 The perfect weapon is the perfect Kempo movie, but how is the real art of Kempo actually embedded into the film? Senior Master Jess Beekman is with us to reveal which kato is using the film's opening and the grueling efforts that went into the iconic gym fight scene and how he broke conventional action movie making. We highlight which Kempo techniques are actually used and how the film exposes an early foundation for his revised Kempo 50 system. This is the first of four episodes and it is the culmination of my time in the art, his decades of mastery, and months of planning for us to answer all the fan questions about the definitive Kempo film. Welcome back to the show, Mr. Speakman. I'd like to thank you so much for once again joining us to talk about Kempo 5.0. I'd like to start off with the first question, as I'm sure it's when you hear all the time, but people always ask, what is that kata that you're doing at the beginning of the film? Yes, and actually I do hear that all the time, but first let me thank you again for inviting me to be back on your show. It's really a pleasure. I get so much wonderful feedback from around the world and everything that you do, so both thank you and congratulations to you for how you're running your business. So very well done, sir. Yeah, back to the perfect weapon in your right that kind of in the beginning. Most Kempo people can recognize that that really is a combination of the brown belt form number four and the third degree black belt form number six. So I just kind of put those together, but there's one thing like sort of in the middle of that, that nobody in Kempo would recognize. And that's where my hands kind of move like this and tandem to one another. Well, I'm standing still. That was an intentional move on my part to make a salutation show of respect to Luangelo because that is a Japanese Gojiru form called Tencho. And so I stopped to put those hand movements in the middle of that form, knowing that Luangelo would be sitting in the audience in Joplin, Missouri, watching his former student, and that he would know that that was a recognition and salute to him personally and to my history. Because remember, I would never have met Ed Parker if it wasn't for Luangelo. And he said, if you want to make Mark Lutcher life, now that I'm graduating and moving on to sit, you should move to California study Kempo from Ed Parker because he's the best in the world. So I knew he'd be sitting there, of course, and be incredibly proud and happy for me, of course. But for me to stop and do those hand movements from Tencho would be a way that would zero directly to him in the middle of the audience in Joplin, Missouri and be a message personally to him. And then after that, when I saw him, he just said his chest was out there with pride and brought a tear to his eye. And he was so grateful that I recognized him and gave that message to him. So it was a very, very deeply personal significance. So not only was that form important, but that little salutation and one more thing, if I may, that is the only thing in the entire film, The Perfect Weapon that Ed Parker did not interact with me on. We knew fight scene X would happen in an alley or in a bedroom or in a warehouse or wherever and sort of a little bit about what the environment would be. So we would design the fight scene to match the environment. And we would just sit and make notes and talk about what he would like to see. This is the one shot. The first time there's a Kempo movie being done ever. The heft of the responsibility of the movie, there's two movies that always come up when people say, you know, what got them to martial arts? The Crotty Kid and The Perfect Weapon. I hear that from almost every Kempoist is The Perfect Weapon. Yeah. And that's a great, a great feeling for me, you know, as I turned into the last section of my life on B66 in a few days. And as you know, I had stage four throat cancer. So that's always eating in the back of your mind, you know, the ultimate tentativeness of life itself. But the amount of satisfaction and pride that I took from giving this one incredible person who I refer to as the Einstein of martial arts at Parker and showing him the one thing he never did accomplish, which is do a Kempo movie. And so I was able to give that to him. And then the pathetic irony of him dying literally days after we finished the principal photography of the film and the shock wave that came across. I just had this amazing experience and he was on the set with me every single day. There was a fight scene all day, all night, four o'clock in the morning, he'd be standing right there. And to know that I gave him that in return for everything that he's given to us has always been a source of great pride for me. And that's why I wanted to do this series. And this is actually going to be a series of videos. So today, we're going to look at one scene and we're going to have a bunch of scenes we're going to look at. But I wanted to go and take a look at the gym fight scene when your character goes to the taekwondo gym, because that's a scene that is extremely memorable. A lot of people quote it. There's a lot of meat in there. And before we start getting into questions, I just wanted to know, are there any memories that pop in mind for that scene or any fun stories or anything like what's your first impression when you think back at that scene? That was a monster, to be sure. Normally, in an action movie, you kind of stack all the fight scenes and the car chases and explosions and stuff at the end of the movie. So and often those are pushed off to what they were called second unit, and then they pick and choose and all of that. Well, we didn't want that to happen. So we would do the fight scenes in different places during the film where almost all the fight scenes were done by the first unit, not the second unit. Now the taekwondo fight scene was the big, big fight scene in the movie. And we had two and a half, 12 hour days to film that, which is an enormous amount of time. And of course, an enormous amount of money. So first of all, it was unbelievably physically taxing, because every time you do even a little insert take, not a big fight scene, but a little insert, every time you do that, you've got to match the energy of the bigger fight scene, right? Otherwise, it just isn't going to cut. It's not going to work. So I had to get adrenaline amped and all of that. So each one would look authentic. And as a continuation of the same energetic flow of the technique or the fight scene, a long ago, probably 1980, I used to get into and be a part of powerlifting. That was the way I started into my weightlifting career was in powerlifting. So in the 178 pound class is where I competed. And I learned a little trick. You have these little ammonia caps. And just before you go up to do your lift, you crack it and hit it one time and bang, your adrenaline kicks in and you're cranked and wired. And then you do your lift. Well, I was doing that at least half the day of a 12 hour day. Do the take, weight come back, do it again and again and again. Those were long, long, grueling days. But it turned out to be a, you know, the classic set piece fight scene of the movie. How did you look at it from a Kemple point of view? How did you choose how to choreograph it? And how much control did you have over the moves and the techniques that were chosen? Yeah, great, great question. And again, I want to emphasize this is a totally unique experience in movie making the amount of authority and power and latitude that Paramount gave me at on top of that, this is your first movie. I mean, it really is nuts, right? Because I sort of had the Tom Cruise sort of control over the fight scenes without having the credits and history of a Tom Cruise. So it was really a high risk for Paramount to do that. The work that went into every single fight scene was really unique and perfect weapon, because the way that almost all fight scenes work, at least to all of the ones I'm aware of, you meet the stuntman the day you're shooting that scene. And then you rehearse it just before you go on to the set. And you pick the stuntman and they do their thing. So you're rehearsed. We usually do it the day of and you'll only have 20 minutes or whatever to rehearse with the stuntman. In this case, we did it the reverse of that. So Rick Avery, who's one of the top stunt coordinators in the business, who also is a seventh degree black belt in tempo, and he, of course, being a tempo guy and the direct black belt from Ed Parker knew he knew what we were doing. And so we were able to hire the stuntmen and go in and have a paid day of practice. So the director was there, the director of photography was there, everybody that would have anything to do with the fight scene. And we choreographed it right there. As you know, when you're a tempoist yourself, we're really known for fast hands. And then the normal fight scene stuntman would, the punch would come across and they would take the hit and then come back and take the hit in the stomach and react and then take the hit. So they take the hit and react and come back to look at you again and then again and then again. We're moving way too fast for that. So what we did was that we had this stuntman on this fight scene in this technique. And I would show him what his reaction would be. So it might be head snap back then left right down hit in the stomach. So he knew those were going to be his reactions to this technique in that moment. So I got him just to do this as quick as he could and then my hands matched his movement as opposed to the other way around where he has to match my hand movement. And I'm probably not the only tempoist who watches movie and tries to go and pick out specific techniques. And it's kind of fun that they're like little Easter eggs because they're all peppered throughout the film. I recognize a few in the scene there was encounter with danger. The scene you were talking about the different hand techniques. Was that with James Lew when you were just unleashed on him? That big long sequence at the end of James Lew's. Yeah. But those three guys were incredibly talented martial artists. And of course James Lew was a very very famous and accomplished martial artist and filmmaker and stuntman. And then Ray Sua was the much taller guy. Highly highly respected Taekwondo. So you start with that talent base and you know you're only going to come out with a wonderful product. That all of that stuff was very very much tied to Ed Parker. It was really what would you like to see in your first tempo movie, sir. And the environment would often dictate. And then there were techniques as you mentioned specific Kempo techniques. Thundering Hammers was in one of them. And that big long drawn out ending fight with James Lew. That was a technique that is one of the bread and butter techniques of Kempo called Five Swords. It was just that ending sequence where he's backing up and I'm continuing to move. That was the same move shown over and over and over again from different camera points of view. And to give you the impression that I was repeating that move over and over. And I did a couple of times but not four or five times. Which is what that fight seemed one of being at the end. I would love to share one more thing with you and your viewers. That was one of the peak experiences for me when it came to end. And as I most people know Mr. Parker died right after we were done filming. So of course he never got to see the movie which is quite tragic. But he was on the set every single time I had a fight scene and helped me with it. We choreographed him together and all of that stuff. So when the Taekwondo fight scene was edited and finished we were sitting in my trailer which was also at Parker's trailer. He and I are sitting on the couch next to one another. Now remember this is the first fight scene we're going to see. And they hit play. And Mr. Parker was so excited. He started bouncing up and down on the couch clapping his hands yelling that's it. That's it. That's the one. And I'm getting knocked all over the couch by him banging in the middle of everything. Because his energy was so over the top because this was it. He saw it. And he saw his dream of how he would love his art to be perceived by the world come through exactly the way that he wanted it to be. So those are the kinds of memories that have made my life so rich and so wonderful. That's why since The Perfect Weapon came out in March of 91 I've never seen the movie again. And I've sat down to watch it a few times and I just can't do it. It's just such a heavy weight of emotional content and past and history in which I cannot look at any of those scenes or watch that movie without emotionally putting myself right back in that place of being with him and when he was alive and making the movie and the magic of that and the chance of a million lifetimes to be able to do that. It's hard. It's hard for me to deal with it even today. I'd like to actually kind of share one of my little personal stories with this as well. My very first seminar I ever went to was your seminar. I believe it was in 1993 the end of the year. You came down and I went to the seminar and you demonstrated five swords and I just want to put this out there for all our viewers because you're talking about how the scene was kind of dramatized to make it look like you were doing the motions over and over. Being a white belt or yellow belt at the time watching you do five swords in person on a person in the classroom came across just like it did in the film. It looked the same. It sounded the same and I remember standing there going wow. Like I just wanted to learn more because it was like the scene was repeating in my head. So just for everyone who's watching the experience of watching you do with somebody in real life was just like the way played out in the film. That's so interesting. That is really interesting. I appreciate getting that because of course that's the kind of feedback I live for. You don't do a movie for yourself. You do a movie for everybody else. So that's really cool. I appreciate that. I love hearing it. But I want to transition out to because since then you've started Kemple 5.0 and you've kind of taken everything you've learned from Kemple and you've taken it in a new direction to address things like MMA and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and we did a really in-depth talk about you know you started in 5.0 and where you're going with it and how it was constructed. But I'm really curious now is if you had the opportunity to make this film today how would you incorporate Kemple 5.0 into this particular fight scene? Are there any changes that you would do? Anything in the environment that you would add? How would how would perfect weapon this scene look today with Kemple 5.0? Yeah under understand your question and it's a big one. And of course it would look radically different than what it looks like today because I would bring the new in quotes skill set that we brought from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA into Kemple and to evolve it to be able to accommodate that very very real life situation of if now remember this has to be put in the context of if you're in the street comma then you know you need to be able to address this entire world of nightmare for you if you don't know what that world is and Kemple karate had no practical application for that world other than to say because I'm so good at what I do and because the art of Kemple is so brutal and physically applicable in the street no one would ever be able to take me down now you and I know that's a laughable position to take and although it may be true maybe if you wind up in a skirmish with somebody who has that skill set and they try to take you down you're able to avoid it and win the fight but that would be an incredibly incredibly small percentage of the time for the broader range of everybody so our motivation was to bring an entirely new skill set into Kemple and expand our knowledge base and then which is the really the big trick is how to figure out how to incorporate those that new world into the framework of Kemple it's a logical sequence it's cause and effect relationships the science of impact checking other potential weapons not just standing up and now on the ground and if you understand that if I feel the shift of somebody's weight go that way and a grab up to my hand trying to pull it I know what they're doing they're going to take me into an arm bar and so when you start to feel that shift in that move then you start to go to counter that there's only one way you're going to be able to do that and that is have the knowledge base of what it is that's going on in the worst-case scenario moment for a Kemple guy which is to be on your back and someone on top of you of course and then how do I defend against that what's coming next and what are my choices and if you're in an art that has no answer to those questions you should get an answer to those questions those questions those problems deserve a solution now the good news is Kemple is built for that and Parker designed it so that the application of science and the cause and effect and the geometry of the moves you know what I'm talking about you're a Kemple guy and so all you got to do now is figure out okay here's a whole new skill set for us on the ground how can I employ those same basic physics to the new situation now you can think what we do is ridiculous that would never work what a joke you know throw all that stuff at speakmen and all the five oak guys if you want but at least we tried at least we're out there we gave it everything we could and we evolved even from that point which is 2005 so around 2014 we did it again we evolved the system again which you have talked about on your show a few times and it is even 5.0.2 is quite different than 5.0 I was trained a little bit in the in the first version of Kemple 50 that was probably in 2007-ish around that time and watching the movie now there actually looks like there's some seeds of 50 techniques in there in the gyms scene looks like there's part of charging ram or at least the beginning of charging ram is there any connection there yeah there's a there's a very big connection in purple we have three techniques which are based off of the charging maces model which you're referring to and that's Ray Sua on the other end of that sequence now I learned that from a very very famous Kemple guy who unfortunately is no longer with us named Frank Trejo and that front crossover step out double punch is designed off of a Kemple principle called depth deception so by keeping things really busy up here somebody has to defend against that while you're doing a front crossover step out you're going to cover six feet where they think you're only going to cover three because that is not a common foot maneuver and it's designed to take you much farther forward than what someone would think and therefore you close the gap much more effectively and then that in turn when we did 5.0 developed into the charging maces drill and the three charging maces techniques which are very very important in the world in Kemple because they're the first time ever that you the Kemple guy you move first you know the entire system is somebody does something to you and then you react with X there's still an endemic problem with that which is your training yourself to let the opponent move first every single Kemple 5.0 student is already indoctrinated in to how to use your Kemple offensively not just defensively are there any changes that you would make to that specific scene today from a Kemple 5.0 perspective I would make the choice that I would hope that a 5.0 Kemple would person would make which is stay on your feet when there's more than one attacker or if you're in an unknown environment do the best you can to stay on your feet but when that isn't the case understand what it's like to go down and then use the ground as your ally instead of your unknown enemy or your vulnerable it was 91 where the Gracie family showed up in America and then followed by the Machados and they changed the martial art world in America and world in general dramatically and you would be very hard pressed to find somebody who's more grateful than I am to the Gracie family and Machado families of bringing that awareness to us because now we know we know where we're weak and so if you want to have a strong organization whatever the category is you go to your weakest link and you make that your strongest link just however it works for you go out and learn what you don't know yet and I'm completely convinced that you will be elated and excited about what you are now learning because that advanced material is so amazing well I just want to thank you so much for taking time to look at this scene because like I said perfect weapon is such an impactful film in the martial arts and next time we're going to be talking about uh two other two other scenes with a different concept about dealing with multiple attackers so I just want to thank you for for today's episode and take a look at the scene and we will pick this up again in the next one American Campo was already an incredibly rich system and Mr. Speakman created a distinct flavor with Campo 5.0 now to truly understand the dynamics of what the art is it's imperative to fully know how Campo 5.0 got started to begin with and we talk about it right here this was also the first of four episodes exploring Campo in the perfect weapon and once it's available you can find part two right here as always we thank Master Speakman for sharing his time with us