Jamie Yancovitz: The
actors are not properly chambering their weapons. When you have the sticks,
every time you strike, you chamber. You
strike, you chamber. My name is Jamie Yancovitz. I'm the creator of Survival Arts Academy. We use the indigenous fighting
arts of the Philippines, also known as Kali, Arnis, or Eskrima. Today, we're going to
look at some of the movies that have popularized
Filipino fighting arts, some of the weapons that are used, and how realistic the
fight scenes really are. He has to be very careful
in this situation. Even though they're
in a public setting, this is a
close-quarters-combat fight. This is them getting very,
very close to each other and him not having a lot of
time to respond to the blade. The Winter Soldier throwing
the blade and catching it seems very flashy, it doesn't seem to
be quite useful, it's not very realistic. More seemingly for
the movie effect. And then there's a
moment where the blade is actually coming at the
Winter Soldier, right there. So, in that moment, where he's trying to
grab the arm underneath, we wouldn't recommend
that kind of response. So, the reason being is that the hand that's
holding the blade is, again, with that
ice pick grip, the blade is coming in
right here on the face. We would encourage students to get on this side of the blade, on the outside, or try to bring that arm another way. It really makes
you think about your ability to learn
these kinds of techniques. And the truth is that it
really depends on the student. It depends on, you know, the style of fighting
that you're learning. We would have to give "Captain
America" a five out of 10, just because it wasn't too realistic. As exciting and
great as it is -- Uma Thurman shows
exceptional reflexes, maybe superpower
ones -- what we would recommend
in survival arts training is the way that we step
out of the situation. We would step 45 degrees, and we'd try to be on
the outside of the body and the outside of that bladed edge. So, we're seeing
Vivica actually stab and try to kind of hit
in these broken strikes, but never actually fully
commits to full, fluid strikes, which would make her
movements a lot more realistic and believable
and effective in trying to kill
the main character. The proper way of striking
would be to do fluid strikes, whether you're doing it with a long blade, a stick, a short blade. And so you'll be, you know, moving in a more effective means and also not wasting any movement. So, basically, when
you're holding a knife, you're going to be
looking at two main grips. So we're going to be looking at this very common kind of knife grip, which moves in this kind of motion. And so you'll see here that Vivica is actually using this knife grip. OK? And then you'll see in comparison that Uma Thurman is holding
it in this knife grip, which is the ice pick
grip. Also very effective. So these are two of the best knife grips that you want to understand and also be able to respond to. You know, you can hold it in one hand, switch to the other hand, switch back, you know, depending on your agility. So the idea is that you are never stuck with that one movement or that one grip. You're always trying
to figure out in response to counter
the other person. So our critique of Vivica's movements are that they're a little bit exaggerated and not quite real. So we're seeing a lot
of wasted movement here and a lot of openings for
her to also be attacked. For this kind of movie, we would have to give a
score of four out of 10, but it is a lot of fun, and we are big fans of "Kill Bill." At first, he has no weapon fighting against
multiple weapons and somehow manages
to get a weapon. So that's great that he was
able to actually disarm, and it shows the
different kinds of weapons that we actually train in Kali. So, you know, we work with
single sticks and double sticks. And in this particular film,
they're working with batons. A baton is just another
form of stick work. So, having a baton and
being able to use that with the fluid strikes
against multiple opponents is actually recommended. We can trace the roots of these systems as early as the 12th
century or the 15th century, when the Spanish
colonized the Philippines. And a lot of systems
are even traced to 1898, with the American colonization period. During these times,
weapons were confiscated and banned by the colonial forces, so indigenous peoples creatively hid in different ways. So, for example, the blade was taken away; we replaced it with a stick, and the stick represents the blade. And so that's why we always
train with the stick first. We also hid the movements of
the fighting arts within dance. OK, so right here, where
Liam Neeson actually takes the stick off
of his opponent, where he disarms
and uses it, you wouldn't want to
step into that weapon or close the distance
unless you were absolutely being offensive
on the way in. When you're thinking about
going against opponents with a weapon or
attackers with a weapon, you would never want to turn
your back to that person. The right way would be
to come into the attacker being offensive, you know,
with an attack to the face, an elbow to the face. Anything that is coming
in to do some damage in order to get close to that
weapon and then disarm it. Clearly, Liam has also trained
in a lot of martial arts, in Kali and other
martial arts, because you can see
it in his movements. We would give him a seven out of 10, but taking away some of the points because of the technical
errors that we noticed. The knife is coming,
and Jason is responding. He's parrying here. He is
also maintaining control by staying close
to the attacker. So, in a close-quarters situation, every movement, every second counts. And as you can see from
Jason Bourne's movement, every touch is offensive. And that's very much in the Kali style. This is that famous scene
where he uses a pen. I mean, it's an
everyday object that is really
quite dangerous and can be utilized
just like a knife. A key can be
used, a shoe, a magazine rolled up,
a newspaper. These can be very
powerful weapons. He was trying really
hard to kind of get that knife out
of that situation. For us in Kali, we
would just break the arm or we'd step around to the
outside a little bit more. Right there, we see just a
quick movie-camera mistake or camera-cheating
thing here. The opponent actually
throws a left hook, but Jason suddenly
catches his right arm and tries to
disarm that. So, for "The Bourne Identity," because of its great fight scene, we would probably give this
score a nine out of 10. Only docking a point
for a mistake, actually, that we noticed here. You see that the woman
fighting is getting cut, Ilsa, and then the man
is also getting cut, but yet they still
continue to fight even though they're
getting kind of slashed in different parts of
their arm, their back. Some of the knife attacks
that are coming in seem a bit wasted. A trained knife fighter or someone who's trained in the arts would be more aware to attack
more of the vital zones. So, you know, cutting the
neck or cutting the arteries, going for some of the kill shots rather than just, you know,
cutting in random spots that won't stop the
attacker from attacking. Our goal would be to move
on the outside of the body in order to capture the knife hand or kind of get around the knife hand and go for that back-of-the-neck shot. So this, the area around the neck or this whole neck area is very vulnerable as a kill zone. That's why we teach, for example, to have your hands up, protect your neck, you know, keep your eyes
and your hands moving and keep them available, so
that if there are attacks and you're able to kind of move around, you have elbows, you
have things to utilize that are your own body as weapons. But the technique that's
being demonstrated here, not so much. There's two moments
that happen here where Ilsa actually
climbs up on her attacker. So, there's a moment
where she steps on his leg in order to cut him
on the other side, and then does it again in a more exaggerated
form for her end kill. And then, again, climbs
all the way up, here we go, using the leg,
lifting yourself up, there seems to be
a lot of time here, and the person is holding
a blade and not using it. There were a few
shots where technically that person should
have been dead already, because I saw a knife
shot to the neck and then suddenly, you know,
they're able to back up, create space, and
come in again. We would probably give this
a score of six out of 10 just because it's exciting to see a woman fighting so powerfully, but at the same time, just
doesn't seem so realistic. This scene is great. You know, you can see a
lot of technique here. There's a lot of
resourcefulness being shown. Clearly a lot of
Kali training. And we see a lot of
similarities here in the film to the training
that we teach. You know, he picks up a very small kind of, like, personal-hygiene item. This can be very deadly when
used in the correct way, especially with that
knife grip that he used. And so Craig actually used
a knife grip just like this, like an ice pick, and is, you know, jabbing and stabbing his
opponent with that weapon. Very effective. I think that's another
thing that distincts Filipino fighting arts
from other fighting arts, is the footwork and
is the stance work. You know, a lot of fighting
arts are actually very linear, maybe something like karate, for example. You're moving kind of in this position of linear movement, but in the Filipino fighting style, our movement is always based on the triangle or
triangular kind of motion. And so our footwork would reflect that in sidestepping, you know, to the side or stepping 45 degrees, which
Craig really demonstrates. For the effectivity of the
technique and the movements, "Quantum of Solace" would
get an eight out of 10. This is a
fantastic scene. First and foremost, it is
great because it gives credit to the Filipino culture
where this knife came from. So, the balisong is another
name for the butterfly knife, which originated here in the Philippines. It actually came from a region
in Luzon called Batangas, and it is a butterfly knife because of the way that it
opens up like a butterfly and has double-edged blades on each side. So it's very, very dangerous. Mindy: Wow. Jamie: That's probably
something that you first learn when you learn balisong, is
how to open and close it. And so it's very, very,
you know, exciting and fun. There is moments of where
she's using the blade to actually tap or hit on the
body that is quite realistic. Damon: Smaller-caliber
version of what design? Mindy: Uh, Eugene Stoner's AR-10. Jamie: Kali is for
everyone. It's especially useful
in situations of survival because of the way that
we are able to respond to a weapons attack even without a weapon. It's particularly useful
for women and children or smaller folks to protect
against a larger attacker. Our family system is
called Pekiti-Tirsia Kali, and it originates from the Western Visayas of the Philippines. And this blade culture has
been protecting the family since 1898 and even traces its roots to more than 2,000 years ago. We would definitely give
this a nine out of 10, just because we love the
technique that Chloë is doing, but we would like to see
a little more offensive with the knife itself. [screaming] We have someone coming in
with the straight grip, and we have someone
coming in with what looks like
a karambit, which is coming on the
backside of that blade. When you get real, real
close to the weapon, the weapon then
becomes rendered useless, which is the point
sometimes, right? Like, sometimes you need to
step into that weapon hand or to get close offensively in order to take
control of that weapon, or you need to find a way to distract and knock the senses in other ways in order to get out of that situation. So very intense close-quarters
situation with blades, but also very, yeah, I would
just say very interesting. You know, when it comes
to strength and size, it doesn't really matter
when it comes to the blade. So, you know, the blade
is the equalizer here. Because the other person
fighting may be smaller or, you know, not as
strong, it doesn't mean that they're not as effective
with the use of a knife. You can always
throw elbows and use the elbow
as a weapon. So, he's grabbing
and kneeing and hitting over
the head when he could easily
just cut that hand that he already has in
his hand, in his power. So that was technically a moment where we would say isn't very realistic and is a little more
exaggerated for camera. There's, like, that big, open swing, and they're extending the
fight where they don't need to. So, usually in movies
you'll see, like, total destruction
and chaos and collateral damage
and collateral murder. But in this case, you know,
they kind of stop and wait for everyone to pass, and
they get right back into it, so it's kind of funny. Probably give it about a seven out of 10, because they did great
with the knife grips, but technically speaking,
there were a few errors that we noticed that kept the fight scene a little too long than it had to be. So, right away, we're
seeing a very familiar Filipino martial arts
double-stick drill, one of the first things
or one of the early things that you would learn when you're learning how to utilize a double stick or double sticks as a weapon. So this is a great drill. We often call this "upper
six" or "heaven six." The actors are not properly
chambering their weapons. So that's something that
wouldn't be seen in a real Filipino
martial arts training. When you have the sticks, every time you strike, you chamber. So the idea is that you're
always bringing the stick back before hitting again. It is a bit of a camera-cheating
angle that's happening. So, the way that we do
this particular drill is with a lot of footwork. You'll see us moving
with the double sticks and moving forward and
back, exchanging feet, and moving around in a
circle, most importantly. At first glance you might think, "Oh, well, they are moving
around in a circle," until you look carefully and realize that the actors are actually
not doing the footwork and it's the camera itself that's moving around in a circle. They do the drill, and one of the guys
hits the other one. If you're doing the drill
correctly, you wouldn't get hit, because you would
continuously be doing the drill. So that's another
thing that we noticed. Like, "Oh, you know, that
doesn't seem too realistic, because they stopped."
Why did they stop? We would probably give it a
four out of 10 for realism. I think it's one of
the greatest movies, and it definitely demonstrates
a ton of Kali work. I mean, Denzel here is using a long blade, he's fighting against multiple opponents, he's using all kinds of slashes, circular movements, lateral
strikes, he's thrusting. He even puts the blade
down at one point and then brings
it back out. So this is really a
great demonstration of extensive
Kali training. I do know that Denzel
did train with Jeff Imada at the Dan Inosanto
Academy in Los Angeles to develop these skills. Jeff Imada does train
at the Inosanto Academy, where we've trained
with our grandmaster. We've had the pleasure
of meeting Jeff. We're talking great classic
choreographers here. He is countering every single
attack that is coming his way. That's the mindset of Kali,
that instead of, you know, moving around and trying
to go after each person, if you stay in one place and
wait for the attack to come but be able to move the feet and the blade in an effective way, then you're able to
respond very effectively. This is a great example of
not having to do too much but also doing a lot in that one space that you're confined in. This weapon looks
like a machete. A machete here
in the Philippines would be
called a bolo. You know, it would be
considered an everyday blade, something that would normally be used to cut sugarcane or to engage in farming or fishing or building your house. So it seems like just an
everyday kind of blade, but the way that -- and the length of it. So, the length of it is quite long. It's considered a long-range weapon. And because of that, it
can be very effective with fighting against multiple opponents. And there's even a scene in
the beginning of the movie where he's on a
highway patrol and someone
tries to attack, and he kind of just
slices the hand off in a swift, single motion. That is the kind of movement that we are trained to also develop. We have to give it a 10 out of 10. Excellent technique, great execution. Gotta love Lucy Liu. You know, she comes
storming in with power, with confidence, and she's got not one
but two weapons. So you're seeing a lot of
exciting movement here. She's attacking different
levels, high, low, you know, arms,
heads, feet. It's just such a
great scene and an example of
how a double weapon can be used against
multiple opponents, especially in
the distance that she's maintaining
with them. The only thing
about this film is the interesting
component that every single one
of these people are fully padded
in a ton of gear. We would doubt
that those batons would do that much damage
to these trained men that are all padded up
with that kind of gear. And also the fact
that everyone here that she's fighting
against has a major weapon, they have a gun, and
they're not using it. They're just kind of
being thrown on the floor. No one's
picking it up. She's utilizing both
of the weapons, she's extending
her arms, and she's moving
in full circles. You know, that's
very effective. That's the kind of
stuff that we teach. To be able to maneuver from
one opponent to the other, hitting folks at the same time. She has good motion, range
of motion with her weapons. She chambers them, brings them
back to the body, hits again. You know, multiple attacks
here against that last person. You know, a lot of circular movements. The realism of this scenario,
we'd actually give this probably a six out of 10, just because we think
Lucy was doing great work, just doesn't seem so realistic
compared to her opponents.
