hapkido
A Very Different ‘Gang Of Four’. No, Make That ‘Gang Of Five’.
The term ‘Gang of Four’ comes from the name that was given to a political faction made up by four officials of the Chinese Communist Party. They were prominent during a period referred to as the Cultural Revolution for 10 years (1966-1976), which must have felt more like a century for many Chinese citizens.
Very shortly after the death of Chairman Mao, the group was charged with a number of crimes such as treason. The members consisted of Jiang Qing, Mao’s last wife as the leading figure of the group, and her close associates Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan and Wang Hongwen.
The gang that I would like to draw your attention to is very different.
The group of women I would like to feature today are all very talented movie actresses who have thrilled audiences all over the world in numerous movies that have already become classics in their own right.
The one I became aware of first was back in the 70s, when she played the part of Bruce Lee’s sister in Enter The Dragon.
Her fans simply call her Lady Whirlwind or Lady Kung Fu. You probably know her as Angela Mao.
Trained in hapkido, kung fu, tae kwon do, and other martial art styles, she was definitley well prepared for her movie roles.
I can hardly believe she was paid only $100 for her short role in Enter The Dragon.
Some of the ladies featured in this very special blog post are now getting over US$ 10 mio. per movie!
Anyway, do you remember this one?
Yeah and then there is Maggie Cheung with her very own special accent which resulted from moving at age 8 from Hong Kong to Britain, where she was the only Asian at a school in Kent, England.
She then moved back to Hong Kong again at age 17 for a career as a model.
Maggie Cheung has acted in 70 Hong Kong movies. Five of them were Jackie Chan movies in which she also matched him in the stunts and injuries.
Picture book face and tough as nails. Check her out in this rather creative Red Leaves clip of Hero fighting against …….
Is that some serious foliage or what?
Even without being a martial artist per se, one simply cannot overlook Gong Li, often referred to as the Marlene Dietrich of Chinese cinema.
Arguably, Gong Li is the first Chinese actor to draw attention in the West without being a trained martial artist.
Remember the intro describing the Cultural Revolution?
Well, get this: Gong Li was born to a pair of economic professors who during the Cultural Revolution were forced to work in factories. They had to send all their children away, with the exception of Li, to work in the countryside. Heartbreaking to say the least.
At age 22, while studying at the prestigious Central Drama Academy in Beijing, Gong Li met the director Zhang Yimou. This event would change her career forever.
And even though speaking English is a challenge for her, Gong Li has been able to land numerous international movie roles such as Hannibal Rising: Behind The Mask, Miami Vice (starring Colin Farrell) and even Shanghai (starring John Cusack and Chow Yun-Fat).
I found a clip of an interview with her also talking about Curse Of The Golden Flower (again starring Chow Yun-Fat and directed by Zhang Yimou). Enjoy!
But wait, there’s more!
How about a former Miss Malaysia who also starred with Pierce Brosnan in ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’. She does her own fight scenes.
She has done stunts that make me cringe such as with Jackie Chan in Police Story III: Supercop, where she rode a motorbike onto a speeding train and jumped from helicopter into a moving convertible.
You probably know by now that I am talking about Michelle Yeoh.
She has dislocated her shoulder, cracked some ribs, and ruptured arteries in her leg.
While leaping from an 18-foot overpass in Stuntwoman she missed the safety net and dislocated her neck. It was scary and reportedly having heard a snap in her back, she feared to be paralyzed for life. Fortunately, she recovered after spending several months in a full body cast.
And yes, she also starred in the classic Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and here is one of the best fight scenes with Michelle Yeoh and ….
And here we come to the fifth member of our Gang of Five:
She just turned 32 in February of this year and she has had the fortune of being part of a number of successful movie projects such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well as Rush Hour 2, Memoirs Of A Geisha, Hero and House Of Flying Daggers.
The daughter of a Beijing accountant/economist and kindergarten teacher, Ziyi Zhang attended the Beijing Dance Academy and the Central Academy Of Drama which has certainly given her the foundation and work ethic in attaining her acting career accomplishments thus far.
I think we’re gonna see and hear a lot more good things about Ziyi Zhang.
If you have watched all the video clips of this post, you were able to see her in two of them already. One with Maggie Cheung and the other with Michelle Yeoh.
“I think we could have had something special ….”
What?
Just watch the following Rush Hour 2 clip and have some fun!
Road House – The Real Deal
Anybody remember the Patrick Swayze movie “Road House”?
You know the one in which he plays a professional “cooler” (i.e. specialized doorman, or bouncer) with a mysterious past who is enticed from his current job in New York City by a club owner to take over security at his club/bar.
I agree that this was not one of the finer specimens presented on the Big Screen, but at one time or another in our lives we just want to watch a couple of fight scenes, right?!
Did you know that martial arts great, Benny “The Jet” Urquidez, was actually the fight choreographer? Really ….
But there’s another martial arts great I wanted to tak about who is also known as “Road House” and for me he is the Real Deal.
I’m talking about Grand Master Steve Sexton, 8th degree Hapkido black belt.
He is a street fighting legend in the San Fernando Valley area of California who has been in real combat situations. On a regular base, Master Sexton is one of the few martial artists who uses traditional Hapkido techniques in real life self-defense situations.
Master Sexton has over 25 years experience as a professional Bouncer and his Hapkido skills have kept him safe in countless dangerous street fighting encounters against all kinds of aggressive people out to do bodily harm.
On the night club circuit he has experienced every type of assault from one-on-one confrontations to multiple attackers. He’s been shot at and has disarmed numerous knife, bottle and club wielding crazies. He attributes his survival to the hightly effective self-defense techniques of Korean Hapkido which includes striking, kicking, throwing, joint locking, chokes, ciruclar movements, angle attacks, weapons disarming techniques, leveraging, redirecting your attackers force against himself and much more.
Remember that Patrick Swayze movie “Road House”? Well, then you’ve got a glimpse of the Legend of Steve Sexton, hence the nickname “Road House”.
And if you think a cane can only fulfill one purpose, think again:
Finland: Sauna, Wodka And A Very Eclectic Korean Martial Art
Most of us would make the connection between Finland and Finnish sauna and even some of the most famous Wodka brands money can buy, right?
But Finland and a very eclectic Korean martial art?
Let me tell you how this post came together.
Last Sunday while getting ready for a tennis mixed doubles match I was talking with one of my team members and his wife about martial arts.
They told me that that they had studied some Korean martial art several years ago in Mississippi, which they referred to as Han Moo Do.
I actually had no in-depth knowledge of this style and they were kind enough to tell me a little bit more such as:
Han Moo Do is a fairly young style which consists of elements of Tae Kwon and Hapkido. They probably told me more, but that’s what stuck with me.
That sounded pretty intriguing to me, so I started to dig a bit deeper and here is what I found online:
Han Moo Do was created by 8th dan Young Suk (Yoon Soon Hwang) about 20 years ago, when the first club was established in Finland!
Lately it has been spreading to other Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Denmark.
The first club outside of the nordic region was recently set up in Limerick, Ireland. But also even in Mississippi in the U.S. Southeast as I mentioned above.
Hanmoodo is descended from other Korean styles, such as Hoi Jeon Moo Sool and Taekwondo, so Hanmoodo resembles these styles as well as Hapkido in many areas.
Hanmoodo’s techniques include kicks, punches, throws, takedowns, grappling , joint-locking techniques and chokes.
Kicks are mostly aimed at ribs or head.
Punches can be targeted to the body only.
Throws and takedowns resemble Judo and wrestling techniques but are done even more elegantly.
Joint locks mainly target the wrist and elbow but there are also leg locks.
Chokes are performed mostly with forearm and wrist.
The art contains three weapon styles: nunchaku, long staff e.g. Japanese bo; and sword e.g. Japanese katana.
Hanmoodo practitioners are also encouraged to engage in exhibitions where a practiced choreography is presented to an audience. These choreographies feature several practitioners performing self-defence techniques on each other.
In competition, Hanmoodo rules permit kicks above the waistline and punches between the waistline and the head.
All strikes must hit the front of the body and other kinds of strikes are prohibited.
Competitors may also grapple by throwing or taking down their opponent and controlling him/her on the mat but striking is prohibited when either competitor has a hold on the other or is considered to be on the ground.
I have found Han Moo Do or hanmoodo to be a rather interesting mixed martial art that covers the four combat ranges of long, medium and close as well as ground fighting. Oh, yeah, weapons, too.
Personally, I can do without the high-flying kicks, which in no way criticizes the style itself. High kicks might have their justification.
Summa summarum, I am impressed with Han Moo Do and to give you some visuals of it all, here is a clip I found. Hope you enjoy it.
P.S.: My wife and I won our tennis match 6-0, 6-3.!
Guess Who Didn’t Get In The Hapkido Beginners’ Course
Here I am really psyched about learning more of the Korean martial art of Hapkido.
This is what I have found out about Hapkido:
The term Hapkido itself consists of three words which are
hap ‘coordinating’
ki ‘energy’
do ‘way’
Let’s just settle for ‘the way of coordinating energy’, shall we?
Hapkido is a form of self defense that uses joint locks and techniques of other martial arts.
It also incorporates traditional weapons, including the short stick, cane, rope, nunchucku,
sword, and even the staff.
As a Hapkidoka (does that sound right?) you learn how to apply long and close range fighting techniques, using dynamic kicking and percussive hand strikes at longer ranges and pressure point strikes, jointlocks, or throws at closer fighting distances.
Hapkido is all about circular, non-resisting movements, and about controlling your opponent.
You learn the advantage through footwork and body positioning to get leverage, so you can avoid using strength against strength.
Hapkido was developed from Daitō-ryū Aiki-jūjutsu or a closely related jujutsu system taught by Choi Yong Sul who returned to Korea after WWII, having lived in Japan for 30 years.
This system was later combined with kicking and striking techniques of taekkyeon and tang soo do.
But back to me being all psyched about starting with Hapkido.
The latest publication of my local county’s Parks & Recreation Fall Activity Guide listed
a beginners’ course with 8 lessons for a really reasonable fee which defintely got my interest.
So, I call the program coordinator who tells me that they needed just one more participant for the course to take place. Sounds like a plan to me!
I jump into my car and head on over to their offices to sign up.
There I am filling out all the forms as diligently as you would expect from any serious,
law-abiding martial artist.
Then the program coordinator drops the bomb after I had completed all the filling out stuff:
“Sir, you are aware that this course is targeted to kids from 6 years and older?”
Well, now that he brought it to my attention, I was. Thank you very much!
While I processed this new and vital information, I asked him to tell me what the average
age of the other course participants who had signed up so far.
Guess what his answer was!
“Six years old.”
Well, I don’t know about you guys, but that is not the kind of course yours truly wanted
to get in.
I was looking for something more like what you see in the video below, just click
on the YouTube link:
If you have tried Hapkido or have been a practitioner for a couple years now, let me know about your experience. I really want to know.
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