Have you guys seen this series? What do you think? Loads of the stuff they show there seems to be "trick" material, used as a gimmick for perhaps a more serious style. For example, alot of the schools there seem to be doing the "pole to neck" thing with various methods and many also use the "blade doesnt cut skin" slicing of a cucumber on your arm/chest etc. But its a fun show, I recommend it! P.S. This isnt exactly "movies" but theres no "TV-Showz" section So sue me!
It's an interesting mix of "pretty good" with "pretty fluff". I find the presenter a tad too sycophantic for my immediate taste, (and some of what he says is just crap) but the BBC are to be commended for at least having a stab at a mainstream MA show. I prefer "Ultimate Fighters" on FTN having said that, and both pale next to the rather special "The Way of the Warrior" from a few years ago.
I agree with Hannibal's review. IMO, the Filipino stuff was consistently good; I also liked what I saw of Okinawan Karate and Ninjutsu. The best thing the presenter had going for him was his enthusiasm. I personally found it a bit annoying that the answer to every martial application was "chi". Did anyone see the first episode, when a Wing Chun sifu (Leung Ting) exposed the feats of chi gung as "vagabond tricks", e.g. brick breaking, jumping on stomachs, chopping melons on bellies, etc. Then later on in the series the presenter performs these same "tricks" in front of the public and claim it is iron body chi gung!!!
A good watch! Passed the time well! Gotta agree CFT alot of contradicting going on! Think he was refering to it as chi alot as i think Chris Credelli does Kung Fu! Was nice to have something different on the tv for a change!
Leung Ting has been doing those tricks for years. The one I remeber he was making his arm longer by waving his hand back and forth. It is a magicians trick. But then tricks are part of martial arts right? "Hey , Look over there!" "What?" "POW! Right in the kisser" The trick is good in a way. Since all magicians tricks are accomplished by misdirection, where is Leung Ting misdirecting you away from? Grasshoppa?
The program was discussed to death on another thread, check out the similar threads box at the bottom of this page to have a look.
