Commentary
By Leslie Koroma Snr., USA
Boxing, Kung Fu, Sumo Wrestling, Capoeira are all forms of pugilism.
Pugilism is simply the art of fighting with the fist. I will expand that and say it is the art of fighting with any and all parts of the body that one can muster to gain undue advantage over your opponent.
The motion picture industry has tried its best through the years to capture that aspect of human nature based on the cultures and traditions of the community in question that the film is representing.
Bruce Lee and the Hong Kong film industry popularized Kung Fu, Judo, Karate and many other forms of Asian Martial Arts globally.
What is unique to these art forms is that they came out of their cultures to prepare the ordinary citizen to protect themselves in dire situations.
Other communities around the world developed their own unique fighting styles culturally through their Warrior initiations and training.
For example Greco-Roman Wrestling which was adopted by the IOC as an Olympic sport evolved out of Wrestling that came out of Africa ... which is evident from the hieroglyphs in the tombs at the ancient Egyptian city of Beni Hasan.
Beni Hasan was a Necropolis established specifically for burying provincial rulers in ancient Egypt. The artwork of Wrestling found in the tombs date back to around 3000 to 1100 B.C.E and predates wrestling with the Greeks and so it is no surprise that you will find a wrestling culture across many communities across Africa today.
Asian based Martial Art movies are characterized by an interesting mix of realistic street combat fighting styles and fantasy type moves as in the Shaolin movies ... moves that one will not use in a real life street brawl.
Hollywood, Bollywood and Nollywood have done a great job in representing the realism of street fights in their raw and true forms.
For those directing films from whatever background or culture, portraying a fight scene to reflect your community and culture is your true challenge ...
An African film with a Hong Kong ’Shaolin’ styled choreographed fight scenes is an anomaly and a joke in my view ... no ordinary African on a given day involved in a knock out drag out street brawl will engage in a high flying spin kick to subdue their opponent ... because it is not realistic for an untrained ordinary person to execute a high flying spin kick in a real life street brawl with limited space after what usually precedes a fight (a close quarter heated argument). That is a no no ... so filmmakers. go back to the drawing board and research what will best make your fight scenes realistic and interesting and not a joke. One that reflects the community and culture that the film is being shot about.
Comments