Originally posted on: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/09/bruce-lee-ea-sports-
Bruce Lee, UFC and why the martial arts star is a video game hero
EA has announced that Bruce Lee will be a playable character in its forthcoming UFC sim. But the movie icon has always influenced action game design
The image, of course, is instantly recognisable. There he is on screen, in that familiar jumping stance, his face beneath a bowl of black hair, his shorts in that classic combination of yellow and black. This is Bruce Lee, the martial arts legend, appearing in the forthcoming fighting sim, EA Sports UFC. The star of Enter the Dragon will be available immediately to those who pre-order the title, or he can be unlocked by completing the game at Pro difficulty. Playable across four weight classes, gamers will be able to test Lee's formative mixed martial arts approach against contemporary UFC stars.
EA's marketeers knew that gaming news sites would go nuts for this and they was right – the announcement was everywhere this week. Despite the fact that this complex icon of action cinema died over 40 years ago, his legacy lives on in games. Arguably, it started in 1984, with the launch of Datasoft's platform adventure, Bruce Lee, on 8bit machines like the Apple II, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. The plot, which had the eponymous hero fighting through a wizard's temple to secure the secret of immortality, had little to do with Lee or his movies, but it was released at a time in which home video was making the actor's films easily available to a new generation of fans. And already there was an obvious synergy between Lee's highly choreographed, hyper-kinetic approach to action sequences and the potential of video games to explore and simulate combat.
Big bosses, dirty fighting
In that game, the fighting was restricted to punches and flying kicks, but in Japan a new genre of fighting sims was emerging that would explore martial arts in much more depth. Irem's seminal 1984 beat-'em-up Kung Fu Master made no reference to Lee – indeed, its Japanese title is Spartan X, which is exactly what Jackie Chan's movie Wheels on Meals was known as in Japan. However, the structure of the game – which has the player fighting through several floors of an enemy stronghold – is clearly a reference to Lee's final movie Game of Death, in which his character must battle different boss characters on five levels of a pagoda. Indeed, the whole concept of Game of Death, that a series of seemingly indestructible martial arts proponents all have a weakness that must be discovered and exploited, pretty much set the 'end-of-level boss' structure of beat-'em-up video games for the following 40 years.
Lee is there too in Konami's 1985 fighting game, Yie Ar Kung Fu, which features a lone fighter, Oolong, facing down a range of differently armed enemies. The cabinet art for the coin-op machine features an unmistakably traced image of Lee performing a high kick, while the concept of various enemies coming at the protagonist with authentic weapons, from nunchaku to tonfa sticks, again parallels Lee's movies, in which he sought to bring variety, accuracy and legacy, into his action sequences. 1985 also saw the excellent home computer fighting sim, Way of the Exploding Fist, a monicker that conjures Lee's movie titles and his philosophy of directing inner energy into points of combustive power. The game even used a sample of Lee's high-pitched combat yelp in its loading sequence.
Street fighters
But it is the modern fighting game genre that has drawn most from Bruce Lee's fighting style and iconography. In the Street Fighter series, Fei-Long employs Lee's Jeet Kune Do fighting style and wears his familiar black kung fu trousers and slip-on canvas shoes. Capcom's series also draws on the mystique and almost magical power that Lee portrayed in his movies and martial arts demonstrations; the supernatural moves such as the hadoken are effectively exaggerations of Lee staples like the "one-inch punch". Meanwhile, in SNK's World Heroes series, Kim Dragon is a martial arts movie star, clearly based on Lee, who feels he needs to prove his skill in a real-life tournament. Maxi from Soul Calibur and Jann Lee from Dead or Alive also draw from the Lee mythos in their clothing, fighting styles and attitude.
However, it is Martial Law in the Tekken series that really exemplifies the profound influence Lee has had on fighting game designers. Throughout the series, Law always has at least one outfit drawn from a Lee movie, including the legendary yellow jumpsuit from Game of Death, which was similarly appropriated by Quentin Tarantino in Kill Bill. Law also uses a number of throws and finishing moves drawn from Lee's action sequences, and even has a son, Forest, who carries on his legacy – a clear reference to Lee's own son, Brandon.
In Tekken too, we see the same fetishisation of martial arts lore and mythology that Lee's appeal seemed to invoke among Western viewers. The characters are ridiculous international caricatures, defined mostly by fighting styles that border on fantasy; they are figures of weird comedy and incongruity as well as violence.
Indeed, this is something most fighting games pull from Lee's canon – the idea that a plot can just be a group of disparate people meeting up for a fighting tournament. Every martial arts game ever made owes something to Enter The Dragon, Lee's multicultural beat-'em-up, with its clandestine fight club, exotic locations, and the central conceit that everyone present has a past to escape and an ulterior motive to fight through. Lee's films, like the best fighting games, combine tension, threat and humour; blaxploitation star Jim Kelly, granite-faced military veteran Chuck Norris and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, all provided interesting, almost comedic combatants hinting at the bizarre rosters to come in titles like Street Fighter, Tekken and Fatal Fury.
Legacy of Lee
There have, of course, been other semi-official tie-ins. The passable movie conversion, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story; the terrible Xbox brawler, Bruce Lee: Quest for the Dragon; the decent Game Boy Advance side-scroller, Bruce Lee Return of the Legend. But none of these really explored the legacy, atmosphere and style of Lee's movies like the truly great fighting games. To 1970s audiences in the West, Bruce Lee symbolised the 'otherness' of Asia and this is something the likes of Street Fighter, Soul Calibur and Tekken exploit and explore with their own characters, their own themes.
Bruce Lee's addition to UFC is interesting because it paints the actor not as some cult chopsocky star, but as a serious proponent and originator of mixed martial arts. Lee's style took in everything from austere classical systems to street fighting – so of course he should be here, going up against athletes he no doubt inspired.
Really, this shows how adaptable this pop culture legend is and how, like all true icons, Lee can be molded and re-interpreted to fit the tastes and concerns of each new generation.
Showing posts with label ufc. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ufc. Show all posts
Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Wednesday, 16 April 2014
The Modern Chinese Fighter
Article source: http://fightland.vice.com/blog/the-modern-chinese-fighter
The Modern Chinese Fighter Fightland BlogBy Sascha Matuszak
Deep in the mountains of southwest China, lives an ex-bare knuckle kungfu fighter named Zou Fan. She says she fought “hundreds” of fights in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, before the Chinese Wushu Association, which governs combat sports, outlawed unsanctioned, bare knuckle matches. Now she spends her time practicing taiji in a courtyard of her Kungfu Eyrie, overlooking the lush valleys below.
Zou Fan came up in an interesting period for traditional Chinese martial arts. In 1979, after protracted infighting, a bout of nationwide insanity, and the death of Mao Zedong, the Head Communist in Charge, Deng Xiaoping, opened China’s doors and exhorted the downtrodden masses to get rich or die trying.
Part of that opening up included the establishment of a national Wushu Association, with provincial and local offices, each with the mandate to revive and sustain traditional Chinese martial arts on the Mainland.
Bruce Lee’s fame was already spreading across the globe and filtering through into Mainland China, despite the government’s—and many traditionalist’s—initial snub of the unpatriotic kungfu kid who had taken his skills to the West. The official line softened against Bruce Lee, and kungfu in general, after 1979. A generation of kids born in the late 1970s—brought up on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Fist,” and other more obscure kungfu films, like the Wushu Association sponsored, “Little Heroes”—were finally able to legally and openly seek out kungfu masters.
From 1979 to the mid 1990s schools popped up across China, eventually leading to small fight circuits pitting martial artists from different styles and schools against each other. Zou Fan came up during this period, a wild explosion of martial arts fed by long pent up desires, and the appeal of modern martial arts movies.
I asked Zou Fan why she fought in bare knuckle matches.
“I loved fighting back then, I wanted to be the best. I fought anybody. We had a lot of organized matches, there were also grudge matches between people who didn’t like my master, or who wanted to discredit Kun Lun style. ”
Many traditional martial artists who fought or trained during this period believe that those days, when people fought for honor and pride, are over. Today, they say, it’s only money and bullshit. No art. No realness. It is ironic to hear that from traditional kungfu masters, who themselves are routinely dismissed by competitive fightersand Chinese society in general—for having no use in today’s modern world.
But a lot of what these old kungfu masters say is true. After the underground, regional martial arts fight circuits were dismantled and replaced with combat sports and performance wushu, a different type of Chinese fighter took the stage.
Today’s Chinese Fighter
Two major trends came together to put an end to the kungfu fight circuit: sportification and the one-child family.
China’s Wushu Associations are the agent of sportification. They promote performance wushu—the acrobatic routines based on kungfu forms—and Sanda combat sports through tournaments, standardized rules, state-sponsored training facilities, certified coaches, and most importantly, pay. Like most things communist, the system is heavy on numbers and low on excellence. The system basically relies on a continuous supply of work-horse fighters and performers to compete constantly within the regional and national circuit, generating a steady supply of cash from sponsors along the way. For strong provincial teams, or strong sports institutions, the fight game can be very lucrative.
And lucrative is the absolute key to growing anything in China today. Money and the pursuit of wealth rules this country and bothers the minds of all Chinese living in Mainland China. Traditionally, Chinese parents provide their children with education, and oftentimes their first home, whereupon the children repay their parents by taking care of them in old age. It’s common for three generations to live together in one home.
Now with the one-child policy, this tradition of taking care of each other is breaking down. Parents can’t always afford homes; children can’t afford to take care of their parents. There is a ton of pressure on everyone to be exceedingly pragmatic about their choices. Doing anything for “honor” is considered by most Chinese to be stupid, and contrary to one’s very basic self interest. Getting kicked in the face for pride is just ridiculous.
Most of China’s fighters come from the poorest regions of China. A lot of them are also ethnic minorities or farmers, in general a notch below everyone else in terms of living standards. For urban kids, fighting for a living makes no sense at all; for rural kids, fighting only makes sense if the paycheck is proper and guaranteed.
So today’s Chinese fighters often ask their promotions not what the win bonuses are, but how much they get paid to show. State-sponsored Sanda or MMA fighters in China receive room and board from their training facilities, and the best ones get a salary. They also fight a few times a month, outside of any contracts they have with say, the UFC or RUFF, to make extra cash. It’s a job, not a pursuit.
Major Western-oriented promotions like the UFC, RUFF, and OneFC have had issues with their Chinese fighters not taking fights seriously, not performing up to their best abilities, and not training properly. But in this context, “training properly” means fighting for excellence, and that may not be the major motivation for most Chinese fighters.
I spoke to Herb Dean on the sidelines of RUFF 12, and one of the things we talked about was the huge gap in living standards between an American MMA fighter and a Chinese MMA fighter. In Dean’s hometown of LA, people shot at each other over sneakers, but even in the worst neighborhoods, people had homes, yards, and refrigerators.
“These kids out here grow up with a lot less than any of those gangsters in LA,“ said Herb.
The New Chinese Fighter
The Chinese government is petrified of pretty much everything. One fear in particular is the fear of realness. Anyone living in a communist society is living in a big lie. Fake courts and fake judges, fake equality and fake morals. In China they are dealing with fake food and drink, fake faces and fake concrete. A famous Chinese author, Yu Hua, said that the only thing you can know to be real is a fake fake. Chinese politics dictates that the lie must be upheld at all costs.
But Chinese politics also dictates that globalization—controlled and filtered—is required in order for the state to survive.
Enter MMA. No sport, save perhaps football, is as powerful a globalizing force. And no combat sport is as real. MMA has its roots in parking lot matches and underground fight clubs, the appeal is both complete and utter realness and the power to tear down protectionist barriers and level the playing field. Everybody’s invited and fake fighters get stomped out, it’s that simple.
Moving toward realness in combat sports, and in society as a whole, seems to be a universal trend. In the US we may be going too far, as realness moves through irony into cliche in a heartbeat. But in China, the situation is unique because the people are in the very beginning stages of that movement. Chinese are sick to death of the bullshit, and they want some realness in their lives.
Combat sports is a good place to start. MMA is injecting realness back into the Chinese fight game, and the system is responding. Shows, even the notorious regional ones, place more emphasis on good fights. State-run schools and smaller, private gyms are getting serious about their training. The best fighters are rising to the top. The basic motivation remains the same, feed the family, but now there is more to fight for, because more is required by the game and by society itself.
Written by: Sascha Matuszak Tags: china, Zou Fan, kungfu
The Modern Chinese Fighter Fightland BlogBy Sascha Matuszak
Deep in the mountains of southwest China, lives an ex-bare knuckle kungfu fighter named Zou Fan. She says she fought “hundreds” of fights in the late 1980s and into the 1990s, before the Chinese Wushu Association, which governs combat sports, outlawed unsanctioned, bare knuckle matches. Now she spends her time practicing taiji in a courtyard of her Kungfu Eyrie, overlooking the lush valleys below.
Zou Fan came up in an interesting period for traditional Chinese martial arts. In 1979, after protracted infighting, a bout of nationwide insanity, and the death of Mao Zedong, the Head Communist in Charge, Deng Xiaoping, opened China’s doors and exhorted the downtrodden masses to get rich or die trying.
Part of that opening up included the establishment of a national Wushu Association, with provincial and local offices, each with the mandate to revive and sustain traditional Chinese martial arts on the Mainland.
Bruce Lee’s fame was already spreading across the globe and filtering through into Mainland China, despite the government’s—and many traditionalist’s—initial snub of the unpatriotic kungfu kid who had taken his skills to the West. The official line softened against Bruce Lee, and kungfu in general, after 1979. A generation of kids born in the late 1970s—brought up on Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan’s “Drunken Fist,” and other more obscure kungfu films, like the Wushu Association sponsored, “Little Heroes”—were finally able to legally and openly seek out kungfu masters.
From 1979 to the mid 1990s schools popped up across China, eventually leading to small fight circuits pitting martial artists from different styles and schools against each other. Zou Fan came up during this period, a wild explosion of martial arts fed by long pent up desires, and the appeal of modern martial arts movies.
I asked Zou Fan why she fought in bare knuckle matches.
“I loved fighting back then, I wanted to be the best. I fought anybody. We had a lot of organized matches, there were also grudge matches between people who didn’t like my master, or who wanted to discredit Kun Lun style. ”
Many traditional martial artists who fought or trained during this period believe that those days, when people fought for honor and pride, are over. Today, they say, it’s only money and bullshit. No art. No realness. It is ironic to hear that from traditional kungfu masters, who themselves are routinely dismissed by competitive fightersand Chinese society in general—for having no use in today’s modern world.
But a lot of what these old kungfu masters say is true. After the underground, regional martial arts fight circuits were dismantled and replaced with combat sports and performance wushu, a different type of Chinese fighter took the stage.
Today’s Chinese Fighter
Two major trends came together to put an end to the kungfu fight circuit: sportification and the one-child family.
China’s Wushu Associations are the agent of sportification. They promote performance wushu—the acrobatic routines based on kungfu forms—and Sanda combat sports through tournaments, standardized rules, state-sponsored training facilities, certified coaches, and most importantly, pay. Like most things communist, the system is heavy on numbers and low on excellence. The system basically relies on a continuous supply of work-horse fighters and performers to compete constantly within the regional and national circuit, generating a steady supply of cash from sponsors along the way. For strong provincial teams, or strong sports institutions, the fight game can be very lucrative.
And lucrative is the absolute key to growing anything in China today. Money and the pursuit of wealth rules this country and bothers the minds of all Chinese living in Mainland China. Traditionally, Chinese parents provide their children with education, and oftentimes their first home, whereupon the children repay their parents by taking care of them in old age. It’s common for three generations to live together in one home.
Now with the one-child policy, this tradition of taking care of each other is breaking down. Parents can’t always afford homes; children can’t afford to take care of their parents. There is a ton of pressure on everyone to be exceedingly pragmatic about their choices. Doing anything for “honor” is considered by most Chinese to be stupid, and contrary to one’s very basic self interest. Getting kicked in the face for pride is just ridiculous.
Most of China’s fighters come from the poorest regions of China. A lot of them are also ethnic minorities or farmers, in general a notch below everyone else in terms of living standards. For urban kids, fighting for a living makes no sense at all; for rural kids, fighting only makes sense if the paycheck is proper and guaranteed.
So today’s Chinese fighters often ask their promotions not what the win bonuses are, but how much they get paid to show. State-sponsored Sanda or MMA fighters in China receive room and board from their training facilities, and the best ones get a salary. They also fight a few times a month, outside of any contracts they have with say, the UFC or RUFF, to make extra cash. It’s a job, not a pursuit.
Major Western-oriented promotions like the UFC, RUFF, and OneFC have had issues with their Chinese fighters not taking fights seriously, not performing up to their best abilities, and not training properly. But in this context, “training properly” means fighting for excellence, and that may not be the major motivation for most Chinese fighters.
I spoke to Herb Dean on the sidelines of RUFF 12, and one of the things we talked about was the huge gap in living standards between an American MMA fighter and a Chinese MMA fighter. In Dean’s hometown of LA, people shot at each other over sneakers, but even in the worst neighborhoods, people had homes, yards, and refrigerators.
“These kids out here grow up with a lot less than any of those gangsters in LA,“ said Herb.
The New Chinese Fighter
The Chinese government is petrified of pretty much everything. One fear in particular is the fear of realness. Anyone living in a communist society is living in a big lie. Fake courts and fake judges, fake equality and fake morals. In China they are dealing with fake food and drink, fake faces and fake concrete. A famous Chinese author, Yu Hua, said that the only thing you can know to be real is a fake fake. Chinese politics dictates that the lie must be upheld at all costs.
But Chinese politics also dictates that globalization—controlled and filtered—is required in order for the state to survive.
Enter MMA. No sport, save perhaps football, is as powerful a globalizing force. And no combat sport is as real. MMA has its roots in parking lot matches and underground fight clubs, the appeal is both complete and utter realness and the power to tear down protectionist barriers and level the playing field. Everybody’s invited and fake fighters get stomped out, it’s that simple.
Moving toward realness in combat sports, and in society as a whole, seems to be a universal trend. In the US we may be going too far, as realness moves through irony into cliche in a heartbeat. But in China, the situation is unique because the people are in the very beginning stages of that movement. Chinese are sick to death of the bullshit, and they want some realness in their lives.
Combat sports is a good place to start. MMA is injecting realness back into the Chinese fight game, and the system is responding. Shows, even the notorious regional ones, place more emphasis on good fights. State-run schools and smaller, private gyms are getting serious about their training. The best fighters are rising to the top. The basic motivation remains the same, feed the family, but now there is more to fight for, because more is required by the game and by society itself.
Written by: Sascha Matuszak Tags: china, Zou Fan, kungfu
Wednesday, 19 March 2014
UFC Fight Night 38: Stormin' Norman Parke is ready for war in Brazil this weekend
Originally reported at: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/ufc-fight-night-38-stormin-3260989
UFC Fight Night 38: Stormin' Norman Parke is ready for war in Brazil this weekend Mar 19, 2014 15:49 By Mark Spence
This Sunday Norman Parke will take on Brazilian, Leonardo Santos in his own backyard. It's a tough task but one the Northern Irishman is relishing
GettyNorman Parke faces his toughest task yet in Brazil on Sunday Since coming to prominence on The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes, Norman Parke has firmly embedded himself as 'one to watch' in the lightweight division.
With a current UFC record of 3-0 this weekend's clash in front of the notoriously raucous Brazilian crowd will be his most arduous test yet.
Should he prevail over Santos though, Parke's stock will rise considerably and a bona fide assault on the lightweight division could be on alongside his former TUF coach Ross Pearson.
We caught up with with Stormin' Norman ahead of his crunch match.
How has your training been going so far? Great. I was in pretty good shape before I went to America for my camp, so I didn't have to push my body too hard. We have loads of guys training for fights at Alliance so everyone was pushing each other, it was a great environment to be in.
Will this be your first time in Brazil? Yes, this will be my first venture to Brazil. Brazil is a place I’ve always wanted to visit when I was younger, now the UFC has given me that opportunity and I can't wait to get there. Brazil is like the UK in some respects: it’s a fighting nation, it's in our blood.
How are you feeling about fighting a Brazilian in Brazil? Do you think Santos will have the hometown advantage? I asked to fight on this card in Brazil so I'm going to relish the moment. As for home advantage I don't think it will make a difference to my performance, at the end of the day it's just Santos and me in the Octagon.
GettyNorman ParkeParke's mixed martial arts record currently stands at 19-2 Do you like to study your opponents in depth? What do you see as his strengths and weaknesses? I’ve watched some of his fights and he's got good control on top. As for striking, he's tall and has a good range but it’s nothing that fazes me.
What about a prediction for the big night? I'm hoping we can stand and strike for a while, but I predict he’ll probably try to take me down. If I hurt him at any time, I’ll definitely be hunting hard for the finish.
What’s next for you after this fight? I never like to look too far ahead, but that being said I’ve already convinced myself that I’ve won the fight in my head. After this I'm hoping for someone in the top tier of the division.
The UFC have announced they will be back in Dublin in July, would you be interested in being on that card? Yes, of course I would love to fight in Dublin! In fact, I’ll email Joe Silva straight after this win! I want at least three fights this year, and my goal is to be ranked in the top 15 of my division by end of the year.
UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Henderson 2 is live on BT Sport Sunday 23 March at 11pm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/ufc-fight-night-38-stormin-3260989#ixzz2wS8XB4A4 Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook
UFC Fight Night 38: Stormin' Norman Parke is ready for war in Brazil this weekend Mar 19, 2014 15:49 By Mark Spence
This Sunday Norman Parke will take on Brazilian, Leonardo Santos in his own backyard. It's a tough task but one the Northern Irishman is relishing
GettyNorman Parke faces his toughest task yet in Brazil on Sunday Since coming to prominence on The Ultimate Fighter: The Smashes, Norman Parke has firmly embedded himself as 'one to watch' in the lightweight division.
With a current UFC record of 3-0 this weekend's clash in front of the notoriously raucous Brazilian crowd will be his most arduous test yet.
Should he prevail over Santos though, Parke's stock will rise considerably and a bona fide assault on the lightweight division could be on alongside his former TUF coach Ross Pearson.
We caught up with with Stormin' Norman ahead of his crunch match.
How has your training been going so far? Great. I was in pretty good shape before I went to America for my camp, so I didn't have to push my body too hard. We have loads of guys training for fights at Alliance so everyone was pushing each other, it was a great environment to be in.
Will this be your first time in Brazil? Yes, this will be my first venture to Brazil. Brazil is a place I’ve always wanted to visit when I was younger, now the UFC has given me that opportunity and I can't wait to get there. Brazil is like the UK in some respects: it’s a fighting nation, it's in our blood.
How are you feeling about fighting a Brazilian in Brazil? Do you think Santos will have the hometown advantage? I asked to fight on this card in Brazil so I'm going to relish the moment. As for home advantage I don't think it will make a difference to my performance, at the end of the day it's just Santos and me in the Octagon.
GettyNorman ParkeParke's mixed martial arts record currently stands at 19-2 Do you like to study your opponents in depth? What do you see as his strengths and weaknesses? I’ve watched some of his fights and he's got good control on top. As for striking, he's tall and has a good range but it’s nothing that fazes me.
What about a prediction for the big night? I'm hoping we can stand and strike for a while, but I predict he’ll probably try to take me down. If I hurt him at any time, I’ll definitely be hunting hard for the finish.
What’s next for you after this fight? I never like to look too far ahead, but that being said I’ve already convinced myself that I’ve won the fight in my head. After this I'm hoping for someone in the top tier of the division.
The UFC have announced they will be back in Dublin in July, would you be interested in being on that card? Yes, of course I would love to fight in Dublin! In fact, I’ll email Joe Silva straight after this win! I want at least three fights this year, and my goal is to be ranked in the top 15 of my division by end of the year.
UFC Fight Night: Shogun vs Henderson 2 is live on BT Sport Sunday 23 March at 11pm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/mma/ufc-fight-night-38-stormin-3260989#ixzz2wS8XB4A4 Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook
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