I don't think any of theres any martial art movie that do a good job of representing a martial art because that's not what the movie is supposed to do. Even a movie that supposedly features a specific martial art such as Out for Justice with Stephen Seagal (Aikido) or Perfect Weapon with Jeff Speakman (Kempo) don't do a good job at showing the viewer what the martial art is like because the whole idea of the movie is to look flashy and sell good in Hollywood. If somebody wants to see what a martial art looks like they would be much better off at looking at real footage from a tournament of that martial art rather than watching a movie with all its Hollywood flash and whatnot. I used to think martial arts were much like what I saw in the movies when I was a little child but when I started learning the real stuff I found out its very different. Whenever they make a martial arts movie they always add in lots of fancy stunt work and stuff that is appeasing to the audience and that does well in Hollywood but that isn't anything like the real thing.
I'm sort of inclined to agree, but for two things.
Firstly, I doubt if anyone really expects a movie to be realistic. We watch movies to relax. They are entertainment. Nothing more. I think if you think back to when you were a kid, you'll probably remember that you realised that even back then? I certainly did.
Secondly, movies definitely have some value in martial arts. When I used to do karate many years ago, you could always tell when Karate Kid had been on telly, because we'd get a load of new starters within a few days. When I switched to kung fu, the same happened if Jackie Chan had been on the box. Movies sometimes inspire. Ok, people start and think it is going to be a case of wax on wax off, paint the fence etc for a few weeks and then suddenly they're winning prestigious tournaments. They quickly realise that it is lots of pressups, situps, stretches etc, and lots of very repetitive movement, and a little bit of very unskilled scrapping to attempt to apply it all, and that's all it is for at least the first few months. People then off drift off and stop coming, but some don't. Some keep it up. Some more (like me I guess) leave it alone for years, but never really lose interest, and then go back later once they've matured enough to develop patience and commitment and realistic expectation etc.
I think if as a kid I'd never seen a martial arts film, but had seen some tournaments, I don't think I'd have been that interested. Sure some moves look (and are) really impressive, but the real match is mostly two people dancing around each other for a while, and then a couple of kicks or punches get dodged, and someone wins on points.
