Martial arts discussion thread

[GoktimusPrime]

You mean there are movies out there that do not accurately reflect conventional wisdom. I thought Hollywood was an honest industry. This changes everything

I know! At least we can trust that the Internet will never lie to us! *hugs computer*

Kung-Fu Kid just doesn't have the same ring to it.

So call it something else. Or - here's an idea - make the characters use Karate!!

A lot of the old Kungfu movies in the 70s had billings with Karate on them. Was just the fad at the time i guess.

It was a different time because until Bruce Lee came along, most Western audiences were rather ignorant of Chinese martial arts. This was partially due to entrenched racism in the Chinese community with many teachers who refused to teach Kung Fu to non-Chinese students. Bruce Lee was the first to begin teaching Chinese martial arts to blacks, whites... anyone who wanted to learn. IMO that was Lee's greatest legacy. Unfortunately there are still a small number of Kung Fu teachers who continue to refuse to teach non-Asians (sigh). Karate was already quite well known by because of one word: Elvis.

They are marketing it as a remake of a popular movie from the 80's. If they didn't then it wouldn't of attracted anywhere near the attention it got. I'm guessing they felt Joe Public really wouldn't be bothered by that fact.

Karate is definitely more widely known amongst Western audiences than Kung Fu - in Australia the most commonly practised martial art style is Gokanryu Karate. I get that... so with that rationale, why not make the movie based on Karate?

My guess is that this movie will elicit one of the following reactions from audiences in regards to the martial arts:
+ Perpetuating ignorance in allowing people to believe that Karate and Kung Fu are "the same thing."
+ Confounding people with some knowledge of Karate who are wondering why the moves look like stylised Kung Fu.
+ Confounding people with some knowledge of Kung Fu who are wondering why the characters are using stylised Kung Fu in a movie entitled "The Karate Kid."

I'm not comfortable with the excuse of "Most people won't know the difference, so let's run with it." That'd be like if a Transformer movie had an entirely GOBOT cast with the same excuse. Cos it'd probably work - Joe Average probably wouldn't honestly know the difference between Bumblebee and Scooter (at least, not prior to 2007). You can just imagine the fan reaction to that!

Suddenly Drift doesn't seem so bad...