MovieChat Forums > Jing wu ying xiong (1994) Discussion > would these guys really kick ass in real...

would these guys really kick ass in real life?


well, would they? I mean Donnie Yen and Jet Li are exceptionaly fit and flexable and fast.. but would they hold there own in a UFC match or against some muggers in a NY back alley? Both Donnie and Jet were Wu Shu champions (apparetly both had the same master) and from my understading, Wu Shu is mainly for entertainment purposes and not really a full contact sport.
interested in hearing your theories...

reply

It all depends on who youre up against.. wushu is a kind of kung-fu, indeed martial arts... but i doubt Jet Li would have any chance against, say, wanderlei silva in PRIDE FC.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

Please rethink your argument... Martial Arts is never a self-defense sport... the term Martial Art is meant for Military Art, to demoralize their enemy through various forms and tactics.

reply

Jet Li was a martial Arts champion since he was 5 years old. The guy bases his life around it. Not particularly to beat people up, but as a belief system. In fact Fearless explained his entire belief system.

Fist of Legend is a great remake of Bruce Lees, Fist of Fury and shows how well Jet Li can adapt much like Bruce Lee was always showing.

If you can get a copy of the special edition of Cradle to the Grave, watch the extras. They had some real UFC fighters for that movie and in the behind the scenes, they stated they would be somewhat afraid to take on Jet Li based on the fake punches he threw for the scenes that did contact.

MMA and UFC in the end owe a lot to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li. All three of them and various others were the ones to break from the normal of strict, rigid Martial Arts and went on to show that you can use what works best for you.

But just because they are actors does not mean they cannot truly utilize it. I would be afraid to take on even Jackie Chan and hes getting pretty old but man he is still pretty scary.

reply

my master taught me that the term "Wushu" summarizes all asian martial arts...correct me if i am wrong but i'd say that Kung Fu is is a kind of Wushu

reply

Wu Shu just refers to Chinese martial arts, like Budo/Bujutsu refers to Japanese martial arts. It's a general, blanket term, but also refers to a martial art known as Wu Shu.

I WOULD say that Wu Shu is all show and acrobatics and flash, with no application, but a Wu Shu guy beat my ass in highschool when I was doing Karate. We were just sparring, but damn was he fast and strong. Of course, he was from South Korea and was "old school", his father made him take icy cold showers and extremely hot baths and stand on his head and stand in a horse stance holding a bucket of sand, and all that ascetic monk stuff.



"Two tigers cannot live on the same mountain"

reply

Yes, Kung Fu is generally about self-defense and not the kind of combat seen in UFC. Thai and Korean styles lend themselves better to arena-style fighting where offense is the best weapon. Li and Yen wouldnt be the types to bother with UFC because their disciplines and relaxed egos. They have nothing to prove. UFC fighters need to prove they're better than each other.

reply

[deleted]

[deleted]

In their respective weight categories, they won't stand a chance. Donnie Yen would be better than Jet though in real life situations.

Bruce Lee is an exception and yes he will kick ass in real life.

reply

No offense, but Jet Li is too old to be in a UFC now.

reply

donnie yen has real world experience when he was in gangs in Boston as a kid

reply

Bruce Lee was challenged all the time, by all kinds of martial artists when he was making movies in Hong Kong, came close to killing a couple of people who challenged him, and supposedly never lost a single fight.

By "all the time" I mean several times per day.

reply

Not being a sport doesn't mean AT ALL that it doesn't work in real life; quite the opposite. I don't know that much about chinese Kung Fu but I practice japanese and brazilian martial arts (NOT sports) and the main difference is that when it is a sport it is less dangerous, meaning that you don't hit vital parts of the body. Full contact sports are made to make relatively long fights where the risk of severe injury is relatively low; real martial arts are extremely lethal, a goood martial artist can kill anyone with his bare hands. But the thing is: a bad sportive fighter would probably beat a bad martial artist because he at least knows how to hit like an animal, where the bad martial artist will not be able to make his techniques work in a real situation. BUT a good martial artist can beat a good sportive fighter. Those are not absolutes of course but Jet Li being a very good martial artist, yes he would absolutely kick ass in real life. Without a doubt.

reply

actually jet li has never faught a day in his life. he hasn't even sparred. he himself said that he is not to sure if anything he has ever practiced would help him since he is not a fighter

reply

yeah i just read his bio by bruce thomas (really thorough) and while he got beaten up in the streets of Hong Kong when he was young, he didn't lose a fight after he learnt wing chun for two years...

everyone who challenged him when he was at his peak lost, and he apparently couldn't fight his own students (a few were even respective karate and other MA world champs) full on because he would injure them too easily.

and then his brain died on him.

reply

Jet Li is trained mostly in wushu, which isn't a combat form. So no.

There are screen fighters who would do ok. Ironically, despite his rep, Steven Seagal would likely do quite well.

reply

Jet has already stated that he wouldn't stand a chance against a UFC fighter. He says so on a documentary in the Cradle 2 The Grave DVD.

reply

Most of the UFC guys are double his size, and probably three times as strong. And in the UFC, most of the moves which can help bring down much larger opponents aren't allowed (for obvious safety reasons). One of the reasons the earlier UFC stuff is more interesting is because that was less so in the early years.

It wouldn't be fair regardless of how he was trained.

reply

more specifically: Jet says he can't beat them ALL, like in the movie. I'm sure he'd do fine 1 on 1 (in his fist of legend time that is, he's older now). Although wu shu is not as much full contact as the styles used in UFC, he knows more then just wu shu, not to mention many techniques he knows are forbidden in UFC.

reply

actually there are in fact no techniques forbidden for the ufc this is a myth

reply

lartrak - you mentioned that wu shu wasn't a combat form - this isn't true.

Wu shu is a general term for chinese martial arts encompassing unarmed and weapons combat, so I'm not sure from where you are getting your information.

"Steven Seagal would likely do quite well"

Cite Plz. :P

reply

I would like to reiterate, nope they won't be able to kick ass in real life.

reply

Jet Li is an extremely skilled martial artist, so generally, yes there is a good chance that he would be able to defeat most people in unarmed combat, and much respect to him for that. However, he is also a gymnast, and employs those skills to make his choreographed fights entertaining. There is little similarity between what is entertaining on screen and what would work in a competition, or in a fight under... different circumstances.

For this reason comparing Li to the guys in UFC or Pride is like comparing apples and oranges. Plus, I don't know if the purpose of dedicating one's life to kung fu is to kick ass in real life - the film Huo Yuan Jia (Fearless) explains this really well. This aspect of martial arts is seemingly missing from MMA comps. like UFC, ect.

Also, regarding the confusion between wu shu and kung fu - the latter is a general term for mastery of the chinese martial arts, although its origin is not specific to martial arts - it describes the mastery of any art with dedication. Wu shu strictly means martial art - although the chinese characters for "wu shu" translate directly to "stop conflict" or "stop aggression" - both externally (from an opponent) and internally (from within). Sorry if this last bit is a bit esoteric, but the nature of studying martial arts is not always to learn how to "kick ass" - but to achieve balance within one's life.

So in summation, yes, they would kick your ass (or mine), but their specific application of wu shu is primarily to entertain.

Hope that helped.

reply

+1 you really seem to know what you're talking about.

reply

The chinese characters for "wu shu" so DOES NOT translate directly to "stop conflict"! I don't know where you're getting that from, but "wu" basically has no other meaning than "martial", and "shu" can mean art, skill, but definitely not anything close to "stop." Therefore "wu shu" just translates to "martial arts" and nothing else. The philosophy of wu shu might be another matter, but linguistically it's unequivocal.

reply

he's using the old pictograph explanation on the character 'wu' that breaks down into parts 'stop' and 'halberd/conflict' but using anecdotal description based on the character's modern form is more to the embellishing effort trying to make chinese character/culture more interesting to the westerners than actual philosophical discussion about martial arts.

reply

jet li once said that he would not do well in any fight. not even against some average joe. he has admited on numerous occasions that nothing he practices has real world application anymore
his practice of martial arts is simply a way of life. not a system of self defense and is not meant for that.

reply

To answer this question and put this to rest, Jet Li would easily destroy some mugger he met in a dark back alley in New York. Dispite the Wu Shu training which was in fact a sport of speed, agility and the ability to perform your move under pressure, without hitting the opponent. But, Jet Li did not only do just Wu Shu. He is just more foremly known for it, as being a world champion what was it, 3 times in a row? If not more. His fighting prowess is uncanny to any 'normal' persons, or some mugger down in a back Alley. In a back alley, the situation is life and death. Jet's techniques are designed to incapacitate an opponent at all costs. A.K.A- breaking limps, eye gouges, nerve strikes, nerve pinches, small joint manipulation, throat strikes, below the belt strikes, and so on. All of which in a U.F.C fight are all against the rules. Jet Li would avoid alot of shots from the U.F.C fighters, but I do not think he would win a fight against Chuck Liddell or Matt Hughes. It's a completely different environment to which these U.F.C fighters train specifically for those rules, and for that cage. So yes, Jet Li can kick ass in real life. Real life being not inside of a cage, stuck with an opponent. But a real fight where he can use his techniques without a penalty of any sort.

So, yes. Jet li would kick ass, as would Donne Yen in the real world. However, U.F.C isn't the real world, it's one based on rules and specially tuned fighting styles.

And to all those who are pissed off cause Jet Li is still doing movies. He said it was his last ' Martial Arts Epic '. I don't beleive in that statement it says his last movie. Doing martial arts in a movie doesn't make it a martial arts epic. Action, Drama, and Adventure are Jet's preference right now, as he is in fact getting older and the tole of a purely martial arts film would no doubt take a heavy toll. So to anyone who's pissed off about it, lick my boot. He deserves your respect no matter what.

What we do in life, echoes in eternity!

reply

I could be wrong but i read somewhere that Jet li also came from the Shaolin and then started the career as an Actor. if that is true he can easily fight anyone on a 1vs1 fight. The thing about who wins depends on skill and technik.

reply

the shaolins combat prowess is made up. none of what they do is applicable to the real world they do not spar they do every practice full contact techniques the only thing they do is practice forms to look fancy that is a fact

reply

Jet Li has stated that he has never been in a real fight in his life, and never plans to be in one. He has also stated that he couldn't take a UFC fighter, not even in a 1 on 1 fight. So the answer to this question is:

No. Because Jet Li would not get into a real fight. =)

reply

jet said on the dvd to cradle 2 the grave that he is not a fighter nor has he ever been. he also admited that he would not be able to use his martial arts in a real life because he has lacked sparring. in order for a martial artist to be able to actually apply what he knows to a real fight he has to have sparred full contact otherwise its pointless to attempt anything

reply

UFC is a load of crap, just a bunch of hot headed steroid taking apes.

reply

any true martial artist knows it is not about who can beat who, but how you can use it to improve yourself and constantly strive to become stronger.
anyone who thinks they have to prove themselves to others and that one martial arts is better then another will never truly understand how to become a superior fighter.
my wushu teacher would kill any UFC fighter if he deemed it necessary.

reply

your an idiot
first off all the term martial comes from the greek word mars(god of war) and means only war( it doesn't mean self help) arts means just that art.
so it is entirely the art of war.

anyone who says its purpose is for self developement does not know the meaning of martial arts.



p.s no traditional martial artist(your wushu teacher included) would be able to take on any UFC fighter with out having intensive experience in full contact sparring( this is the sparring where you use gloves you hit each other full contact and you do it all the time)

reply

you are probably one of the dumbest people i have ever seen on imbd.. and that is saying quite a lot..

perhaps you should learn some english before saying stupid *beep* like that.

and really.. you think somebody who has trained -randon act- for most part of his or her life does not know how to apply that to real life?

can you walk? if so, are you able to figure out how to apply that skill to other situations? yes, unless you're a complete *beep* retard.. which looks likely at the moment.

you *beep* kids these days.. have you ever been in a fight?
seriously, you make absolutely no sense at all.
i bet you dont know how to cut a person with a knife either, because cutting bread is not the same thing, so yeah... that wouldnt be possible.

reply