Wushu
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I Hope You Enjoy Thanksgiving Week In Review At TheMartialArtsReporter.com And A Quote I Really Like!
Sifu Eddie Camden, The Instructor Recommended By Martial Arts Legends
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Happy Thanksgiving 2009 From TheMartialArtsReporter.com
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Jet Li, From Humble Beginnings To Action/Martial Arts Movie Superstar
This week’s quote for readers of TheMartialArtsReporter.com:
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but the number of moments that take our breath away. ” Unkown
Jet Li, From Humble Beginnings To Action/Martial Arts Movie Superstar
Are your ready for some action?
Among all the remarkable action/martial arts movie stars over the last 20 years or so, several of them truly stand out such as Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, probably Jean-Claude Van Damme.
(Maybe you have your own favorites that haven’t been mentioned here. Let me know by sending in your comments.)
There are movie performers most people remember and who are quite frankly household names.
One such martial artist and movie performer I am always impressed with is Li Lianjie.
“Who the heck is that?”, you ask.
I admit I also only knew him by his stage name, Jet Li.
For many years, Jet Li has worked extremely hard to get where he is now in his career.
And obviously his hard work and determination have paid off for him and his family.
Especially if you consider that his mother had to somehow pull him, his bother and two sisters through as a widow in Beijing during the Sixties.
As a teenager, Jet Li rigorously trained in Wushu for several years, winning countless titles and national gold medals.
Jet Li became a member of the high-acclaimed national Wushu team that even performed for then-U.S. President Nixon in the United States.
In those days it was an extraordinary honor and opportunity for Chinese to be able to travel overseas and even more so to perform in front of “the leader of the free world”. Jet Li was still just a teenager at the time!
His abilities and achievements as a Wushu forms practitioner paved the way for Jet Li’s acting in martial arts movies that started in China, then Hong Kong and ultimately the United States. He has become a global superstar throughout the years.
You might have seen him in some of his movies such as:
Shaolin Temple
Once Upon A Time In China
Lethal Weapon 4 (This was the first time I had ever seen Jet Li and I was impressed!)
Romeo Must Die
Hero
Cradle 2 The Grave
Fearless
War (with Jason Statham)
The Forbidden Kingdom (with fellow superstar Jackie Chan)
I have learned that Jet Li is a cast member along with Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Staham, Arnold Schwarzenegger to star in “The Expendables” which is scheduled to be released in 2010. More on that at a later date.
But there is also another side to Jet Li such as his charitable activities, notably after his near-death experience in 2004 in the Maldives during a tsunami.
Reportedly, Jet Li’s “The One Foundation” supports international disaster relief efforts with the Red Cross and other efforts, such as recovery in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Jet Li continues to impress on and off the big screen.
Here he is at age 14 performing Wushu form for his first championship:
And who doesn’t remember Jet Li as the bad guy in Lethal Weapon 4?
Cynthia Rothrock, “The Queen Of Martial Arts Films”
In a recent post just several days ago I referred to Gina Carano as “The Face Of Women’s MMA”.
Today I would like to introduce Cynthia Rockroth, “The Queen Of Martial Arts Films”.
She was once quoted, “throughout my life, I’ve been opening the door for other women to get involved with martial arts films. I was the first woman to be on the cover of a karate magazine and the first woman to win a men’s championship.”
Quite an accomplishment!
I myself became aware of Cynthia Rothrock while flipping through a martial arts publication, I guess it was Black Belt Magazine, probably in the very early 80s when she was on the West coast demo team.
Between 1981 and 1985 Cynthia Rothrock was a five-time (and undefeated) World Karate Champion in forms and weapons.
Remarkably, these categories were open to both male and females at the time.
She currently holds an astonishing five Black belts in numerous Far Eastern martial art styles such as Tang Soo Do, Tae Kwon Do and Wu Shu.
She most probably was the first Caucasian actress that ever had a lead role in a Chinese film as a heroine.
Rothrock became one of the few Caucasian performers to achieve big-time stardom in the local Hong Kong film industry having starred with Michelle Yeoh, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, even before achieving success in the U.S.
Reportedly, she set a record of becoming the very first non-Chinese westerner to carry an action movie single-handedly in Hong Kong. Cynthia departed from Hong Kong as one of the most celebrated action stars in Hong Kong’s movie history!
She has starred in countless movies here in the U.S. since returning from Hong Kong in the late 80s.
Probably best known for starring in “China O’Brien” and “Guardian Angel”, Cynthis Rothrock has added the fact that she is an inductee to the Black Belt Hall of Fame and Inside Kung-Fu Hall of Fame to her long list of outstanding accomplishments.
Even after all her major achievements off and on the Big Screen, Cynthia has also become certified as an instructor of Fighting Chance Combat Systems, a reality based, self defense system against armed assaults.
Cynthia Rothrock – Queen Of Martial Arts Films
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