tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post7484766529042638067..comments2024-03-29T11:29:58.276+09:00Comments on BigHominid's Hairy Chasms: is Jackie Chan a martial artist?Kevin Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-79512231208957410412017-07-02T00:50:08.640+09:002017-07-02T00:50:08.640+09:00You are right. gods help me, but I've been su...You are right. gods help me, but I've been suckered down the rabbit hole into watching "Britain's Got Talent" via a link of one of your previous video links. Via that link, I'm sure that besides being a superb showman, Jackie Chan is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYVirkvNYco" rel="nofollow">this little girl's wizard grandfather.</a> If this little girl can do what she supposedly did to Simon Cowell on live, unrehearsed TV, I'm sure I was also tricked by Jackie's egg misdirection and showmanship under the guise of martial arts. <br />John from Daejeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08431973044799010218noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-57104512132723409662017-07-01T03:57:24.175+09:002017-07-01T03:57:24.175+09:00I'll go one further and note that Jackie Chan ...I'll go one further and note that Jackie Chan jokes about "using one's head," and he openly agrees with the young lady about doing the break "mit dem Unterarm," i.e., with the forearm. You'll note, though, that Jackie's hand connects with the cinder block and doesn't hang over the edge, which still indicates he's got superb control thanks to probable knowledge of <i>kigong.</i><br /><br />[NB: the question of whether <i>ki</i> is a real thing is actually irrelevant here. All that matters is whether the <i>kigong</i> technique produces observable results, as it did in the video.]<br /><br />As for Jackie's martial prowess, well, there's <a href="https://youtu.be/NzyyYU8u10M" rel="nofollow">this discussion with Donnie Yen</a>. The interviewer seems to share my earlier doubts as to whether Jackie is an actual martial artist, probably because, like me, he thinks of Jackie primarily as a graduate of a school for the dramatic arts. Yen is fairly coy in replying to the interviewer.<br /><br />Stepping back for a bit: bullshit has historically been part of the martial arts. Despite today's Ultimate Fighting and BJJ-style pragmatism, martial-arts schools have long had a vested interest in making themselves appear mysterious and esoteric to the public. Trickery has long been part of the game, so it is, of course, hard for us laymen to separate fact from fantasy. It's not just the ninjas who relied on—as Bane put it in "The Dark Knight Rises"—"theatricality and deception." Martial schools have been trying to psych each other out for ages.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-57943845296229469542017-07-01T02:52:44.101+09:002017-07-01T02:52:44.101+09:00Kevin, I used to love Asian martial arts films unt...Kevin, I used to love Asian martial arts films until "Penn & Teller Bullshit: Martial Arts" ruined a lot of them for me using both science and the choice of weak wood and weak cinder blocks with those needed gaps between more than one plank or block.<br /><br />But I can't deny that Jackie Chan is WWE wrestling impressive in using the back part of his forearm near his elbow to break those cinder blocks and not his hand. The girl even points this out to the host at the 7:16 mark.John from Daejeonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08431973044799010218noreply@blogger.com