Martial Arts Thread

Not what I was referring to.

Is there any (fairly) practical martial art that primarily relies on kicking?

^Muay Thai.

Although, it's also a masterclass in how to seriously injure people with elbow and knees.

Be warned though: it's extremely tough and painful to practise (at least the way the Thais do it), and involves a lot of conditioning.

edited 25th May '11 8:56:11 AM by zeroplusalpha

I love listening to the Muai Thai v Karate debates.

Weeeell...

Karate is a fine and noble art in its own right, as long as you practise it in an undiluted fashion.

There's something to be said for everything, really.

edited 25th May '11 9:03:05 AM by zeroplusalpha

I know that, it's just that teenagers and dbags who consider a religion make me laugh.

That being said...goddamn you GSP; I'd have to drop 16lbs to be in your weight class!

For Americans, what's the charm point about Karate? Apparently Hollywood thinks that learning it makes you an asskicking machine or something.

Probably due to silly movies like The Karate Kid.

Pretty much yeah. Media Exposure. In the 60's and 70's our obsession was Kung-Fu

edited 29th May '11 8:36:10 AM by TuefelHundenIV

At least it got a large majority into the fighting arts. Who doesn't want to be ultiamte fighting machine who cna kick ass and take names?

It does, provided you keep at it with enough dedication for long enough.

The same could be said of any martial art though.

I should've elaborated; maybe Hollywood was actually the Trope Codifier for Shonen Upgrade, because seriously, just few months or weeks of training, and pow! You are free to go and beat the ever loving shit out of that bully you didn't bother report to the authority.

Of course dedication can makes any martial arts awesome, but that dedication isn't just around few weeks. How come there isn't any martial arts animemovie (ASFAIK) that teaches more practical martial arts, like Krav Maga, Silat, Sambo, or Muay Thai (well, there's Ong Bak but the MC was a Badass} to begin with.)? Are they less noble than karate or kung fu to Americans', especially Hollywoood's, eyes?

Let me rant a bit more. Anyone watched Never Back Down? I hate that movie. I just stopped watching the movie after ten minutes or so because it's plot was so stupid that it was insulting and not Michael Bay stupid (seriously, I sincerly like his movies perhaps because it's a stupid buffet of explosions).

edited 30th May '11 1:40:06 AM by dRoy

Well Krav Maga and Sambo aren't as old as karate of kung fu, and haven't had as much time to develop their historical heritage: the older the art, the more time is has to accumulate a rich tradition of legend, which lends itself more easily to fiction.

Also, Krav Maga and Sambo are predominantly designed for and by relatively modern militaries: I won't say that cultivation of spirituality is completely absent, but it's much less pronounced than a lot of older systems.

Why is that martial arts anime movies have to deal with that spirituality crap? It's so pretentious to me.

Because it's an indelible part of Asian martial arts culture. "Pretentious" is a somewhat disrespectful term.

No, no, not the martial arts (being an asian myself, I actually respect that spirit) but the Hollywood writers (or is producers? I'm confused) who tries to cram the motif in without even realizing what it really means.

Hollywood writers aren't known for their respect for cultural idiosyncracies outside their own frame of reference. Forget martial arts, they can't even get computers right most of the time.

It's disappointing, but also understandable: writers have deadlines and production notes to adhere to, and will simply make stuff up that will pass in lieu of research, which may take more time than they have.

(For the record, I hated The Forbidden Kingdom, which was a massacre of Wuxia tropes.)

It gives the movie a more foreign, exotic feel.

What I want to see is something involving underground fighting. Any recommendations?

Which is all well and good, but more often than not it's incredibly insulting to that portion of the audience natively familiar with the idiom.

What's wrong with Never Back Down? It was a pretty good movie.

.....*Brain explodes out of pure infuriation.*

When you're done cleaning up the skull fragments and grey matter, you might want to elaborate.

Yeah, sorry for the outburst.

Note that I didn't watch the movie the whole way through: I got so frustrated that I stopped watching. Also note that the very fact that you liked the movie, not that I'm accusing you for anything (seriously, I'm not), is that we have a clearly different taste. Lastly, I'm not good at elaboration (seriously, do I have to?) so bear it with me.

How about if I put it in this way; let's compare it to a movie whose formula was nearly as bad as it was, Transfromers. The movie's plot initiation was completely modeled after everything I hate about a typical Shonen fighting series.

I hate everyone in the universe. It's a sad, sad place where fighting and beating the living hell out of each other is treated as fun, and seriously, if it was treated more officially, like real MMA, I wouldn't have complained. I don't remember the details, since it has been years since last time I touched the thing, then again, to me Impression > Details; if details did not influence the impression, then it's not worth remembering.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure that was not satisfying elaboration, but really I don't want to waste my energy giving details on something that I hate. Sorry pal, if you like the movie, it's cool, it's just not my thing.

Transformers had a better plot than NBD? Yeah, I can totally see giant robots from space being more realistic than a guy learning how to fight to get what he wants.