Name this gongfu style from documentary Dragons of Orient

[Jackcarter]

I saw a really, really bad kungfu exploitation film over the weekend. It's called the Dragons of Orient and is plain astrocious. I rue spending $8 over it. It's basically a crap-o-rama 'documentary' supposedly detailing different styles and history. Yup, I don't wanna talk about that crap anymore.

Anyhoo, there was this one old man, named Master Chang, who seemed to be alone among the other frauds to be actually a skilled martial artist. He looked good, very good. I have reservations about how effective he would be IRL, considering his size and age, but still, man is skilled.

Anyone who's seen it, know what style he was practicing? Didn't seem to be wushu and seem to be a close range style, maybe wing chun.

Movie's called "Dragons of the Orient" and about 30 mins into it, they show Master Chang practicing with many people. The narrator says that people dream of training with him and that he can *cough* *cough* easily take ten men by himself...

 

[Drew]

Drunken Monkey? Raging Chicken? Steel Gerbil? FAH-KOO!??

No, I've never seen the movie. Just wanted to toss you a bump. Here you go: BUMP.

 

[Black Omega]

This is a pretty easy movie to track down, it's from around 1988 and is usually featured as a Jet Li movie, since he makes a few appearances. It's a fake documentary, since there was never any travel around China, they just put cuts of various people together. I'm afrtaid I've not been able to track down anything on a Chang in this yet, though. I'll let you know if something turns up.

 

[Drakmar]

if you have the technology to rip some of the movie and make a link to it I may be able to tell you.

if it is similar to Wing Chun, it might be aspects of Southern Shoalin style (ie focusing on Crane and Snake), or it could be aspects of Hung Gar (also Crane and Snake aspects).. I have not seen the movie.

Is there much kicking? if so it is more likely to be a Northern Style.. were as Southern tend to focus more on Hand Styles (this does not mean they don't kick)

it could be.. White Eyebrow, Eagle Claw, Southern Praying Mantis..um..Monkey....Drunken Fist...heck.. I need some more destricptors.

 

[Jezrael]

Is the documentary meant to show modern China or ancient China? If it's ancient, there could be the possibility that they are telling the story of Chang Fan Sang, founder of the Wudang Mountain school(s) in which case they could be using Tai Chi Chu'an, H'sing I Chu'an, or another Internal Taoist style.

If it's modern and you seem to think it's close in then it could be any number of styles: Wing Chun, Southern Shaolin 5 Animal, or any number of other styles.

 

[Jackcarter]

This is a pretty easy movie to track down, it's from around 1988 and is usually featured as a Jet Li movie, since he makes a few appearances

Yeah, and it's pretty funny too. Most of the people in there look like ballerinas rather than martial artists, doing those loops, jumps, other crap. Man, if they were wearing tutus, then it would have been complete! Hey, maybe they were filming Chinese Nutcracker.

Is there much kicking? if so it is more likely to be a Northern Style.. were as Southern tend to focus more on Hand Styles (this does not mean they don't kick)

If it's modern and you seem to think it's close in then it could be any number of styles: Wing Chun, Southern Shaolin 5 Animal, or any number of other styles.

Now I think about it, maybe it was wushu after all. If I remember correctly, the guy's name, transalliterated, sounds like Chang Yong Chi. He's said to be a teacher at the Shaolin temple. The film footage seems early 80's; if so, then it must be wushu, right? Isn't Shaolin run by the commies?

As for kicking, there was a balanced amount of kicks and stikes. He performed this, for the lack of better word, kata where most of his kicks were low to mid-range. His attacks were direct, linear, with very little lateral movement. His kicks were linear too, and seemed many times to set up the strikes, except for one little goofy jumping back kick. He moved fast, but with authority; he reminded me of the bad Jet Li in the movie the One, except that this old man had none of the benefits of film editing that Jet had.

The funny thing is, he never did high kicks in his kata, but his students were practicing kicks and strikes that had little chance of working in RL. Also, the obvious lack of power in these guys was shown in this sparring where one guy walked right into this other guy's jump kick, yet without missing a beat, counterattacked.

Is the documentary meant to show modern China or ancient China? If it's ancient, there could be the possibility that they are telling the story of Chang Fan Sang, founder of the Wudang Mountain school(s) in which case they could be using Tai Chi Chu'an, H'sing I Chu'an, or another Internal Taoist style.

It's a fake documentary and Master Chang is very real and alive, at least in the film. It definitely didn't look Neigong.

 

[MythandLore]

Now I think about it, maybe it was wushu after all. He's said to be a teacher at the Shaolin temple. The film footage seems early 80's; if so, then it must be wushu, right? Isn't Shaolin run by the commies?

Yep, Yep.