Video of Tae Kwon Do Form

I find it next to impossible to find Tae Kwon Do forms (aka. hyungs or tuls) on the internet. Most of them are slow, bouncy and weak, with bad timing and atrocious footwork. When I was at home last, I recorded one form called Hwa-Rang, with my phone when I was at the TKD gym (aka. Dojang or Dojo) working out by myself. This a low-res video, so bare with me.

I hope you enjoy and get to see what I consider to be a proper TKD form.



I've got some belt test footage on my computer that I just dug up recently so hopefully soon I will get some more up here.
I'm also planning film a more cinematic version of my black belt form, Kwang-Gae, and will have that up online as soon as I'm finished shooting and editing it.

Until later,
Joki

Videos of My Shaolin Kung Fu in China

I know it's been like two-and-a-half years now, but I finally got around to posting up some of the Shaolin kung fu forms (AKA "tao lu") on YouTube.

The following are after only 6 weeks of training, so the technique is still a bit rough.
Enjoy.

Xiao Hong Quan ("Little Red Fist")


Lian Huan Quan ("Continuous Linking Fist")


Tong Bei Quan ("Through-the-Back Fist")


Yin Shou Gun ("One-Section Staff")



My training took place at the Shi De Cheng Wushu Center of Song Shan Shaolin Kung Fu, in the city of Dengfeng, Henan province, China, under the tutelage of former Shaolin Temple monk, Shifu (master/teacher) Shi De Cheng. I trained there for a total of 6 weeks before heading back to Thailand to continue my training in Muay Thai. The city of Dengfeng itself is only hours away from the original Shaolin Temple -- Shaolin Si -- positioned at the foot of the Song mountain range ("shan" translating as "mountain" in English).

And that's my quick lesson in Shaolin history for today.
Later!

The Greatest YouTube Video EVER!

This is, without a shadow of a doubt, the single greatest video on YouTube!

Enjoy!

VFS Final Accept to Online Film Fest

The day has finally come! My Vancouver Film School final, a 10-minute short film entitled Prometheus, has been officially selected from more than 2000 other submissions to be a part of the Babelgum Online Film Festival, which is being hosted by none other than the influential and prolific director and filmmaker, Spike Lee!

So of course, I encourage all of you to download the Babelgum TV program here, so that you can create an account, view my short film and if it's not asking too much, vote very graciously towards the film so that I might be able to win upwards to €20,000 as well as meet Spike Lee at a gala luncheon in Cannes, France! The other bonus is that for every advertisement that accompanies my film, I get a share of the profits. So help me out and watch my film as many times as possible so I can make a dime in the process. Trust me! I promise not to forget all the people that help me work my way towards fame and fortune! (*Fingers crossed*)

********************************************************

I would like to preface, however with a few thoughts and explanations about my short film. For me, this was an attempt to "break all the rules" of cinema; an attempt to get across a concept that was possibly too complex for the short film format; but most importantly, it was an experiment to see how far I could push the envelope in questioning traditional cinema conventions and to try and employ the use of special effects and compositing to explore the problem of translating internal conflict onto the screen.

In retrospect, I would probably have gained more from doing a simpler film, but I'm all about the challenge, and now that I've experimented so vastly on this project, I'm ready to focus my talents on a more story-driven and more 'conventional' approach to film.

Thank you all for your support and please find the embedded site below.

Prometheus
**I'm not sure if this is working for anyone else, but if not you can use the following links:
-Prometheus on Babelgum
-Babelgum Online Film Festival
-Download Babelgum TV

Obama's a Muslim!?

I don't post anything political on the blog, and to be honest i haven't even been following politics very much recently, but the other day I came across this on the TV:



I'm still pissed that they even aired something like this on television! I mean seriously, isn't the US supposed to be a democracy with freedom of choice? How can a major news network go on the air and talk about "allegations" about someone being a Muslim in the same sort of demeanor that they would if they where addressing whether they're a pedophile or a neo-nazi!?

I can understand that within the interview scenario, the interviewer has the ability to guild the interviewee's answers with the way they choose to word there questions, but regardless of that, the only correct response that Hilary Clinton could have given to that question would have been, "Well I don't really see why it matters, or how it would make any difference, regardless of the religious views!"

Here's more on the whole bullshit news story:


Why can't we all just chill out at appreciate each other as human beings. Each of us with our own beliefs and experiences.
Why can't people understand that a specific sequence of neuron synapses firing in a single person's brain is absolutely infinitesimally insignificant when compare to the magnanimous proportion of the universe.


(Take into account that our Milky Way is one of more that half-a-trillion galaxy that comprise our universe.)

Tolerance is fun!
:D

Mathew's Movie Review: The Island

I don't care what anyone says about this movie, or what anyone is going to think about me for saying this; but I liked this movie! I really did!

I mean, yeah, I can understand why it was poorly received; film buffs saw it and thought it was nothing more than a Michael Bay action roller coaster ride, only out to pull in some green with the promise of sci-fi special FX, car chases, explosions, product placement and two big-name actors attached to the cover.

Fans of the high-octane shoot 'em up genre where probably pissed that the movie wasn't exactly as it was advertised, and the beginning was too "slow" (meaning that there was an actual dramatic plot element that took away from cool action sequences).

In my opinion, even though this film was obviously made in order to rake in loads of cash and it's doubtful that Bay had any interest in the film that was deeper than that, this film has a very strong theme and a powerful message that goes along with the action sequences (which are pretty intense, I might add!). This is probably a similar reason as to why I like I, Robot so much as well.

I personally found the storyline of The Island to be enjoyable, the cinematography rather standard for movies of this genre, the acting was pretty good. The whole utopia/dystopia thing was represented nicely. The setting of 2019 was a bit soon for my liking (I don't foresee "hover bikes" being in commercial use in 11 years from now, but that's just me), of course it's always possible that the date is and homage to Blade Runner, which was set in 2019, but who knows. There's a few issues with continuity and a few anachronisms, but I can let those pass.

All in all, I give it:
8.5/10

Like I said, I don't care what anyone else thinks! Flame me all you want! :D