I apologize in advance if this has been discussed to death before, and I did use the search feature and didn't see an answer to this question.


So I've been fascinated with the whole 5 animals - Ark Wong 5 families thing (see my previous thread for reference, and I have often come across San Soo having five families as well. From my web searches, the five families are as follows (I don't speak Chinese, and I know different dialects spell and pronounce words differently, and they may be the same depending on the dialect):

San Soo:
Tsoi- Li- Ho- Fut- Hung

5 Animals
Fut - Hung - Choy - Lee - Mok

Now, I have to ask the obvious - are these families in any way the same, and do these styles share some, part, or all of these lineages? If so (in any amount), what ramifications does that have? I've watched some videos on YouTube, and compared some of the forms - to my own inexpert eye, I can see some similarities in the styles that are hard to ignore.

On the flip side, I've read articles that alledge that San Soo's parent art originally included animal forms, but Jimmy Woo eliminated from the system because "men don't fight like animals" or something to that effect.

Can I get some feedback from you all on your perspectives on these two styles? Am I falling into the trap of the keyboard warrior and trying to make connections where there are none?