Not now. Not even any time soon. But… some time. Saw it in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and loved it then… (and in fact, that film continues to grow on me). Now I know what this form is….

One day…

[youtube xqavWkIDkuQ]

Update:

OK, here’s the clip from CTHD. Not entirely sure that it is the same style, but close enough… I read “somewhere on the internet” that they used Bow Sim Mark’s style… Hehehehe, what, you want authoritative sources??? Anyway, it’s very cool:

[youtube hOlA6LLATuY]

9 Comments »

1. 

   Wow. So gracefully executed. The film quality looks old. Was that an early clip or just film effects? BTW, “jianghu 2.0″ is a really cool name! So retro and modern at the same time.

   Comment by Ivan Chew — May 9, 2008 @ 12:39 am

2. 

   Hi Ivan,

   Welcome to the blog! According to the writeup on YouTube, this clip was shot in the early 1980s on Super-8 film (not that I know what that means…)

   Bow Sim Mark really is a master, she does this so well; on the other hand, the version that Chow Yun Fat performs in CTHD is also graceful, but more vigorous and energetic; the style itself is intrinsically graceful, perhaps! I’m still looking for that clip fromCTHD; if I find it, I’ll put the two side by side for comparison.

   Glad you like the site’s name, I think it captures the sense of what I’m trying to do….

   Comment by Emlyn — May 9, 2008 @ 8:02 am

3. 

   Chow Yun Fat’s not really trained in martial arts, is he?

   Comment by eastpaw — May 10, 2008 @ 8:31 am

4. 

   @Eastpaw – no, but when wushu started becoming mainstream, Hollywood actors got intensive martial arts training for their films, just like Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburn etc got trained up for the Matrix films. Doesn’t mean they carry on with it afterwards, but they do get some skills, I guess.

   Comment by Emlyn — May 10, 2008 @ 10:43 am

5. 

   Yeah, well, you know I have this huge contempt for martial performance. I don’t see that as being in the same class as true martial arts. Wushu dancers tend to be great acrobats, true, but they’re hardly warriors.

   Comment by eastpaw — May 11, 2008 @ 7:19 am

6. 

   I find it to be very graceful so I couldn’t resist embedding the videos in my blog.
   Thanks for bringing them here

   Comment by Elaine — May 12, 2008 @ 2:20 am

7. 

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVJFE1OY988&feature=related

   i think this master is in beijing

   Comment by liang — May 15, 2008 @ 3:27 pm

8. 

   I think it is unlikely that Yuan Wuping used a traditional form for choreography; probably people on the Internet just linked together Mai Baochan’s Wudang link (she knows Wudang sword, if my memory is correct) and the movie’s Wudang story.

   Ms. Mai learned Fu style baguazhang from Fu Yonghui (I think she did wushu, too, though).

   Comment by Edward — May 16, 2008 @ 8:54 pm

9. 

   I found this drama series 太极宗师 on Tai Ji very good.

   There is a review found at:
   http://www.wu-jing.org/dramas/master_of_taichi.php

   Did not try to download the files though (not tech savvy enough to know if it is safe to do so).

   Comment by Kim — August 21, 2009 @ 3:59 pm

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