Reloaded...Kill Bill...Last Samurai...America discovers the Katana!

[Skade]

Or even in Lotr. Though not quite a Katana, the sword Arwen carries is more similar in design to that than anything else. Even the elven troops carry something simliar to a naginata, compared to a more western polearm.

 

[MarauderX]

I guess I am over the fascination with it, but it still looks pretty sleek vs. a 'normal' straight longsword. I gotta say Uma Thermon sucked using it in Kill Bill, and you can tell she didn't take enough time to get comfortable with it as there were so many cut scenes when she was flying through the air. Lucy Liu looked very in-tune with one, elegant and graceful and lethal. LotR has some great sword scenes, although the only decent looking one was the broken sword. I hope the Last Samurai has some good action scenes with it.

 

[MaxKaladin]

If there had ever been a decline in katana fanboyism, I haven't noticed. I wish the overrated thing would just go away.

You and me both. People have been obsessed with that thing for decades. It's time for it to go away.

 

[kengar]

Lucy Liu looked very in-tune with one, elegant and graceful and lethal.

I seem to remember having read that Lucy Liu studies the Indonesian martial art penjak silat (sp?) which uses some knife & stick techniques similar to escrima.

 

[Krug]

I think America will devlop a relationship with the flying guillontine that Japanese gal used in Kill Bill next...

 

[takyris]

Yeah, I chose not to use a katana at (my martial arts) school because it just seemed so faddish. If I do ever use a sword, it's gonna be a sword that's more interesting. The katana is pretty much a longsword or bastard sword that was very good at what it did, but was by no means the best sword in the world -- because, as most sword enthusiasts will tell you, there is no "best sword". You can pretty easily identify a bad sword, but once you get past "good", it's a matter of what the sword can do, what it was designed to do, and what you want it to do.

And, yeah, there's nothing like having the "no, they didn't fold it one thousand times, that wouldn't work, and here's why, and no, they didn't just drop the silk handkerchief onto the blade, really, they're not magical just because they come from Japan" talk with a katana fanboy.

 

[Umbran]

Or even in Lotr. Though not quite a Katana, the sword Arwen carries is more similar in design to that than anything else.

Actually, to me Arwen's sword looks more like a cavalry saber than it does a katana. *shrug*

 

[Hand of Evil]

Was it ever lost? I've always thought America was obsessed with the Katana, ignoring all other blades in place of it.

It is because it is a phallus symbol.

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

Actually, to me Arwen's sword looks more like a cavalry saber than it does a katana. *shrug*

Yeah...never looked like a katana to me. I saw it(and the rest of the Elven swords in LotR) and my immediate thought was "Scimitar" more than anything...

 

[barsoomcore]

As a katana fanboy, I just wanna say... right on...



I just think they're beautiful. As a class of objects, they're just gorgeous. Even crappy katana look great to me. That scene in the attic of Sonny Chiba's sushi shop was total pornography for me. Sigh.

But yeah, yeah, yeah, that whole "katana are magic and flip out and kill people" thing is pretty tedious. Go get a real one, kiddo, and then find somebody to teach you how to use it, and then find somebody who knows how to use a European sword, and compare notes.

Killing people with sharp bits of steel is pretty much the same process wherever you go.

Uma looked pretty good, frankly. If I were teaching her, I'd not be too troubled. She doesn't extend her arms enough (common problem when Chinese people stage Japanese swordfights) but the last fight between her and Lucy was rock-solid katana fighting. I liked the looseness of it and the sense of crazy flailing around. They looked a little scared, a little out of control, and I like that.

Does anyone know anything about the fight choreography in The Last Samurai? There's no such credit listed on IMDB, and I'm curious as to who they got to handle that.