MINDLESS MUSINGS

Let’s talk about generation X and the martial arts. In Australia we were quite cut off from the rest of the world. No internet, no cable TV. The only time we saw anything outside the ordinary was on the news or a TV show like ‘The Wide World of Sports’. Even then we could easily be fooled. The only way to verify something was to physically go to the library and do some hard copy research. Most of us just went straight for the encyclopedia and accepted the few paragraphs (if that) it gave us; and that was a very exceptional effort!

It is safe to say that the average kid I grew up with got their information regarding martial arts from the movies. To us, Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris were practitioners of a style of fighting that seemed to work like magic! Not only did they beat up guys bigger than them, but they also defeated entire gangs single handed. This stuff was fucken awesome!

Seriously, we had no way of knowing what styles even were real, let alone actually effective. Our experience of fight training was boxing or just getting into fights at school or on the street. We all suspected that professional wrestling was fake (maybe) and we were all very confused the first time we saw Olympic wrestling. I can remember seeing it in the TV guide during the Olympics and eagerly sitting down to watch it on telly. It was not what I was expecting.

Neither was judo for that matter. I thought I was going to see some Oriental bad-assery. It wasn’t too dissimilar from the wrestling. Now that I think about it, even the boxing seemed boring; as it would to a kid whose only exposure to the sport would have been movies or highlights from the greatest fights in history.

Back then kung fu and karate were interchangeable to us; it was shorthand for ‘mystical ass kicking system’. Maybe you would stumble upon re-runs of ‘Kung Fu’ on television and see poorly choreographed fight scenes with David Carradine, believing this stuff was possible.

The martial arts parody “They Call Me Bruce?” from 1982 mixed up the kung fu, karate/ China, Japan stuff; I do not know if it was on purpose or not. A lot of other Asian references get mixed up in that movie too and now I need to go find out more.

Any fights or brawls in the Hollywood and British films we most often watched were usually variations of boxing with basic street fighting techniques thrown in: headbutts, low kicks, trips and wrestling. Only rewatching stuff later did I start to notice the odd straight hand chop; judo throw or joint lock. I can even remember hearing the term judo chop being used a few times.

Characters such as James Bond were shown training in Judo or karate, but it was just part of the characters substantial list of skills. The actual chop-socky film catalogue was limited, for me and mine anyway, to Chuck, Bruce and the few Hong Kong films that made it to our video stores. Jackie Chan had the added appeal of the insane stunt work. I am pretty sure we all understood that stuff was fake, but we all suspected he could whoop ass just as effectively as Lee and Norris.

I mentioned the television station SBS in my last post (for this thread) and how we thought the show selection was crap. Well, that’s where we would have seen Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao if we bothered to look. Shit, they were probably screening early Jet Li movies and the Shaw Brothers stuff! That was our loss.

Before Chuck Norris, Hollywood was a bare-knuckle boxing kind of town (along with guns, lots and lots of guns!). Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson would punch the shit out of any bad guys they didn’t shoot holes in. There might be a side character or villain who uses a foreign martial art, so I’m sure we got some ideas there, but they were just the exceptions.

Except for ninjas. These guys were the epitome of martial arts magic! Shadow warriors who moved in silence; were so skilled at camouflage they were practically invisible. They used swords and all kinds of bizarre weapons AND they could fuck you up with their unarmed combat skills as well. Acrobatics and acts that straight up defy physics! These dudes were the crème de la crème of the Far East.

To be a ninja was to be the ultimate warrior. We had no concept of MMA or military special forces at that age. Cinema hadn’t fallen in love with the whole CIA trained assassin trope yet. We had James Bond and ninjas. All the other tough guys were just guys who could fight really well and if need be, they would have no problem employing a firearm to eliminate a threat.

My mates and I were enamoured with these enigmatic Asian ass-kicking arts. Our fathers, although they enjoyed the movies, were not quite convinced. “A good boxer will destroy anyone trying to use that fancy-dancy stuff” they would assert. It was early days and we all had no idea where it would go. I look forward to re-taking the journey with you.