Simon Fon is a fight director, stunt performer, and martial arts master living in Toronto, Canada. He has worked on numerous television programs, including "Mutant X". Simon has choreographed fights for numerous film and theatre productions, and is a highly respected instructor of stage combat.

"The Eclectic Nature of Martial Arts in Film & TV" was first published in "Master at Arms" magazine, the official publication of Fight Directors Canada.

It was about the end of June, and the 2002 [Fight Directors Canada] National Stage Combat workshop had been over for only a few days, so I decided to get my life back and spend time with my wife, and what a better way to do both than by going to the movies. We (okay I) decided to go see The Bourne Identity. I was quite excited at the prospect of seeing an “old style” action movie, with little or no CGI, and of course some great fight sequences.

Lo and behold, Hollywood did not disappoint this time. The film was fun, suspenseful, smart and full of wonderful surprises, and the fights actually made me forget that I was watching choreography. After leaving the cinema I caught myself mentally reviewing the fights in my mind, and I came to the conclusion that today, more than ever, the status of Martial Arts Choreography demands that many styles be fused into one, making for fast, entertaining, surprising, unpredictable, and in the case of the film I saw, realistic violence.

A few weeks earlier I had purchased Ultimate Fights, a DVD hosted by renowned Fight Master and Stunt Coordinator, James Lew. The DVD showcases some of Mr. Lew’s favourite fights, including some of his own work like Timecop with Jean-Claude Van Damme. I was again pleasantly surprised by how in depth Mr. Lew was with his behind-the-scenes commentary, his demonstration of how to put a fight together and most of all his attention to detail and explanation of all the various styles used within the Martial Arts sequences featured. Before each sequence there would be an introduction, similar to the ones you have before a boxing bout, stating the character’s name and the styles they would be using. Again the whole experience just reconfirmed my belief that Martial Arts in cinema is becoming more and more eclectic.

The question is: Has this always been the case?

Let’s examine a brief history of Martial Arts not only in the cinema, but also its exposure to North American culture. Westerners were really introduced to the Asian Martial Arts on a grander scale sometime after WWII, where the art forms of Judo and Karate started to be implemented into some of the Military training tactics. In the 1950s and ‘60s we started to see the influence of Korean art forms such as Hapkido and Tang Soo Do (Chuck Norris’ art form), and the idea of attending a “Dojo” and learning “self-defense” techniques started to intrigue our psyches. At the same time many of Japan’s “chambara” films such as The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa, and Sword of Doom by Kihachi Okamoto made the legend of the Samurai and the art forms of Kenjutsu and Iado, live and breathe in our minds. Then along came Bruce Lee in the mid ‘60s, and things were never the same. For the first time, North Americans were dazzled by a style that looked like no other, yet vaguely reminded us of Judo, Hapkido, Kung-Fu, Karate and so on. Lee called it Jeet Kune Do. It was nasty, and extremely sexy stuff to watch. There was a very palpable shift that occurred, and Hollywood noticed. In Lee’s Enter the Dragon, the opening sequence (where Lee actually squares off against Martial Arts legend Sammo Hueng) there is an amalgamation of Kung-Fu, Silat, Aikido, Judo and even gymnastics. It was the film that brought Bruce Lee and the Martial Arts over the top, and into the popular mainstream. Even after Lee’s death, there was an increase in the use of Asian Martial Arts on the whole. From James Bond and Rambo, to Xena and Lara Croft, no one has ever since just thrown a simple knife or ridge hand strike to the neck to get the job done — unless of course you happen to be Austin Powers and are sending-up the older films.

Today, even within a particular art form such as Kung Fu, we see the attention to detail and respect given to the various styles originating from the Northern and Southern styles, and the various weapon forms found within each of these Chinese brands of Kung-Fu. I would even venture to say that Master Yuen Wo Ping (of Matrix and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame) has added yet another “cinematic” Martial Arts style with his own unique brand and mastery of Hong Kong wirework. Ridiculed by North Americans as early as a decade ago for being over the top, and unbelievable, it is now a part of almost every mainstream action movie and TV show today.

In real life, going back to the military, we are seeing an increased trend towards diversifying a soldier’s training. Masters such as Paul Vunak are teaching their own brand of Jeet Kune Do concepts to Marines, Navy Seals and security people around the country; and are in incredible demand to teach seminars at every kind of Dojo yearning to expand their Martial Arts education.

Sport Entertainment has seen an unprecedented rise in viewership for the now infamous Ultimate Fighting Challenge, or as they term it now Mixed Martial Arts. I must admit, it is quite brutal to watch, and at the same time for a practicing Martial Artist, it is rather informative. Regardless of the medium you are watching, the “proof is in the pudding.” The ever-changing nature of Martial Arts is reflective in our entertainment. Throughout history cultures would clash, and styles would intertwine based on effectiveness and efficiency, whether it be on the battleground or in self-defense. In the entertainment industry, the change seemed to have rapidly moved toward being eclectic near the second half of the 20 Century, and it probably had less to do with effectiveness and efficiency and more with keeping our behinds in the seats, and our limited attention spans engaged. Either way, I still think Matt Damon displayed great form and knowledge of varying styles while kicking some major butt a la Hollywood.