Bruce Lee and Martial Arts.

[Johnathan Napalm]

I thought Jun Fan was what he taught before he founded Jeet Kune Do. JKD should be the successor to Jun Fan. Why bother with Jun Fan when you have the upgraded version called JKD?

 

[James Kovacich]

Who are you really learning from?

 

[Johnathan Napalm]

Nobody. It is not my art.

I just read the following article and there was no mentioning of Jun Fan.

http://www.cfw2.com/article.asp?s=cfw&content_id=1372

 

[James Kovacich]

Good article but to short to go into detail but you see how he mentioned about it getting to diluted!

Think of it like this, if all the branches on the tree are different, then how do you choose who has the correct new and improved system?

 

[Cthulhu]

Ted Wong was one of Bruce Lee's later students, and didn't go through the different developmental periods or really experience any of the other 'states' of Lee's development like James Lee, Taky Kimura, or Dan Inosanto. Further, Wong was one of the few students of Lee's who had no prior martial arts training.

Cthulhu

 

[James Kovacich]

Felix Macias Sr. was James Lees student in Gung-Fu before his Jeet Kune Do but he pretty much learned it all from James only and not other schools. But I can say for sure that Felix Jr. only leaned from his father and nobody else! He's unique in that respect and a bad dude too!

 

[bob919]

the genral consensus here seems to be that junfan gung fu is a martial art and JKD is a philosophy i just call it all JKD my self

 

[James Kovacich]

Originally posted by bob919
the genral consensus here seems to be that junfan gung fu is a martial art and JKD is a philosophy i just call it all JKD my self

Pretty much everybody calls it JKD at least as far as the thinking from the outsiders.

Mine is modified to work for me based on my experinence. My personal expression I call Kempo Jujitsu. I have a student that asks me every now and then are we going to work on JKD or Kempo. He sees a line drawn between the two instead of seeing the two as one!

I've explained to him many times what my art is about but I guess his "blinders are on" and he might not grasp it until he has more exosure to the JKD world. He dosen't realize that the name I choose is just the best closest description of my art meaning Kempo, "fist law" and Jujitsu, "the gentle way!" I have experience in many arts including Kempo and Jujitsu and JKD is a "base" behind the scenes but it is not the "whole." Personally I hardly use the word JKD because all JKD is so differant and my Sifu feels that JKD is becoming watered down. I guess he would consider mine watered down too.

JKD means a lot of differant things to differant people and they dissagree to much about what it really means or the way it was intended to be. Thats probably why my Sigung chose to start his own "Branch on the Tree!"

 

[Mormegil]

"mediocre movies"

Have you seen the other Kung Fu flicks of the era? They don't really stand up to today's stuff, production wise, but I think they were revolutionary for the time. There's a reason then broke box office records back then.

It's kind of refreshing to watch them now, I'm getting sick of wire work movies.


As far as martial arts, and how good the man was? There's evidence of his strength and speed in training film footage. I wish there was more evidence of his actual fights around. Without those, I can't say he was the "best" as many do. The rest is anectodal evidence.

The same goes the other way, without evidence to the contrary. Hearsay isn't good enough. I'm skeptical about these stories of Mr. Lee being beaten so badly. But, it's possible.

Something that isn't in question, apparently, is his defeat of Mr. Man in Chinatown. This challenger was the best of the Chinatown martial artists. He was running. So there's a good chance he was the best in Chinatown (possible Mr. Man was having an off day).

As far as his WC training. I believe he learned Siu Lim Tao, Chum Kil, and half of the Dummy set. As far as bribing Yip Man, according to Yip Man's son, Yip Chun (maybe corroborated by Bill Cheung?), he offered him a new apartment in exchange for the filming.

I'm very curious to know what JKD would have looked like if he learned Biu Jee. I wouldn't be surprised to have seen more elbows.

Was he the best? We will never know for sure, but he was REALLY, REALLY good, and the best that a lot of people have seen.

 

[Johnathan Napalm]

Originally posted by Mormegil ......Have you seen the other Kung Fu flicks of the era? They don't really stand up to today's stuff, production wise, but I think they were revolutionary for the time. There's a reason then broke box office records back then.

It's kind of refreshing to watch them now, I'm getting sick of wire work movies.
.....

So true! Watching a martial art movie with all the impossible stunt, is truly boring. If I want to watch special effect and wirework, I'll go for Spiderman and Superman stuffs. Even the X-Men is not as insulting as martial artists flying around with steel wire.

 

[sweeper]

yeah, that's why I like some of the oldr movies. They have long wide shots of what's going on, they don't cut on every punch, you can actualy see what is going on and I think the longer shots like that are alot more interesting to watch wether or not you are into martial arts..

As to the wires, everyone knows when wires are in use, people just don't obay the laws of physics properly.. they don't accelerate fast enough to move that high or hang to long or something else, that just bugs thehell out of me.. it turns incredably unlikely fiction into total fantasy.

 

[Mormegil]

Originally posted by sweeper


As to the wires, everyone knows when wires are in use, people just don't obay the laws of physics properly.. they don't accelerate fast enough to move that high or hang to long or something else, that just bugs thehell out of me.. it turns incredably unlikely fiction into total fantasy.

I agree. I don't mind wires in "fantasy" though. I really enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. For some reason, when it's a period piece it's not so bad. Though, the tree scene was pushing it.

 

[sweeper]

well yeah, I liked the matrix also, but both of those movies had much longer shots in the fight sequences, it wasn't chopped all up.

 

[Infight]

To see Bruce Lee's movies, i rather see X-Men2, Spiderman, Hulk, DareDevil, Jurassic Park, and many others, even worse than these are better than lees movies.
He was just a skinny (lol someone said he was a bodybuilder), fast, and ugly guys, that knows Kung Fu. So Just a MOVIE STAR.

 

[Zepp]

Originally posted by Infight
To see Bruce Lee's movies, i rather see X-Men2, Spiderman, Hulk, DareDevil, Jurassic Park, and many others, even worse than these are better than lees movies.
He was just a skinny (lol someone said he was a bodybuilder), fast, and ugly guys, that knows Kung Fu. So Just a MOVIE STAR.

Dude, you're just begging to pick a fight here aren't you? Well, before the flamefest begins, I should like to suggest that you actually read up on Bruce Lee. Learning isn't a bad thing you know.

And why exactly is Jurassic Park in that list of comic-book movies? There's no comparison there at all. You know what, don't bother answering that. I don't care.

 

[Infight]

Hi Pal!
Since you asked ! It was not a list of comic book films, its a special effects films, see Jo Napalm post.
Sorry if i cant learn about Bruce Lee, cause i dont like to access Hollywood site, ya know, i rather see martial art sites and HPs, lol.

 

[James Kovacich]

Originally posted by Infight
Hi Pal!
Since you asked ! It was not a list of comic book films, its a special effects films, see Jo Napalm post.
Sorry if i cant learn about Bruce Lee, cause i dont like to access Hollywood site, ya know, i rather see martial art sites and HPs, lol.

What you don't understand is that the movies we're not his real martial art. He did not teach high kicks or anything fancy for that matter.

You have to look deeper to get the truth!
Try a real source. Would you look for information on BJJ in Hollywood? I did't think so.

 

[Infight]

Thx Lord! I hope never find BJJ in Hollywood, unfornatly that happened, in Lethal Weapon, but hope never more find anything related, cause i hope it lasts as a respectfull martial art for eternity, not as happened to Kung Fu, or anything related [ but there is a great difference, kung fu was never a respectfull ma ( in my humble opinion, its more a flex demonstration than ma)thats why it needed to go to movies ].

 

[sweeper]

what part of lethal weapon involed BJJ ? I have seen all of them but don't recal any BJJ in it..

 

[Zepp]

The end fight sequence in Lethal Weapon 1 was choreographed by Rorion Gracie, but it was edited so horribly that you'd never know it by watching.