Soiiiiiiiiiiyaaaa!!!

Awesome movie.

The subtitles are all messed up!

This looks ridiculous. When he "dodges" all he's doing is shifting his shoulders back while his head stays as stationary as a dead log. I guess it works if you're fighting someone dumb enough to consistently aim one foot to either side of the real target...

This could go on for another 40 minutes and I genuinely would be fine with that.

I love that my formerly useless ability to read french allows me to overcome my lack of Japanese. Yay the French!

Wait, what?

I'm pretty sure there's a word for a Samurai sword master: Samurai.

>> ^mentality:

This looks ridiculous. When he "dodges" all he's doing is shifting his shoulders back while his head stays as stationary as a dead log. I guess it works if you're fighting someone dumb enough to consistently aim one foot to either side of the real target...


now imagine you were aiming for the head- giving his arms all the time to move... there is a reason why in pretty much in all sword and knife fighting schools (japanese and elsewhere) you are taught to aim for the body.

Also, a katana is usually used in semi-vertical slices since it wasn't specifically suited for stabbing (it'd get stuck).

Ofc this is a movie yadda yadda, but in a "real" fight the aim was to cut the shoulder/arms so you wouldnt hurt yourself charging in and could be ready for the next victim/attacker (that overhead stance is for fighting stuff on horses btw- forgot the name).

>> ^Mauru:

>> ^mentality:
This looks ridiculous. When he "dodges" all he's doing is shifting his shoulders back while his head stays as stationary as a dead log. I guess it works if you're fighting someone dumb enough to consistently aim one foot to either side of the real target...

now imagine you were aiming for the head- giving his arms all the time to move... there is a reason why in pretty much in all sword and knife fighting schools (japanese and elsewhere) you are taught to aim for the body.
Also, a katana is usually used in semi-vertical slices since it wasn't specifically suited for stabbing (it'd get stuck).
Ofc this is a movie yadda yadda, but in a "real" fight the aim was to cut the shoulder/arms so you wouldnt hurt yourself charging in and could be ready for the next victim/attacker (that overhead stance is for fighting stuff on horses btw- forgot the name).


I never said that you should aim for the head specifically, but when you're making vertical slices, the head and the center of mass are inline.

The reason why swordmanship and marksmanship principles teach you to aim for the body is because it's the largest and easiest area to hit, and the center of mass is the hardest for the target to move in an attempt to dodge.

It makes no sense to aim for the shoulder, as it requires you to "charge in" just as much as if you were going for the center, but is much easier to miss. If you really wanted to disable someone, the wrists and forearms are a much better and less risky target, while the head, body, or throat are much higher reward targets. This is why hitting those areas will score you points in kendo, while the shoulder will not.

Basically, this fight makes no sense and looks retarded.

I am by no means a cutty stabby person, but after this I looked around a bit. This is basically kendo: ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMxlqayAwG8&feature=related ) and you are right, it doesn't look like this at all.
What these guys are doing is called kenjutsu ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIxt3Zd6K0k ) which seems to be a whole other thing (kinda like comparing judo to karate). When you check out more of that kenjutsu stuff it all of a sudden looks a lot more "realistic".

Also, I am pretty sure that standing with your guard completely down and just moving your shoulders is probably not a valid sword fighting technique, but maybe this guy is just so bad-ass he doesn't care.

The stances employed according to far more geeky interweb friends is something like "Tamiya-ryu" or "Jigen-ryu" (somewhere between the late 15th and 16th century) and it actually involves mostly diagonal/vertical slices to the torso to try and kill your opponent in one blow. The goal was pretty much always to hit the enemy's throat and failing that slice the opponent in an up to down diagonal motion while denying your opponent to do the same.

All that time playing Fruit Ninja finally paid off for him.