The choreography here is amazing and well practiced and trained.
The fact that they are Asian is irrelevant and a racial stereotype.

Let me introduce you to a guy named Ray Park - noticeably not Asian but a Wushu champion internationally.

It's called dedication to your craft.

Well anyone with a clue should agree that there are higher and lower forms of martial arts.

Ch'i is NOT some fantastic mumbo-jumbo and anyone talking-shit about Wing Chun, Wushu, or Qigong has head-in-ass syndrome and has watched shitty Hong Kong action films and MMA-masturbatory matches to arrive at their conclusions, which are in fact, horseshit.

Yes, you're right. It's wushu, in other words

I'm not sure where this stigma on martial arts comes from. It's called an art for a reason, its as much a form of expression as any other art, especially when you look at styles like capoeira and wushu.

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I'm about unimpressed with peeps who think they have a fucking clue shit-talking kung fu. "Real world fighting" "Floor won't hit back"....Dipshitz! Train under a wushu master for a year or two and then come back poppin' all that spit!

also i remember reading somewhere the lightsaber arts are a lot like wushu-style fighting, with a lot of flare and movement so as to confuse your opponent about when you're actually going to hit them.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'shaolin' to 'shaolin, kung fu, wushu, martial arts, chinese' - edited by xxovercastxx

Tags for this video have been changed from 'thug, wushu, martial arts, fight, embarrasment, fight scene, asia, Donnie Yen' to 'wing chun, thug, wushu, martial arts, fight, embarrasment, fight scene, asia, Donnie Yen' - edited by xxovercastxx

Tags for this video have been changed from 'thug, wushu, martial arts, fight, embarrasment, fight scene, asia' to 'thug, wushu, martial arts, fight, embarrasment, fight scene, asia, Donnie Yen' - edited by Sarzy

If you ask me, I don't think light saber battles look anything like kendo. Sure they're fast, but Olympic fencing is even faster.

That's one thing I've always wondered though: do light sabers (the "light" or blade part anyway) have any weight? Because they always use moves that incorporate the momentum of the blade. To me, light saber battles in the new movies look more like wushu than anything else. I used to have a book with a chapter about how Bob Anderson and Peter Diamond choreographed the fights for the original Star Wars movies but I can't find it now. Anyway, they based the styles off of older fencing styles. You can see that when you watch the movies how Luke's "Ready position" is with his feet well apart and his light saber off to the side, whereas Darth Vader has a more upright Kendo position with his blade always in front. But they also chose those styles because they looked good on camera, and they changed them further still so that they had a "wow" factor.

Either way, I think the fencing would look completely different if they were really using blades that only had mass in the handle. They would be able to change course instantly, making for a lot of very tricky (not to mention insanely fast) moves. But it would still probably look closer to European fencing. And the actors in the movies need something (which in Star Wars props I believe is a carbon fiber rod) that they can swing around and bang on another person's sword creating the illusion that the light sabers in the final product are actually touching. If they represented it accurately though (which no movie ever does) then a person who new nothing about fencing would probably have a very hard time seeing what was actually going on. And there would probably be a lot more missing hands and fingers like Luke's in Empire. The actual techniques of any fighting style usually need some sort of introduction before anyone can really tell what's going on though.

That said, I can see Xaieleo's point about how the older movies seem more realistic. Although I think "more determined" is a much more accurate way of describing them than "slower". So I can see your point as well Sheppp. As time goes on, everyone has just gotten used to the Chinese "fling your blade around like crazy style" that is taught in wushu, which is really more of an exercise anyway but looks WAY cooler on camera than most "realistic" combat moves.

And another thing...
The Darth Maul dual-ended staff thing has always bugged me. I can't think of any reason that one double-sided staff like that would ever be more effective than just using a light saber in each hand. It would be much more adaptable and the dual-staff thing just seems way too dangerous to the wielder.

One thing that I would love to have seen instead of the "dual-staff-thing", which I think is a cop out, are new types of light sabers, like Count Dooku's french-handled light saber. I would have loved a little more creativity. I don't get paid to come up with new ideas but I'm sure if I spent a little time, I could come up with a variation that was more impressive than just: "LOOK! This guy uses TWO light sabers glued together!!11!" I don't know, maybe a light-saber-parrying implement or something. I for one was not impressed.

There, I said it. Now you know what kind of things I think about when I'm sitting at home alone and the internet goes out.

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>> ^boblobblaw:

Please direct us to a few of those movies with quality fights scenes in your opnion. Thank you in advance...>> ^swedishfriend:
Funny, the fight scenes are some of the worst out there. reminds me of the super slow exaggerated stunt fighting from the 80's. I liked Serenity in spite of the fight scenes not because of them. There have been so many films with good fight scenes at any budget level that I am amazed how once in a while films still get made with such lame feeling action. Being flexible and acrobatic is not as important as having an intelligent use of the forces you throw around to at least look like you are putting some force into each hit VS I am touching you gently now and then you fly backwards as if a much greater force hit you. The dissonance between cause and effect is so great that it looses any impact.



Three off the top of my head:

Luke and Vader's fight at the end of Empire Strikes back, particularly the final scene on the gantry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-DeI3ohVbY
It's inelegant, rough and psychological; Vader is toying with Luke, who is clearly inferior, in an attempt to break his will. Way better than any of the fancy choreographed rubbish fights of the prequels.

Total Recall, the fight with Quaid and his mate from the quarry, along with his goons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KtHhIePpZg
For an action movie it does well, not too cheesy (though they sorta come at him one at a time, I guess) and he just kills them quickly any way he can. It establishes that the character possibly has latent abilities he didn't know about, as even he is surprised/shocked.

And although I generally view Kung-Fu as largely aesthetic, at least the way films depict it, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's style nicely blended in a mythical aspect to their abilities (gliding across roofs and treetops).
For example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OxQ-2gR1DU

I agree with @swedishfriend, that even if it's all pure fantasy, if it doesn't *look* like someone actually delivered any force with their fancy legwork, then it doesn't hold water for me. It's fine to film it that way if they want to, but it's just that there have been other fantasy films that have depicted combat better. Kung-Fu seems to be a sort of crutch that Hollywood leans on for making their fight scenes look more genuine. But I just really wonder how well all that twisting of arms and balancing on toes would really stand up against a kick-boxer, or other more practical style.

Ohh, also the needless twirling of swords... How I grit my teeth when I see that.

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