jonathan on a path: videos: way of the warrior

there's been some discussion in class on good television documentaries on martial arts.

this was largely spurred by the airing of History Channel's Human Weapon, and the mixed feelings it's engendered with a people in class (including Sifu). the show isn't entirely a documentary, and in some ways seems to make concessions to entertainment. conceptually, it also is not particularly in-depth (not just in terms of research, but even conceptually--the hosts only spend about 2 weeks studying a particular martial art before engaging it in a match). you can see the History Channel page:
http://www.history.com/minisites/humanweapon

there is a 2nd series i've presented from BBC called Mind, Body, & Kick-Ass Moves. having viewed the 10 episodes posted on YouTube, i have to say it's even more in the direction of entertainment than Human Weapon. this is to be expected, given that it's a 30-minute show. but there are some redeeming qualities about it, in that the host is actually able to provide live (and useful) translations of his interview subjects' comments, and the show does devote time to discussing myths versus truths about martial arts. you can see my post on it at:
http://jonathanonapath.blogspot.com/2007/08/videos-mind-body-kick-ass-moves.html

this post offers a 3rd series which some people have made positive comments about: Way of the Warrior. it was, incidentally, also a BBC production, but unlike Mind, Body, and Kick-Ass Moves (or even Human Weapon), appears to be much more faithful to the documentary genre, and is almost academic in its presentation of martial arts.

i'd venture saying it's much more in keeping with the reputation of the BBC as an exemplar of British education. sorry to say, comparing the tone and style of the '80s-era Way of the Warrior to the current Mind, Body, & Kick-Ass Moves, this reputation appears to have taken quite a hit.

i wrote about a segment of Way of the Warrior some months ago. you can see my post on it at:
http://jonathanonapath.blogspot.com/2007/04/videos-bbcs-way-of-warrior.html

for this post, i decided to see if i could hunt down all the episodes of Way of the Warrior. this turned out to be a bit of a challenge, since 1) it's been around 20 years since it's airing, 2) i don't know how many episodes there were, and 3) i don't know how much of the series was actually posted on YouTube.

i managed to find episodes from the series that covered the martial arts of Japan, China, the Philippines, and India. but that's about it. if there's more, i haven't found it. i would expect there to be, since a selection of just 4 countries seems a bit small as a research sample, particularly for a series presumably presenting martial arts in general (which would suggest a global scope).

in addition, you can see that the bulk of the episodes that i did find dealt with japanese martial arts. japan had 4 episodes, china 2, and the philippines and india each 1. this seems a little jarring, since there is as much (if not more) variety of styles in china as japan, and i suspect there's also similar variety in the philippines and india. i don't know if this is due to the BBC's focus or that these were the most popular episodes posted on YouTube.

of course, i issue the standard caveat of myth versus truth--i don't know how much is what in these shows. someone else will have to tell me. like i said in the other posts, i just find it interesting as a way of comparing different styles in relation to their distinct cultures and histories. you can compare Way of the Warrior for yourself to the other 2 series:

kung fu, the hard way