Three new tai chi movies for 2012

In movie terms, this year seems to be looking quite exciting for tai chi with three new movies on the horizon. Movies that also includes some big Hollywood names. So first of all we have:

Tai Chi 0

How much tai chi there is in this I'm not sure, but perhaps they just removed all those slow scenes from the high-energy trailer? Certainly has a bit of a steampunk feel (who knows, maybe there will be a tai chi steampunk robot - well I can hope). Looks set to be the first of a trilogy and is the nearest to hitting the screens of the three.

Jet Li's Tai Chi

It seems that this movie, will follow the adventures of Yang Luchan, may become a trilogy with the first one hopefully out this year. Jet Li himself is expected to play Yang in the second film, with a different (as yet unnamed) actor playing the younger Yang in the first, and another actor filling the role for the third film. But that's all just rumour at this stage and Jet Li certainly wants to promote tai chi, so wouldn't be surprised if he was heavily involved.

Man of Tai Chi

Finally we have Keanu Reeves making his directorial debut (and also starring in) this film which has just got underway shooting in China. Set in contemporary Beijing, Man of Tai Chi follows Tiger Chen, who was part of the kung fu team in The Matrix. In Man of Tai Chi, Chen stars as a young martial artist whose fighting skills brings him to a realm of vast opportunities, and painful choices. Keanu is another of the big celebrity names who has spoken out about his love for tai chi.

Looks to be an exciting 2012 - I can't wait!

Star wars tai chi video

Star wars... Tai Chi.... and Psy Trance. It doesn't get better than this!

Star Wars Tai Chi from John Leo on Vimeo.

Elven Tai Chi?

Today I have been thinking a lot about elves (as in the Lord of the Rings sense). Elves always seemed to me (and deliberately intended to be so by Tolkien) to be the most graceful and beautiful of the races of Middle Earth.

As most people know, the undertaking of three Lord of the Rings films was a phenomenal effort, with attention paid to every detail, to create a world that was totally immersive and self consistent. As there was a lot of fighting in the books/films, care was taken to ensure that all of the different characters and races had "accurate" fighting styles to match their physiques, temperament and cultural sensibilities of their respective races. So I started to wonder what are the martial arts techniques that the elves use?

I found this great interview with Tony Wolf who was the Fighting Styles Designer for the Lord of the Rings Motion Picture Trilogy. Toni Wolf (TW) was talking to Sword Forum International (SWI), and I've extracted part of the transcript below:

SFI: What martial arts styles did you draw from in developing the fighting arts of the Elves? And are there other examples we see in LOTR?  

TW: The design process was not really a matter of borrowing techniques from real-world fighting styles. Having determined a series of very specific "key points" about a given character type's posture, weapons, armour, tactics and so-on, the techniques essentially created themselves.  

SFI: What key points did you define for the Elves, and what other examples of techniques arose from those points?  

TW: It's great that martial arts-oriented viewers seem to latch on to the Elves. Basically, the Elves were beautiful. Every aspect of their culture reflected a refined sense of aesthetic beauty and wonderment. They were completely attuned to their environments. It followed that, as warriors, they would be superbly balanced — grounded from the waist down, light and free from the waist up. Although they were capable of linear movement, their style was based on a spiraling action — circular, gliding footwork patterns, deflections rather than blocks, slices rather than thrusts or strikes. Also, because they are immortal, they've spent decades or even centuries perfecting their martial arts — they can do things that human swordmasters could only dream of.

What does that remind you of? Pretty clearly tai chi (and chinese martial arts) to my mind as that description ("grounded from the waist down, light and free from the waist up....based on a spiraling action") is almost the exact definition of the tai chi principles. To paraphrase the rest of the interview, the humans had styles derived from Western mediaeval techniques. Dwarfs were almost sumo like and all about power, whilst the orcs were corrupted, angular and out of balance versions of all three.

Clearly then, if you want to emulate the gracefulness of an elf from Lord of the Rings, best start practising tai chi.

Superman does Tai Chi!

I've always been struck by the similarity of the Superman logo and the yin/yang. Clearly Superman draws his influence from chinese martial arts teachings. That must be where he gets all his power from :-)

[A bit of photoshopping later.....]

 

Geek Warrior Tai Chi

I have it! The ultimate reason any geek should do an internal art. Deep down all geeks want to be kick ass fighters, and no one is better than Lieutenant Worf - and he does it. QED. http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Mok%27bara