I’ve just finished watching Faking It on Channel 4. For those unfamiliar with the format, and have therefore no doubt had their heads buried beneath a load of rocks for the past year, it follows the trials and tribulations of an unsuspecting individual lifted from their chosen profession and thrown into a world completely unknown to them. For instance, I’ve just seen a tattoo-laden grunge-loving IT goth being stripped of his ear-piercings and forced onto a flailing horse to learn the rules and etiquette of polo.
Its a rocky ride at first, but a month forward and he’s entertaining the higher classes at a special charity function, with much of both party’s ignorance still in tact. The trainers were more keen on our scruffy young man to look good, rather than pull off an accurate rendition of the game. This got me thinking.
The age-old tradition of having martial artists in martial art pictures now seems to be wearing a little thin. It’s a fact well noted, and a conversation frequently exercised in pub discussions and Internet fan sites. It seems Hollywood churns out a succession of Faking It interpretations without even knowing. With the emphasis being behind looking good, and therefore employing stunt doubles and the best choreographers money can buy, we seem to have an array of new kung fu stars on our hands: Keanu Reeves, Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu and Tom Cruise. All undergo the obligatory "intensive training"; all talk of profound influences the teachings have had on their lives; all reap the personal rewards of a new, profound and iconic martial status.
So what’s the big deal? Is it even important anymore that we no longer have martial artists in our kung fu movies? Many argue for the positions of the Hong Kong stars, the majority of which have extensive backgrounds in martial art training and have put their efforts onto celluloid with tremendous success: there’s Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Sammo Hung, Donnie Yen, Bruce Lee.
Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill"
All these were martial artists in their own right, and many fans argue that martial art pictures look all the more authentic with the stars having acquired the skills beforehand, and not have to fake it in order to look good.
The fact is performers faking it have always dogged martial arts movies. In fact, some of the best and most renowned kung fu films feature actors who have little knowledge of the art itself, and some of the genres most notable stars have backgrounds in things totally unrelated: Leung Kar Yan received no formal training and made a load of classic chopsockies; Jimmy Wang Yu was a swimmer; Ang Lees Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon starred a Chinese soap actor and a ballet dancer; while the amount of Hong Kong singers who’ve turned their hands to kung fu in the last 15 years is enough to fill a fair number of polo teams. Shaw Brothers made a living out of transforming young actors into kung fu prodigals, and still became the number one export for authentic kung fu movies.
So the fact Cruise can swing a mighty Samurai sword in the face of a hoard of oncoming Ninjas really doesn’t bother me. I thought Cruise did well in The Last Samurai, a realistic and effective action movie in which the star emphasis was firmly on looking good, just like it always has done in the past. It’s a true, if scary realisation, that the only authentic martial artists making successful martial art pictures these days are Jet Li and Jackie Chan. But if you ask me what did I enjoyed more, The Tuxedo or something like Kill Bill, then the answer’s as obvious as an eye gouging from Uma Thurman. In ten years time, when Jackie and Jet finally hang up their slender shoes, there will be no place for the martial artist in martial art films, besides acting behind the scenes and disguising the lead’s more complicated movements.
One can only assume with the amount of digital tampering and doubling that sanitises the action movie scene at the moment, just about anyone could fill Jackie and Jet’s shoes. We’ve already had the MTV crowd satisfied with The Matrix and those hideous Charlie’s Angels movies, so just about anything could be on the cards. I’d personally like to see a remake of Five Deadly Venoms, funded in two parts by Miramax and starring a quintet of heavily trained Hollywood B-listers: Rick Moranis, maybe, or Steve Guttenberg. Heck, let’s get Jack Nicholson in a Ninja outfit and that’s one bad guy you’re not going to forget. Now that’s a Faking It programme I’d quite happily sit and watch.
Fun and Entertainment 
I’ve just finished watching Faking It on Channel 4. For those unfamiliar with the format, and have therefore no doubt had their heads buried beneath a load of rocks for the past year, it follows the trials and tribulations of an unsuspecting individual lifted from their chosen profession and thrown into a world completely unknown to them. For instance, I’ve just seen a tattoo-laden grunge-loving IT goth being stripped of his ear-piercings and forced onto a flailing horse to learn the rules and etiquette of polo.
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