I recently watched Secret of the Chinese Kung Fu on Netflix DVD. The basic plot is: a sailor who has washed ashore in a small town must battle a wannabe crime boss. The sailor has kung fu! So the boss brings in hired muscle, two of whom know karate, and two know Muy Thai. Of course, the Kung Fu guy wins, but it made me want to see movies where this happens. The movie wasn’t bad, either.
Is “karate” a single, identifiable art? I had thought it was basically an umbrella term for all of the Japanese unarmed arts. And of course all of the martial arts borrow extensively from each other, so the distinctions are even more blurry.
They just labeled the style of one group “karate” and I don’t know enough to identify it. I found the movie on Youtube-the Muy Thai and “Japanese Karate”( as they describe it ) fighters are introduced at 36 minutes.
What’s the movie where Jean-Claud Van Damme is participating in the kumite?
Bloodsport! How did I not think of that one? And there’s that other one with him where there’s a similar plot.
I’m pretty sure that Godzilla and King Kong were using different techniques.
Seen more than one chainsaw vs. axe fight if those count. None of them all that interesting. Kung Fu theater used to show one movie after another where different martial arts styles were matched up.
Rocky III starts with a classic boxing vs. wrestling match. It was very unrealistic, In real life boxers never win such contests, real heavyweight boxing champions are much taller, and real heavyweight wrestling champions could outwrestle my grandmother.
What if…and hear me out…everyone was kung-fu fighting?
I think you have described every Chinese kung fu movie ever made. Whether it’s one style of kung fu against a different style of kung fu or against a different tradition that’s all of them.
A more Hollywood take would be The Last Samurai.
Of course always remember the distracting backfist.
Like iron rooster vs. centipede?
The Van Damme movie The Quest also features a martial arts tournament.
And Lionheart has him fighting in underground fights against mostly untrained opponents
Wow, I clearly wasn’t thinking when I asked this question. There’s a lot more examples than I realized or remembered!
This happens a few times in the Ip Man movies with Donnie Yen. They’re largely expressions of Chinese nationalism (the first features resistance to Japanese occupation, for example), so it’s unsurprising that they would promote the superiority of Wing Chun against various other martial-art forms.
The first movie (from the late 2000s) has a scene where Yen as Master Ip faces off against a dozen advanced karate students, if I recall correctly.
ETA: went and found the link. It’s 10, not 12. Also, fair warning, this is a pretty violent fight scene.
Similarly, Jet Li in Fist of Legend has a Chinese king fu vs Japanese karate theme running throughout
In Bruce Lee’s films, too. At the end of Game of Death, it’s a different style on each level of the house or pagoda or whatever it is that he ascends. There are probably better examples from his films, but IIRC it’s a Chinese fighter on one level and Japanese on another. And, of course, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his amazing stay-put sunglasses are waiting for Bruce after that.
There’s an episode where KC Caine learns about Capoeira (though he doesn’t fight against it):
Brian
Looks like a fine example.
As a teenager I probably watched Five Deadly Venoms 30 times. That’s nearly 150 venoms.
Am I the only one who pictured, say, “music” fighting against “sculpture” and wondering how that could possibly work?
I pointed this out in some old thread about something. Some Doper didn’t believe there was such an episode, but that was the first time I ever heard of the sport, all the way back in the 70s.
It’s also in The Grandmaster.
One thing I am not aware of featuring in any movie, though it would make a sick movie if someone like Wong Kar-Wai directed it, is the famous 1886 judo vs jujutsu tournament hosted by the Tokyo Police Department.