From Ring to Screen

Martial Arts movies are now more popular than ever. The American movie goer has been fortunate enough to grow past the days of only having a single Bruce Lee to emulate. Today we have more great martial arts action stars than we know what to do with. From Jackie Chan and his years of Hollywood success to Tony Jaa's recent explosion of films in the past few years, audiences are beginning to look deeper into the action on screen.

Bruce Lee behind the scenes

MMA and sport fighting on television has sparked curiosity in many about how much of Hollywood actually parallels real full contact fighting. As a martial arts instructor I can tell you, the answer to how much is simply, A LOT!
Everyone seems to know what a Mixed Martial Artist is now-a-days. A hard training athlete and practitioner who spend years of his life learning techniques, and spends hours upon hours every week to stay in peak condition. However many people do not know what a Movie Martial Artist is. Most martial artist working in film started as children in a dojo, competing at amateur tournaments, than over time worked their way into film.
     The bottom line is that a martial arts movie star is a martial artist first and an actor second. Doing your own stunts, practicing choreographed fights, all the while missing sleep due to a brutal shooting schedule comes with risk. If anything goes wrong you rely on your conditioning to protect you, just like an MMA fighter relys on his conditioning for protection in the ring.
     Along with the risk of mistakes, the chinese method of shooting for realism is to use real contact, which hightens the requirements placed on the actors. Take for example Chinese action star Donny Yen. In one of his recent films Flashpoint (2007). There are techniques and stunts in this film where there is just no avoiding a few bumps and bruises, but it is necessary to make real contact at times if you want it to look real on the screen.
     So wether we are talking about Mixed Martial Artists or Martial Arts Movie Stars, remember to look for the common denomenator here. They are both martial artists, and if you really want to know from an average persons perspective how alike the two are, go find a Tony Jaa or Donny Yen and ask to challenge them. I can assure you the only difference between having your your ass handed to you by a Donny Yen or Bruce Lee rather than a Urijah Faber or Mirko Crocop is how nice they will look before you hit the ground.