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Zhong hua zhang fu (1978)
A Great Classic Gordon Liu Movie
Heroes from the East AKA "Shaolin Challenges Ninja" is one of the classic martial arts films that really got me into Kung Fu so it will always hold a special place in my heart. Liu Chia-Hui aka Gordon Liu has many great martial arts films, This movie is up there with his otyher classics, 36th Chamber, Shaolin And Wu tang, 8 diagram Pole Fighter, Fist of The White Lotus, etc... It is worth it just for the one on one duels of Spear vs. Spear, Drunken Fist vs. Karate, and Samurai vs Chien (Chinese double edged sword)
Slight plot spoiler section:
It's rather funny and comical in the plot and shows how a small misunderstanding and cross-culture gaps can lead to a full-blown set of fights. PLOT summary: he marries the daughter of his Dad's Japanese Business Partner and finds out she's a handful, very strong-willed, amazing but also very arrogant nontraditional Japanese girl who happens to know several Japanese Martial arts and constantly makes fun of her husband as she slaps him around a bit at first. She assumes he doesn't know any martial arts as he acts clumsy at first just avoiding her attacks. Eventually, he inadvertently offends her style of martial arts by saying how barbaric she sounds when she yells, how her movements are not as elegant and feminine as the Chinese women's styles, and how her Gi opens up and shows her parts a bit so it;s not very lady like etc... She takes it as a challenge against her culture and style, and later after a few more exchanges like this they decide to have a full-on duel. When later she pulls out Ninjitsu techniques he really insults the style saying we have these styles too but here we call it MURDER, and when he says they are considered despicable no reputable fighter would use these techniques... she get's really offended, and heads back to Japan to train with her senseis.
At the thought of possibly losing his new wife and his dad's warning that it would also jeopardize business relations, he is urged to apologize and get her back at all costs. His friend devises an "INGENIUS" rouse to get her back he suggests that he "Invite her to another duel after she has time to train more"
The letter he writes is a classic insult itself...
He happens to offend her styles and really all Japanese styles and traditions starting off with a line "The Japanese Styles you practice are in fact not Japanese But Chinese, They originated in China where the techniques are the best in the world, Japanese martial arts are very poor, as you should know, because I beat you every time But I suppose it's possible you may have made progress and if you have, and you think you have any chance, then come on back and let's have a contest..." that letter is intercepted by her master who takes it to his master and it reads as an insult and a challenge to all Japanese martial arts insulting their art, culture, and honor, so 7 Masters and their Grandmaster set forth to accept the challenge in her pace and thus one of the classic martial arts movies ensues.
Supernatural: Jus in Bello (2008)
My personal Favorite Episode for several reasons
I love this episode, I started rewatching the entire series and kept waiting for this episode as it was a memorable one that always stuck out since the first time I watched it. I always find it nice when the boys are finally recognized as the heroes that they are, especially from the authorities that hunted the boys thinking that they were murderous "monster" serial killers. When the people that misjudge Sam and Dean realize that there are REAL MONSTERS out there and the two brothers have been fighting to keep everyone safe all this time you know you are in for a great episode and life altering changes within established characters. We get to see how Dean and Sam deal with insurmountable odds and we also see the fallibility of Sam and Dean as human beings. They often face tough decisions when trying to save lives, when doing what they feel is right to save lives they sometimes wind up with more casualties showing just how tough the job really is and how hard it is on your own conscience and soul. There is also an obvious and expected one liner shout out to Bob Marley I shot the Sheriff ... But I didn't shoot the deputy LOL.
Tai chi zong shi (2003)
Out of All The Tai Chi and Pakua (Bagua) Movies Out There The Most Authentic In terms of Real World Applications of Technique
The DVD movie version of this is a little bit incoherent as one person mentioned, this is due to the fact that it actually was not originally a movie but a TV series in china. They did the best they could editing it down into a movie format. The fight scenes they left in the movie are very well done. The lighting as the one bad reviewer mentioned is weird but it's basically a Soap opera style lighting format made for TV series and not movie lighting. This is basically an imaginative version of the story of how Yang Lu Chang spied on The Chen Family village to learn their Tai Chi and was later accepted as the first non family member student of Chen Style Tai Chi then later modified it and refined certain techniques to make them his own and eventually created the Yang Style of Tai Chi and decided to teach it to many which is why it is now the most well known form of Tai Chi in the world. He was also known as Yang the Invincible supposedly taking on over 20,000 matches with zero losses. This particular movie / TV series depicts his development as he increases in ability and technique, which veers a little from the reality that he was already a very accomplished martial artist before learning tai chi and perhaps a bit older as well. But as with all films they take a few liberties. The techniques in this series and the fight philosophies and principles of tai chi are more authentic in this series than in any other I've seen so far and a few of the scenes are very entertaining as well making this an instant favorite Kung Fu movie for me. One particular concept of Tai Chi that they mentioned in the movie is a very important concept that will help any martial artist... "Light on Top... heavy on the bottom" which to me translates as be yielding but rooted... like a tree which sways in the wind if it's too rigid on the top or it's roots aren't deep enough into the ground it will be knocked over in the wind. The same goes for a martial artist if you are too unwilling to yield to an attack and would rather fight force with force you will eventually run into something too powerful for you to meet head on. It's real world concepts that they mention throughout the movie and watching stuff I have personally used before as well as a few things I never thought to use in sparring that really make this even more worthwhile for true martial artists.