For me, real fighting
is not really like this. My name is Shifu Yanzi. Shifu Yanzi is the Shaolin Temple name. Since 1983, I went to Shaolin Temple, so now I'm the 34th-generation Shaolin kung fu warrior, disciple. In 1998, I came to London. My Shaolin experience
is more than 35 years. Today I will break down
some kung fu movies. When we talk about, "What do you teach when you say we teach Shaolin?" But because Shaolin is so big, people really hard to recognize what Shaolin style look like. Because Shaolin, you know, they have hundreds of
hundreds of different forms. And also weapons. And also the training, 72 styles. If my opinion, so, it's
that Shaolin style basically is kung fu and wisdom together. So it's balanced. The
mind-body spirit balanced. He come here and try to fly-jump at him, then he straightaway know, he
don't need some fancy move. He just lies down on the floor. He give you one throw and give
you one kick. It's simple. For martial artists, useful is beautiful. Useless? You know, or fancy? No, I don't think it's beautiful. Kung fu kicks, you know,
they have many kicks. We have dēng tuǐ. We have chuài tuǐ, or biān tuǐ. And also we have backspin, high kick. Sweep kicks have front
sweep or back sweep. Also flying kicks, flying knees. So all the different types
of kicks in martial arts. Punch is the same as well. Punch, they have some Chinese-named one, also, they use, like, a boxing one. One is a straight punch. And also you have a hook punch. And also they have a uppercut. In kung fu, they're just called a zhí quán, bǎi quán, gōu quán. Also they have, another different one is like a backspin. So, when you're fighting
sometimes you do one, then you backspin, kick, punch. You do that one, you backspin. Also they use here to fight. Here fight. We call it biān quán. It's like a snap. Like I used one rope. Just snap like this.
So [demonstrates] this. This punch is very powerful. Now, this called chuài tuǐ, side kick. Chuài tuǐ is very famous
Chinese tradition kicks. Also it's Bruce Lee, I think
his favorite kick in the film. This side kick has a lot of power. He learned from the Wing Chun. That's really representative
of all the Wing Chun styles. And he gave the Chinese name about this, called gōu lòu shǒu. They directly push you, and
then they feel you push back, then the hands come back. Then, because you push to me, then I come to fight you. It's like a crash. That's why, in the film,
they're doing this one. If you have the backflip as a skill you practiced, then you can. He's trying to tell the
people in different situations what kind of technique you use. You can see they grab
your leg and only lift up. In that time, you could do
backspin and do this kick. I think it is possible. For the easy way, if he grab on my leg and
there's one leg there, so, I can punch you in a way where I just quickly push you on the
floor and then beat you. In reality, this probably
is most useful one. Bruce Lee film, you can
see they called many, many millions of people
to learn martial arts. [yelling] I watched this film, and
in 1983, I went to Shaolin. You can see they have a
lot of different weapons. Normally we have 18 different
styles, different weapons. So, in here, I think at least they have eight or nine or 10. They have a stick, they have a spear, they have a sword, they have a three-section chain, and also they have a two-sections one. This one is like, one is a side long, and in the top, they have
this long, with a chain. You know, when you use a
stick, even you use a spear, because it's long weapons, you can, it's a quite useful technique. Because if many people
try to get close to you, you're holding in the middle. They you use your waist,
and you tuck your waist. You're turning, see, then this side become powerful, this side become powerful.
They can hit people. The man, they don't want
the people all close to him. When you make a big swing or whatever, so people go hiding or go back, so you have space. When you use long weapons,
you need to have space. If you don't have space, you cannot fight. That's the one pulling
me go to Shaolin Temple. For me, I think real fighting
is not really like this. What happens someone face to
you, they want to fight you. So, it's simple, you
know. It's a question of you just give him punch or give him kick. You don't make some pose
or whatever, so it's.... This is just for film, for show. That pose, you know, Wong Fei Hung, you know, Jet Li films, they made this pose. That pose I recognize straightaway, I see it's a Wong Fei Hung Jet Li pose. And the other one, it's like, it can be the crane or be
tai chi styles like that. Yeah, they do have... look like they mixed many styles, even they doing [demonstrates] you know. And this, Shaolin have this, also Baji have this kind
of movements as well, because it's really powerful. They also have Bruce Lee styles. But it really don't
have Bruce Lee movement. You know, Bruce Lee movement
is really easy to recognize. I heard that he doing this
form a span of six months, for training, so for six months, to get the acting like this is quite good. You can see the energy is there. If they really put time to training, you know, real kung fu, they
both can be very, very good. Chinese kung fu film,
they really like to show some incredible result, to, people can see the kung fu, how good. For example, they flying,
they go to knee to the floor, then the wooden floor have big dent. So, you don't need to see
him do any fancy movement. Just that one you can already tell that guy is very good at kung fu. Kung fu fighting is not like that. At least, you know, they cut a five. Jackie Chan, the style is different. It's like for a street fight. For one fight, many people. He's very, very good action kung fu films. It's quite real. It's
funny, but it's real. For example, like, here they
use the clothing hanging, because he can use chairs,
can use anything against, especially one person fight many people. And also he's very flexible as well. He fight on the left a guy, on the right a guy come in. You can see he knows. So he go there, quickly sort it out. Then he have to go there. He
cannot keep going like this, don't care about that guy. In reality, if you really meet
these bad situations somehow and put your life in danger, and you have experience to fight and you cannot run away, you have to. So then it's different story. Jackie Chan, the styles,
people need to study. You know, you can see
they run, they fight. Someplace they cannot run,
they find out this place, you know, there's a big window or, whatever, big fence you cannot climb, then they have to fight. In Shaolin, we are also training sometimes one fighter, two; one fighter, three; one fighter, five. In reality, if they holding something, they don't all come together. They come too close, they
can hit each other as well. I think this kick is acting. But if they really have
powerful, then it's possible. Because you can see they're holding the clothing hanging bar, and they're kicking like this. In reality, we see many people like this. We punch, and when you do
one punch, they can fly. Do one kick, it's same. That can happen. If you're really powerful,
that can happen like this. Normally, you know, the opponent, they help each other. For example, when Jackie
Chan hold his leg, other guy, the two legs,
they try to hold his waist. Clench more harder, so to
make him easy to swing. If, reality, if he want, he also can. In reality, if I hold your leg like this, then imagine your leg loose or not, I just use this pick up, so I can swing you as well. I think his point is quite high for me. I think even, like, eight or nine. The king of the weapons is a spear. Because the king of weapons, that's why, because it very difficult to practice. Very difficult to make a high achievement. The top of the spear,
you know, you go to stab, you know, it's like a arrow shooting. So, and very fast, very
direct, very powerful. It's hard to block, very hard to block. Especially when they use this technique. You know, we call it lán ná zhā. Lán means block. Ná means control. Zhā means stab. When we parry the spear in Shaolin, the master teach, only standing
here holding the stick, just holding the spear, just
keep doing this movement. Pah, pah, pah. Pah,
pah, pah. Pah, pah, pah. So, practice that many time. Then sometime the master just show the tree, they have a tree, and says, that one leaf. You go to stab the leaves. The tree leaves. Just [demonstrates] you know, 10 times, you cannot reach one. In the film, they show that kind of skill. It's not easy to get. The sword, they have
all different technique. For example, if you're
holding the sword in here, so people use a spear to attack you, you go under, you see,
then it's being blocked. So once you blocked, then
you can use your sword to chop him, to attack. And also, you have one hand is free. If the spear stab me, so I go like that. I go like that, so then I can use my hand, you see? Grab. Yeah. So you're very fast
there. Go, "pah, pah, pow!" If you, for example, if you go here, and then another guy's
coming, doing something, so when you go here, so you'd blocked, and you
have to quickly go down. That's why the sword, they have very important basic movement we call chán tóu guǒ nǎo. Chán tóu guǒ nǎo basically is your head. They use, for example, this is the sword, I go from here, go to your
head, come back, come up, from behind your head, then come to here. They have two ways. One is like this. Two is like that, opposite way, come back. This is a basic movement
when you learn the sword. Kung fu is not only fist or legs. Kung fu have weapons as well. The Ip Man, he's acting
as a Wing Chun master. Another guy, Hung Kam-bo,
also is a kung fu master. That's the story, is to try to test his Wing Chun style, how good he is. So then the two use the different type of the traditional kung fu. The stool, he stab his leg and just jump-fly to that. You see that? This already show, you
know, incredible skill, you know, I think. This is for show how good they are. All my life I never see
some fighting like this. Of course they doing mostly Wing Chun. You can see the Wing Chun. Like this, the barge. You know, the barge, you know, in Baji, they have barge. Also in Shaolin have barge. Xinyi, also, they have
this kind of technique. This fight, we don't - they are both using traditional kung fu. They are both. But just different style. This movement, this kick is possible, but in here, if they don't use wires, they do that, afterwards we don't know. Maybe they fall down. Maybe they just fall over. On the table, it's very difficult. Very dangerous. If I on the table fight and I try to stay in the middle, you know, I'd make my stance
bigger. It's more stable. So I put you in the edge. So if you come in I just give one kick and you're just off the table. This is simple. Yeah? But, you know, so, in this one probably
they're doing fairly, you know, also it's
very fancy and dramatic. You stay edge, I stay edge. You move forwards, I move forwards. So this means I respect each other. He's very skilled. He's great fighter, and he's real fighter as well. So he like doing real action. Give you one kick, not 100% power, but at least 70, 80% power. So, when we do some film training, you know, when we're doing some actions, even people punch, like this acting. You punch, you block this, you block that. Normally we don't - you kick, you block that, you block that. Second day, you see some
here, little bruise, or there little bruise. For the action film, you still
need to take people's power. Otherwise, it still look like a fake. On the table fight, I
don't think it's reality. Nobody fight on the table. Jet Li don't have
weapons, just empty hands. Actually, he can. You see
they have lot of chance, can get a sword or can get a spear, but it look like it just not interesting. It's not everyone come
to fight him together. Only the spear, you can see the spear, many people from far away, all
the spear come to attack him. To kick, if you choreograph like that and you just point to the
place, then a jump and a kick, then it's possible. This technique is possible
to break the stick. Because he uses his leg to
wrap around like a snake. To fight a lot of people without weapons, I don't think is possible. Jet Li, in the action
film, the kung fu film, he's very good at acting. He's a world champion, a wushu champion. Qī xiàng quán néng means seven different fist form and different weapons. You know, and the fight, they call it seven champion. This is not a real fight. You know, so for the
real one, I don't think, you know, it's only choreography. It's like a cartoon or
something, you know? So when they kicking wherever, people fly, then you see that. It's too much. I think it's, like, a fun film for people. In Chinese essential they do
have some grabbing-leg skill. But because the... you cannot overspin his foot, because you overspin his foot, and then the joint will be broken. If, on the street fighting,
you want to break his leg, and also that guy, the
opponent, is very experienced, if you hold his leg, you
want to overtwist, 360 angle, to break his knee, it's
possible he will do the spin. You can do two kicks in reality. You know, you can do it in different way. But use very clever strategy. You can do one fake kick
and then one real kick. You can do one sweep kick, then
you just knee and foot down, that give you one knee
or give you one kick. They do one lightly controlled sweep kick and kick him, making it loose like that. And he's kicked, and
then his foot come back, and boom, give you a second kick. But for this one they
have a handle, however, so it's more easy than the knife. Everyone have this. Called a fǔ tou bāng. Fǔ tou bāng is...they have fǔ tou. This called ax, called a fǔ tou. They're not throwing, they
just keep doing like that. So you hold it properly.
Otherwise they will lose. Really, it's not useful. Not difficult. His sword is much heavier than the monk's. So, in that point, if he use that, and then you use this against, then it's possible to break. The two holding the sword are
two different type of swords. One is a wider one. It's called a guǐ tóu
dāo, Ghost Head sword. The monk's sword is quite common in China. They just go through from the sword. You know, so these men basically, they know their life is ending. This is exact talk about
justice against evil time. So, when you know it's time to die, then you just dead for
the meaningful things. So, sometimes kung fu is
not who has the best skill. It's who is the best person.
You know, it's a spirit. All the action kung fu films
try to spread out the message is the justice and the peace. For the real martial art is the spirit when you faced with some situations, if you know it's time to
die, then you go to it. For example, to protect the
people, to protect the peace. That good. I can give this full points. It's 10, because they talk the truth. You know, the truth is there. See, he get a hit, two
punches on his face. I think Bruce Lee, his
acting also is quite good, quite reasonable, like reality. It's not only you beat someone else and then you never getting beat. They show the willpower, the spirit. You can see his eyes, his energy. You know, they try to
show their best skill. He's very good. We watch his fighting, even
look like this century. In that time, martial arts, I think, traditional martial arts is
most people doing the forms. And also, the fighting, you'd never see someone
fighting like this. So he's like a genius man. When I was young in
Shaolin, I have his book. And I read a lot. We know about his stories. He have some experience of karate. Doing tae kwon do. Doing boxing. Afterwards he'd get
up, and he'd calm down. You know, he'd change techniques. For me, you know, he's
my hero. He's my teacher. So it's really, for me to judge, to say something like
this opinion, it's... you know, for me, he's ideally the man. He's No. 1. If we say the score, you know, of course it's a full up score. It's like a cartoon or
something, you know? So when they kicking wherever, people fly, then you see that. It's too much. I think it's, like, a fun film for people.
