Muay Thai (Part 1) - First Impression

I have always been intrigued by martial arts since young. In those days, we only have two TV channels - channels 5 and 8. Channels 3 and 10 were Malaysian channels. Most of our TV programmes were imported TV drama series mostly from Hong Kong, sometimes there were others like Japanese but by and large they have the same old formulas. They were either very sad stories of guys struggling to make a living, women being married and getting trampled or despised by other families and the rest were all sword fighting and about revenge. 

The sword fighting genre were always about revenge where the main character's master or family were murdered and he would train very hard in order to seek revenge later. The most popular was Jimmy Wang Yu, most famous especially in the "One Armed Swordsman" (独臂刀) - Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quEHEaNsSKA 

There were others Yueh Hua (Drunken Swordsman / 大醉俠 / Come Drink With Me) and later Ti Lung and David Chiang among others. (I actually like the name Come Drink With me). Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqs2hKv2ARE (Trailer)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwfVhet-Zjk (十三太保 with Ti Lung and David Chiang)

Wang Yu not only starred in "The Chinese Boxer" (Long Hu Dou / 龍虎鬥)  but also written and directed it. It was a roaring success and it was the very first classic as the first non-wuxia, Kung Fu genre with unarmed combat rather than fantasy sword-fighting. Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-gvhVM9S4Q (Trailer)

Kung Fu movies became the rage. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon. It was Ti Lung and David Chiang who were the first to bring us a new genre of martial arts - Muay Thai in this movie. It was really interesting. Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlCy_98R3aM (Duel Of Fists / 

拳擊 (1971) )

First, there is this special and elegant dance routine before the contest called the "Wai Kru Ram Muay" which could easily deceive us for the ferocious battle ahead.

It looks like a gentle stretching and warm up exercise and also to calm the mind accompanied by a music called "Sarama". No other martial arts of fights has this music and dance. 

Another actor Meng Fei came up with another which involved Muay Thai (below):

The King Boxers (小拳王) followed suit. Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LDvts2me_RI

Then along came Chen Kuan-Tai with "The Boxer From Shantung" (馬永貞) which challenges many others and launch him as a new star. The movie was considered too violent back then and was not allowed to be brought in to our local cinemas. Many flocked to Johor to catch it. Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEuBplr6JIA (Ma Yong Zhen)

But for me and many others, Bruce Lee was the greatest of them all. GOAT - Greatest Of All Time! Period. I had only wanted to be trained in "Jeet Kune Do" which was the way of the dragon - Bruce Lee. Jeet Kune Do  literally translated means 截 拳 道 (not 借 钱 道 which would mean the way of borrowing money haha.)  or simply "the way of the intercepting fist".

Bruce changed martial arts and martial arts movies. Every young kids wanted it and I was one. No other movie stars / martial artists were as charismatic, stylish, graceful, have such magnetism, animal energy and with the most beautiful body ever built. He was such an enigma but he died suddenly. He was a Kung Fu master with great vision. He was always philosophical and innovative, always developing, expressing himself and constantly evolving. He has a special ability to transcend stylistic boundaries. He was almost perfect in mastering his form of martial arts, physical prowess and his incredible ability in the amalgamation of so many forms of martial arts. He also achieved the building of the most perfect body. JKD was more than a fighting technique, it is the definition of Bruce Lee's personal and spiritual growth. 

He had probably only certified his best friend Taky Kimura and perhaps Danny Inosanto as Jeet Kune Do instructors. Bruce's foundation was of course Wing Chun but he was clever and often sparred with many top martial artists and was quick to learn and pick up new skills from sparring and could adopt the best defence or offensive fighting methods and ingrained into him. Inosanto introduced him to nunchaku and it took him only three months to master it swinging them like he has been doing it for a lifetime. He also taught Bruce the ancient Filipino fighting art of Kali and you would have seen it in Enter The Dragon when Bruce fought with two long sticks. Bruce has Wing Chun, Taekwondo, Karate, Judo, Boxing and many more fighting arts in his repertoire and weaponry.

He would watched Muhammed Ali fights on tapes for hours and you could see how he punched and danced around like Ali. His fight scene with Chuck Norris in The Way Of The Dragon was probably the greatest fight scene in cinematic history and you could see his exhibition of high, quick and consecutives kicks, judo throws, jiu-jitsu grappling, Ali dance and box plus Wing Chun quick punches. I believe many of his other disciples and disciples of disciples went on to teach Jeet Kune Do which was never really Jeet Kune Do because there were no fixed methods in this fighting art but it eventually led us to today's MMA or Mixed Martial Arts. Bruce Lee was the one who gave us mixed martial arts. Watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yo1HFbQHTlk (Bruce Lee)

In later years, I watched an entire videos of the world no holds-barred martial arts contests. I was curious who and which will prevail. The final was fought between a Muay Thai fighter and a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu exponent. I was convinced Muay Thai would thump the latter. How wrong was I when the Muay Thai fighter finally succumbed and conceded when the grapple applied by the Jiu-Jitsu exponent got him in a deadlock. Finito. In MMA fights, the rules are different from no hold-barred and Muay Thai fights as certain techniques are banned or not allowed in MMA. This takes away some of the strength and shine in some of the martial arts. We could never really say one martial arts is superior to another as much depends on the exponent. A well-trained one who practises hard will overcome a poorly trained one. "A mountain should not laugh at the river because it is lowly and the river should not laugh at the mountain because it cannot move." It is also the "size of the fight in the dog and not the size of the dog in the fight."

It is amazing to follow the fights of Muay Thai even just on videos especially the Thai Muay Thai exponents. Names like Samart Payakaroon, Yodsanan, Nong-O, Panpayak, Superlek, Rodtang, Saenchai, Sagat, Apidej, Dieselnoi and Buakaw Banchamek. 

Now looking back at those old movies brought back fond memories don't they. However, there was a lack of entertainment outlets, media and venues those days. Going to the movies was then a great way to meet up with friends, as an outing or dating for others. When a new hot movie trend caught on, people would queue just to get advance bookings or join even longer queues on the day. Quite often, tickets for popular movies were sold out so if you got lucky and have to spend more you get the "Circle" seats which are "atas" seats upstairs. 

The thing is this - would you over the passage of time clamour for the same thing you once did - like watching these movies, join a long queue for tickets? It's the same as people getting crazy over iPhones and the other similar things in life when newly released. Things that you would once die for, you may later and now walk past without blinking an eye. 

I was also surprised to find Singapore has its Muay Thai fighters too when my son bought me tickets to watch one held at the MBS. Ring side, sit down tickets. It was quite an experience. 

Like the theatres of old, displaying their "gambar" with large hand-painted posters of movies being screened (Now Showing) or going to be screened (Coming Soon and in Malay - Akan Datang). Let me share with you at a later date. Akan Datang.....