With the recent interest in Wing Chun Kung Fu movies, I find this screen test of Bruce Lee rather interesting. I am not a Bruce Lee fan as such but much credit is owed to him for popularising Wing Chun, directly or indirectly.
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The Yip Man 2 movie came and I think will be gone very fast. Right?
There was so much exoectation after the first Ip Man. I was hoping the no 2 would provide a little history..I mean real history.
Some of my expectations were :
1 History
2 wing chun techniques
3 wing chun weapons
4 realistic fighting techniques and scenes
5 noble martial arts qualities
6 Donny Yen (and director) was not professional. They should attempt to portray the real Ip Man not Donny Yen.
There are more that i would have liked but then the movie would flop (if it had not already)
There are some plusses though. The props weren’t too bad and gave some old HK feel but not much.
The worst grouse I have is that facts are contorted. According to Ip Chun, there
….. never was a kung fu exam Yip Mun had to undergo.
….. Ip Chun in 1949 would have been 20 years old. In the show he was a kid.
….. Bruce Lee was brought to Yip Mun by his father and I do not think he did the nose thing as shown in the movie
Scenes of chi sao were shown while they trained. Nice to have something iconic shown but i fault that for making people believe that wing chun is chi sao.The butterfly knives scene was a let down. Nothing to see.
David bringing down Goliath. No way. More so when he can’t use legs. With legs…maybe… I am thinking of Muhammad Ali versus the Japanese wrestler Inoki. But to fight a world boxing champion bare fisted against gloves and in a ring? And all those flurried punches. I hope people don’t get the wrong idea of them.
Despite all this, I hope they do make a no 3. At least it will provide some tickles. But I do hope for some historically accurate. As a Wing Chun practitioner and enthusiast, I would like one DVD I can recommend to watch for its correctness and entertainment.
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The one inch punch is a punch delivered from a short distance.
By definition, one inch is equivalent to the breadth of one’s thumb. Quite close to the English one inch. To generate power to be able to have any impact let alone do damage in that small distance of travel requires quite a fair bit of training as well as technique.
The other definition is that the punch is supposed to break a one inch wooden board thus its name.
The famous one inch that was supposedly executed by Bruce Lee does not appear to be a one inch punch. From what could be seen from the video, it was more like an arms-length punch. It was delivered within close quarters but certainly not one inch.
There were other demonstrations by other exponents but a close observation would conclude that they too are not one inch punches. Some appear to be more like pushes.
I suppose whether it is one inch or six inches is not important. What matters is that, in essence, they are [click to continue…]
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A Happy and Abundant New Year to all!
One of the highest compliment paid to Wing Chun has been the methodical and efficient use of the hands in combat.
If I may say so, there are so many possible combinations that we can explore. Each position flows smoothly into another ever so naturally and effectively. The upside of this is that there is always a ‘best’ combination to suit the individuality of each student.
From my experience training other arts, wing chun is unique. Where there are fixed sets or katas, Wing Chun allows for free flow. As such each students predilection for certain techniques is possible. Within the formal training itself, of course, the full range of techniques are taught. But the real fruit of all the training is when the student finds his favorite niche.
For chi sao and effective use of hands, a good idea is to look at the three piece “nunchaku” and adopt its flexibility.
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I was a little free and went browsing what other people are doing out there in the martial arts world. After a few clicks, I got a little tired.
I got tired maybe because I tend not to surf a lot but I think the real reason is that martial art talk has not changed much through the years. It is still a lot of chauvinism and harsh language. Hmmm…
In any case, I can only say that the old adage of letting others do their thing and one carries on with what one is doing. The world can go about digging at each other but we don’t have to do the same.
On this point of ego-mongering, I heard that there is going to be spar-off between Muay Thai [click to continue…]
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Workshop Stephen Chan
This one is good news. Wing Chun has been around in Malaysia for a long time only that very few people know about it.
Master Simon Hew has been teaching Wing Chun in Malaysia since the 70’s. If you are looking for a teacher who carries with him the lineage of Yip Man, then he is the person you should approach.
Operating very quietly in Damansara Jaya, he is one of those rare teachers who will impart to you what he knows when he knows that you carry that same enthusiasm and dedication. He teaches pure unadulterated Wing Chun. This is a reflection [click to continue…]
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