Redbelt vs. The Foot Fist Way Review

Overall 4.00 of 5 (by 1 user)

LauraBelle
South Elgin, IL

Two Very Different Views of Life In Martial Arts

a martial artist, Movie Reviewer, a storyteller, A Big Giant Sap, a believer of fate

Pros

Inspired fighting, Show of Principles

Cons

sometimes makes fun a little too much

NOV

2008

Redbelt vs. The Foot Fist Way —

I had myself a martial arts film fest this weekend. I was testing for my second dan black belt in tae kwon do, and I was trying to pump myself up. I wanted to watch some good martial arts films for that inspiration. I decided to surround myself with the three martial arts films that came out this year, The Forbidden Kingdom, Redbelt, and The Foot Fist Way. The first film in this list I reviewed at an earlier date, so I'll let that one go for now, but I decided to compare what I saw in the two lesser-known films.

Both Redbelt and The Foot Fist Way were about martial arts school owners that get ahead of themselves and start to lose their way, the first a drama, and the second a comedy. Both get attracted to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and begin to forget about why they're there to begin with, although the school owner in The Foot Fist Way is much more willing to be pulled into it initially as the school owner in Redbelt.

I saw more of the great fighting I was looking for in Redbelt. It was what I needed to charge myself up. Despite the fact the school was a jujitsu school and not my preferred martial art, it still showed some spectacular fighting, empty-handed, with weapon, and ground grappling as well. Even though I knew I wouldn't come close to looking like that in my own fighting, I wanted to bring in that same fire that I saw here.

I left The Foot Fist Way until shortly after my test intentionally, as being a comedy, I didn't think I'd be able to inject the needed comedy beforehand. I was glad I waited to watch this, as it wasn't even remotely serious and pretty much made fun throughout. This was my own martial art of Tae Kwon Do (which means "To kick with the foot, punch with the hand, art way or method in Korean), and it showed the owner running his school with reckless abandon, seeming to care more about looking cool than teaching his students to defend themselves. I did find elements of it funny, and had I not been so heavily invoved in martial arts, I would have probably found it more humorous.

In the end, though, what I identified with the most wasn't the type of martial arts being displayed or the intensity. What I dentified with were the principles, even if they only became really clear in the end. While some outside of martial arts might think it's all about the physical aspect, there is actually a lot of mental work and principles involved as well. At the end of both of these movies I was left with the same thought, that in the end, once you lose everything else, all you have left are your principles.