Steven Segal special on T.V.

I recently saw a commercial for a "E! True Hollywood Story" about Steven Segal. Those not familar with the show, they are a 1-2 hour "biography" of Hollywood stars.

It is scheduled for Sunday 10/13/02, 8pm EST.

I'm looking forward to watching it!

I also saw the promo you are talking about, and would like to see how much of the show they dedicate to his Aikido. I hope they show some footage of him doing Aikido at his dojo, not "movie Aikido". The guy they show on the commercial did say that "Steven Seagal runs like a girl." I also want to see what kind of Hollywood spin they put on him being a reincarnated lama.

It's all about connection.

Diablo

I watched last night & enjoyed it.

One famous person (I forget who) once said something along the lines of, "E! True Hollywood Story is my favorite show on E!, but I hope I never see myself on it because that will mean something went terribly wrong at some point in my life !"

That seems to be true in this case. I'll leave it at that.

I wish the episode had been longer and had interviewed more people who had trained with him (students and teachers). I also wish they had made more of an effort to provide his explanations of certain decisions that he made. He comes off looking pretty bad and it would have been nice to at least hear his side of the story, although I suspect that he may have never provided public comments or they would have used them.

The E! website has some interesting stuff on it:

http://www.eonline.com/On/Holly/Show...x.html?fdcool1

I like Seagal movies just fine, but if you wanna see people poke fun at him, go check out www.thetoiletonline.com they have a series of three cartoons done in Flash called the Steven Seagal show and they're pretty funny if you don't mind some gross humor.

I enjoyed the program as well. I would like to learn more about his first wife and her Aikido!

Robert Graffagnino (Graff) wrote: I enjoyed the program as well. I would like to learn more about his first wife and her Aikido!

You can visit the dojo's website.

http://www.aikido-tenshin-dojo.com/i...tml_index.html

Unfortunately, the English pages seem to be down right now, but even if you can't read Japanese, there are some nice pictures of Fujitani sensei (Seagal's first wife) doing aikido.

I've read a three or four paged interview with Fujitani sensei in Japanese a while back which was pretty interesting. I don't know if I still have it in my files somewhere. I'll have to take a look...

-- Jun

I saw it twice...well there was nothing else on and show me anything with aikido and it grabs my attention.

I was showing a friend of mine, especially the pictures of Seagal and Fujitani when they have their uke in mid air and I tell him "that is aikido".

I was poking around the tenshin-aikido site (Japanese version) and I noticed that there is a picture of a gentleman wearing a Hakama that looks an awful like Jackie Chan!

http://www.aikido-tenshin-dojo.com/i...ujitani_j.html

http://www.aikido-tenshin-dojo.com/i...ash_index.html

The Japanese text below the photo on the first link says (loosely translated):

At the age of 13, she appeared as the sixth "Re-house(?) girl" commercial for Mitsui Real Estate as a result of her having participated in the Asian Beauty Contest which was held on the occasion of Jackie Chan's "Police Story 3" movie release.

Ayako Fujitani (the girl pictured) is the daughter of Steven Seagal and Miyako Fujitani. I think her biggest role was in the recent remake of a Gamera movie. It looks like she'll be 23 later this year.

-- Jun

Graff wrote: I enjoyed the program as well. I would like to learn more about his first wife and her Aikido!

Hmmm - how to be politically correct... Can't. Well, I would have to say that the aikido that is practiced there is akin to someone seeing a Seagal Video and then trying to copy it. Having studied at Seagal's Dojo, I can see that the basic things Matsuoka Sensei taught us (centering, irimi, and most important kuzushi based on cutting with tegatana) are not there in her technique. I had seen several video clips (from their site) and the attacks were typical, i.e. not near the intensity that we were accustomed to. I would not want to see the randori. It seems as though she understands that students might seek out the Tenshin Dojo there because the one in Los Angeles is closed. Those two dojos had absolutely no contact during the 80's and 90's - and that is a long time to have to travel off in another direction - at least technically.

On a more positive note, her students are very nice, practice with extreme sincerity, and Fujitani Sensei herself is quite welcoming. The mere fact that the students have such a wonderful attitude, attributed by the direct influence of their teacher, is very much like the Tenshin Dojo that I remember.

With regards to the special - it was merely a re-hash of old material, mostly stolen, I mean "quoted" from other sources. The individuals they interviewed claimed to have intimate knowledge, but were really outsiders with less than third-hand information. Pity. I am also not clear on the tone of Fujitani's words, as the translation seemed to be somehow lacking. It seems as though they chose to quote her when she was sounding quite bitter, wounded or pathetic. However, I am sure that was more for the overall effect of trying to portray Seagal Sensei as having simply abandoned her due to no fault of her own... There are always at least three sides to every story - I wish I could tell the ones that I have heard, but I can't - so don't ask. E! chose to tell the flattest side - very boring indeed.

I have a friend who trained in Fujitani's dojo in Osaka. He said the teachers and students never talked much about Steven Seagal. He didn't have anything bad to say about the school. He did meet Ayako Fujitani as she was training in the dojo at the time. I have seen her on TV in Japan a few times. Mostly on the Gamera movie and TV adverts.

I would have liked to see the E documentary on Seagal.

Imagine Elvis as an aikidoka.. except he (Elvis) can sing.

}|-)

cg&mle

Steven Who?

Is it just me or is Ayako Fujitani a babe?

If anyone is interested in checking out some good vintage footage of Seagal Sensei at his dojo in Osaka...there is a video called "The Path Beyond Thought" with quite a bit of video from his seminars, and instruction at the dojo. You get to see plenty of Harou Matsuoka taking ukemi as well. The only place that I know of to get the video is from the following link:

http://www.stevenseagal.com/ss.html

Save all the movie aikido for the big screen. Aikidoka will appreciate this one if they want to see what big Steve is all about...