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Old 11-29-2012, 02:46 PM   #51
tanthalas
Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Join Date: Nov 2012
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Re: Do we need another Steven Seagal?

Quote:
Richard Stevens wrote: View Post
The Last Samurai was well done (disregarding the plethora of historical/technical inaccuracies) and I'm guessing Iaido/Kenjutsu schools didn't see a big influx of new interest. Honesty, I highly doubt that any well done film that features Aikido or any other traditional Japanese art in a significant way is going to spur an influx of new interest.

All you are going to see in big budget Hollywood movies that aren't period pieces are fight scenes that use the ever so popular Krav Maga/Silat/Kali/MMA fusion. The Chinese film industry can put out some great movies (Ip Man, Shaolin) and Indonesia recently had the Raid Redemption, but I'm doubting Japan is going to put out anything at that sort of level that is heavily features Aikido or Jujutsu.

In terms of big budget Hollywood films that feature traditional Japanese arts I'm guessing 47 Ronin is going to be the closest you are going to get for a long time. Who knows how those fight scenes are going to turn out? If Sanada wasn't one of the leads I'd be very worried.
I know a handful of folks who started doing Wing Chun because of Ip Man. (or as a friend of mine calls it, IP Man)

There was a fairly recent Chinese TV serial from Hong Kong called The Master of Tai Chi which undoubtedly drew a bunch of prospective students to the art as well (hell, half of the show's website was a marketing campaign for Tai Chi).

So maybe the American market doesn't have the attention span or interest for a good "realistic" Aikido film, but there are probably lots of opportunities elsewhere.
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