Let The Fight Begin! Illustration by Rob Cham...

Let The Fight Begin!
Illustration by Rob Cham
Words by Jansen Musico

Against my better judgment, I shelled out around Php200 to see the live action Tekken movie on the big screen. There wasn’t much action to say the least. Despite its attempt to give its audience that videogame feel matched with the uneventful twist revealed after the credits, the movie was a one-and-a-half-hour dud full of inane expositions and mediocre fight sequences. I knew I shouldn’t have watched it, but I did. I got too hyped by the Mortal Kombat live action teaser released a few months back; it was a far cry from its cheesy predecessors. The fight between Johnny Cage and Baraka was gritty, bloody, and much more intense—my kind of film fight.

From Console to Cinema

Growing up in the ‘90s I was a big fan of the Street Fighter and the Mortal Kombat franchises. I spent a good chunk of my childhood glued to my Gameboy and Sega console as I honed my skills in the art of digital contact fighting. This obsession got carried over to the big screen when both games were made into Hollywood flicks. I was a loyal fanboy marveling at how my favorite fictional fighters came to life. Looking back now, I can say I was seriously duped. The problem with these kinds of adaptations is that it eliminates what’s so good about them: the interactivity. We no longer get to participate by controlling the characters, and we’re also very much aware of the outcomes. It’s always a double-edged sword to producers. If they stick to the original plot it gets boring, but if they deviate, fans retaliate.

It was only after the release of both Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Resident Evil that my faith in this kind of cinema was restored. There’s definitely something about Angelina Jolie and Milla Jovovich kicking ass that sets these adaptations apart. The characters, Lara Croft and Alice, no longer became empty shells moving along the confines of a videogame plot, they became independent players. The moment Hollywood saw the potential in these fighting femme fetales, they pounced.

Hollywood Hyperboles

Charlie’s Angels, anyone? If Hollywood was going to bring fighting chicks back on the big screen, why not make it three-in-one? In the 2000 adaptation of the ‘70s hit TV show, producers cast Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz as the sexy sleuths solving a mystery. The movie contains one of the most unintentionally hilarious fight scenes ever captured on film: Cameron Diaz’ camel toe-inducing slow motion kick set to Prodigy’s “Smack My Bitch Up.” Perhaps it was funny because it was so awkward to see the ladies doing stunts? Big studios do love either casting actors who can’t fight or fighters who can’t act. But then again, Lucy Liu can pull off a jaw dropping fight scene. In Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Vol. 1, she played badass yakuza leader O-Ren Ishii fighting against The Bride (Uma Thurman) where she evidently lost in a hair-raising finale.

America has a knack for theatrics. It just isn’t enough to have a fist fight anymore. There needs to be blood; there needs to be gore; or in the case of Michael Bay, there needs to be explosions, gross amounts of them. But more often than not, these are unnecessary. I think Bruce Lee stated it once, “Take things as they are. Punch when you have to punch. Kick when you have to kick.” Some of the best fight scenes are the simplest ones; they don’t always have to be senseless smack downs with raging fires in the background (not unless it’s the film’s intention). In film fights, every move should at least be motivated. This is why I love fight flicks from the Far East.

West Meets East

Bruce Lee’s contribution to Hollywood is undeniable. He was able to infuse Eastern sensibilities into the good old Western gun fights and boxing matches. Kung Fu and hand-to-hand combat got absorbed in cinema and became a vital part of action films ever since. This transfusion was definitely a good thing for Hollywood, yet somehow, the soul of martial arts got lost. This becomes very apparent if you compare the fight films of the East and the West.

Try watching Zhang Yimou’s wuxia films. There is a great discrepancy between them and any Western fight film conceived. Though a lot of Western fight films are stylized and eye popping—the antigravity fight scene in Inception and all the fight scenes in the Matrix are good examples—there is still a big disconnect between form and film. The reason for this is that in Western cinema, martial arts is seen more as a form of self defense, while in Eastern cinema, it’s an intrinsic part of culture; it’s inseparable and organic. This is also the reason why Eastern fight films click. Such is the case of the wuxia trilogy using the Chinese art of Wushu or Ong Bak utilizing Muay Thai. Knowing this kind of begs the question: What about Filipino Martial Arts (FMA)?

Bruce Lee saw the beauty of FMA when he featured FMA expert Dan Inosanto in The Game of Death. There is much potential to Filipino martial arts arnis and eskrima and yet, nobody in the local movie industry has ever attempted to do a fight film using them. Why is it that Filipinos are so content in settling for two-bit Western stars as our action heroes? No disrespect to Fernando Poe Jr., he was good at what he did, but copycats in jackets uttering lines such as “Saging lang ang may puso” is embarrassing… I digress.

Pelikula will devote this whole week to feature some noteworthy fight films from decades past. Some of us will also be sharing our personal picks for fight scenes. Care to share yours?