Voting will close on May 15th at 6 pm EDT. Seven Samurai vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) In this review, I will do a short comparison (spoiler free) of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 epic film Seven Samurai against the more recent, but still (in my opinion) classic Teenage Mutant Ninja [Read More]
Full Disclosure: The school I am an instructor at teaches kids and teenagers, and we do have a Junior Black Belt grade. A retest (with additional material) is required at age 16 to receive a full black belt. The opinions expressed here are my own only, legal mumbo jumbo, yadda [Read More]
Voting will close on 05/12/2019 at 6 pm EDT. The Sequel Versus The One That Started It All The first Ip Man movie was a breath of fresh air, started a trend of Ip Man related movies, and gave Donnie Yen’s career a big push. It was an odd choice at [Read More]
Voting will close on May 8, 2019, at 6 pm EDT. Okay, round one has determined, by your poll results, the 8 greatest martial arts films of all time! In this showdown, we have two expected winners with the #7 seeded Jet Li’s Fearless vs the #2 seed The Karate [Read More]
Breaking Down the Aftermath of the Sweet Sixteen Matchups Now that voting has closed on all the Sweet Sixteen–round matchups, we will be moving forward to the Elite Eight. So, how did the voting go? Which movies won, and which didn’t make the cut? Read on to find out! #1 [Read More]
Season 2 Primer Wow. That is all I can come up with when I think about how truly great the first season of Cobra Kai was. This cannot be overstated. There were so many ways it could have gone wrong, and triple the ways it could have been just okay. [Read More]
Breaking Down Cobra Kai Season 1-With Spoilers! It is no secret that I really enjoyed the first season of Cobra Kai. I was thrilled to see that they not only brought the original characters back but also made a flat-out fantastic show. You can listen to a spoiler-free discussion I had with Sensei [Read More]
Voting will be open until 04/24/19 at 6 pm EDT. Looking At Two Very Different Movies When I decided to take this matchup, I honestly thought it would be kind of easy. However, it has proven to be much more complex than I had anticipated. I really hadn’t thought too [Read More]
Seven Samurai vs. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Voting closes on 4/21/19 at 6 pm EDT. It’s An Art House Battle Royal! In terms of movie making, these might be the two most beautiful martial art movies ever made! We all know that martial arts movies are usually relegated to the [Read More]
Voting closes on 4/19/19 at 6 pm EDT. Two Opposites Face Off: Ip Man 2 vs. Ong Bak! If you look hard, you may find two movies that are even further apart that Ip Man 2 vs. Ong Bak(click on the links for full movie reviews). Yes, they both revolve [Read More]
Benefits are everywhere when you look for them, even if you are not a fan of where the benefit comes from. Many TMA practitioners (Traditional Martial Arts) don’t like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Many MMA fighters don’t like TMA. The reasons are everything from a lack of an open mind [Read More]
Voting will be open until 4/17/19 at 6 pm EDT. Click on these links to read the full movie reviews of Fearless and Kickboxer. Fearless vs Kickboxer – In this matchup we have two of the most beloved martial arts movie actors of all time, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jet [Read More]
Breaking Down Cobra Kai Season 1-With Spoilers! It is no secret that I really enjoyed the first season of Cobra Kai. I was thrilled to see that they not only brought the original characters back but also made a flat-out fantastic show. You can listen to a spoiler-free discussion I had with Sensei [Read More]
There is no rubric to determine what makes a good martial arts movie. Can a movie survive based on the action alone? Or are the story and characters what make a movie great? Consider the films Ip Man and The Raid: Redemption while keeping questions like this in mind. One [Read More]
Welcome to Positive Psychology Since you reading Martial Journal, it is a safe assumption that you are very interested in martial arts. Regardless of style, the training is the same: you’re less terrible with more practice. If you’re a white belt, don’t give up because you see a black belt [Read More]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(1990) Vs. Bloodsport It’s possible that no two movies in the first round matchups of the Martial Arts Movie March Madness are as different from each other as these two are. They are a true matchup of opposites. On one hand, you have the light and witty [Read More]
Matchup: The Karate Kid vs. Rumble in the Bronx March movie madness continues! The field has been culled and now only the sweet sixteen remain. This article covers one of the more uneven matchups in the tournament. The powerhouse plot of the number 2 seed, The Karate Kid goes head [Read More]
We Have A 3-Way Tie! Wow. Those of you participating in the Martial Arts Movie March Madness event have been keeping us busy. We were blown away by the response we got in the poll. There has also been lots of behind the scenes conversation and chat as to how [Read More]
This review is spoiler free! Where to Watch: DVD, Netflix Runtime: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes Language: Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese Starring: Donnie Yen Director: Wilson Yip Writer: Edmond Wong (screenplay) & Tai Lee Chan Rating: R Release Date: 2008 Style: Action, Biography, Drama, Sport More information can be found on the [Read More]
A prejudice common in the martial arts world is to automatically assume that training in the country of origin of a given martial art is superior to training anywhere else. I call it the “Training Overseas Fallacy.” I’ve practiced one martial art or another for forty-eight years, and taught for [Read More]
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