Originally Posted by
Jimbo
I bought Black Belt about a year ago when it was released, and really enjoyed it. I realize the idea behind the story was to find a yin/yang balance within yourself and your skills, but the defensive specialist character did start to annoy me with his over-reluctance at times.
It was interesting that the guy who played the defensive guy is in reality a Goju-Ryu stylist, also displayed in his katas and fighting movements; and the other top student (aggressive guy) is a Shotokan man. Though for the movie, they were supposedly the same style. I would probably rate Black Belt about 8/10.
My early karate background was mainly Kenpo, but did include a year of Shi-to-Ryu karate. It's been 30 years since, but as I recall, the Shi-to style had resemblances in practice and katas to both Shotokan and some to Goju. As Sanjuro mentioned, Japanese karate is very applicable to fighting. My Shi-to-Ryu sensei was very powerful and effective, and the movements he actually used were of course very simple but polished to the "nth degree". When he actually fought or sparred, he used soft blocks/deflections instead of the hard, rigid blocks that were emphasized in practice, but he definitely stayed in style. Lots of leg sweeps, lunge punches (oi zuki ..sp?), reverse punch (gyaku zuki), front kick (mae geri), etc. Also, like a lot of the Japanese karate sensei, at least of that time, he was a black belt in judo, as well as iaido and some aikido.
Many of the students were very good, too. I enjoyed hard the training, but decided the style itself was not for me. But I still feel that the time I spent at that dojo was worth it and provided me benefits (mainly mental) that carried over in later years.