Fictional movies that inspired a specific...

[Himokiri Karate]

I know that many people that studied or study martial arts have been inspired to do so because of fictional movies like old kungfu movies or any Bruce Lee or Van Dam films.

But has there been a movie/show or a character that inspired you to learn a specific drill or technique?

This question is somewhat near and dear to me and I will explain why...

So I have been mostly a boxing practioner and I have always had fragile hands and would injure it a lot. I am also big anime fan as well and in an anime called "Baki The Grappler" there was a freaky character who practiced a wicked style of karate called: Himokiri Karate aka my username.

His Karate demanded him to Obsessively develop strong forearms, wrist and fingers which allowed him to pierce any object and in his flashback, he was doing endless amount of finger, wrist and forearm training. This inspired me to look in to exercises to help with my hand conditioning and as a result. I have never really had any hand problems when it comes to boxing or Karate.

[Hawkmoon]

hmm good post/thread!

Well for me It was Bruce Lee that got me interested in MA at all! (Enter the Dragon!)

But as to a specific 'thing', well that would be JCVD and his box splits and his jumping kicks that made me focus. I found early on in the dojo I was good with my legs and after a few beatings I realised I could not generate any real punch power, so I focussed on kicking.

Soon my kicking was way way better than my punching!

I could 'almost' kick as well (well in my mind anyway) as him, so kept working on my kicking to be the best I could be!

Edited January 6, 2015 by Hawkmoon

[chiliphil1]

Excellent topic!

There wasn't any one movie technique that made me want to learn something new, but I was always inspired by JCVD and his power and stretching as the poster above me.

There are a couple of movies that inspired me in general the first was Jet Li's fearless, that movie really made me look at things differently. A man has lost everything and then finds himself again through MA training, though I never had a loss like he did in that movie I was certainly inspired to find myself again.

The second movie was Ip Man with Donnie Yen, he is one of the best MA actors of all time IMHO, those 2 Ip Man movies with him in them really made me take a look at myself and go, "wow I need a lot of work" The fighting action sequences were excellent but again these movies showcase the life benefits of MA, not just fighting.

The final thing that I was inspired by was not a film but rather a youtube video and it was the TKD 720 kick, I know this is probably the most useless technique ever in terms of self defense but it looks really cool and seems to generate a ton of power, so I was working on that before I got injured but I will continue to try to nail that thing down, it's pretty cool.

[Harkon72]

For me it was the David Carradine Kung Fu series. My father pointed at the screen and said; "See him, I taught him." I didn't know how ironic that statement was. Even though David Carradine was never a martial artist, I felt that the character of Kwai Chang Caine was awesome. Enter the Dragon was amazing, the original Karate Kid movies were good; Daniel is possibly the worst cast character ever, but I loved Mr Myagi. I knew that Van Damm was a fraud from the start, and that Mr Segal's style in later films bears no resemblance to Aikido. Then again, you can't go wrong with the Ninja Turtles.

[jaypo]

Actually, JCVD wasn't a fraud. He was an actual champion martial artist. He had a very impressive record, but he competed under his real name, Van Varenburg (or something like that). He has multiple black belts, and he was very good. The problem was his personal life. He let his "vices" overtake his life, and that caused his downfall. But as a martial artist, I'd argue against him being a fraud.

Bloodsport inspired me to learn the kicks. Although I had little flexibility, I still perfected a jump spinning crescent kick. However, I could never extend my legs into a split like he did!

Another movie that inspired me was "The Last Dragon". I loved the fight scene at the end with Sho Nuff'.

[Harkon72]

Van Damm has paid more in legal fees to restrain the media from disclosing the depths of his indulgence in drugs and the abuse of his partners than he has on narcotics. This guy is no hero. He admits to suffering from a serious mental illness that was undiagnosed for years, but instead of dealing with it, he claims no responsibility for his actions because of it. Mental illness does not equate to immunity from your actions, ever. He does the same kick in every film, telegraphed with his manly weakness in the air right in front of his opponent. Martial artist? No, never.

[bushido_man96]

I loved watching "The Last Dragon" as a kid, and I occasionally watch it again.

When I was young, my dad watched quite a few Chuck Norris movies, and I always enjoyed them.

[jaypo]

I'm not condoning the bad things that he's done. They're actually the reason that I lost all respect for him as a man. But as a martial artist (before those issues took place), he was legit. He competed in full contact Karate and had a record of like 18-2 and avenged his losses. But when I found out about the incident with Chuck Zito when JCVD was high on coke and got his butt handed to him by Zito, I researched further and found out that he was nothing more than a drug abuser who was formerly a great martial artist. From that point, I stopped following anything he did.

[Spartacus Maximus]

In my case, like most posters I have my share of movie martial arts heroes. I have no specific move from movies that inspired my interest to start training. rather than specific techniques, I admired and hope to become as quick and powerful as Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan.

It was always the slighter, slimmer and wiry types that I idenfied with instead of the heroes who were more obviously tough guys built like iceboxes. The smaller fellows somehow seemed more real because they looked ordinary until the scene called for them to explode into a fury of fists and feet blasting the bad guys with unexpected power. I enjoyed the idea of an ordinary unassuming hero whose appearance hides his ability because I always believed that is how the really great martial arts experts are in real life. Just like in the movies, in real life it can also be a very bad mistake for a bad guy to assume that a frail looking little guy is an easy target.

[Kanku65]

As a child, I definitely loved the power rangers and teenage mutant ninja turtles. However, they did not play a big role in my decision to practice MA. For me it was more inherited through family.

That being said, several years ago i watched a film called The Raid: Redemption and now The Raid 2. Since seeing these films I've grown an obsession with Indonesian pencak silat, but have been unable to find a school near my area. There is one 45 minutes away, but they train on the same days at the exact same time as I train karate. The second closest school is about 4 hours away.

I'm always on the google lookout, checking monthly if there are any new schools, but there haven't been since I started looking several years ago.