The real *insert TCMA here* in the movies

[sanjuro_ronin]

We all know that movie-fu is NOT but I am curious as to if people have ever seen their kung fu system in a movie and thought that it was a pretty good representation of their system.

Anyone?

[Fa Xing]

I practice Jeet Kune Do.

Nuff said.

:D

[YouKnowWho]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LdiWNVrQvo&feature=related

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XODE5NjY2NDA=.html

[TenTigers]

I have to say, although the majority of the old Kung-Fu movies were choreographed by Hung-Ga people, I never saw anything that really spoke to me. Most of that stuff was too stylized, and not enough realism. I did like, "Star runner" with Gam Bok Yin's cameo. But I would have liked to have seen more.
I was always frustrated that in Jet Li's and Jacky Chan's portrayals of Wong Fei-Hung, they never showed any Hung Kuen.

[mickey]

Greetings,

I never expect to see the real stuff (hand to hand) in a movie. I do expect to see some level of fight intelligence and that goes beyond styles.

I do pay close attention to weapons usage. Some choeographers only use a few key moves to identify the characteristics of a weapon and then it is downhill from there.

mickey

[ShaolinDan]

A lot of the 'Shaolin' looks like Shaolin, sometimes I will even see a drill that I know.
'Eagle Claw' almost never looks like Eagle Claw.

[GETHIN]

Sonny Chiba, early stuff for White Crane.

[Hardwork108]

Wing Chun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNb7xcs2QP4&NR=1


Of course, this is still movie fighting, but by one looking at it one will recognize who is supposed to be doing the Wing Chun.


.

[Lee Chiang Po]

Most of it is coriographed sp? and it is technique, freeze frame, technique, freeze frame. It is done so that you can see the moves and the defense. so that you can tell what it is supposed to be. Most fight scenes are really exagerated. The more recent Wing Chun movies about Ip Man for an example. He was never that good.
In all the fights I have had in my entire life, no one has ever walked up and said to me, was that gung fu? Or what was that? Or how did you do that? I am supposing that it simply didn't really look like some form of movie gung fu. That is what people tend to recognize. I once fought and beat a mantis fighter that was reputed to be one of the best, but I saw neither style or form in what he did.
It is what it does and not what it looks like I guess.

[Hardwork108]

Most of it is coriographed sp? and it is technique, freeze frame, technique, freeze frame. It is done so that you can see the moves and the defense. so that you can tell what it is supposed to be. Most fight scenes are really exagerated. The more recent Wing Chun movies about Ip Man for an example. He was never that good.
In all the fights I have had in my entire life, no one has ever walked up and said to me, was that gung fu? Or what was that? Or how did you do that? I am supposing that it simply didn't really look like some form of movie gung fu. That is what people tend to recognize. I once fought and beat a mantis fighter that was reputed to be one of the best, but I saw neither style or form in what he did.
It is what it does and not what it looks like I guess.

True. Kung fu used in a street fight will not look like movie kung fu, nor even many times will it look like "kung fu fighting". Having said that, I am sure that there are some people who will manage to look more "kung fu" like and that will depend on their training time and approach, as well as the style.

Also, there are some signature moves from various kung fu styles that are recognizable by those who are familiar with the styles in question. So, one may be able to point them out when watching a street encounter where say a fighter uses a Wing Chun chain punch attack and/or angling moves. Of course, even in such cases the moves may not look clean and precise, but they should be recognizable to an educated eye.

[Jimbo]

Ever since I watched my first KF movie over 30 years ago, I have never expected it to be 'real' in the sense of how it would look in an actual fight. Of course the fight scenes (and training sequences) are stylized and exaggerated. Movies by their very nature are fake, even the more realistic ones. Not only MA movies, but John Wayne bar brawls; gunfights in gangster/action/western movies; car chases, ghost hauntings, romantic hijinks, etc. If they looked exactly like real-life, most audiences would think, 'Well, so what? That didn't look so special.' Just as nobody in his right mind watches the gunplay in movies to learn how to properly handle and use firearms, so it is with KF movies or any other movies.

That being said, in most cases, it's still very clear when an actor/performer has actually been trained as opposed to trained only for the film (as in Charlie's Angels, or Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, etc.). There's also the fact that some fight scenes are better than others, due to tempo, flow, beginning, middle and end, etc. IMO, wirework, used sparingly, can sometimes enhance it to a degree, but overuse of it will ruin a good scene. For me, it's not how much more realistic it is, as much as how well-choreographed it is. I've seen and been in enough situations (and trained long enough) to know the difference.

[Jimbo]

I actually didn't answer the original question, so IMO, one of the better representations of my style in a movie was in New Shaolin Boxers. And although a good movie, IMO it was still far from being a deep, comprehensive example of what Choy Lee Fut really is, or how it really appears in application. It's mostly form-wise. CLF has had surprisingly sparse representation in the movies.

*Edit to add:
This end fight scene from Jackie Chan's Who Am I? shows him fighting a CLF man, but only for the first 2 minutes. Fighting-wise, this is probably the closest I've seen in the movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRFvWO31La8

[TenTigers]

I did like the original,"Shaolin Temple," though. The Shorinji Kempo guys really stood out, and their choreography stayed true to form.

[GeneChing]

The fight choreography in Shaolin (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=54940) is poorly shot, but it relies heavily on qixingquan. We've been discussing its impact on the Shaolin forum. Qixing has been very popular this year. We were inundated with qixing at Tiger Claw's KungFuMagazine.com Championship III (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/forum/showthread.php?t=57943).

[mickey]

Greetings,

I just remembered a flick that had a decent representation of Shaolin technique. The movie was Shaolin Legend. Recent releases of the movie under the name Abbot White splices in more unnecessary dialogue and cuts out a few fight scenes.



mickey

[sanjuro_ronin]

I have to say, although the majority of the old Kung-Fu movies were choreographed by Hung-Ga people, I never saw anything that really spoke to me. Most of that stuff was too stylized, and not enough realism. I did like, "Star runner" with Gam Bok Yin's cameo. But I would have liked to have seen more.
I was always frustrated that in Jet Li's and Jacky Chan's portrayals of Wong Fei-Hung, they never showed any Hung Kuen.

Executioners from Shaolin was OK for HK and so was Donnie Yen in Iron Monkey, in particular this scene:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLnXhKN4O4U