It all started with the first James Bond movies. 007 would hit you with a Judo Chop. He could hit you with a chop and kill a man or with a little twist only knock you out for 24 hours. Of course, you could fight for five minutes trading these Judo Chops and never knock your hat off. Ah, the things you can do with a movie. As a kid I had to learn how to do judo. Some of my friends had the same idea. We managed to get a book about judo and started trying to teach ourselves to be judo experts. We also practiced trying to be secret agents. We got some knives and practiced throwing them to be experts. We hoped we could kill you from far away with the knife and use the judo if we were close.
None of that really worked. Then things took a change. We discovered karate. We found out that judo was more like wrestling and karate was where you would kick or hit your opponent. That was even better. The most popular book for us was “Super Karate Made Easy.”
Then more movies came out. All of a sudden, there were movies that came out and I found out there was more than Judo and Karate. There was wing chun, aikido, kendo, jujitsu, taekwondo, all sorts of sword styles and fighting with sticks or staffs. With all these movies coming out about these martial arts I seriously considered becoming a ninja. That was even better than becoming a secret agent. The thought of throwing a ball that would explode, cover the entire room with smoke and allow you to escape from any calamity had appeal for me. That didn’t work out either.
I still kept watching karate movies though. They were fun to watch. Action movies changed with the addition of more special effects with things exploding and catching on fire. One of my college friends would go with me every time a new karate movie came out.
Well, like a lot of things, time passed and we didn’t go to movies very much. He did start studying films. He always liked movies and he spent a lot of time studying the different styles of filmmaking.
Just recently I got to see a movie that featured a lot of karate or martial arts in it. This movie was made in China. The music was that moaning violin music that you hear in a lot of Chinese films. I was telling my friend about it and he started giving me the full information on the movie. To my surprise the movie wasn’t about fighting at all. The movie was a Chinese dream and love story. I mistakenly thought they were using Samurai swords. The swords were from China and he explained the difference in sword making and then went on to explain the love story part. I thought some of the cool fighting scenes were just to show their skill at fighting but that was a dream sequence.
Still there were great fight scenes and strange locations in a desert that I never did understand. I might have to watch that film again to figure it out. Still there was lots of good action and some fun dialogue. “I am a dragon from the desert. Lower your head and ask for mercy.”
If I can figure out the dream part of the movie, I might reconsider this ninja business. You get to wear a funky robe and carry a really cool looking sword. If you figure out the dream part you can also fly. That would even be better than being able to use a judo chop.
Bobby Jonte is a Greeleyville native. His column appears in the Manning Times.
