Originally published at: Check out the brutal trailer for the new martial arts flick Farang | Boing Boing
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“marital arts movies” I think you’re thinking of the wrong type of movie
“we haven’t really had any new actors that are dedicated, lifelong martial artists that have attained mainstream success based on their ability as fighters”
Repeating myself a bit from your article yesterday, but: Gina Carano, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian, Joe Taslim, Tony Jaa, Michael Jai White, Scott Adkins. All lifelong martial artists who have built movie careers on their skills.
The big 4 you seem to be holding up as the measure–Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen–were all pretty far along in their careers before achieving success in Western markets. Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon both came out when Chan was in his mid-40s. Lee’s, Li’s & Yen’s movies certainly had huge followings, but I’ve never thought they really had mainstream success in the way, say, Crouching Tiger did (though maybe Hero did).
All that said, I get your point. It does seem like a certain kind of movie has faded a bit and that most action movie actors these days have some kind of history in martial arts, which isn’t the same as Lee-Li-Chan-Yen. But to me it seems more like the ebb and flow of what’s popular. There will always be die hard nerds (like me and, apparently, you) who want to see real fighters not special effects and fancy editing.
Also, Farang looks fun.
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These days, martial arts and MMA are commonplace, so to be considered a serious fighter, you have to be fighting in no contact fights. This risks facial disfigurement, bodily injury, and brain injury. To be a movie star, you have to have a pretty face, be able to move well, and remember your lines. It’s not that surprising that the intersection of those two career paths is small. You also seem to be excluding people like Dave Bautista, Dwayne Johnson and Cena, who could certainly beat up a significant part of the general population. I certainly wouldn’t want to be the one to tell them that they’re not REAL martial artists.
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This inspired me to rewatch “Way of the Dragon.” God, horrible acting, even by 70s martial arts standards. And I’d completely forgotten about the seduction scene with the topless, beautiful Italian woman. Yikes. Lol.
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Scott Adkins suffered from some really horrible scripts. Otherwise I think he could have been bigger than Chuck Norris. And I love Tony Jaa, but his descent into drugs and witchcraft derailed him.
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I’m partial to Scott, as he’s from my neck of the woods, and also because he gets some variety in his roles; not much, but he does get to play unstoppable-killing-machine (Undisputed) and unstoppable-killing-machine-with-a-sense-of humour (The Debt Collector). He even gets to do a bit of character-acting (unstoppable-killing-machine-with-an-axe-to-grind) in Avengement.
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