MovieChat Forums > Choi-jong-byeong-gi hwal (2011) Discussion > Please explain the Korean bow's dart-thr...

Please explain the Korean bow's dart-throwing accessory

posted 12 years ago by jeffyoung1
10 replies | jump to latest

I've seen this in two, historical Korean war drama movies. A Korean archer attaches to his bow's arrowstring a length of a split-lengthwise bamboo section, about the length of a regular arrow. Inside the bamboo half-tube, the archer holds a dart, actually a cut-down arrow it appears, perhaps 12-inches long. The bow becomes a handy dart thrower. But I don't know the reason or purpose for shooting darts. What does a shortened arrow dart do that a regular arrow can't?

As far as I know, no other nation ever invented a similar device. The ancient Chinese did have bows with special bow strings that featured a shallow cup to hold pellets, making the bow a handy pellet gun, ostensibly for hunting, not for war.

The ancient Hawaiians, like the rest of Polynesia, knew of bows and arrows, but purposely declined to use those in war, preferring javelins and slings. But the Hawaiians were known to keep in their thatched huts a short bow, looking like a toy bow, estimated between 16 and 20 inches plus, when strung. These tiny, toy-looking bows served a real, lethal purpose. The Hawaiians used these tiny bows to kill rats running up and down the thin log frames of their dwellings. A short, unfeathered thin stick with a long sharpened point attached served as the arrow. One such Hawaiian reportedly impressed a member of British Captain Cook's 'Discovery' crew by hitting a tiny knot in a rafter log, from the floor of the dwelling.

[–] UltimateAVPfan 12 years ago

To be honest, I actually was going to post the same question when I came online today after seeing the movie. Out of curiosity though, what was the other movie that featured this device?

[–] core-max 12 years ago

in the subtitled version i watched the antagonist described it as a 'sniper arrow'.

[–] core-max 12 years ago

i asked a guy at work that does archery about it, he said its a real thing,and doing that makes the arrow fly faster and farther

[–] Gorlomin 12 years ago

shorter arrows fly faster and farther?

[–] mawo333 11 years ago

It depends,

of course , if you use the same force, to hurl an object of 1pound, and an object of 2 pound, both identical in shape, the first one will fly faster and normally further.

Just think about 2 identical cars, but one is loaded with 5 people + 300 pounds of luggage. ;)

Of course aerodynamics are also important.

[–] wlcina 12 years ago

Hello,

the accessory is called "tong-ah", its purpose its to shoot arrow more precisely and with greater power.

I am pasting link to see tong-ah in action, so you can see more :-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-el6UVTemkE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo8voGJlGqw

shortly - its a guide for arrow :D

[–] AGreenman19 10 years ago

Come on, guys, think about it.

He broke an arrow in half and sharpened it to a tip, making a "shorter" arrow. The enemies described it as a "sniper arrow", so the explanation in the movie is that a shorter arrow will be more accurate over longer distances.

Now how do you propose to shoot a shorter arrow at high speeds? With the bow fully drawn, all the normal-sized arrows took up the entire length of the bow, so if a shorter arrow was used, it wouldn't be able to rest against the side of the bow as a guide (unless you only half-drew the bow). Good luck firing that with any sort of accuracy!

So the piece of bamboo was the length of a full arrow, which provided the appropriate "guide" for the arrow to rest on to shoot accurately.

TL;DR: A short arrow has nothing to rest on in a fully-drawn bow, so you need a longer "guide" piece to shoot the short arrow accurately.

[–] he88 10 years ago

That might be so, but it would be extremely cumbersome to handle much less shoot straight.

On another item......I think they get one idea from old American westerns. They used to load the six shooter once and shoot all day. The main hero here seemed to keep finding arrows when it appeared he had none.....And I don't mean when he pulled them out of the dead. It just seemed his scabbard was empty most of the time yet he always had another arrow

[–] mhp-176-695759 9 years ago

That thing was used by couple of eastern nations, e.g. Turkish majra.
To understand the purpose you need to know how the battles looked like during those times.
Archers often taken opponents' arrows that were shoot at them and shoot them back.
Using short arrows with guide prevented from shooting back those arrows, while still being able to shoot opponents long arrows.
In this movie Korean archer needed to shorten the arrow because Manchu bows were stronger (more lbs of draw weight), hence the arrows were heavier compared to Korean bows and arrows.

[–] Skaathar 8 years ago

It's called the tong-ah (overdraw) in Korean archery. It is also used by Turkish archers and was called Majra.

The bamboo shaft allows you to shoot shorter arrows (darts) and there are 3 benefits of doing so.

1. Shorter arrows will fly faster - the heavier an arrow the slower it flies. The longer an arrow the heavier it is. Therefore, a very short arrow is very light an can fly very fast. At short distances, these darts become very powerful projectiles that punch through armor much easily than full length arrows.

2. It allows you to shoot arrows that the enemy can't shoot back at you - it takes time to make arrows. And in war, you try not to let anything go to waste. That means shooting whatever arrows you can pick up, even if it's the enemy's arrows. But when the arrows the enemy shoots your way are very short, you're unable to shoot it back at them without a similar overdraw device.

3. It allows you to use broken arrows. Most arrows will probably break off at the tip/head. Now instead of just throwing the arrow away, you can cut it to half size and still shoot it.