Where's the kung fu ????? by dragonwine

GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

Where's the kung fu ?????

POSTED BY: DRAGONWINE
UPDATED: Wednesday, April 7, 2004 05:08
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VIEWED: 3931
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Saturday, April 3, 2004 9:31 AM

OK so we know that this is an East/West alliance. We see some influence on the Western culture all thru the show, clothing, speech, etc. Even though I don't feel any of the characters are fluent in Chinese, except perhaps Inara, I also don't see any Chinese martial arts displayed by our crew. I would expect it at least from Mal, Zoe and Jayne, but we see more from Book, Saffron and background players in the pilot. Based on the fights found in Angel and BtVS, perhaps Joss felt like taking a break from it on this show.
Still I would at least like to see a more Chinese influenced planet or settlement just to see what the other half of this alliance is all about. Unfortunately I don't feel the movie will touch too much on this, it might confuse first timers. I'll just have to wait til it becomes a tv series all over again.

It's a nothing part til you don't got one, then you have to go to ebay.....aaaaagh!

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Saturday, April 3, 2004 10:23 AM

CHRONICTHEHEDGEHOG

I think it's because they've mostly been on western influence planets, rather than the eastern influenced ones. Also, don't make the mistake of assuming everyone of Chinese descent knows martial arts, I've got a lot of Chinese friends and only one of them does, I have many more British friends who do.

On the other hand, the Chinese 'homeworld' is Sihnon, where Inara is from, which is why her shuttle is quite eastern influenced compared to everything else, and she does seem to have some martial self-defence training in Our Mrs Reynolds, during Saffron's escape.

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Saturday, April 3, 2004 11:01 AM

KINGOFKOINS

Well, in Serenity, I believe I saw a little Peking opera performance going on...

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It's sickening how comforting the privacy of the mind can be.
"Bible's broken; contradictions, false logistics. Doesn't make sense." - River
http://stripe.filetap.com

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Saturday, April 3, 2004 12:35 PM

SUCCATASH

Are you referring to the glimpse of long-haired stick fighters with painted faces? I'm thinking of the scene when Serenity lands on the planet to meet with Badger.

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Saturday, April 3, 2004 11:39 PM

KINGOFKOINS

Yep.

--------------------------------
It's sickening how comforting the privacy of the mind can be.
"Bible's broken; contradictions, false logistics. Doesn't make sense." - River
http://stripe.filetap.com

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 5:49 AM

SPOOKYDONKEY

Old fashioned knuckles-meeting-face fisticuffs fits in with Firefly's old west motif better than kung-fu. I think it's purely a flavor issue.

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 6:38 AM

SUCCATASH

Possible Spoilers regarding the Leaked Serenity Casting List.

Select to view spoiler:

The casting list refers to a character named "The Operative" and he is described as "An expert martial artist..."

Maybe we'll see some Kung Fu in the movie?

Spoiler Thread:
http://www.fireflyfans.net/thread.asp?b=2&t=4295

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 8:33 AM

CROWLEY

Well, the "Dead or Alive" script finally features someone of Asian descent, though not an martial artist.

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 8:49 AM

KURUKAMI

I think you're all forgetting Jubal Early.

But back to the main thrust of the thread, why would Mal, Zoe, and Jayne know the first thing about martial arts? It's not something they would've learned as kids. The independents obviously received weapons training to fight their war (although perhaps not all that well -- remember what Tracy did in the Battle of Du-Khang in "The Message"?), but it's unlikely they would've gotten lots of martial arts training to boot.

The independents training would focus on the basics first -- this is how you load, fire, and clean a variety of weapons, this is how you wear armor, this is some basic survival training. It takes a long while to train someone into a kick-ass martial artist, and even current military programs (at least in the U.S.) don't focus so much upon that.

What Mal and Zoe know is basically what they grew up with, plus a lot of tricks learned during the War and during their time since. Jayne's just a down-and-dirty street fighter, with little in the way of formal kung fu training. My thought is that he really doesn't have the discipline to pursue it.

Book, though... Book's got background that we never did find out about. So does Jubal, and Saffron, and possibly Inara. But the rest just aren't anywhere the same level of training.

"Sir, I would like to gingerly point out that it is difficult for someone to be gently reassuring when they're holding three and a half feet of sharpened steel."

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Sunday, April 4, 2004 9:22 AM

DRAGONWINE

I really do figure Joss was tired of the heavy martial arts from his other works. Now, having seen the Western side of this Alliance (with some Eastern influence) I would like to see the other side of the coin as it were. Sihnon is supposedly the main Eastern central planet. How Western influenced are they now that it is no longer the decadent West versus the inscrutable East. Is it really one big happy Alliance, not counting the Independents of course. I guess it's just a big wait and see.

It's a nothing part til you don't got one, then you have to go to ebay.....aaaaagh!

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Tuesday, April 6, 2004 7:44 AM

BROWNCOAT1

May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.

We do see a bit of martial arts in Saffron's and Early's fighting styles, so I don't think there is a lack of Eastern martial arts, just not as heavy as in Buffy & Angel. I always thought there was too much martial arts in BtVS & Angel.

It is refreshing to have a bare knuckled, gritty show where good ol' brawling gets the job done.

"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

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Tuesday, April 6, 2004 1:30 PM

MAY LEE

I*'ve also seen the use of Chinese as less literal, myself. I imagine that if through some weird time-space continuum thingie one of us should land smack in the cargo bay we wouldn't be able to understand much of what the crew was saying to us (beside the general universally understood pointing of weapons and such to mean "who the hell are you and how did you get here").

I mean, think of how we would sound to an English speaker of 500 years ago. Could we understand each other? Very possibly on the barest of levels. I think of the Chinese as less literally these English-speaking people suddenly bursting into Mandarin and more as the way ME has chosen to show the polyglot nature of the culture without making it so we can't understand a word they're saying. In "reality," which of course in this context is meaningless but still, the characters probably speak a patois of mainly English and Chinese with Japanese and Arabic overtones and local variants.

Never let an upside-down corset stop you from having a good time.

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Wednesday, April 7, 2004 5:08 AM

SKYDANCE

Don't ever bring a knife to a gun fight ....

As was said, there's not much reason for Mal & Zoe to know martial arts.

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