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Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Red Belt - Movie Review

I picked up Red Belt after an unplanned trip to my local neighborhood Blockbuster where I spent an extra 30 minutes playing the new Star Wars- The Force Unleashed Video Game. The game was good, not good enough to purchase and make a permanent part of the collection but definitely good enough to rent from Blockbuster and spend a week trying to beat it.

I had heard mixed reviews about Red Belt. I had a friend who watched it and said he didn't like it very much and didn't see the point. I went in with low expectations and finished the movie impressed but not wowed. Now if you are looking for your classic martial arts beat 'em up where your fearless hero goes in from the jump just whoopin' major ass and major choreographed fight scenes then you will sorely be dissapointed. This movie is not so much about the fighting as it is about fighting philosophy. Although I must admit that there were some very large plot holes that really made me scratch my head.

Mike Terry is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu instructor who runs a small dojo. He is an idealist, someone who follows a warrior code or budo. He practices Jiu-Jitsu but does not believing in fighting for competition because as he says, "A competition is not a fight." He believes that a competition has rules and structure that must be followed by the participants. In real life, there are no such rules. A fight to the death does not have limits. Bruce Lee made similar statements in the Tao of Jeet Kune Do. So he believes that training for a competition will make him lose his edge. He shuns entering into contests and tries to eek out a living as an instructor.

His wife played by Alicia Braga, doesn't share his idealism and thinks he is too caught up in his ideals to make a living. Although it isn't said, I think she is the daughter of Mike's teacher and grandmaster. She doesn't see why he can't temper his ideals with practicality.

An accident right outside of his school sets a chain of events off that causes him to go back on his original beliefs. A woman crashes into his car outside of his school. She shoots out the school's window by accidentally discharging a gun belonging to one of the student's who happens to be a Police Officer. He goes to his brother in law's bar where he breaks up a bar fight between a movie star and one of the bar patrons. He receives an invitation to dinner and a gift from the movie star and believes that his fortunes are starting to pick up. He is offered a production role on the movie star's new movie. His wife is offered a business partnership with the movie star's wife. Then it all comes crashing down when what appeared to be good fortune is actually misfortune in disguise. Then all at once Mike's life begins to unravel and he is forced to enter an MMA competition that is sponsored by his brother in law to pay off his debts to a loan shark.

The movie highlights some Jiu-Jitsu philosophy and does a pretty good job of it. Chiwetel Ejiofor is probably my favorite actor now. After seeing him in Children of Men, Serenity, Talk to Me and a few other movies, I think he is one of the most underrated actors out there. He is believable as a Martial Arts instructor even with supposedly no martial arts background.

The action scenes are filmed with the same herky-jerky camera angles that most movies employ nowadays to hide fight choreography. The Bourne Identity series employed this technique also and it is really annoying because itis hard to tell what is going on. I guess it is harder to film jiu-jitsu because as a grappling art it does not lend itself very well to fight choreography but I think they did a good job with this movie.


















Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Lyrical Swordsman - The GZA


One of my favorite MCs of all time is the GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. I was a teenager when I first heard the Wu-Tang Clan's first album - Enter the 36 Chambers and I loved it. It was everything I ever wanted in an album: Raw, gritty and innovative. Plus they fused hip-hop with kung-fu cinema that I grew up watching as a kid growing up so I was able to combine my two favorite things in one album. Of all the MCs in the Wu-Tang clan, my favorites were the GZA and Ghostface Killah.

The GZA recently put out an album called 'Pro-Tools' which I recently purchased from Amazon's MP3 download site. I had high expectations being that his earlier album , 'Liquid Swords' is one of my all time favorites. The album didn't disappoint me and I think it is one of the best hip-hop albums out right now.

It struck me how the principle of Gong-Fu applies to the art of MCing. Mastery through time and effort. The GZA is one of the most consistent MCs out there. You can tell by listening to his flow and delivery that he obviously hones his craft. I appreciate true skill regardless of the field and the beauty about skill is how effortless it looks when it is applied. Everyone remembers the GZA going off on Soulja Boy at a concert of his recently.




50 cent decided to come to Soulja Boy's defense and made some comments about the GZA. I recently was browsing through the album and stumbled upon a track called 'Paper plates' on his album, which lo and behold seems to go at 50 cent. Normally I think most rap-beefs are just a ploy for publicity *cough* 50 vs. Kanye *cough* but I do enjoy a lyrical dismantling and this is definitely one.



There is a proverb that goes "The match is over the moment the swordsmen touch swords".

How come I don't see the Front Snap kick in MMA that often?

I enjoy watching the UFC fights when they come on cable TV. Most martial artists who study traditional martial arts have poo-pooed MMA since its inception but I enjoy watching it. Most of the fighters are highly conditioned athletes. The UFC has come a long way since its inception. It used to be no rules, no weight classes and no gloves. If you watch mixed martial arts nowadays, it is more akin to boxing in terms of regulations and rules for the fighters.

I have watched many UFC fights and it seems that although mixed martial arts is supposed to be a hybrid of striking (mainly boxing and kick-boxing) and grappling (mainly jiu-jitsu and wrestling), you don't always see all the techniques from kick-boxing and grappling appear in the matches. There are a certain subset of techniques that I see most fighters use in a majority of most fights. The roundhouse kicks, jabs, hooks, elbows, uppercuts and knees seem to encompass about 95 percent of the strikes. Rarely do you see a hammer fist or a back fist thrown although I have seem some fighters use them. Most of the leg techniques I see thrown are round house kicks to the legs or head. I rarely see fighters throw Front Snap kicks which seems like it would work pretty well and could be delivered faster than a round house kick especially to the mid-section.

Next time I see a fighter throwing front snap kicks to the body, he is instantly becoming my favorite fighter.

Trying to use skill in push hands and getting your ass kicked

Once a year in August and we have an entire month dedicated to Tai-Chi push hands in Black belt class. Where you get to try and gain internal skill by facing off against other students. It is essentially trying to put the tai-chi form and other internal arts into practice. We also do this once a week during tai-chi class but

It would seem that when you are moving really slowly and have your eyes closed it shouldn't be that hard to do but whenever I try to do it correctly, I seem to get mauled by other students.

First there is the problem of trying to keep the tai-chi principles when doing push hands: Keeping the posture straight and relaxed, no double weighting, using softness and yielding instead of brute strength. The other problem is trying to use fajing or internal power. Which seems to be the most challenging. The idea is to not use brute strength and push your opponent but to use your internal energy to strike. It is like trying to hit someone while not using your muscles, it seems impossible.

So the variety of students run the gamut, there are tall, short, male and female. It helps because you are not just doing push hands with similar opponents so you have to adjust to each individual. Being fairly tall, I have a hard time with students who are a lot shorter than me. I have to bend my legs more while keeping good posture and I don't really have much of a reach advantage since for push hands you are so close that it is negligible.

I start off fairly well with students who are more skilled at it than I am. We are going at a good pace, not using brute strength , keeping our elbows in and generally having good rounds. Sometimes I get killed because I forget to yield after the first technique is thrown and then comes elbows and other strikes and I end up on the floor.

Generally I enjoy push hands with the female students because they seem to genuinely grasp the principle of softness that is essential to push hands. They don't try to muscle through a technique if they see an opening and just use brute force. The problem for me is when I engage in push hands with someone who is new to push hands or hasn't had much practice. I am trying to use softness but I am not good enough to deflect their attacks because they are using strength while I am trying to yield. Then they end up trying to go really fast, which in turn makes me go faster as I am reacting to the pace they are setting.

I always tell myself to not worry about 'losing' matches as long as I am keeping in line with the principles of push hands. The skill will improve to the point where it will not matter. In the mean time I have to tell myself to let go while I get manhandled a bit. It is a good excercise in controlling the ego because it is extremely frustrating.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Encountering Fear .....

About a week ago, I hear a woman's voice yelling from right outside my apartment. Her voice had hints of fear and frustration. She was yelling at someone saying, "No, leave me alone! You said you would never touch me again. Now your pushing me. Leave me alone." Obviously it sounded like a domestic dispute and I thought about just calling 911 and leaving it at that. I was concerned that it would escalate and I couldn't stomach the thought of the woman getting hurt while I did nothing. I walked out my apartment and headed towards her voice. I see them, a young couple in their early 20s, they are right by the street. The man is close to her leaning towards her aggressively. She is trying to get around him but he is holding her arms.



I ask, "Is everything alright?" but obviously I know it is not. She says everything is fine. He yells "Everything is fine bro!" I tell him, "I am not talking to you,I am asking her. Are you okay". He walks quickly towards me, she holds him back, telling him to stop. I experience a flash of anger and blurt out, "I wish you would, I would crack your #$%^&ing skull!" It has never sat well with me and never will. He tells his girlfriend that he wasn't trying to do anything and walks towards me. He is standing about a foot away from me. I size him up and realize that he has been drinking and I have about 20 - 30 lbs and at least 6 inches. He is within my reach and I could have struck him in the solar plexus, groin or face faster than he would have been able to reach me. He is looking at me and sizing me up as well.

I realized that I was genuinely afraid! My stomach was in knots and my right leg was shaking a little bit. The man didn't really wanted to fight and apologized for the disturbance. I told him that I didn't care that they were making noise but I was concerned for her safety. He was conciliatory and apologized again. Even offered a handshake which I took ( I was still waiting to see if he was going to try anything). I looked at her again and made sure she was okay before leaving. I waited around the corner to make sure that he didn't escalate and then left after a couple of minutes.

I know he didn't really want to fight. He was trying to save face in front of his girlfriend. When he offered an apology, he was able to save face when I accepted. I guess I didn't really want to fight either but I was surprised by my fear. I was very afraid and I was pretty shocked by it. I think I was more afraid of the unknown: I didn't know how everything was going to play out, I didn't know how I or he was going to react. Was he going to have a weapon? Was I truly ready and would I react fast enough? What would I do if he pulled out a knife or worse? What if my training failed me and I couldn't think and defend myself. I realized a few things from the encounter:


  1. I should have called the police if I thought she was in real danger. It was pretty dumb to just try and wing it like that.
  2. My anger flashed because I can't stand bullies. Ever since I was a kid, I remember getting picked on and feeling helpless to defend myself. Which is one of the reasons I started studying martial arts in the first place. I have never looked too kindly on someone who would fight or abuse someone weaker. I still should have controlled myself a little better and I probably would have been able to diffuse the situation a little easier.
  3. I was able to keep relatively composed in spite of being afraid . Although being that afraid was somewhat disconcerting. I need to focus on this in training with visualization.