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District B13 Martial Art


clsage

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I had the chance to catch another showing of "District B13" yesterday and am having some issues deciding on an appropriate martial art style for the lead character(s). It looked to me like it MIGHT be a version of Escrima combined with parkour. However, a bio of one of the lead actors states: "Utilizing shotokan karate and wushu, Raffaelli has been a regular in films with Luc Besson and David Belle....". So, since my knowledge base of martial arts styles is still a work in progress so I thought I'd ask here.....Anyone familiar with the film ?

 

The film in question:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_13

 

Thanks.

 

-Carl-

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

I've seen the film. The martial art style is "movie-fu" :D. That said David Belle has mostly trained in Wushu/Kung Fu. You could go that route, but given the way he fought in the movie, I'd suggest combining points in leaping, climbing and acrobatics combined with Capoeira. It has that tumbling, acrobatic feel and the maneuvers fit pretty well with the way he fights in the film.

 

cheers, Mark

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

I had the chance to catch another showing of "District B13" yesterday and am having some issues deciding on an appropriate martial art style for the lead character(s). It looked to me like it MIGHT be a version of Escrima combined with parkour. However' date=' a bio of one of the lead actors states: "Utilizing shotokan karate and wushu, Raffaelli has been a regular in films with Luc Besson and David Belle....". So, since my knowledge base of martial arts styles is still a work in progress so I thought I'd ask here.....Anyone familiar with the film ?[/quote']

 

Which Banlieue 13 character are you trying to emulate, Leito or Damien?

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

parkour does seem like one of those few things where "flying dodge" seems appropriate. Probably a lot of defensive maneuvers and attack maneuvers that maintain a high dcv and/or use movement. I suspect there's also some element of using surprise to gain advantage.

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

Well, a part of the philosophy is that martial arts is what you use when you have to fight and Parkour is what you use when you need to escape (RUN AWAY!!!).

 

So a more realistic Parkour style wouldn't necessarily have any offensive maneuvers of it's own, with traceurs that are interested in fighting having to borrow them from other styles or learn them from like minded individuals.

 

Obviously the cinematic style has them in spades though ;)

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

I'd say what you see on screen from Cyril is a blend of Wu Shu, Karate and Muay Thai.

 

I say Muay Thai because of his use of certain elbow strikes and the Plum Position during some knee strike sequences. However, many SE Asian MA share similar techniques, so that's quite arguable. I honestly don't know enough about his background to say anything definitive on that one, but I wasn't getting a very Filipino Martial Arts vibe from it.

 

Obviously, add in a fair amount of gymnastics and movie-fu. He's actually not doing all that much parkour in his scenes, but that was probably a conscious choice to help Bell shine.

 

As for actual maneuvers I saw, Id say:

 

Martial Strike - Punches, Elbows

Offensive Strike - Kicks, Knees

Martial Block

Martial Grab - Fair amount of grappling and controlling people.

Martial Disarm - Kicking guns out of hands and such.

Martial Throw

Legsweep

Sacrifice Throw - He hurls himself and his opponent off a balcony. That's some sacrifice!

Joint Break - breaks a guys neck, some knees and elbows.

 

Arguably, he may also have Flying Dodge and some sort of maneuver with "FMove" and probably "You Fall" to represent the various drop kicks (though he may not have enough movement to make it worth it, so you may wish to go with something like Sacrifice Strike).

 

Skills wise, Acrobatics and Breakfall are obviously very necessary for the fighting style.

 

And before anyone asks, no my memory isn't that good. I just rewatched all the fight scenes it on my lunch break ;)

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

I may thinking of the wrong movie.

 

Isn't this the one with the final fight scene between this guy we;re talking of and the guy who played the lead in "Ong Bak"?

 

IIRC (and I may well not) the other guy (the one we're talking about) had double swords and was acrobatic. Hence my conclusion.

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

I may thinking of the wrong movie.

 

Yep, definitely the wrong movie there..

 

You might be thinking of Tom-Yum-Gong (aka the Protector), but that fight wasn't the final battle.

 

And Jon Foo used a Wu Shu single broadsword and while fighting against Tony Jaa, who was using a pair of large "drumsticks" (I don't really know what the things used to hit a gong are called... gongsticks?).

 

In the proceeding fight, Tony fought Lateef Crowder, who was using Capoeira...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

For the ultimate street-level vigilante you could have a mid-level ninjutsu black belt who knows parkour. Remember, ninjutsu wasn't just a martial art, it also taught espionage, infiltration and even assassination techniques. The earliest sources refer to it as shinobi-jutsu, "the art of stealing in".

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

For the ultimate street-level vigilante you could have a mid-level ninjutsu black belt who knows parkour. Remember' date=' ninjutsu wasn't just a martial art, it also taught espionage, infiltration and even assassination techniques. The earliest sources refer to it as shinobi-jutsu, "the art of stealing in".[/quote']

 

Technically, "ninjutsu" isn't really the martial art at all ;)

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

Technically' date=' "ninjutsu" isn't really the martial art at all ;)[/quote']

 

Yeah, technically the martial art part of it is "taijutsu", and under Dr Hatsumi, the current grandmaster, it's "Bujinkan Dojo Budo Taijutsu" and the main dojo in Japan is known as "Hombu".

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  • 9 months later...

Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

As for actual maneuvers I saw, Id say:

 

Martial Strike - Punches, Elbows

Offensive Strike - Kicks, Knees

Martial Block

Martial Grab - Fair amount of grappling and controlling people.

Martial Disarm - Kicking guns out of hands and such.

Martial Throw

Legsweep

Sacrifice Throw - He hurls himself and his opponent off a balcony. That's some sacrifice!

Joint Break - breaks a guys neck, some knees and elbows.

 

 

Congradulations Bloodstone you gave the mechanics of about 70% of the styles in the Ultimate Martial Artist. :) (I now put my guards up!)

 

Seriously, that is a good start. I am going to add that the character should by some levels of HA with the limitation RSR (Acrobatics). First, of the Hollywood version of Parkor, the movement adds greatly to the damage done of the technique. Second, I know that the Acrobatics roll can add to damage, but I believe you need to beat your roll by 2 to get any benefit. And third I can't remember the second, so this makes it easier for me. :)

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Re: District B13 Martial Art

 

There are no official rules for it. I started a thread on it a few months ago.

 

I remeber that thread. Just thought that if someone was to build a "pure" Parkour art, it would be more like the Ghost Eye style. In where the Art is more of a collection of abilities which are not fighting moves, but training and skills. For reference, Ghost Eye is a bunch of Senses, detects, and talents. (Ultimate Martial Artist pg 66)

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