say you're not a fan of the show (the fights) which is all good. I do respect your opinion but it seems like you were looking for some Hollywood martial arts, which is a different beast. You reasons for not liking the show (specifically the fights) is very clear now but I think that we can both agree that such a thing is not appropriate for a show such as HW. It just defeats the purpose of the show altogether.

[jethro]

lol, I thought they were fake, and I figured they could use some choreography. I get bored really easily:p

[冠木侍]

Hmm...I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not? :confused: I would hope not sir.

But you are not the only one who has qualms with that show. If you want better fights, see if you can catch the old episodes of Fight Quest. I feel that they have upped the intensity level there (still critics may disagree) and both hosts get to fight. Less educational than HW but more pain and toil.

Take care.

[ittokaos]

Based upon your response, I think you may have misunderstood the purpose of the show; HW is definitely not a series that would utilize such a thing. Hollywood yes, History channel no way. So, WHY on Earth would they have need for a choreographer? If any of the fights were pre-arranged, then the show would not have merit. Whether or not people think the fights looked bad, they were REAL. What would be the purpose of learning a some type of martial art and then have your fight be pre-determined at the end of your journey? Any true martial artist would just scoff at such a thing. The thought is almost insulting. The thing that I appreciate from that show is that whoever fought in the end, win or lose, did so out of the warrior spirit.
.

What?!?

I apologize if I come across as rude but it is foolish to honestly think that any fight ,other than a hand full(the mma ep for example), was 100% real. Everyone on that show were there to promote their school and were paid handsomely for their "champion" to fight against the hosts. The fights were set up so that neither party looked bad on camera. True, both of the hosts were hit and they did train in each style, but to think that a champion of a sport can be almost beaten time and time again by 2 gentleman that have little to no training in said sport is simply silly.

The History Channel would have spent too much money to allow their hosts get really pummeled. It was an ok show. I liked the premise but I think it would have been better if both parties went all out instead of having a light sparring match. That, and the fact that the Kung Fu ep was completely dissrespectful to the style as a whole(wire fu? i dont remember them visiting Sonny Chiba during the Karate ep.).

That's just this guy's opinion.

WF

[Yao Sing]

Pretty much all of what you see on TV is scripted, including the "reality" shows and even the court dramas. You would be surprised.

The fights were scripted, not completely choreographed. There was one episode where he was basically "tested" on the material they were taught.

[冠木侍]

What?!?

I apologize if I come across as rude but it is foolish to honestly think that any fight ,other than a hand full(the mma ep for example), was 100% real. Everyone on that show were there to promote their school and were paid handsomely for their "champion" to fight against the hosts. The fights were set up so that neither party looked bad on camera. True, both of the hosts were hit and they did train in each style, but to think that a champion of a sport can be almost beaten time and time again by 2 gentleman that have little to no training in said sport is simply silly.

The History Channel would have spent too much money to allow their hosts get really pummeled. It was an ok show. I liked the premise but I think it would have been better if both parties went all out instead of having a light sparring match. That, and the fact that the Kung Fu ep was completely dissrespectful to the style as a whole(wire fu? i dont remember them visiting Sonny Chiba during the Karate ep.).

That's just this guy's opinion.

WF

I appreciate your input and the manner in which it was conveyed.

My previous response was in regard to the premise that their should be choreography for all of the fights. Jethro felt that the fights were not exciting enough and was apparently looking for Hollywood. Of course a "real" fight would be nice to see but not even i was expecting that. "REAL" as opposed to choreographed is what I was getting at when I made my previous post.

It is reasonable to assume that the large amount of money involved determined the outcome of the fights. Possibly to a certain degree, things were may have been toned down for ratings. Exactly what, I cannot say for sure. I would like to see the whole uncut footage for each episode. But I'm of the belief that if each country was going to represent their art, then it would be logical that they would put forth their best effort. I would hope that the two hosts would do same. Now, each fight was not a 'deathmatch' and they did exchange some hard blows (the Escrima and Muay Thai fights both come to mind), but I felt the fights were good enough (for the most part) to showcase each art.

I liked the show as a whole but I can agree that some episodes were not up to par.

I don't know what they were thinking when they got the idea for the kung fu episode. Back to money, maybe they couldn't afford to get Sonny Chiba to do a show. He was pretty good at what he did though. But I digress.

Agree or disagree. It's all good.

Take Care.

[冠木侍]

Pretty much all of what you see on TV is scripted, including the "reality" shows and even the court dramas. You would be surprised.

The fights were scripted, not completely choreographed. There was one episode where he was basically "tested" on the material they were taught.

Yeah, I'm sure I would be. I saw the movie Quiz Show :D

"Scripted" sounds like an appropriate word but still seems like it is trying to take away. "Choreographed" just not appropriate imo. Not every episode ended with a fight but MOST of the ones that did were good. Seems that each fight was comparable to a "test" since they were learning and training.

It's always interesting how we can watch the same thing and see something different.

One person's take.

Later.

[brothernumber9]

Antonio Graceffo cameo at the end of segment on "Human Target"
episode in Cambodia. Pradal Serey, Bokator, Khmer boxing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ul7yw3M2OE

You can also see a tiny bit more in the beginning of part 3 in the links.