Thinking Out Loud: The Art of Fighting

Big nerdy confession time; I think about superheroes fighting quite a lot. Not just the act of them fighting, but how they fight, how it would look and what, if any, martial arts style they would use. As more and more characters from comics are being adapted for screen, I find this topic on my mind more and more. Now, I'm not martial arts expert, I enjoy my Wuxia and have dabbled with both Aikido and Wing Chun, but my interest is certainly more in the aesthetic camp than the practical. I'm enough of a nerd that I know, off the top of my head that Captain America is trained in Judo, Daredevil uses "some Jujitsu with New York Dirty Boxing thrown in" and in Batman Begins Bruce uses mostly the Spanish Keysi Fighting Method. It takes some exposure and a keen eye, but different methods of fighting (martial arts and such) can look quite different when next to each other on film, so I do think that having each character having a unique fighting style makes for a more interesting fight sequence, when it is done well. The Ip Man films do this quite well, with Donnie Yen's Kung Fu coming up against Tai Kwan Do, Maui Thai and modern Boxing, to name a few, and each of those bouts being pretty spectacular to behold. 

Now, superheroes can do things an ordinary person cannot, which means their fights can move well outside the realm of physical limits. However, someone like Superman or Thor doesn't have a lot of call for learning a rigid martial art (yes, Superman knows Kryptonian martial arts, but they're made up, so can be anything), but taking the time to think about how super-powers may influence fighting style can be a fun exercise. As an example, X-Men character Angel Dust is a MMA fighter, so casting Gina Carano was pretty smart, and we all got to see how super-strength and martial arts training can be a nasty combination. Let's cover Batman before we go any further, because if I don't, "that guy" will complain, you know who you are. Spanish Keysi Fighting Method was a decent choice for the Nolan films, with Batman having been trained in a variety of styles by the time he gets to the League of Shadows, but were I the Fight Coordinator on a Batman film, I'd be looking a Ji Kune Do and/or Krav Maga for Bruce, as both draw on a number of older styles already. Probably much the same for the Bat-sidekicks, but I see Nightwing having more of a parkour-influenced gymkata style (yes, even though it's fake) and Batwoman pretty much purely using Krav Maga, what with being a former Marine Cadet. 

I don't feel I should have to cover Shang-Chi, but I do think the Netflix Iron Fist series made the right decision on making the Kung Lun style similar to Kung Fu, as they both originate in roughly the same area. Fun fact, I recently learned that Savate, for which Batroc the Leaper is known, has a rich history born out of a need to defend oneself from muggers and other assailants, and features stick- and sword-fighting elements. If you have more information on that, please let me know in the comments, looks fascinating. I could make this even longer than my normal articles, with ideas about how Spider-Man should move like a dancer, Penguin needing to do more fencing or Booster Gold fighting "football style" like Flash Gordon, but I think I've covered enough for now. I mean, I've got pages of these. The Phantom should know Masai wresting techniques. Wolverine should do a bit of Kendo in his moves because of his time in Japan. Bane should move like an MMA fighter because he learned as he was fighting. Ok, I'll stop now. 

The Pitch: Dragon Ball - Tournament

The internet is full of "takes" on how the characters, world and themes of the Dragon Ball series could be adapted from animation to live-action. As well as the widely-decried Dragon Ball Evolution, there are plenty of fan-films, dodgy international remakes and plenty of work that draws inspiration from the work of Akira Toriama. Personally, I'm pretty much not a fan of any attempt to adapt the vibrant and over-the-top world of Dragon Ball Z to live-action, I just really don't think it works, especially when the focus is on adapting the hair-styles and energy blasts more so than the themes or characters. Now, I have actually enjoyed a few Manga/Anime to live-action adaptations, especially the more recent Japanese examples, like Ace Attorney, and I think it can be achieved stylistically, but I have concerns about how the Dragon Ball world might work with such a transition of medium. 

First of all, I don't follow with the "conventional fan-wisdom" that to be successful, a Dragon Ball/Z/Super/GT adaptation needs to be more "faithful" to the original material. Adaptation is not a straightforward process, it's difficult and rarely turns out as well as one might hope. Pointing at one successful adaptation and claiming that it holds the answers for a different property is a fallacy perpetuated by those who don't have a thorough understanding of the process. So, no, just "getting the guys" who did Ace Attorney or Fall of Man to take a swing at a DB script is not the answer. First off, the entire franchise encompasses thousands of episodes and manga issues, dozens of movies and specials and even video games that all fill in the story to some degree or another, so where would a potential writing team even begin? When looking at the closest allegorical relative to the expansive DB canon, namely comic books, there is a hint of something there, which I tend to name the "broad strokes" approach. 

In the broad strokes approach, characters are adapted in such a manner where the essentials are retained, but the minutiae are glossed over, leaving just enough to wink at the hardcore fans. The Marvel Cinematic Universe Iron Man/Tony Stark is an excellent example of this, with the broader strokes of "playboy, genius, billionaire, philanthropist" intact, but specific elements of the Armour Wars or Demon In A Bottle stories only hinted at. So what then are the broad strokes of the DB franchise? From my take, friendship, adventure, wish-granting balls and, of course, martial arts. Now, the titular Dragon Balls aside, each of those themes have worked well enough in countless films before, and really, the Dragon and his rules are pretty basic, easily introduced in an opening sequence. 

So how do we do this? Well, you know what concept has made for some of the best Martial Arts films in history? A tournament. And what do the DB series have plenty of? Right again, tournaments. Specifically, I'm thinking that the "21st World Martial Arts Tournament" is a great place to start our story. At this stage in the story, most of the main players know each other, the Dragon Balls aren't really a major point and there's plenty of fighting but not too many hoopy powers. The cast would mostly be younger, with Goku and Krillin still being children functionally and Yamcha somewhere in his late teens or early twenties; this would be advantageous because younger actors could be secured before they developed big followings and still be around for later films, such as in the Harry Potter series. 

A note on casting, whilst I appreciate that the Manga style is used, most often, to represent Japanese people, I think casting only Japanese and/or East Asian actors would be a bit of a mistake for a live-action DB film. Not because of any reason other than I feel it would be a missed opportunity to expand the diversity of the cast a little. Although it hasn't been revealed yet, Goku is an alien, so really could be played by anyone suitably masculine and physically capable. Krillin has always had elements of Buddhist/Shaolin monk about him, so why not lean into the symbolism of the Saffron robes and hire a South Asian actor? What I'm saying is don't just hire a bunch of white or Asian actors and call it a day, get creative with the casting and see what comes up.  

As to the narrative and script of the film, it doesn't really need a lot of changing from the Anime and manga. Just make the pacing fit a three-act structure, alter the jokes that don't translate well and beef it out a little; all of the existing beats work, so it's more of a filling-out process. For example, some more lines and development for the non-fighters in the group, like Bulma and Launch would be good, as well as some brief asides that deal with some of the more outlandish elements of the setting, like shape-shifting and animal people. Don't go overboard with exposition, but Oolong and Puar talking about the school they went to would cover things nicely. If we're married to the idea of a sequel tease, a cameo by Tien or maybe Tambourine would do nicely, no need to lay too much in just yet. 

Sorry that this one was more of a "think piece", but all that has been rattling around my head for a number of years, so it was good to get it all out. 

Superhero Media: Wu Assassins

I was pretty keen to start Wu Assassins, a Netflix series starring Iko Uwais of The Raid fame, with a big Chinese-American cast and crew, it was an exciting possibility for something pretty unique. Sadly, the final product is pretty poor, though not for lack of trying on the part of the cast and crew. As much as I really appreciate that the Chinese-American characters are portrayed by Chinese-American actors, this did shrink the pool of talent from which the series cast, and sometimes that leads to some dodgy acting. Iko Uwais himself is reasonable, though like many martial arts film actors, his dramatic range is limited; thankfully, he has good chemistry with Byron Mann, who plays Uncle 6, the series foil for the most part. So who are the Wu? The Wu are five semi-immortal beings based on the classical Taoist elements of Fire, Wood, Earth, Water and Metal, and the Wu Assassin (Uwais as Kai Jin) is chosen once per generation to fight the Wu. 

One of the best elements of Wu Assassins is the inclusion of Chinese history and mythology in the story, which I've only normally seen in Wuxia films. I wish more time had been spent on this, as even with my "better than normal for a white guy" grounding in Chinese culture, there were a few elements that I didn't quite get and felt could have been explained better. For example, why are the Wu bad? There's an element of "power corrupting", but that's undercut by Uncle 6 using his powers to save the main cast in flashback and the villain of the series, Alec McCullough, the Wood Wu and previous Wu Assassin from dark ages Scotland, is only really after a way to travel back in time and reunite with his family. McCullough does achieve this in the finale, then Kai kills him, but I'm not sure why, as at that point, all of the Wu are dead or de-powered, so it really just feels like murder. Then there's the ending, in which everything is sorted and the core cast reconcile, before the world starts to shake in the last 30 seconds and Zan Hui, the original Wu Assassin, calls Kai to action once again. 

All-in, Wu Assassins is a bit of a mess, with some great ideas let down by the realities of making television. The mysticism is pretty unique to those not already fans of Chinese Cinema, but the character dynamics are bland and cliched, the mythology is interesting, but not explained well, the cast is unique, but not necessarily good. Even after doing some extra reading online, I'm still not sure how the Wu's powers work; the Fire Wu can control fire, fine, makes sense, as does the Wood Wu being able to heal (if you know your Taoism), but why are some of the Wus immortal and some not? Also, the Metal Wu has mind control powers because of hemoglobin? Yes, that makes sense in a "comic book" kind of way, but it's realised poorly on-screen and is only a point for around one episode before the Metal Wu is dead. Wu Assassins could have been really interesting and unique, but comes across as a mess and is really not worth the investment of time unless you want to see Iko Uwais kick more people.

Superhero Media: Legend of the Fist - The Return of Chen Zhen

As much as I enjoyed this film, I really cannot recommend it on the basis that it requires quite a great deal of very specific fore-knowlege to understand. It is only because I just happen to have a good grounding in Chinese history, the Sino-Japanese War, Shanghai culture, superheroes and Wuxia that I was able to tell what was happening at any given point. A group of Chinese volunteers during the Great War lose one of their number, leading the great revolutionary Chen Zhen to adopt a new identity to return to Shanghai and combat the Japanese slowly taking over his country. Lacking a unified military and identity, the Chinese are losing out to the Japanese invaders, having to play along in public while running an underground resistance. Please note that essentially none of this is actually spelled out, but is there if you know what to look for. During the attempted assassination of the child of a Chinese General, Chen Zhen dons a Kato costume from a nearby cinema display and leaps into battle as "The Masked Warrior". 

For those who don't know, The Green Hornet series was marketed around Kato in Asia, especially the 1960s version starring Bruce Lee, with Green Hornet himself being made secondary through subtitles and clever narration. The martial arts sections with Chen Zhen as the Masked Warrior are brilliant, of course, with Donnie Yen in the lead role, but only happen a couple of times in the entire film. All of the advertising for the film features the Masked Warrior prominently, but he probably has less than thirty minutes of total screen time. In that, calling Legend of the Fist a superhero film is stretching things a little bit, but my search for more non-American superheroes that originate in their home country has me digging through a lot of stuff like this. Thematically, Legend of the Fist, is probably closer to Mafia/Gangster films, in terms that Western audiences would be familiar with; forbidden romance, people getting killed constantly and plenty of traitors and double agents. 

Legend of the Fist is really more interesting as a Wuxia film, or historical fiction than it is a superhero film, with the light-on sequences involving the Masked Warrior. That said, what is there is interesting enough, and could well be expanded. There is an idea of the Masked Warrior being a legend, or perhaps an identity picked up by people from time-to-time to help seek justice, it's not made too clear. Taking that concept, however, and folding it, Batman-style into the culture of Shanghai in a superhero setting could work well. Like a local Zorro or Phantom equivalent, where the person behind the mask doesn't matter so much as what the costume and identity represent to the oppressed peoples. Maybe the Masked Warrior is spotted in Shanghai, dealing out rough justice, so Super Inframan, over in Hong Kong, misinterprets what is happening and the two at set on a collision course by the evil machinations of Fu Manchu? Then we'd have Masked Warrior versus Inframan, in some kind of dawn of a justice team? It'd be better than Dawn of Justice and you know it.

Miniatures Finished: Like nothing you can understand...

Ok, so I've posted my David Lo Pan before, but now I've finally finished the rest of his crew. 

 Northstar and Eureka Miniatures. 

 So you'll notice that they're more Doctor Who "Tong of the Black Scorpion" than Big Trouble in Little China "Wing Kong", this is because I use them for Empire of the Dead, but take out the muskets and they're perfectly serviceable for the modern age.

 I picked up Tribal and Brutal at the recent Little Wars Melbourne, so once I get Jack Burton Painted up, I may have to do some Big Trouble in Little China games. 

Coming Soon to a Table Near You!

Reposted from my wargames club's Facebook group: 

In order to get some people playing some SuperSystem, I'm proposing a little "mini-campaign" in the months of November and December. Nothing terribly involved, just teams of three characters and playing a handful of games over the seven meetings that fall in the given months. Think something along the lines of "Contest of Champions" or "Secret Wars"; a big goofy crossover relying more upon showy splash-panels than actual plot. I'll be posting up on my blog about the games we play and probably laying over some Silver Age justification. 

As I said, we'll start with three-character teams, so easy to build up a team or find some already in your collection. I'm happy to help with some of the stats, but I'm not doing it all for you sorry. 

Need some inspiration? I dug through the web for some "left-field" team ideas and put them here.

 Nazi Occultists, classic pulp villains, ready to menace the free world! 

 The Ghostbusters (any version) make a perfect team, the similar power-set can be used with slight differences to have a team that work well together. 

 Voodoo priest, cultists and zombies, not only a lot of fun, but there are already heaps of comic examples to draw on. 

 I'm not a huge fan of the pop-culture team-up in general, as it often comes across as goofy (see the above LXG April Fool's for example), but they can be fun if they make enough sense.

Problematic recent film aside, the Suicide Squad has an interesting history and the "Supervillain Dirty Dozen" idea has been around in a variety of forms since the Silver Age. If you're better at being bad than good, this is a pretty fun option. 

Movie Monsters have been part of comics since the beginning, getting shoved into the Marvel and DC universes thanks to Lee and Kirby being just the right kind of crazy. They don't have to be Hammer classics either, Aliens, Terminator and Predator have all fought the likes of Batman and the Avengers. 

Sometimes it seems like I'm the only person that likes Martial Arts superheroes anymore. Ok, so Dragonball Z is not to everyone's tastes, but what about Kung Fu, TNMT or Iron Fist? Lots of potential here for fun games and characters. 

A few of other points to note;

1. A typical game of SS4 takes between 30 and 60 minutes if we all know at least vaguely how to play, so we don't have to give up Frostgrave, Warmachine or any of our regular games. 

2. Teams of henchmen run from 5+ and count as one "character". 

3. For those who don't have the book, I recommend Lulu Print-on-Demand, just make sure to get SuperSystem 4th Edition by Scott Pyle and David Lewis. 

4. For those that do have it, try making an 85 point character or two, we can change down the track if we want to, so don't feel locked in to the first effort. 

5. Taking any suggestions for a name for our "Crossover Event", something like the classic Secret Wars or Crisis on Infinite Earths. 

6. At the moment, I'm considering having a big finale game on the last meeting of the year, let me know what you think. 

Excelsior!  

Superhero Media: Kung Fury

For a little while, people have been telling me to check out Kung Fury, a tounge-in-cheek Sci-Fi/Action/Martial Arts/Fantasy film that has all the gloss of a bad, straight-to-video 1980s z-grade indy film. When I got Netflix, Kung Fury came up as a suggestion pretty quick, so, on a quiet night, I checked it out. For those who don't know, Kung Fury started out as a fake trailer, just a joke, really, but it was crowdfunded into a half-hour romp. Much as the content of Kung Fury is intended to titillate, with elements such as Triceracop, Kung-Fuehrer and viking babes on dinosaurs, I found I was left cold by its charm more often than not. Overall, Kung Fury reminded me most of Axe Cop, frantic and silly, but in a juvenile way. 

Aside from Axe Cop, the comic that I'd be most inclined to compare Kung Fury to is Next Wave: Agents of H.A.T.E.; a "pirate superhero fight comic" about five z-list heroes saving America from bizarre weapons of mass destruction. I freaking love Next Wave. As well as being balls-out crazy, the characters are well-rounded and there are many clever and quotable sections. In contrast, most of the jokes in Kung-Fury are in the characters themselves; "Hackerman" is a 1980s computer hacker, that is his entire character. One may argue that in under 30 minutes, there is little development of character to be had, but there are a plethora of indy films to counter that point. Should I be that mad? Clearly, Kung Fury is intended to be dumb from the outset, but I guess I was hoping for more under the surface, like in Rick and Morty or The Venture Bros. 
 

Although I didn't really enjoy Kung-Fury, I can't honestly tell people to avoid it. I think a lot of people will get the intended kick out of it that I didn't, and hey, it's a half-hour of your life. The final battle in the Nazi compound may be of some inspiration for supers games and dinosaur men are always worth the time in my book.