why martial arts films dont represent life or the arts themselves

Bellow is a really good explanation of why weapons are inaccurate in films. Told by a someone in the film industry.

what he says about weapons and props is just as true for martial arts, techniques and applications in real life.

Gets interesting from 3 mins in.

 

Love Tod's video's.

 

Nice. I come from a film background. I've been (mostly) behind and in front of the camera, so I'm also so picky but more about other things (like continuity, juxtaposition etc) but also I have to understand something called "suspension of disbelief" and "things get wrong sometimes"

 

Can't watch the video because of work computer but, speaking as an experienced practitioner of Japanese sword arts, of course weapons are wrong in films. Most people don't stop and think about it because most people aren't experienced in weapon arts. The reason is simple ... it's because the goal in using the weapon is different. Something that is specifically designed to kill another person as efficiently as possible is not the same thing that will allow film makers to create a dramatic and exciting film sequence.

The goal of weapons usage in films is to make a dramatic and exciting scene. You can't do that with traditional weapons or traditional weapon usage, because they were not created with that goal in mind. I can't recall the number of times I've heard people in a theater (usually young men) stating how that's not what they would do in a real sword fight. Well of course not because people would die if they did it like a real sword fight. Not to mention the fact that it would be over in moments, which would not be very satisfying on film.

 

Great video, eloquent points that all made a lot of sense.

 

Yet we regularly have "thats not real fighting" threads/posts.