Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

[Gav]

I've just seen this film - it's great! That is... if you like martial arts movies. When I was watching one scene (Chow Yun Fat vs the young disciple of the baddie) when it struck me how much the martial style he was using was like fencing. I was wondering if anyone out there had any thoughts on this? or

Had tried out any martial arts in involving swords and how they compare against each other?

[epeetaph]

Sorry, don't know about the martial arts. But I have heard at lot about that movie. Good, huh? Man, gotta catch it sometime.

[FencerInUS]

So far the only thing i've noticed about people who fence coming from a martial arts background is that they tend to counter attack quite a bit. No parrys or aything, just a straight counter atack. As to similarities between martial arts and fencing, i havent seen any so far.

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F.I.US.
Parry, THEN riposte
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[Foil Girl]

Hey, how'd you get to see it already? The movie comes out the twelth here.

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-Foil Girl
"If you don't have fun, you've already lost"

[Mengarath the Dragon]

Man, I must really live in the boonies! I haven't even heard of this movie before. As to martial arts and fencing, I'd have to disagree with that counter attack comment. We have a Kung Fu master in our club, who also happens to be a VERY patient mentor and teacher to all the newer people. He parries so fast it's not even funny! You can never get through his deffence and he holds his blade in a low position to begin with, not even near en garde. He'll advance and crowd you if you let him, but he rarely attacks, he likes to get you on the repost. He also likes to infight, so forget the whole "distance is the first rule of defence" thing. And he's only been fencing for about 3 years I think. I think martial arts have really enhanced his speed, both in sheer ability to move and in metal reaction time. He does know other weapon styles, including katana and he said the hardest thing for him when he started was to remember not to hit with the side of the blade. I think he's the only serious martial artist, but I would be curious to see how students of different styles of martial arts would react to fencing.

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Mengarath the Dragon

Life is to short to be ordinary.

[Mergs]

My biggest problem teaching someone who has had a significant amount of martial arts (I mean Eastern martial arts, we forget that fencing is the western martial art, along with boxing!)is that they all tend to put their weight on the rear foot which screws up their footwork.

The other problem is that they think too much (in the beginning). Before they have the basics down they are "what-iffing" theirselves to death. Had one student arguing with me about using the non-weapon hand to block with. Sent him to the rapier and dagger instructor.

[Tyrantraxus]

HI,

I am a former kung fu/wushu competitor,i also spent a summer at the Shaolin temple in the Henan province China in 1991,afther 17 years in the martial arts i no longer get surprised about similarities beteewn fighting arts originated in different historical periods and cultures.

You can find many things in common for examples in jian practice (expecially in chang chuan style) and modern epee, or you can study the principles of Ba Gua and find many similarities in the circular Spanish fighting art 'La Destreza',or you can consider the biodinamic of quaterstaff fighting and boxing and again you'll find similarities..

For a good insight about Jian (chinese epee) check out the 'The Dragon's List' web site under 'virtual kwoon'.

Mario,

[Gav]

To those who don't know. This film is by a director called Ang Lee (he directed the film version of Sense and Sensibility). It stars Michelle Yeoh (chinese bond girl in Tommorrow Never Dies) and Chow Yun Fat (big martial arts star and also in The Replacement Killers).

I'm surprised you guys haven't heard of it or had the opportunity to see it!

Over here everyone who's seen it (except my girlfriend) has raved about it. The fight scenes are choreographed by the same team who did The Matrix - only they're better!

[epeemancer]

May i recomend a book called "The Book of Five Rings" I can't spell the authors name and so i won't even try. The author was a self trained samuri who won in a whole lot of duels. The book is about the art of dueling. (with a samuri's wepons including the katana) and much of stuff he says is very comperable to fencing.

[sabreuse]

I tried to see this movie this weekend but it was sold out (darned college kids! get back to school already!). My friends who have seen it put it on their top ten lists.

A word of warning though--If anybody posts any spoilers before I see this movie I will hunt you down and make you pay!!

[Mengarath the Dragon]

I'm guessing the Book of the Five Rings was written by either Miomoto Musashi or a guy by the name of Jubei.

As for grabbing the blade with your off hand, I'm not sure that is a martial artist thing. I've never taken martial arts and I tried to do that when I first started. Scared the crap out of my instructor. It's the reason I cary my left arm behind me. Even then I've been know to bring that hand out and around to try to grasp the blade, only I don't know it until someone watching me says something. It's totally unconcious, for me anyway.

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Mengarath the Dragon

Life is to short to be ordinary.

[Gav]

The Book of Five Rings was written by Miyatomo Musashi. I can also recommend Hagakure it's a collection of anecdotes by an ex-samurai warrior turned buddhist monk called Yamamoto Tsunemoto. Also read The Art of War by Sun Tzu - everyone should read this book - it's a true classic you will learn a lot!

[Shadow Fencer]

Finally saw this movie last evening. It's terrific!! Don't worry Sabreuse, I won't give it away and hopefully you've had a chance to see it.

I enjoyed the theatrics of the swordplay. Regarding similarities to asian martial arts, my only exposure to sword is by observing my Sifu demonstrate tai chi sword, and he's all over the place! Meaning, attack and defensive moves are 360 degrees around him. Whereas your target in sport fencing is right in front of you!

The similarities are there- one must be able to defend oneself either via block or in our fencing world, the parry!

Great movie, especially for women fencers to see!! Ang Lee also directed the Ice Storm.

[Foil Girl]

I also saw it last night! Superb! It was great! Lots of fun, and GREAT martial arts. I also saw the similarities between fencing at their sword fights sometimes.

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-Foil Girl
"If you don't have fun, you've already lost"

[HilandDoug]

Best movie I think I 've ever seen. Romance, action, beautiful photography, dance-like fight choreography. I wanted to applaud after the first fight scene. My girlfriend liked all of the powerful female figures, and pointed out that you never see 2 men fight in the whole film. It's woman vs. woman, or man vs. woman. Can't say enough how good a film this is.

[belligerent_sorceress]

I just got back from seeing Crouching Tiger...it was amazing. I loved the fight scenes, Michelle Yeoh was awesome, as well as the young girl. The story was excellent, and the cinematography blew me away. A must-see! I can't wait for this to come out on video.

[MHS Fencer]

I personally haven't seen the movie, but I thought that this might be interesting for the fencing community out there. Ahn Lee's son is actually a foil fencer on a high school team - he's been at it for 2 school seasons now. Just letting you all know.

[fred]

Another thumbs-up for the movie. And yes, I noticed the almost epee-like style employed by Chow Yun Fat in the first sword fight, he kept his off-arm well back and body turned. I couldn't say if this is an authentic Chinese sword style, but even my gf, a non-fencer, noticed the similarity.

[Chris Nauroth]

One of the most fascinating things about this movie for me was the surprising lack of violence. Remember about 5 years ago when people were complaining more about violence in the media? Everyone was talking about the "high body counts" in action movies. But you can count the number of deaths in this movie on one hand. In fact, it's very rare that the fighters actually harm each other. All that spectacular offense is matched by equally spectacular defense, so the fighter's don't actually hurt each other very much. It's more about the beauty of the phrase. :-)

What a movie! It's nice to see an intense action film that's not morbid.

[Gav]

Good point Dave!