Those swords are made really well,
because they're layered bits of bamboo together.
I think it would have to be a really perfect storm
for that to actually happen,
seeing as how these aren't very sharp.
Hi, my name is Thekla Hutyrova.
I am a stuntwoman and martial arts world champion,
and I've been doing nunchucks and martial arts
in general for about 18 years.
Today, we'll be looking at nunchuck scenes in movies
and judging how real they are.
It's very traditional nunchuck style.
Has a lot of the passing-under-the-hand stuff,
which is super cool and more old school.
The longer chain ones might be more practical.
The longer the chain, the further your reach is.
This is about the length, I think,
that they were in that last clip.
'Cause the ones I compete with, it's a shorter chain,
so you can do more flourishy things with it.
Not only did he hold it normal grip,
which is your thumb facing the chain, pretty much,
but whenever he switched his hand,
he had them backwards a few times.
You don't see that often.
It's a style. I think it's like knife, you know,
you have your regular standard grip,
and then you have ice pick, where it's upside down.
So I guess that'd be like the ice pick version,
which is cool.
This is the normal grip,
but it's neat to see it this way,
'cause obviously it works the same way,
but it's just cool.
You don't have to start under the armpit.
I think that's another just traditional move.
They usually spin it, catch it under the armpit,
and then shoot it back out again.
And I think maybe that's more of a sneaky way to do it
as opposed to being loaded here, right?
You're here, and then everyone's like,
"Oh, there's no way," and then shoop!
Traditional weapons especially come from farm tools.
This was just for smacking grain
out of hay and wheat and stuff.
And then someone's like, "Hmm, this works on grain.
I wonder what it'll do to someone's face."
I can't rate Bruce Lee! 10!
All right, maybe 9, 'cause he showed off for way too long.
You can kind of see a little bit in some of it
where maybe the actress isn't completely
that well versed with the nunchucks.
They're a little bit slower.
She's kind of using more of her body
and more of her arms and stuff
instead of just moving the nunchuck very skillfully,
but obviously she's quite skilled.
There's a few cool moves, though.
The neck, sliding under the legs and hitting him.
It's pretty cool.
But it's definitely not as realistic
to think that she wouldn't just be grabbed or something.
She's being a lot more calculating
and choreographed with it.
The last move, where she puts it on her foot and kicks it,
I've seen actually done in form.
I'd say, like, 7. But I still love it.
Oh, double!
There we go.
He's just doing the same combo over and over.
I love it.
It's funny how, often,
it's just, like, the demonstration of the weapon,
especially with nunchucks,
is the bit that is so highlighted.
He did a good job.
Like, obviously it was him doing it,
and the move where he crosses them isn't very easy to do.
If I were to be in a fight with nunchucks,
I think I would just try to make the big swinging strikes.
The best one's probably from top to bottom at the angles.
You could do a side to side or a nice uppercut.
Anything else ends up being a lot more specific.
Also, I mean, groin, knees,
those are always defaults for self-defense moves,
and a nunchuck to the kneecap wouldn't be very comfortable.
So that'd probably be a good one too.
So what he did, you know, just wailing on him,
was probably a really good default.
I want to say they're foam ones in that scene too,
just by the weight that it looked like they had,
when it bounced back.
"Real" nunchucks are made out of wood.
They're illegal in California.
It's just always such an interesting question
that people ask that kind of confuses me sometimes,
about, "Are they real?"
If you're training with a sword,
if it's made out of metal, it is.
But if it's not sharp, then I guess it's not real.
Like, these are real, they're just foam.
So it's like a weird, you know,
like, what the definition of a "real" weapon is.
He just did the demonstration, which was really cool.
But the actual fight bit was, like, three moves,
and the nunchuck bounced back.
So, like, a 5.
Yes, concealed-carry nunchucks!
So cool.
I've been known to just keep them in a backpack or a purse
'cause I forgot that they're there,
so they are very concealable.
Whew!
That's dope.
I love that he used it
to take on a bunch of people surrounding him,
'cause I feel like that's probably the best use of it,
just 'cause if you spin around fast enough,
people aren't going to want to attack you.
I think that is a really good use of a flaily weapon.
If he had a stick, someone might grab it,
disarm him, or, you know.
It's an easier thing to catch when it's one stick.
But when it's a nunchuck, it's terrifying.
It's scary for the person wielding it,
much less the one in front.
Those swords are made really well,
because they're layered bits of bamboo together.
I think it would have to be a really perfect storm
for that to actually happen,
seeing as how these aren't very sharp.
But it's Donnie Yen, so, you know, it's possible.
If they wanted to swarm him,
they could've beaten him.
But I think it's a really good way to capture
the efficiency and the use of the actual weapon.
So, I don't know, 9.
A fellow chucker, eh?
Yeah, I mean, rolling it over your hand is always harder,
'cause it involves letting go of one of them
and just letting it roll over your hand
and get to the other one.
It's hard to do with the longer chain,
because you have to be able to get that.
So I'd say straight strikes are the easiest,
and then something with a spin,
and then something with a release
as far as difficulty tiers.
So that difficulty scale and the speed, I think,
are pretty good signs of expertise.
You gotta love "Ninja Turtles."
It's like the dueling pianos thing.
Keep practicing!
See, this is where nunchucks get a bad rap.
They're like, "Oh, no one's actually doing
anything with them," and then the guy with the stick
comes in and beats everyone up.
But if they actually got close enough
where chucks would hit someone,
maybe the guy with the bo staff wouldn't have to be there.
They showed some good expertise with the nunchucks,
but there was zero fight, actual interaction,
so I'll have to give it a 2 or a 3.
But again, for the demonstration bit, maybe a 6 or 7.
All right. Ooh, pass around the back, nice.
Again, with this, you see a lot of just straight strikes,
not so much fancy stuff
when you're actually interacting with people,
which, again, it's the diagonal strikes,
the sideways ones, upwards.
Hitting the guy out of the air
was probably the least practical thing.
I still liked Donnie Yen's version better,
with everyone attacking at once, 'cause, again,
this was a little more choreographed,
where, like, all the bad guys come in
at their designated time,
which is plausible, of course,
but I think if you're a mob
trying to end up hurting someone,
you just go like, "One, two, three, let's go!"
Finishes them off of a kick.
He used a lot more martial arts kicks
and other movement
as opposed to just swinging the nunchuck around,
because obviously someone who can do nunchucks
should have some background in martial arts.
It made it feel more realistic because of that as well.
The strikes were awesome.
But then there were a few of the more intricate things,
like when he wrapped the guy's arm,
which I feel like took a little longer
than it probably practically would.
Like, if someone's punching,
you don't really have all that time for that to happen.
It's plausible, of course.
While it still felt very specifically choreographed,
it was lot more believable than the "Kick-Ass" one,
where there were just so many specialty moves.
Would really suck to get cracked across the jaw or the eye.
Obviously, a sharp weapon is more practical in a real fight
if you're actually wanting to hurt people that bad.
But I do think, if you know what you're doing,
they end up being like a stick.
I used to think that they're not as effective or as good
because I thought they'd bounce back.
But, again, if you don't hit with anything but the last bit,
it just whips by a little bit,
and then you have a lot of power in that last bit.
Maybe not the easiest thing to use in a real fight,
but I do think they could probably be pretty devastating
if you know how to use them right.
Maybe, like, a 7.
That would suck!
I feel like the physics of that doesn't quite work,
but it's a cool move, you know?
I liked the Bruce Lee character dodging.
He's very skilled to dodge that close to the nunchucks,
but I liked him going, stepping off line,
and punching the guy and taking the nunchucks,
which is what you want to do with
disarming a weapon of any sort, right?
You want to kind of get in past it
and get past that end where the most power is.
There was one bit where he hits the pipe
and then hits the guy's hand,
which is really a cool take on it,
because hitting fingers would suck.
Whereas you're not going to disarm the pipe
out of someone's hand.
Important muscles for using nunchucks,
one of the main ones is actually your wrist
for the more intricate movements,
and then obviously your arm and your back,
and power comes from your hips.
Range of motion is very important,
arguably more important than muscle mass.
This one's tough, 'cause I liked this one.
It showed a variety of styles,
but if we have to rate it on practicality,
7 or something.
Nunchucks.
These people need to start
holding on to their weapons a little better.
Yeah, it's funny to keep seeing that theme
of just people taking nunchucks from other people
in all of these.
I've never noticed that, until you have them back to back.
You're like, "What is going on?"
I don't know if I would block an ax with it,
just because I'm not sure how sharp the ax is
and how heavy, and it's kind of a small chain.
So it's not unlikely that it might snap it.
There's also other blocks.
This ends up actually being a block as well,
because you're here, you're blocking all that,
and then you can also kind of block
if you just hold them,
their stick on your arm,
so that's a good block as well.
Again, I don't think they're
the most secure things to block with,
but that's not a horrible move.
Especially if you're stepping off to the side,
just to ensure you're going to not be hit
if something does happen.
Probably parry instead of just block straight on.
I don't think it showed off
the practicality of nunchucks all that well.
You'd have to be very skilled
and very specific with your movement
to be able to pull that off at all,
and I wouldn't recommend it.
So maybe, like, a 5.
But it was a cool little scene.
Ooh, there's that move again.
I mean, he obviously knows what he's doing
based on our criteria from earlier,
like the intricacy, he's switching hands,
and the speed at which he's moving them
and the spins and everything.
So that's really cool to see.
I grip it
maybe a thumb width away from the chain and the top,
because that's where you have the most control
over the other stick as well.
I guess for distance and just the straight strikes,
you might grip it a little lower.
And then also depending on the intricacy of your movement,
sometimes for some moves,
you want to grip it a little bit lower
so that you can get around your hand for that,
or you want to grip it a little higher
if you're doing a finger spin or something.
But generally speaking,
you want to be close to the chain on top.
And then all you have to worry about
is where the chain is flinging the rest of it.
So it's a lot more controlled.
I don't do the eyes-fluttering thing.
It is kind of indicative of not knowing the distance
and location of the nunchucks, or any weapon, really.
I think people do that with bo staff and sword
and stuff as well, even if it's just foam.
If I throw it and lose track of it,
then I do that, obviously.
But I do know where they're going most of the time.
But you definitely hit yourself quite a bit,
especially at first when you're still learning
and if you're not being smooth.
A lot of times it's funny bone, which is fantastic;
back of the head,
which, I'm not even sure how that gets there,
but that's a good one.
Also makes a really good sound.
They're definitely special,
but I've never knocked myself out with them
or anything horrible.
So, practicality-wise, I mean, probably the 4 or 5 again,
just 'cause some of the strikes
didn't look like they hit exactly.
Oh, this is the quintessential scene.
I can't rag on this. Canceled immediately.
I feel like it is realistic
how few times they hit each other with them
and how much more it is kind of like a distraction.
Like, that first move he did,
he does, Bruce Lee does a distraction move
and then kicks him in the ankle to throw him off.
So that stuff's more practical, I think.
It felt maybe not, like, gritty-realistic,
but it did feel realistic within, like,
if you're sparring with someone,
you're going to show off your moves and everything
and kind of test the waters and the distance,
which they were doing a lot
during the demonstration periods,
and just kind of showing off.
Very simple, straight-across strikes, which would work.
But yeah, I think that's one of the best ones
we've seen for sure.
I'd say that's the 10.
So, the spear kind of beat the nunchucks in that, I think,
even though she won.
Definitely less intricate movement.
It was kind of nice that there wasn't
a demonstration of skill in this one.
It was just like, it went right to the fight.
Maybe the nunchucks weren't the right choice
for that girl to use in that fight against a spear.
It wasn't bad.
I just think the other ones obviously were much stronger
showing the benefit of nunchucks
and the practicality of it and the impact of them,
'cause even in this, she hit the girl across the face,
but there wasn't a lot of impact
on how that would actually feel.
And I think the distance, again,
looked a little off because they were so close.
So a lot of her strikes ended up
being a little weaker-looking.
The distance felt a little off,
and the filming didn't quite showcase the nunchucks
as well as some of the other clips would have,
so maybe a 4 or a 3.
Can you imagine? I'm like,
"I've been in 100 nunchuck fights."
Like, what?
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