hey guys I'm Andrew and I love a good
ass-kicking I'm not much of a fighter
myself but I've always appreciated the
art of a great onscreen brawl and that's
why I'm glad that atomic blonde was
directed by David leach before he got
behind the camera leads with a stunt man
himself and a fight coordinator for a
ton of awesome movie Tim and his partner
Ches to health he would pitch their
services to studios by storyboarding
planning and filming their own fight
scenes based on scripts it's that
experience that led them to direct the
awesome action we saw in Jon with every
frame of the film excite has hours of
thought and training behind it behind
the scenes there's a beautiful bloody
dance being executed with the precision
of a Swiss watch let's take a look at
the origins and influencers of the
wonderful art we're calling bralette
it's a word that we made up which is
like brawl and ballet because you know
dancing and fighting it it'll make sense
trust me
fake fighting is almost as old as actual
Fighting's most gladiator fights and
medieval joust were about as legit as a
steel cage match and as long as plays
have existed they've used choreographed
battles ever read Shakespeare that's a
dumb question there's a surprising
amount of swordplay involved and he
describes everyone with just two words
they fight it was up to theatre
companies to fill the gap they developed
a set of fencing routines that for the
most part we're still in use during the
birth of motion picture good thing too
since the swashbuckler was one of the
most popular genres in the early days
there were some of the very first action
films with cocky heroes epic stunts and
expert swordplay one of the earliest
examples is the Mark of Zorro from 1920
there was the first film to hire a
fencing master to help star Douglas
Fairbanks with his sword moves and fight
coordinators have been a necessity ever
since
but swashbucklers were expensive and
they fell out of style as cheaper
westerns and gangster movies got more
popular though they never went away
entirely
Star Wars is basically a swashbuckler
and sci-fi close but the biggest
innovations in on-screen fighting came
out of Asia with the birth of martial
arts movies
beginning in the 20s Chinese and later
Hong Kong filmmakers were experimenting
with their own brand of action cinema
the first Asian action films were in a
genre called Wu Xie based on popular
fantasy novels about warriors in ancient
China heroes flew through the air
performed feats of strength and fought
mystical villains Crouching Tiger Hidden
Dragon was the first time most westerns
experience wushu
with the genres intricate wirework and
impossibly cool moves were already
blowing minds in the matrix which
housekeys hired Hong Kong director and
choreographer Yuen woo-ping to design
the five teams for their cyberpunk
masterpiece you can see the trademarks
of Wu pings earlier work in the sparring
session with neo and Morpheus like the
dramatic poses and the flying bicycle
kicks from fist of legend or the gravity
defying flips from drunken master and
Tai Chi master after the matrix wire
through became the hottest thing in
Hollywood and it's still very much alive
today but if you like your action a
little more down-to-earth the kung-fu
films of the 70s and 80s took place in a
realistic contemporary setting and
instead of actors and acrobats
the heroes were played by a legit
martial artist like Jackie Chan who
introduced comedy into martial arts
movies and started over 150 films and
Bruce Lee the Enter the Dragon star
became a global phenomena despite only
being in five films studios turned out
some systems by the bucketload and a lot
of them made their way to America and
recut and badly dubbed version Gohan you
show me what show hey come fo sho it's
worth noting though that these were some
of the only action movies where the
heroes aren't just voided out white
dudes and they made a big impression on
the african-american community wu-tang
anyone as in the films were also a big
influence on aspiring filmmakers like
Quentin Tarantino who basically wrote
Kill Bill as a love letter to the genre
the house of blue leaves sequence takes
a lot from Jimmy Wang used to Chinese
boxing where the hero fights off a
hundred enemies in one scene there are
also a magis to Bruce Lee in fists of
fury like the part where he starts a
nunchuck and away on the angry mob backs
off for a second is just like wow
it's all over the place
so while fight choreography was breaking
new ground in Asia what was going on
back in the USA remember Sally when I
promised to kill you last this week me
just did I lied
well for starters most 80s action stars
we're a little too beeping to pull off
quick acrobatic kungfu choreography i'm
not saying the word standouts by the way
i'm gonna serve that with a legendary
back alley brawl and Bailey it's an
agonizingly long cerebral to look back
and by the end it feels like you just
got your ass kicked by Keith Davis but
for the most part American action heroes
specialized in taunting and quips
I have come here to chew bubblegum and
kick ass and I'm all audible later
smaller and more athletic action stars
emerged to bring martial arts back into
the mix like jean-claude van Damme in
bloodsport which is by the way what
inspired Mortal Kombat or the cinematic
treasures that are Chuck Norris and even
the Gulf I don't know if you've seen uh
Steven Seagal movie but you should
definitely watch every single what you
would die
over in Hong Kong filmmakers were
developing a fusion between their
traditional kung fu style and good ol
American Life done whoo come true fans
weren't that interested in gunplay
before John Woo hit the scene Wu had the
brilliant idea to turn them into a
ballet we want to talk about dance
check out the hospital shoot out from
hard-boiled imagine all of the precision
choreography that went into this
3-minute take it's not just the action
the crew had some maneuver around to
avoid being in the shot and probably to
avoid being shot
and every tiny squib had to explode at
just the right minute
there was one part where the two
characters duck into an elevator and
they're only in there for 20 seconds but
outside the crews changing up the entire
set so they can continue the carnage the
moment they step outside it's seriously
impressive stuff and way before CGI
could just make a room rule perfected a
lot of modern action movie tropes and
films like the killer and bullet in the
head there's dual wielding handguns and
diving between bullets close quarters
gunfights that incorporate hand-to-hand
combat and for better or worse his
pioneering use of slow-motion basically
made Zack Snyder's career possible Wu
made films in America - like the
absolutely incredible face-off though he
kind of went a little off the rails with
Mission Impossible -
[Applause]
aside from some bright spots nuez action
movies we're in a pretty crappy place
during - mm I mean I remember it was
terrible and while overseas action fans
were enjoying movies like eat mine old
boy in the raid we got stuff like the
taken and born movies
the first ones were alright but they
established the trend of shakey cams
quick cuts and close-ups that make the
action impossible to follow that's why
John wick was such a breath of fresh air
[Applause]
legions to health ski film long shots
and lengthy takes and they still pulled
off some of the most intense gunfights
in close quarters combat I've ever seen
they didn't have to hide behind key on a
stunt double because there wasn't one
he's just that bad cat so is Charlize
Theron who sparred with him during the
month she spent training for a comic
salon she's already established her
action skills with Mad Max fury road and
she stepped up her game for Alicia's
stylish spy thriller she cracked two
teeth rehearsing the choreography
but her background and dancing gave her
the discipline and athleticism needed
for the long fight sequences that's
because fighting in the film is so much
more than just fake punching it's a
skill it's an art and above all else
it's brawler a beautiful and brutal
dance
hey guys I'm Andrew and I have a green
belt in Kung Fu which lets you know that
I'm super qualified to tell you all
about fight choreography I hope you
enjoyed watching the video and I am for
you to go watch some old classic kung fu
movies they're so dope especially Bruce
Lee's movies as always please like
comment and subscribe and thanks for
watching now this nerd