What Movie Inspired You to Start Martial Arts Training?
Martial artists start their training for a variety of reasons, for fitness, self-defense, cool factor, etc. Most martial artists I know also had a particular movie that inspired them, whether it was a particular character, concept or action sequence that brought on their compulsion. I was 16 when I became inspired to take up a martial art, and it was the movie ‘Batman Returns’ that started it all with the strong, sexy, bad-ass character of Catwoman performed by Michelle Pfeiffer.
While ‘Batman Returns’ was certainly not exactly a work of film art, the portrayal of Catwoman was one of the first movies in which I saw a female character as both strong-willed and as a strong fighter. It made me want to be strong, both mentally and physically. This led me to look into what martial arts were offered locally, ultimately leading me to my 20-year love affair with Can-ryu Jiu-jitsu.
I was reminded of my humble beginnings as I recently learned that Catwoman would be in the new Batman movie, ‘The Dark Knight Rises.’ With Anne Hathaway playing Catwoman, and a plot surrounding Bane as the villain, I await this movie with bated breath. I hope Hathaway does the character justice (and we will not speak of the Halle Berry version). Check out the trailer:
Did you have a particular movie that inspired you to look into taking up your martial arts training? Which one and why? Please share in the comments. It’ll help me put together a kick-ass movie list for me to watch. 🙂
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A big influence on my early interests in training was the movie “The Challenge” starring Scott Glen and Toshiro Mifune (It was eventually renamed Sword of thr Ninja, even though it is about samurai). My first introduction to martial arts was through Iaido, so it naturally fell in line. That, and The Karate Kid.
I can’t say I was inspired to take up martial arts because of a movie or film, however Japanese culture and its martial tradition have always been a source of motivation and interest for me. One of the most accesible ways of exploring that culture and in particular the military traditions and its social, legal and moral implications are the period-pieces of Japanese cinema(jidai-geki). A great way to start is by exploring the masterpieces of the grandmaster of Japanese cinema: Akira Kurosawa with his classical movies (frequently cited in lists of greatest movies of all time) like ‘Ran’, ‘Rashamon’ and ‘7 Samurai’. I believe in order to grow in one’s chosen art one should explore the history and culture that spawned it: be it through scholary works, old manuals, literature, philosophical/ethical treaties or films. I consider this part of the mental aspect of the art(s): the pen and the sword should go hand in hand. In my view it wouldn’t be bad to include some sort of written assignment for the higher belts (black and up) since it forces the candidate to reflect on things beyond the immidiate technical aspects of the art. Obviously this shouldn’t be an academic work nor should it count for too much but it would be a shame to become a black belt in any art without having a thorough knowledge of its background.
I’m not a big fan of contemporary, ‘hollywood’ martial arts flicks since they usually lack content and meaning, the Bourne trilogy was enjoyable though since a) it actually depicted real techniques without too much exaggeration and b) they’re among the better action movies I’ve seen. One of the things I enjoy greatly is anime, especially martial arts/history orientated: Rurouni Kenshin (a.k.a ‘Samurai X’ or ‘Battosai the manslayer’), Fist of the north Star, Moributo (guardian of the sacred spirit), the Hakkenden (based upon a Japanese literary classic)…
Incidently I’m also a fan of strong-willed female martial artist characters in movies, albeit for slightly different reasons than you ;).
It wasn’t movies in particular for me, but other forms of pop culture. As a kid, the comic book heroes I most admired were the ones like Batman who did not have any superpowers. There were even issues where they showed Bruce Wayne training jiu-jitsu in a white gi! I was also a fan of pro wrestling when I was really young, and was fascinated by the idea of “finishing moves” and submissions. I used to wonder what it would be like if someone made an event where it was like pro wrestling, but the competition was real, not scripted. Then I saw UFC 1 and Royce Gracie, and my brain practically exploded!
I was definitely inspired by movies and tv shows that depicted strong female characters. When I was younger I watched Mulan about once a week and later I fell in love with Buffy. You actually inspired me to write a blog post of my own about this. http://afriendlyintrovert.blogspot.com/2012/06/girl-power-and-real-reason-i-started.html
So thank you for the inspiration 🙂