Watching the TV show, The Boondocks, I came across this character by the name of Bushido Brown. Doing a little research on him they state that he is based upon the deceased movie actor and martial artist, Jim Kelly, specifically his character renditions in Black Belt Jones and Enter the Dragon respectively. Mr.Kelly trained in the art of Okinawan-Te. I am no Martial Artist expert (practitioner or historian) however I thought the fighting was pretty interesting and wondered if anyone familiar with or has an idea of what the particular fighting style(s) this character could possibly using (if any at all). Thank you Video 1 (Graphic Language), Video 2.
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1Offhand, I see several moves cribbed from Bruce Lee and various Kung Fu movies. I don't see much from Jim Kelly's usual fighting style, but that may be because animation tends to be much more stylized.– Macaco BrancoCommented Apr 17, 2021 at 13:59
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@MacacoBranco Thanks for the response. Would you (if there were to be a classification) classify it as JKD?– יהודהCommented Apr 17, 2021 at 15:27
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2JKD would likely be the closest you could come, since it's clearly "school of Bruce Lee", where he wasn't defined by a single style. But it's more of an artistic homage to that era of American kung fu fighting, as opposed to a fight choreographer utilizing specific as specific martial system. American black culture was probably the first to enthusiastically embrace Chinese martial arts in the US!– DukeZhouCommented Apr 20, 2021 at 0:58
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1@DukeZhou As you alluded to I heard that JKD isn't really a style but just an expression of the individual's "particular" style of fighting. For example, Bruce Lee's JKD would be a whole lot different than say Dan Inosanto's expression of JKD because they're two different people with different character traits. Is this true and if so can one really learn "JKD" from a martial arts academy/gym/dojo?– יהודהCommented Apr 20, 2021 at 5:09
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1My sense is that JKD was an early expression of MMA, but even before Bruce Lee, Oyama and Kimura were cross training in Karate, Judo and Jujitsu... There are probably schools that teach "JKD", but it's not quite the industry contemporary MMA is, and so likely lacks the formalization of the training regimen across schools. It's also important to remember that a practitioner's own physiology will dictate their strengths and weaknesses, so a good teacher will often emphasize different techniques for different students.– DukeZhouCommented Apr 20, 2021 at 19:11
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1 Answer
Bruce Lee is what I most see.
In the video 1:
- At 0:22 the character does Bruce Lee movie vocalization
Although the loose hands are not exclusively from Lee.
At 0:32 the character does Muhammad Ali footwork which Lee was famous for incorporating
At 1:03 the character jumps onto a felled opponent with both heels, which Lee definitely utilized in film
The dodging is also reminiscent of Lee when unarmed against a weapon, but you see this in a lot of Shaw era kung fu films.
(Beheading at the end is a nod to Master of the Flying Guillotine—in flying guillotine films the weapon is often wielded by a "white eyebrow" master, connoting advanced age. In the cartoon, it is the old man who defeats the youngblood with this weapon:)
In spirit, I think Jim Kelley is a good call, but the flavor is definitely Bruce Lee.
In video 2, the style is less overt, but you still have the Lee vocalizations, and the racing stripe on the gi is a nod to Lee famous jumpsuit. There, because the opponent is depicted as very tall (compared to the kid facing him) it makes me think more of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who famously fought Lee in Game of Death, using those long legs to great advantage.
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1Sir, you methodically tackled and answered this question. I thoroughly appreciate you taking the time and energy to provide your insights. You even answered the question that I didn't ask but desired to know the answer to (Knowing what style of footwork he did at the 32nd-second mark in video 1). Take this +1, you earned it champ :).– יהודהCommented Apr 20, 2021 at 1:43
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1@יהודה It's great to have questions about choreography because it's such a big part of the arts since its introduction to cinema! (Many martial artists earn very good livings that way, and for those who know what to look for, it's one of the great modern art forms:)– DukeZhouCommented Apr 20, 2021 at 2:12