The Pod of Five Rings Ep. 26 Muay Thai Warrior

Based on a true story, Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya (aka Muay Thai Warrior) is a martial arts spectacle featuring some of the greatest Muay Thai fighters alive.

Betrayed and abandoned in Thailand, former samurai Yamada Nagamasa is nursed back to health and befriended by a group of Siamese warriors. While living among them, he is taught the beautifully brutal martial art of Muay Thai. After he uncovers a plot to incite war between Thailand and Japan, Yamada must decide where his loyalties lie - to the people he loves, or to the place he used to call home. What defines you? The blood in your veins, or the dirt you choose to be buried in after you die?

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
We emotional content. I'm gonna showyou how great I are. You want
here, You're gonna give us oneeverything. We welcome to the Pot of

(00:24):
Five Rings, Your Martial Arts podcastwhere we talk about martial arts, martial
arts, movies, and all thingsmartial arts with Your Martial Arts hosts Rob
Roland and Joe Sobula. Rob,what's shaken? I'm happy we're back to
recording. Yes, and what wehad one week off? Weeks? Yeah?
Week We just took last week off. I was I was in a
film, so I had to leaveleave town and you know internet was not

(00:47):
available in the mountains of Montana.So here we are. Yeah, Joe
can't say what he was working on. It wasn't Avengers six. We can't
say was it legally we can't,but it's it's gonna be out soon.
But no, I'm in a greatmood. We're talking about one of my
favorite hidden gems. You know,Thai martial arts don't get a lot of

(01:08):
featuring in like Western movies. Grantedthere's a lot of Muay Thai in martial
arts nowadays, that the movies themselvestend to not feature it. So I'm
glad we're getting to talk about today'sfilm, the multi titled what is it
twenty ten? Epic yep Yamada Samuraiof a Utia aka Samurai of a Utada

(01:29):
aka what title Warrior. It's gota lot of titles, So however you
want to find it and watch it, it's worth watching. And we did
find out that you can find iton YouTube. Yes. So I was
just saying, because I was justsort of wrapping this up, that I
actually recognized some of the scenes fromthis, but I didn't know the source
of them, because it's one wherea lot of these scenes have popped up

(01:49):
in you know, the top tenbest fights, you know best like you
said, Hidden Gem, Martial Artsmovies, those kinds of lists, and
so I've seen some of this stuff. I just I never had it in
full context. Very enjoyable film,I'm gonna say right off the get go.
I love the pretty much everything aboutit was enjoyable to me. There's
a lot of trope in this.There's a lot of yeah, I've seen

(02:13):
this story before. Yeah. Thething that gets me though, if you've
seen you know, The Last Samurai, if you've seen I mean pretty much
any Western homage to martial arts bloodsport. Even the white guy that becomes
the hero, right, the whiteguy who has no idea what martial arts
are and then he learns them overnightand becomes a hero is a trope.

(02:36):
And it's I think, for themost part, kind of a negative one.
It's that white savior syndrome. Youkind of get tired of see in
that all the time. So what'scool about this movie is two things.
One, this is Japanese guy who'salready a very accomplished martial artist before he
comes into this whole scenario. Andso for him, even the master who
trains him is just like you're alreadylike amazing, Like what can I teach

(02:58):
you? Like why would you wantto learn our way? Which I think
is integral to the plot. Butthen the other thing is they call him
white Face. Yep. It's like, yeah, I mean he's Japanese and
you're Taie, so I mean typicallyyeah, a lot paler. But I
just I love the idea that they'rejust calling that trope out, like,
head on, this is a whiteguy. His name is white face in

(03:21):
the film. Yeah, they goall out. He's literally called white face.
Yeah, it's not like they saythis guy is a white face.
He's called white face. Yeah that'shis name. I think it's Daniel Tosh
if not. Thom Sagura has awhole joke about how the Japanese are the
white people of Asia. They're likethey put everyone else down. Yeah,
it's like Chinese, you guys areYou're like the Mexicans of Asia to the

(03:43):
Japanese. The Japanese they consider theKoreans like you're the Asians to them.
So it's like Japanese is the bestyou can be. You're the white people
of that kind. And it's likehe goes on a whole list and it's
a it's real fucked up. Obviouslyit's it's Daniel Tosh at his highest right.
But it's really funny, and fromwhat I've heard, it's from people
that like live in the old Japaneseculture kind of true. Yeah yeah,

(04:06):
well, I mean, if you'vestudied martial arts, like, you know
that race plays into it. Andas as a white guy getting into martial
arts, it's difficult to face thatand it's almost surprising as to how prevalent
it is. So I studied swords, I learned under a Korean master,
and there are centuries of racism underwhy I learned the style I did behind

(04:30):
like from the guy that I learnedit from, because it's basically kendo,
but I learned it from a Korean. And so there's some like slight changes
to the way that we do things. But there's so much hatred between the
Koreans and the Japanese and all ofthat historical stuff, all that cultural stuff
comes into play, and if youdon't have a frame of reference, it
just seems really odd, like whywouldn't they share this? And I think

(04:55):
in the modern era, schools tendto be much more open, you know,
and it's not unusual to find veryhigh ranked white masters of Japanese martial
arts, where that would have beenunheard of, you know, one hundred
years ago. So I do feellike, you know, the young blood
coming into these arts is changing thatscene a little bit because a lot of

(05:17):
that hatred just gets buried in time. But it's also interesting to see it
reflected in the film, you know, and how these different cultures actually interact
with each other. I love theportrayal of the Thai people in this film
as basically just the way that themaster says is you have no enemies here.
You only have friends here. AndI feel like if I had just

(05:40):
got my ass handed to me ina fight and I blacked out and I
woke up and I didn't know whereI was and somebody said to me,
you only have friends here, Iwould relax like way more yeah than being
like, wait, I'm in astrange land. I don't know what's going
on. But just that phrase,I think that's a very poetic and a
very interesting way to frame that situation. So I I at that moment,

(06:03):
I think they place the country right, They place his reason for loving it
there, his reason for being willingto turn his back on his own culture,
versus the Last Samurai with Tom Cruise, where I mean pretty much he's
willing to turn his back on hisculture immediately for no real reason, and

(06:24):
then you know, justifies it laterbecause you know, white culture in America
at that time was, you know, slaughtering Indians and being proud about it.
So not like he was wrong.But even in that film there's a
joke about like why are you soquick to hate your own people? And
then this one like you could askthe same question. But it's also like
this guy's story makes sense. Imean, he's basically Ronan. He's he's

(06:46):
found out information that he probably shouldn'thave and they're trying to kill him,
Like why would he stay loyal tothat? Yeah? You know, and
he struggles with that because I thinkthat is part of the Japanese culture,
and I do think that's accurately representedin the film. So I think this
is a good time to do aquick overview of the plots because we haven't
really told the whole story yet.A spoilers based on a true story kind

(07:10):
of obviously not wholly true, butit is based on a real Like in
the intro they kind of say that, they're like, yeah, this is
this is loosely based on a truestory using some historical fact and some imagination.
Yeah, he probably didn't fight Ninja'severy other night, yeah, but
also might have at least once,you know. No, but this is
an actual Thai governor who was adisplaced Japanese samurai who ended up leaving and

(07:36):
you know, denouncing his citizenship toJapan to become a Thai citizen. That
part is true. And what happensis at this point Japan and uh it
is is it Thailand? At thispoint or Siam because it's the Udia.
Either way, I don't know thehistory well enough to be honest with you.
Yeah, it's gone through quite acouple of different names, but we'll

(07:56):
say Thailand for shorthand. Japan andThailand have kind of an ally ship.
You know, they're going to helpeach other out with resources. I believe
there's a brewing civil war that Japanjust helped them Quesch, but turns out
there's some parties from the Japanese thatdon't want that peace. And that's what
our hero Whiteface discovers. He discoversthat there's going to be some Japanese dude

(08:18):
sending in Japanese soldiers to pretend tobe the enemy soldiers so that the Tie
civil war will start again. Andso he finds this information. Now they
send assassins to kill him, andthis is where the Tie people take him
in and he kind of has thisdebate for the longest time, like does
he reveal that the Japanese are planningto betray them or that they have betrayed

(08:41):
them even though it's just a splintercell, it's not like the whole government.
It's the one guy who wants thiswar to start again, but he
recognizes, like if I tell themthis, there will be war again,
and I'm betraying my own country.But obviously it's it's you know, dancing
with wolves, it's the last Samurai, it's Pokahonas, it's they're nice to
him. Like you said in here, you have only friends. So it's

(09:03):
like, why would he be whywould he betray them? Why would he
be loyal to the Japanese who werewilling to toss him out and kill him
as soon as he wasn't useful tothem? Yeah, yeah, you know.
So it's a really beautiful story.And what I like the most about
it is that they don't make theTies seem like savages, you know,
that's kind of the they normally do. Like we have the one high culture
that has a very dark heart toit, right then you have a very

(09:26):
simplistic, nature focused culture that's gota very loving society, but it's obviously
technical, technologically inferior. In thisfilm, they make it clear like they're
just different cultures. Yeah, I'mgonna yeah, I agree with you on
that, because, like I said, the Thai culture is actually very beautiful
in this and it isn't portrayed asoverly simplistic. It's actually portrayed very almost

(09:46):
complicated in a way. Yeah,like very sophisticated. There's there's a lot
to it that he doesn't necessarily understand, you know. And when he sees
the Master with the tie tattoos downhis back, with all the Buddhist scripture
and everything, like he begins torealize it's like that word appearance of it
isn't isn't what it really is,Like there's a depth to this. And
meanwhile, they don't oversimplify the Japaneseend either, Like it does seem as

(10:07):
a very politically complicated, difficult situationthat he's in, and yet I don't
think they go into it as much. There's there's an assumption that we all
kind of understand the complexities of samurailife. Yeah. Yeah, I think
it's the samurai at this point arekind of like the Jedi in the Western
culture, Like everyone kind of understandswhat their code of ethics is, what

(10:31):
the complications of that culture looks like. So you don't you could shorthand it
right, Yeah, it's everyone knowsBatman's parents are dead. You don't have
to say explain it more but wedon't necessarily know too much about what seventeenth
century Thai culture was like, right, the bodyguard system they have, so
ultimately this this samurai becomes bodyguard tothe King of Thailand, and that's like
the big crux of the whole movie. It's like, who is going to

(10:52):
be selected to become a bodyguard?You have a feeling it's going to be
the main character, but we don'tknow. But that's a lot of fun
to explore, right, Like whatselection process to become a bodyguard to the
king? You know? The selectionprocess is you've got to be a monster
at Muay Thai. Yeah, yeah, and you got to be able to
take a licking and keep on taking. And then what I love is after
this selection process is over, likethat afternoon, they have to go and

(11:15):
fight two hundred guys and they're like, well, we could send a thousand
men and they're like, no,you're gonna send ten. And it's like
fox sake, I just asked andersto be fifteen times to make it on
this team. I'm a little bruised. I've been spinning blood since two o'clock.
I need I need medical attention.Now off to the jungle with you
you got you gotta go fight shorthanded. Well, just think like on a

(11:37):
college like or a high school wrestingteam, right, you have the varsity
and the JV team A and theB team. You don't send the B
team who just got hired or justgot on the team to go do the
varsity match. Is not how thatworks. Yeah, take take you've been
resting all day, they're probably morelikely to succeed. But that being said,
they did kick those guys out andthey didn't even get a scratch,

(11:58):
which is what's awesome. Like theyBut now we'll get away from the plot
a little bit and talk a littlebit about the marshall implications of this.
They do more damage to each otherto get into that role than their enemy
does to them. Yeah, likethat should tell you like how serious and
like how much dedication and how muchthey pour themselves into this, Like they

(12:18):
hold this on a very high pedestal, and they hold themselves to a very
very high standard, you know.And again this this Japanese guy comes in.
He's no slouch. He knows howto fight, you know, he
knows he's the best swordsman in thefilm by far. I mean he and
but it's not like he comes inand then teaches them his way. He
doesn't come in and teach them thattheir sword making tactics are wrong. What

(12:39):
he does, he comes in heblends them, yeah, you know.
And that's the symbol of the swordthat he makes. It has sort of
the Taie handle, but the Japaneseblade, And that's the gift he gives
to his blood brother, right,And it's a beautiful thing because it's not
that one is better than the other, you know. It's like these things
combined are better than these things separate, is really what the what I would
say is kind of the spiritual messthis. And even the master who teaches

(13:01):
him, you know, he's like, why do you want to learn this?
And as they're going through the trainingmontage, you realize, like,
Okay, he's picking it up reallyquickly because obviously he knows what he's doing.
It's like, you got to learnto play that game. If you
want to be the best at baseball, you have to play baseball. You
can't play cricket all the time andthen just walk in and play baseball and
expect to be good. Even ifyou're the best cricket player in the world,

(13:22):
right, They're just different. They'rejust different things. And so he
learns this different thing, and themaster says, you have to combine them.
You don't throw away everything else thatyou've learned, Like there's there's something
to that. You know. Wehave this very hard style. You have
this very soft style, which Ithink is hilarious because I should tell you
on to scale how hard movie tiereally is. Yeah, if they look
at karate as being the soft style, it's like the way he's doing it,

(13:48):
you know, like if they respecthim as a warrior and they're like,
that's the soft style, it's like, what is voy tie? Then?
Yeah? Yeah, So, butI do love the way that he
blends those styles because there are momentsvery very much stiffness and like elbows and
knees, but then he also doesthrow like some jiu jitsu in there.
He does throw some joint locks andsome some hip tosses and that in there,
which is something they never would haveseen or they may not be familiar

(14:11):
enough with. So he kind ofhave it as refined as he's able to
do it. Yeah, exactly exactly, but it is it is cool to
watch. It is cool to seeas as an athlete and as as filmmakers
how they were able to kind ofput that together in a way that was
intriguing. It was it was funto watch because he does move differently than
the other fighters, but it's stillkind of the same thing, you know

(14:33):
what team he's on. Yeah,especially once he starts doing the like cross
arm like boxing stance, which whenhe first starts fighting, like you see
his hands are very low, veryfar out he elbow so funny. Of
course, there's the standard scene wherelike he challenges the best multi fighter when
he's completely unprepared and the dude justknocks him out cold right away. Yeah,

(14:56):
but I'm sure you're going through thisnow as someone who's recently take into
muy thai after doing say space karateaka taekwondo for so long. Oh well,
my friend, I can't wait untilwe see each other in person again.
But I'm sure you're going through thesame thing that I go through now,
where like the people that I trainwith in kajakimbo, they're like,

(15:18):
your kajakimbo's so much better now,And I don't really do kajakimbo that much
anymore. Like I teach it,but I don't practice it that much anymore.
What I do do is a lotof moy thai, and what I
feel like is the one helps theother. Yes, you know, I
get very good at my snapkicks fromkajakimbo because I get to throw them into
my mouy thai. But the powerand the boxing style movements of muy thai

(15:41):
make all my kajakimbo so much better. Like they're they're both helping each other
and they don't work independently. It'smy fighting expression, right, which is
what this whole film's about. It'slike you're not keeping things separate from each
other. It's about how you interpretand internalize them. So I'm sure you
have that same feeling of like Iknow taekwondo and I can kick the sh
out of somebody. I can nowonly do better by learning how to play
this other game too. Yeah,exactly, nothing goes away, you know

(16:03):
what I mean. It's not likelike, okay, so we're just doing
boxing today. Well, okay,taekwondo, I'm not going to be throwing
kicks. But my sense of distance, my space, my timing right,
knowing how fast I can close agap, that all stays the same.
So it's just different aspects of things. When we start making kicks in like,
yeah, I do tend to kickwith the top of my foot,
you know. My coach is alwaysreminding me kick with the shin, kick

(16:26):
with the shin. But like Ikind of know, like what I can
do with the top of my foot, and I know that range, and
I'm comfortable enough doing that. Youknow, I'm okay with a broken toe.
If I wouldn't fight, yeah,you know what I mean, Like,
I don't have another fight coming,it's just that one. Like cool,
just you just go all up.But again that's years and years and
years of experience and having been throughit. Even when I learned started learning

(16:48):
sword fighting, it changed my senseof distance because I can strike from so
far out when I have a swordin it's it's surprising even to people who
are good at the art, likewhat that range is. And then you
take that sword out of your handand like your stance changes, in your
movement changes, But that sense isstill there of knowing what that range is
and where I'm safe and they're not, and that can that can turn the

(17:10):
tide of a fight. If Ican be comfortable at a particular distance and
I know that I have an advantage. It's a very you approach it very
differently than if you're questioning yourself.Yeah. Yeah, So actually, my
coach and I were talking about thislast night where he was saying, like,
because of your karate style background,you don't you aren't as strong in
the close range where multai wants tobe. You're much better at sniping people

(17:32):
from far away right. So he'slike, so we're going to get you
to get very good at jumping in, hitting really quickly, and then just
run away and let someone run toyou so you can play in that longer
range and sidekick the shit out ofpeople. Yeah, he's like, because
I could try to make you amulti fighter, I could try to make
you do that, and there's pointsthat I want you to have, but
the end of the day, yourgame is going to be that in and
out long range. So let's justget you there. Well, let's take

(17:55):
it. I mean, you don'thave to get very far into the world
of martial arts before you realize thedifferent body types and the exact strategies that
they have to use. You know, if I'm fighting a guy who's significantly
taller than me in taekwondo, I'mat a severe disadvantage, and I know
that I have to get inside hisrange, and I have to stay inside
his range, which means I haveto keep moving. It's going to be
a high energy fight for me,and I really have to keep that guy

(18:18):
on his heels, keep him movingbackwards, and then stick to him like
glue. Meanwhile, if I'm fightingsomebody who's significantly shorter than me, it's
the complete opposite of I've got tokeep them out of range. I've got
to keep them at a distance andnot let them get inside. And I
have to slow the fight down.So like you said, I can snipe.
Yeah, and so just depending onlike on who you're fighting, it's

(18:40):
a known if you and me fight, I know what you have to do
to beat me. I know whatyou're thinking, and it comes down to
execution at that point. Can Ikeep you from doing what I know you
want to do? Can I frustrateyour efforts? You know? And that
that is a very very different thingthan my snake's beats, your crane style,
Yeah, exactly. It's like onpaper, maybe you throw better kicks

(19:04):
to night. Maybe taekwondo throws betterkicks than karate does. Right on paper,
yes, but when it comes downto the individual, on paper doesn't
mean shit. Yeah, you knowit's going to change immediately. But while
we're talking about our individual experiences,and since we're talking about sword fighting so
much with this movie, I wantedto ask you, I've always wanted to
know what is the history of Kundobecause so think about this, right,

(19:27):
So Korea has existed for what threethousand years? Yeah, and it is
it's in this very strategic position.It's this peninsula that separates mainland China from
Japan. So if you want tolaunch an attack on Japan and you're China
like, you can cut your tripsignificantly if you own the Korean peninsula and

(19:47):
vice versa Japan. So realistically,the history of Korea is just constantly getting
run over. Now. Culturally,yes, they speak their own language,
but literally they use the same alphabet, right, So the same Chinese characters
are prevalent throughout most of Asia.So the Chinese use them, the Koreans
use them, the Japanese use them. They read them different, but they

(20:07):
still have the same meaning. Andso if you look at like all the
signs in Korea are written in acommon language. Then it was real easy
for the Japanese and the Chinese justkind of march in because they could read
the street signs, they knew wherethey were, they felt at home.
When Korea changed our alphabet, itwas enough of uh, what's the word
I'm looking for? Like they wereable to stand up to the bullying,

(20:30):
so to speak, and start fightingback and hold themselves off. But still
over the years, it's this constantbattle for that peninsula. And so during
the last Japanese occupation of Korea,which was very, very brutal, I
mean, the Koreans do not rememberit with any with any good heart.
There's a lot of a lot ofpain and a lot of anger there.

(20:51):
But a lot of that stuff fromJapan, a lot of that samurai karate
sword fighting stuff was actually taught tothe Koreans. There were masters who moved
to Korea to make a name teachingthe Koreans how to fight, and so
kumdo is basically the style of kendothat was taught to the Koreans. And
then the Koreans kick the Japanese out, finally have their independence, and they

(21:15):
still have this thing, and soit just evolves a little bit differently.
It kind of came from that samesource, but they wanted to cut a
lot of what was obviously Japanese outof it. So, for example,
but before a kendo fight, theJapanese warriors will typically squat as sort of
a salute to each other, andthe Koreans were like, not, fa,
We're not doing that. And soif you go to a coumdo tournament,

(21:37):
you won't see that squatting motion.But the Japanese still do it,
and there's reason for it. AndI actually sat next to my master as
a different student explained to him likewhat the Japanese mentality behind that was,
and he had to make kind ofan executive decision and just say, yeah,
we're we're not going to impose thaton everybody. Like if you come
to a combo tournament and you dothat, nobody's going to think anything of
it, Like, Okay, yeah, he's got a kendo background and that's

(22:00):
all. But if you went toa kendo tournament and you didn't do that,
they'd be like, oh, it'sdisrespectful, right, And so it's
like there's there's a sense of opennessin it. So I would say,
like when karate first came to theUS and it just sort of became karate
and everybody everything's karate. I mean, Kumbo was kind of the first stage
of that for kendo. Of nowit's like available on a I hate to

(22:23):
put it this way, so Idon't want it to be disparaging towards the
Japanese, but it's just less racist. It's less race oriented and more open.
And I feel like the Koreans arevery open in teaching it, and
I've found a lot of the kendoschools very much are as well. But
there's still a lot of I guessfrom the higher ups, you know,
a lot of organizational differences between them. Yeah. Well, I guess ultimately

(22:47):
that's where I was kind of interestedabout it, because there's a lot of
racism running through Japanese and Korean,like, like I said, Asian culture
kind of just there's like that infightingall ways, and that's true everywhere,
right, but know how deeply rootedit is, martial arts has always been
the thing that transcends, right,Yeah, because in the end, I
think you're gonna respect somebody who winsclean, who wins fair. Yeah,

(23:08):
you know what I mean. Everyfilm that we've talked about here. You
know, that's the thing, likerace aside. If you're a good fighter,
they're going to respect you. Youfighter in the wind, I mean
that whole story. I mean,he's a Korean trying to fight in Japan,
and they're not talking about the factthat he's Korean. They're just like,
he's he's just doing things differently,you know what I mean. He's

(23:29):
like, he's attacking our system ofkarate more than anything else. And he
wasn't even interested in that. Hejust wanted fights. He just wanted people
to fight him. And so therace becomes sort of a non issue through
combat, which is a really dangerousmessage to sell, you know what I
mean. Like it's a really likeviolence does not solve problems here, but
testing oneself. You know, whenyou get in the ring against somebody and

(23:52):
they're able to hold their own andyou have to work at it, win
or lose, Like you've learned somethingabout that person and you know the struggles
they've had and the experience they've hadto get to a point where they're on
par with you. You know,and I've said this to you before,
but like if you've got a chipon your shoulder, and you step into
a full contact ring, you ain'tgonna have a chip on your shoulder for
long. I don't care how goodyou think you are. Eventually you're gonna

(24:14):
drop your guard. Eventually you're gonnaeat a back kick. Eventually you're gonna
taste blood, and you're gonna say, holy crap. Okay, it's immediate
humbling. Yeah, absolutely, Andjust the fact that most people are completely
unwilling to ever do that should tellyou something. The willingness to get in
there and do that almost requires abit of humility because there is risk.

(24:36):
You know, if you just walkin there like there's no risk you're gonna
get killed, well, you're justyou're stupid, Like, yeah, you're
stupid or you're cocky. Those arethe only two options. Yeah, if
you walk in there having I tellmy students constantly, I'm like, make
peace with the fact that this isgoing to hurt. Yeah, and then
it'll be fine. It's not gonnahurt that bad. But you got to
make peace with the fact that itwill hurt. It's the guys that are
like, oh, I'm going todestroy everyone, bro, I just see

(24:56):
red. It's not really what wedo here. Yeah, yeah, like
you do see red. You seered because you get punched in the eyes
all the time. You know thatninety pound sixteen year old girl right there,
because you're gonna beat your brains in. Yeah, that's what's gonna happen.
But I really like about this movieand bringing it back, is that

(25:17):
they the tie people don't turn whiteface away or being Japanese, right,
they do. They put him downfor kind of like you're gonna suck at
this. We're gonna beat your assbecause you're gonna suck at this. But
no one's like, well, you'reJapanese, we can't teach you muay Thai.
It's why would you want to?You're a good fighter. There's a
moment of like why would we wantto? You're Japanese, Like you're you're

(25:38):
an enemy soldier even though you're afriend here. But like for at split
second only first flit second and they'relike, all right, if there's a
great scene that that gets right tothe heart of what you're saying. And
that's when the master is talking tothe three like top trainers, and he
says, are you angry with mefor training him? And the guy's like,
no, you must have had yourreasons. Yeah, like okay,
cool, that's a non issue.Let's move on. Yeah, And it's

(26:00):
beautiful because like it makes sense inthe culture of this film, where the
Ties are very simply organized, right, Like everything is about the community.
Everything they do is they do asa group. No one's really hanging out
by themselves and doing their own thing. You know, they work out together,
they work together, they have theirfeats, Like see there's a festival
every night at that place. Yeah, Like everything is community organized. So

(26:23):
keeping one person ostracized from that isjust more difficult than it would be otherwise.
And you could tell like they wantto share it. Yeah, you
know, they they are. They'reyou know, they're in a place where
they're trying to defend who and whatthey are. Like they're they're facing existential
threats, right Like if they ifthey can't fight back, if they can't
stand up, their whole culture isdoomed. And so to a certain degree,

(26:45):
like they have to justify why theirculture should be allowed to stay.
Yeah, why they need to fightfor their culture. And they've taken the
high road on that and said becauseit is a beautiful and peace loving culture,
because it's a it's a society thatworks, that has much to share,
that isn't going to you know,kick other people out. You know,
if they're like, no, ourculture is going to exist because it's
the best, well then they're nobetter than anybody else who's making the same

(27:07):
claim, you know, And it'shard to fight for that, as you
know, you might have figures out, it's hard to fight for being Japanese
when you're sort of already kicked out, you know, like your master was
defeated, so you're already deemed asworthless. You're in another country, so
you're already deemed as a trader.You've got information that could, you know,
start a civil war, so you'realready sort of a bad dude,

(27:30):
like you're you're carrying some bad things. Like it's hard for him to then
stand up and be like our wayis the best. Yeah. Yeah,
they do a very good job makinghis character, putting in a corner where
it's like, what is the choicehere, Yeah, defend the honor of
the Japanese, which I know isstained right now, or just be nice
to the people that are nice tome and do what I can to protect

(27:52):
them. Well, I think it'sthat thing of like you just you take
care of the people around you.Yeah, you know, if you're in
Tokyo, you do things in theTokyo way. If you're in Thailand,
then you're dealing with the Thai peopleand you need to take care of them
that way, and that the honoris in that that person who's right in
front of you and what their needsare. There's like some kind of old
phrase, it's like win in Athensor something do with the Athenians do the

(28:15):
whales vagina. But talking about thisfilm's fight scenes, did you notice that
they were using CGI swords? Yes, it's one of the first times I've
noticed CGI. What I will sayis I think for a long time in
cinema, people kind of stayed awayfrom swords, and it's something audiences kind

(28:36):
of wanted to see. Everybody wantsto know what a sword does to a
body, you know what I mean. There's like this morbid curiosity. But
the reality is if you ever actuallysaw it, you would want nothing more
to do with it, and itwould scar you for life. It's not
a pretty thing. It's not agood thing. It's not something that you
would wish on anybody, even peopleyou claim to be your enemy, kind
of like divorce. It's just ugly, don't do it. Yeah, this

(29:00):
film being willing to show some ofthat was cool, like really well done.
They didn't have the budget for that, you know what I mean,
but done. But there's points wherethere's points where there's a render of a
sword and you're like, that isnot in the same room, or they
like the green screen a guy that'sgetting stabbed in and you're like, he
didn't get stabed, he's not eventhere. But the beauty so when they

(29:22):
do like real sword props normally propsright, you could tell there they're either
shoot from so far away that theguys aren't hitting each other like we saw
with a roachie, right, ithad to be so far so they could
hide behind the angles. Or theyjust cut constantly right like I swing at
Joe, cut cut, cut,cut, Joe hits the ground. You
know, we don't see the hithappen. The beauty of doing CGS swords

(29:45):
or green screening in the opponents isyou can really slash or really stab and
then we just see the sword comeout the back and it looks like what
it would kind of look like.Granted it looks Cavill did a whole thing
on the Witcher series where he showedthe CGI sword, which is basically just
a handle. Yeah, and he'slike, and then you go through the
cuts and you have to fake yourblocks, and then they just add it
all in and post. Now,that is using the latest greatest technology and

(30:10):
setting up the entire sequence to dothat. If you watch that battle in
Blovocan, that's basically what he's usingand how they put it together. It
looks beautiful, especially if you've seenthe recut of it where they're listening to
Can't Stop Me Now by Queen,it's super good, which is amazing.
We should pause the podcast and justwatch that. That's how good it is.
But in this film, I noticeda conscious effort to use the distance,

(30:33):
because I think that's kind of theclassic fix to only show guys getting
slashed across the chest from the backbecause you don't have to show wounds.
You can see gi blood splatter,which is easy enough. I also noticed
a difference in technique. So withthe tie Fighters, it was like hack
hack hack hack hack hack hack,cut away, and then the samurai comes

(30:56):
in and it's literally like stab stabstab stab stab. That battle scene in
the jungle where they're they're assaulting thetwo hundred you know, tribesmen or whatever.
It's really obvious and you watch,like the first guy come out and
he kills like twenty people with hisswords. It's just like constantly he's just
marching through killing people, and it'slike if you were on the other team

(31:17):
and you're just watching the first twentyguys in line of two hundred just get
cut down like flies, like youknow what, I'm not probably probably not
gonna take this guy on. Ithink we need a different tactic than I
wish we had. But then thisother guy comes out and he's got a
different kind of sword and he's likenot even trying, he's not even breaking
a sweat, and he drops thirtypeople because it's literally just stab stam,

(31:37):
Yeah, stab stam. But hissword got all the CGI, And so
I think there's an effort here numberone to show, yes, there's a
difference in tactics. The Japanese guyis obviously very very efficient, which I
think is very true of Japanese swordsmanship. Is be efficient. It's a yard
long razor blade. It should nottake six cuts to kill a guy.
It should take one. Right,This is like the sniper, Like,

(32:00):
why do you have more than onebullet in your gun? The only good
answer to that is because I gotmore than one target. Yeah, you
know what I mean, Like you'vegot a Samurai sword, it should only
be one cut. There shouldn't beany fight beyond that. And he fights
very efficiently versus the TIE fighters,who are really very high energy. Yeah,
and they put a lot of effortinto each individual kill. They're super

(32:22):
well conditioned, clearly, because thatwould be exhausting to cut through thirty people
that way. We'll just look atthose guys with actual real abs and muscles
like they're shredded because of the constantwork they're doing. Whereas Yamada is like
he's built, he's muscular. I'llgive him that. The scenes where he's
a little bit in the background withthe shadow, he looked yoked, Yeah,

(32:43):
he for and for like a Japanesedude. He's got a really defined
chest, yeah, which is kindof a rare thing to see in a
martial arts film. Yeah, butI mean they make it very clear like
he's fit. These guys are eightiesaction stars, Yeah, because because of
the high energy, right, theyhave to be built differently, because the
way I was thinking about it isthat like the Ties are incorporating their sword

(33:07):
into their muyai style. Yeah exactly, They're equally punching and kicking as they
are slashing, whereas Yamada is like, once I have this sword in my
hand, I'm only focused on stabbingyou with it. Why would I do
anything else, which again is yourefficiency. Yeah. So he's not trying
to get in close to grapple orto kick anybody. He's just like stab
stab cuts that that's all I gotto hit, Whereas in the beginning of
the movie, his only move wasblock with the sword and then sidekick the

(33:28):
guy next to him. Yeah,he must have done that move. The
film I thought of here was Brotherhoodof the Wolf because Mark Dikasko's move is
high block front kick. He usesit like sixteen times. It's like everybody
attacks him with an overhand and he'sjust like, high block front kick him
in the face, Like this isan easy day. Yeah, Like this
is like white belt shit. Imean, come on, this is like
Paul Gay two. I learned thisin Taekwanda. But he does that move

(33:51):
like quite a bit and then oncehe's actually in Thailand and fighting, it's
like it's almost too easy. It'salmost like frustratingly simple for him. How
how easy it is to cut throughthose guys, Yeah, because of how
refined his technique is. And Iwe said it earlier, like he's alread
an accomplished martial artists, but hecould come across as not just by the
plot of like foreigner comes to aforeign land and he has to learn their

(34:13):
ways, but throughout the beginning offilm, like, he's really, really
quite good and the only reason thoseninjas cut him down in the beginning is
because he's drunker in a freaking skunkand he still survived the initial assault where
three of his friends did not youknow, And then they decide to just
ship him out, which doesn't makesense to me. Didn't you come here
to kill him? And then they'relike, no, don't kill him,

(34:34):
let him live so that nothing badcould ever happen to us in the future
for any reason. Well, thething about ninjas is they're very inefficient at
their job. Yeah, apparently they'relike, whatever, let's cut early and
get some booze. But once he'sdown and they're like, okay, we
got him. These you know,four tie guys come in bare handed against
swords, yeah, which, okay, I mean maybe against a bunch of

(34:55):
forur higher ninjas. Sure, okay, not realistic, but it does set
the rest of the film in motion, so suspension to disbelief. But I
do love that scene because it's verymuch like the Japanese have never seen anything
so aggressive in all their life andso well conditioned. Because again, these
tie fighters are lean and mean,like you're looking. They're not a big

(35:16):
people, you know what I mean. It's not like there's ty warriors walking
around who are six foot eight,three hundred pounds. Yeah. And what's
really cool I thought was there's alot of different guys. It's not like
they're all the same either. There'sone dude who's like big and thick and
he uses really strong moves. There'sanother dude who's like really kind of small
and wiry, and he's like quickand uses his acrobatics a lot more.

(35:37):
And so even within their own style, there's a lot of individualization which fits
this idea of now we've got thisguy who has this other fighting background,
and what can we mold him intobased around that? And then again in
the Bodyguard selection scene. I meanwe're hearing bones crack, you know,
we're seeing guys get their next wrenched. And then in the next scene they're
all like, hey, congratulations,you made it. I'll go to work.

(36:00):
Mission one broken. You really haveanother one. It's the art of
eight limbs, so you have sevenmore. Yeah. Now there's there's a
whole another aspect that we have totalk about this film, which is probably
my my the thing I take awayfrom this the most. It's the mustaches.
Yes, these guys look freaking cool. They got some really glorious facial

(36:27):
hair and it made me very happy. It made me very much like these
people a lot very well. Theyhad a real nice style to them.
I'm giving serious thoughts to doing theSummer of mustache for me, just having
that little, that giant it's nota paper it's not like a pencil mustache,
but it has the curl of apencil musk. It's a little curl.
It's a classic kind of an olderstyle mustache. And then they got

(36:50):
the what's the word of the pompadourhairstyle. It's like a pompadoor mohawk.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. It'spretty cool now. Now, it does
bring a point up. And I'vealways said this, the the more fit
you look, the less personal hygieneyou need to be attractive. Yeah,
you look at a guy like likeBrad Pitt and Fight Club. He could
be covered in sweat and blood,but he looks good. So it's like

(37:10):
it's hot chicks, dig die,you know what I mean. He could
wake up, mess his hair upand people are like, Oh, that's
just the new style because he's sofit. Yeah. Right, These guys
again, they're like clearly capable ofhandling themselves. They're super fit, they
look lean, they look mean,they could sport any kind of facial hair
they want and you would just belike, that's cool. Yeah. And

(37:31):
it does speak character really in acharacter way I'm not really sure. Characteristically
yeah, characteristically of the Thai peopleand why this Japanese guy kind of wants
to be involved in this because itis a very attractive culture. In this
film, I think they do afantastic job of making you want to be
there and want to go there.Even though I guarantee if anybody who is

(37:53):
like, oh that looks so beautiful, I want to go be a part
of it and then went to likeone of their movie Tai sessions would be
like instantly regretting it. Yeah,it hurts, guys, it hurts a
lot. And there's a big differencebetween wanting to be one of the best
warriors and wanting to eat really deliciousThai food. Yeah, talking about that.
Are you aware of the cameos wehad in this film? No,

(38:15):
I guess I'm not paying close enoughattention. So in the I think the
already established bodyguard crew, we haveBulkow, we have Yatsen Klai, Sunschai,
and a few other top level muyThai fighters wow as the king's guards.
There's a couple other like sprinkled Thienames in the cat and the cast,

(38:36):
but those are the big ones andthey're still competing, like they're still
fighting to this day, and theykind of just I guess showed up for
a weekend or two, gave thetime to the movie. I mean,
I'm almost sure they were like,you're making a movie about how great Muytai
is. Yeah, we're in Yeah, Well, and you know, Thailand's
not a big country. It's notyou know what I mean, So like
if somebody's there filming, probably everybodyknows what's going on. Yeah. I

(38:58):
try to think like if a majorproduction was going down in the Twin Cities,
I would probably hear about it,just because I'm in the Twin Cities.
Yeah. Now, Thailand is largerthan the Twin Cities. My guess
is it's probably roughly the size ofMinnesota. Yeah, right, Yeah,
you would know if something that bigwas going on at close, especially if
it's in your world. You know. I feel like, hey, guys,
there's a sword fighting movie being filmedin you know, Saint Paul,

(39:22):
Like, what do you think theodds are that a sword fighter who lives
in that area is gonna know aboutit? Like, word gets around pretty
quick. Yeah. But it's alsolike when if they were coming in and
they're like, yeah, we're gonnado a movie about how fake kendo is
and how stupid it is, I'mprobably not gonna want to go be in
their movie. Yeah you know whatI mean. So if it's like,
no, they're doing this movie abouta historical character who's a bit of a

(39:45):
local hero, and we're going toshow the world how awesome movie Thai is,
Like, dude, you don't evengotta pay me, like I'll show
up an act in that, likejust because I'm part of that. Right
now. We did we talked aboutBorn a Champion, which was basically a
love letter to BJJ, and Ido feel like this film was very much
a love letter not just to MuiThai, but to Thailand itself, to

(40:07):
Thai culture. And yeah, it'sone sided, you know what I mean,
because that's the point. They're notshowing like the negative parts of Thailand
at all. But like, I'mnot interested in that in this film.
Yeah, you know, like eveneven the king that these guys are guarding
seems like a really decent fella.And I was thinking about that a little

(40:27):
earlier of just like I like thatguy. I like the way he talks
to his bodyguards, you know.I like the way that he kind of
manages himself. In this film,they don't go into you know, oh,
he's a king, so he's gotdirty secrets or whatever. It's like,
no, like he's a good man, and that's why these guys want
to be his bodyguard. You know, when he sits down and he talks
to him and he says, youpick up this piece of dirt and you

(40:49):
put it in your pocket. Youknow, it's like that's that's a really
impactful thing. Like you guys arewilling to give your life for me,
Let's let's not mistake me for theland that you're standing on. Like,
he's very humble in that way.And it's rare that you see a character
in any kind of cultural film inthat high a position who's in any way,

(41:09):
shape or form, honest and benevolent. And he certainly comes across that
way. And I actually I likethat because it goes against the typical tropes.
Right, I don't know what thethe monarchy of Thailand is like,
because I know what Japan, theemperor is supposed to be directly descended from
God. Right, I don't knowthat that's the case with the time monarchy.

(41:29):
I'm going to assume it is.But when you have that kind of
cultural film, which is about serviceto the lord, there's a lot of
pressure put on, like you've gotto make this lord likable, right,
like you said, like you haveto have you can say these guys have
to serve him, But if he'sa douchebag, it's like why do they
have to serve him? You know? Because really put it in historical context.

(41:50):
It's kind of a luck of thedraw if your king is a good
guy or not. You know,he's the king. He doesn't have to
be you know, benevolent, hedoesn't have to be virtuous. And I
think they made a very good choicein making him that way in this film.
And then also the actor portraying himmade him very human, yeah,
you know, very humble. It'slike, you are not You don't serve
me, You serve the country thatI serve. Yeah, you know,

(42:13):
which is this very different message.And I think that's why Yameda felt so
close to the kingdom at the end. You know, he made a promise
to There was a line that stuckwith me about like, it doesn't matter
what blood runs through your veins orwhere you were born. It matters where
a man wants, what what dirthe wants over his face he dies.
You know that line. I waslike, oh shit, yeah, like,
at the end of the day,you don't have any control over where

(42:36):
you're born. I like that scenewhen when the guy's like, you know,
why should I train you and he'slike, because the dirt of this
kingdom will lie on my face whenI'm dead. Yeah, And the guy.
His response is who taught you totalk like that? And and part
of it's like how do you evenspeak this language? Number one? Because
yeah, but like number two,like holy cow, you know, and

(42:57):
you've got this Buddhist monk who's sittingthere and he's kind of smiling to himself
because what this dude is saying isthe right answer. Yeah, very very
enlightened individual. And it must behumbling for a guy who's you know,
spent his life pursuing this this religiousyou know, spiritual enlightenment to see somebody
just walking around with it. Yeah, like like almost off the cuff,
just suiting this stuff out, likeit must be really amusing and you know,

(43:21):
inspiring. At the same time,I thought that whole his whole I
guess indoctrination into their version of Buddhismis a very beautiful thing in this film.
Yeah, because it was also verylike nonchalant, like it's no big
deal. This is just like thisis just how we do it. But
he bears it so well. Yeah, it's so deep in his character.
Let's people make fun of, youknow, people that get obsessed with Japanese

(43:45):
culture or Chinese culture or whatever.You know, people when they join a
martial art or anything, and theyget really invested in the culture of the
community that is involved in. Ithink what they missed or what can be
missed, is that sometimes you justclick more with the values and customs of
a different country. Now, youknow, like this guy from the outset,
we find out like he is morerelatable to the Thai community than he

(44:08):
is the Japanese community. We don'treally see m to spend too much time
in Japan, if any at all. Yeah, you know, we make
it makes it very clear, likehe likes the communal aspect of the ties.
He likes the style of Buddhism,even it's not ever clear if he's
a Buddhist, but like the philosophyhe follows, you know. So it's
just he happens to align morally andethically with these people more so that's where

(44:30):
he wants to hang out. Andthat's what people That's why some guys go
all into you know, the Japaneseculture when they join a karate karate program,
because like, I connect with this, this is more in line with
who I am as a person.Yeah, and I think you know,
from the character of Yamada, likehe really gave the Japanese thing a go.
Yeah, you know what I mean, Like he became a general,

(44:51):
you know, he was working for, you know, a warlord. But
how quickly that table's turned in Japan. How how quickly you fall from like,
boy, you are a really influential, really important, really successful samurai
to you're basically a sword for hiringand we have no use for you.
Yeah, you know. And thenagain how quickly they turned on him as
far as now we got to takehim out and he's an enemy of the

(45:14):
state for crying out loud. Andit's like, no, he probably dedicated
his whole life to the state,but it was somebody else's state at the
time. Yeah, And that's reallyhard again to justify any sense of loyalty
to that. And I think that'swhere he's at when he wakes up in
Thailand and he's just kind of like, why did those guys intervene? Why
did those guys stop them from killingme? You know? Why did they

(45:35):
take me here of all places?Like I'm not one of them, you
know, And and again just thefact that they do ask that question,
but nobody really seems to care.Yeah, why are you different? Because
I'm from Japan. Oh all right, but you want to hang out with
us, And he's like yeah,and they're like, oh cool, Yeah,
well doesn't doesn't. The monks sayto him at one point, like,
why'd you say me because you neededhelp? That's yeah? What is

(45:58):
the line he says, saved animalswho've been wounded? How can I let
a human die? Exactly? It'slike that's good, you value human life.
That's a that's a good thing,especially for a Buddhist month. They
say it a couple times throughout themovie that there's a big placement on not
a big importance, but there's alot of reference made to someone's blood and

(46:19):
how it really doesn't matter where itcomes from. You know, they kind
of make it very they have towith Yamata, who's not from around there.
They're like, it doesn't matter thatyou're Japanese because why would it?
Yeah, what is it? Whatdoes that matter to anything? Right now?
Like, yeah, a good fighter, we need good men, and
you seem to care, not likenow you have to go on a mission
to prove your loyalty to us,which is probably what he would have expected.

(46:44):
Yeah, I mean from the Japaneseside, you know, well,
when you deal with a culture thatcan throw you out so quickly for just
knowing something you shouldn't know, andyou kind of have to expect to like
earn your keep everywhere you go.You think that might be the normal thing.
So to meet people that are like, no, we're fine with you
just hanging out, you know,we're fine with you doing the thing you
want to do here. That's gotto be relieving and it's freeing. Yeah.

(47:07):
Bringing it back to martial arts,it's a lot like when you accidentally
or on purpose, end up trainingat a very toxic dojo where you know,
they put a lot of emphasis onthe belt you're wearing, the rank
you're at, everyone is sense asempire or whatever. And then you go
to a different gym and they're like, we don't give a shit what your
belt is, We just want totrain, you know, because I've been
to those gyms. I've been atboth of those places, and the second

(47:30):
one is always better. Yeah,you know not. I think personally too,
like being able to walk into aschool and they say, okay,
what's your previous experience and you're like, I'm a fourth degree black belt in
taekwondo, a third degree black beltand come to you know, I've competed
at a very high level. I'mvery confident in that, but I'm here
to learn. Yeah, you're nothaving that conversation of like, well,
I don't want to wear a whitebelt. Now. I'm in a jiu

(47:52):
jitsu class right now and I haveto wear a white belt, and I
chuckle every time I put it onbecause it is still so shiny and new
stiff, you know what I mean, Like you tie the belt and it
just sticks out. Yeah, youlook like you're wearing a propeller belt in
a long time. It's just funnyto me. It's like I haven't been

(48:12):
here in so long. But whatI mean, what does it matter?
Like it doesn't matter at all.I did like a week long, you
know, sport taekwondo camp with theOlympic coach at the time, Han Wan
Lee. A bunch of really toplevel fighters were there, and and of
course all the participants in the campwho were all you know, very eager,
very very talented martial artists of allranks. So we had white belts

(48:36):
there, we had you know,four to through three black belts there,
and the first day we walked inHan wan Lee held out a trash can
and said, everybody, put yourbelt in the trash can. So what
do you do. You take yourbelt off, you toss it in the
trash and then one by one,starting with the youngest person in the room,
you just reached in, grabbed abelt and put it on. And
he said, belts, keep yourpants up here. We're all equal,

(48:58):
We're all here to learn. Andthat was the belt that we wore for
the rest of that week. Niceand I was like, I remember I
went from you know, second degreeblack belt to blue belt. I dig
that. But it was just like, yeah, I just needed I physically
needed a belt to just keep myuniform from flying up in my face while
we were training. Like that wasthe purpose of it, you know,
there was no other real meaning toit. No, I shouldn't approach a

(49:21):
fighter based on their rank or onyou know, some perception of their experience.
You have to figure them out inthe ring. I just imagine the
poor bastard who's like, hey,Joe, I know you have some striking
training whatever, and I've been doingtraducing for a while. Let's do mmas
baring today, and they expect youto kick like a white belt, right,
yeah, and maybe a kind oftoy with you, and then and
then it's tomorrow for them all ofa sudden. Yeah, like huh,

(49:42):
I know somebody who said and thenI woke up in Detroit. Yeah.
So it's like you should never judgeanybody by the piece of cloth that they
have around their waist, because youhave no idea. Dude, I have
a guy that i'm training with now, first of all, bigger than you,
like a giant of a man.Super nice guy, but obviously a
giant of a person is dangerous.Also found out recently he was on the
US Navy boxing team for six years. Well yeah, okay, So like

(50:07):
if I judged him based only onthe fact that he signed up last week
and I saw his kicks and theywere garbage, I'd be like, I
would get my ass kicked in sparring, you know, because I don't know
that he fought on the US.I would love to see that where you
kind of kick and he just sortof takes it and now you're in close
range and his eyes don't even lightup. He just goes to work.
Dude, we've partner drilled where likeI accidentally hit him because he's so wide,

(50:30):
right, like I don't measure thedistance right and accidentally hit him and
like he's just like who and keepgoing because he's so much bigger than I
am. But it's like to us, a you should never assume that a
person that big is not dangerous,but be to assume someone's not dangerous because
they just walked into the door forthe first time. You have no idea
how many doors they walk through beforethat. Yeah. Well, and and

(50:50):
you know, you got to behonest about this too. Fighting somebody with
a black belt is very different thanfighting somebody with no experience at all.
Oh yeah, you know, andmost people say, what's more dangerous?
Like I'd rather fight black belts becauseI kind of know what to expect.
Yeah, you know, they mightcatch me with a move. Sure,
that's the point of the game,you know, but they also have control.
They'll also they'll pull their punches whenthey know they got you. But
like a white belt is just goingto do unpredictable things. Yeah, and

(51:14):
it's just it's much more dangerous becauseof that. It's like sparring a tiger,
you know, Like we all knowtiger's got claws, but they're they're
going to move in ways that youcan't predict. That's what's scary about them.
Yeah, you know, so underestimatingpeople can be dangerous, but that's
less dangerous than overestimating somebody and thengetting caught with something out of the blue.

(51:34):
And it's just a bad scene.You've never gotten accidentally hit with some
weird move and some dude, likeyou know, breaks his fist on your
face and you both go down likethat just sucks. Yeah, I guess
the moral of that story, andthe moral of this entire movie is just
you got to judge people based onwho's standing in front of you. Yeah,
And and I think, yeah,don't, don't. I'm lacking the

(51:58):
words here, but it's like,you know, they're there's a tendency to
put oneself up on a pedestal andtry to compare that across and it's like
movie Tie is not better than Samurai, you know, than karate. Right,
He's just a very good martial artistand he learned a different way to
go about doing pretty much the samething. And there are benefits of each,
you know, and there are reallygood things about each and you can

(52:20):
one hundred percent learn from each other. Yeah, that I think is that
culturally is very true. You know, there's a lot of in the US
right now, there's a lot oftalk about race. There's a lot of
you know, Asian hate in particularis going on. But jeez, we
have so much to learn from eachother. What if you took the absolute
best that the United States has tooffer and the absolute best that every Asian

(52:44):
country has to offer, which isa lot of different cultures, and you
kind of mix those together like youwould have a much better world. Yeah,
there are things. You remember themovie Rising Sun that old Sean Connery
was, the Snipes movie. There'sthis great scene in there where Sean Connery
says their way is better, andthat's the only explanation he gives as to

(53:06):
why he behaves like an old Japaneseman. He just says, their way
is better. And I think weneed to be humble enough to look at
other cultures and say, you knowwhat, that is better and we should
probably adapt that and we can makeit our own one hundred percent. We
can. But I think we needto be willing to say that. We
can't just stand up on the backof our giant pickup truck with our giant
American flag and say America is thegreatest and not really have anything to back

(53:29):
that up. Yeah, just ussaying it, asserting it to be true,
doesn't make it true. Yeah.You know. The ultimate argument I
have in favor of humbling ourselves andlearning from other cultures is food. Yeah,
usion, food, because Korean foodis ridiculously good, stupid good.
You know what else is really good? Mexican food. You know what's even

(53:50):
better? An American chef in mytown who decided to take Korean barbecue and
mix it with Mexican food. Allyou said to me today, Korean barbecue
on a taco, I would say, hot, damn. Yeah. That
place is five miles away from myhouse, and every day I'm like,
I should just eat there right now, I should put twelve hundred calories worth

(54:14):
of food in my mouth before tenam because it's so goddamn good. And
again, Korean food's great, Mexicanfood is great. But putting them together,
mixing the right amount of spices,the beauty of the tortilla. You
know that the meat that you canget with that nice juicy Korean meat,
like, it's insanely good, andwe wouldn't get that if somebody wasn't like,
why can't I mix these two thingstogether? Because they are food purists,

(54:36):
you know, there are guys.Yeah, and like I think going
to like a really authentic Korean restaurantis a great experience, you know.
And if I was eating you know, Korean Mexican fusion all the time,
there's times where I'd be like,you know what, I just want like
some classic Mexican. You know,there's some times I'm going to say I
just want some like I want togo to like a Korean barbecue and have
that whole experience, because it isan experience. When Bobby and I were

(54:58):
out in La there was a Koreanbarbecue not far from our hotel. He'd
never been out there, and nowhe can't get enough of it. Of
just like any chance we get,it's like, let's go to the Korean
barbecue because it was that good ofan experience. Yeah, I mean,
and going think about it this way, he got authentic Korean barbecue in the
US. Yeah, you know.Again that comes from just saying we need

(55:19):
this here because we don't have anythinglike it. Yeah, you know again,
like mma is the fusion food ofmartial arts, right, it really,
but sometimes you just want to dotaekwondo or tongue sudo, you know,
like you just want to do theauthentic thing. That's totally fine,
but you have to be willing toaccept other places, got it right,
Yeah, and let's just steal it. Let's just take it, steal it,
take it, like why not ifwe're trying to create like the best,

(55:43):
like if we really want to bethe best of the best, like,
you have to be willing to dothat. Yeah, you have to
be willing to take a whole otherapproach and see something that you're like,
oh my god, like that's good, I need that, and then incorporate
it and to do it justice.Because again this guy did it's going to
look like it in the film,like he just learned of movie tie like
in three days. And it's likeno, no, no, no,
he didn't learn mooe thai in threedays. He learned how to incorporate mooe

(56:06):
thai into an already really well establishedsystem. Very different. You know,
I walk into this movie Ti schoolhere in town, and yeah, I
probably pick it up faster than somebodywho's got no fight experience because I've got
all this other experience in it.There's certain things my coach won't even try
to teach me. He's not goingto try to teach me how to throw
a backkick because I already throw agood backkick. My way is probably better
when it comes to that. ButI'm not there to throw backkicks. I'm

(56:30):
there to learn his way, right, And so, like the attitude that
you carry about this stuff is reallyreally important. I want, like there's
things they do better than me.That's what I want to get good at.
The places where I suck, Iknow what they are. But every
single class I go in there thereis a palpable lesson that I am taught,
you know what I mean, LikeI know exactly what it is I'm
working on between now and that nextclass and what I'm trying to apply when

(56:52):
we get back to that sparring session. And the same goes with jiu jitsu.
I don't have a ton of grapplingexperience. I mean, you can't
be a martial artist for twenty threeyears now and not get some exposure to
that stuff. But I've never justdrilled into it the way that these guys
do, and so there's always somethingthat I'm trying to take away. There's
always something that I've got in theback of my mind when I step into

(57:13):
that next class and I'm trying tofigure out how to apply that. Yeah,
you know, if I come inthere like no, no, my
way is better, then why amI even there? It doesn't make it
so the conversation's over when you saysomething like that. Yeah, you know.
Like there's so many people I knowthat train in a style of martial
arts go to this is the thingthat piss me off. They go to
a guest gym, like they area guest in someone else's jim dojo school

(57:34):
and they're they're closed minded. Yeah, and I'm like, you are the
guest here. Maybe you were askedto come here, but you're still the
guests here. Like have an openmind and be respectful. Yeah. You
know, so many guys I've likeI have personally shootout or my instructors shootout.
Been like, dude, shut themout, like just shut it your
This is this is a serious question. Have you ever gone to like another

(57:55):
school or another seminar and not walkedaway with something valuable? No? No,
I mean even the silliest even whereyou were like okay, these guys
aren't really that good. I've alwaysfound something where I was like, I
like that, Yeah, you knowwhat I mean. That's called being open
minded, you know. And I'vegotten to some I've gone to some schools
to spa and to play with peopleand been like this is total junk.

(58:15):
This is garbage, and still beenable to say except for that, yeah,
And that's that's an important skill tohave as well. Well. He
didn't like to humble yourself and tobe open to that experience and to see
where they're coming from. And therewas a guy that used to teach this
this made up martial art at theuniversity and he always had a handful of

(58:37):
like, you know, real prettyfirst year students there. But he had
this whole ceremony that he did beforeclass where he put this, you know,
black and white picture of his masteron the wall and he would hang
this garland of flowers and there waslike candles on the ground and there was
this little ceremony that they did.And I can't tell you he taught anything
that was you know, magical orspecial or whatever, but I remember,

(58:59):
like clearly trying to understand that littleceremony and why he would put that in
there. But there is something toothat there is something too impressing upon your
students that there is a master aboveyou, because it allows you to make
mistakes. Yeah, ceremonies important,you know, the beauty of having certain
kind of ritual ceremonies is important toeverything, not just martial arts, because

(59:20):
it gives it gives everyone buy in. Yeah. You know, if it's
a thing that everybody has to dobefore they can do X thing, everybody
relates on that same note. Youknow, we all kind of get in
the right headspace. Yeah, soit's like, yeah, people can go
overboard on certain things, you know, like maybe we don't have to bow
three hundred times to the picture ofJoe I have in my gym, Like
wait, it's three hundred and one. Now every time you can play and

(59:42):
it goes up. But like somaybe it's not the useful for martial arts,
but it is useful for the culturethat it's building. You know.
Well, I mean think back toevery martial arts class you have, Like
there's a bow in my Techwono class. We used to do just one minute
of meditation before and after class,and it just bookends your experience and it

(01:00:05):
allows you to compartmentalize so you're notthinking about other things when you're in class.
That's why it's so attractive to bethere. It's that moment of just
clarity of I don't have to worryabout, you know, business, I
don't have to worry about relationships forthe next hour. I'm just focusing on
bettering myself as a physical being,and doing so helps everything else along the
way. But if you don't dothat little buy in before and after,

(01:00:27):
then it's just another experience amongst manythat you're having throughout the day. So
I've been running a little experiment onmy gym. I hope nobody's listening that
goes there because I don't want themto know what my trick is. But
we have a TV, right,We have a TV with the Wi Fi
on it, so I normally we'llgo on YouTube and like put on examples
of the of the style of practicing. So we have Cutch Chimbo practicing on

(01:00:51):
alternate nights, and then the othernights we have muyt type practicing. Right,
So in my muyt Tight nights,I put on Muay type fights or
Muy Tight tutorials and in catch KimboKnights, I put on coutch keimbo or
karate or whatever, and then sometimesI don't do that. And now this
could be correlation or causation. Idon't know, it could be. It
could just be random happenstance, right, But I notice when I have the
TV playing and people can catch thatout of the corner of their eye,

(01:01:14):
the training tends to go a littlebetter. People tend to be on their
p's and q's a little bit morewhen they have that on, because now
the whole room, including the waitingarea where they got changed. Is that
martial art? Yeah, you know, Like so you're just absorbing that information
before you even step on the floor. Yeah, you know. It's kind
of like how Disneyland pumps in smells, right, And that's what I was

(01:01:36):
thinking when I did it. Iwas like, I bet if I put
this on, they'll absorb that justwalking in the room. There's a problem
though, like Mui Thai and injiu jitsu, I found have a very
distinct odor and it's not something thatI would want to pump in. We
don't we don't need we don't needto pump in smell. We train with
our bay doors way open because we'retrying to get it out. Like as
soon as everyone works out, I'mlike, you gotta leave, leave now,

(01:01:57):
go shower. I gott to mopthese floors. Jiu jitsu is like,
get out of the way, honey. I smell like jiu jitsu.
You don't want none of this rightnow. So I'm not literally doing what
Disneyland does, although I feel likeI would train better if my gym smelled
like cinnamon rolls. You know.It's like there's certain smells like cinnamon rolls
or bacon. Probably too distracting,but it is nice when a place does

(01:02:19):
have a smell because it does affectyour mentality. Like I know, when
I walk into my MMA, Jimlike, it smells like you can smell
the mats. Yeah, you knowwhat I mean. It doesn't smell dirty.
To my coach's credit, he doesa great job keeping the place,
like really really clean. The matsare, you know, perennially damp,
just from being constantly mopped all daylong. Like he does a really good
job. But anything, yeah,there is just a smell to the rubber

(01:02:43):
and the mats, and honestly andjust to the people that are there,
they're there to work, you know, And yeah, there is something to
that for sure, when you walkin and it's like, Okay, this
is the place that I'm in,this is the thing that's happening now,
because I know, like there aredays I'm like, I really just don't
want to go. And it's notthat I don't want to be there,
I just don't want to go there. Once you get there, you're always
glad you showed up. And eventhough you don't feel that at the moment,

(01:03:07):
you know you will as soon asyou walk in the door, and
you just have to trust in that. And people say, how do you
stay so motivated? It's like,because I trust that once I get to
the place i'm training, the switchwill flip, and it does every time.
Yeah. Again, that's the viewof having some kind of ritual,
you know, Like I don't thegym I used to work at that used
to have a sign above the doorthat was like you have to leave all

(01:03:28):
your shit at the door. AndI understand the philosophy of it, but
like the the instructor there took itway too seriously, where like nobody could
even talk about their day at all, Like if they were like literally it
would be like I just found outmy grandmother died. I'm going to be
a little off to day, likenop, you gotta leave it at the
door. It's like I physically can'tlike so it's a little too far on
that, but having the attitude oflike I walk into the room, put

(01:03:51):
my back down, put the geythe belt, walk to the floor,
bow, and then everyone says normyou know, and the training begins.
That almost always puts me in abetter because I'm in the same boat where
like I don't want to go theretoday. I really don't want to.
But as soon as I get there, I know what's gonna happen, you
know. I know I'm gonna getin that mindset. And I'll tell you
what. I was watching this movieyesterday before my muy Thai class because I

(01:04:13):
had a super long day at thegym yesterday and I just took my iPad
and I'm gonna watch this there.Uh So I finished it up right before
the class started, and I waslike ready. I like walked up and
I was like doing the uh,I was doing the little dance getting ready.
I was like about to trim mymustache down, like oh here he
comes, he just watched Muytai Warrior. He's gonna beat our asses. All

(01:04:38):
right, let's let's end this onehere because we're we're getting way off of
the film anymore, which is allright, but this was this was a
great, a great experience. Ireally enjoyed watching this one. Like you
said, I don't think muay Thaigets taken seriously in a lot of films,
but you know, clearly there's abunch of films coming out of Thailand
that do it right, you know, the whole Boch thing, which is

(01:05:00):
probably a little further down the list, but we'll get right. Well,
So originally I wanted us to watchon BAC, right, but I also
was like, kind of everyone's seenit or heard of it. Yeah,
this is one of those hidden gems, and I think if you watch this
back to back with on BAC,you get a completely different experience. Yeah,
so that's what I recommend. I'mlike, all of our audience should
go watch on BAC after watching muayThai Warrior, because that's they're spiritually the

(01:05:24):
same movie. Yeah yeah, allright, So on that note, thanks
for tuning in, and we'll beback next week. Back next week,
make sure you train a lot betweenthen and now.