 The perfect weapon is the ultimate Kempo movie, but how does it showcase fights with multiple attackers? We have special guest senior master Jeff speaking with us today to talk about how multiple attackers were approached in two key scenes. First a more realistic approach in the alleyway scene, and then a more cinematic display in the Crockpit Club. We also talk about how different the movie would be today using this updated Kempo 5.0 system. This is the second of a four part series, and you can find link to part one in the description below. So now let's take a look at all the behind the scenes goodness of 1991's The Perfect Weapon. Today I want to talk to you Mr. Speakman about a part of the movie or parts of the movie rather that deal with multiple attackers, and there's two key scenes that stand out in my mind, and I would love to hear your perspective on it. The first one is when Jeff Sanders right after Mako is murdered, you try to chase down Professor Snaka and then you are mugged by the four thugs on the street. And I think I speak for a lot of people who've watched that scene for the first time and had to like pause and go back and rewind just exactly what you did to take them all out. I'd just like to get your first impressions on that scene. Yeah great, I'm laughing because that was the intention of the scene. Now in this one which we call the alley scene or the wallet scene because it's all based on they want my wallet and I go to give it to him and then here we go. When you are making a movie and they're editing the movie while you're making it, they're doing that because if there's something out of focus or the color is wrong or whatever, you do have the opportunity to yes it'll cost more money because now you got to quit what you're doing to go redo that, but at least it's a heck of a lot cheaper than after the movie's done trying to call the entire crew back. So the thing that made that fight scene totally unique and if you watch it which you're framing you're explaining if you watch that juxtapose the other fight scenes in perfect it looks completely different. It has like you say it's over in seconds instead of 10 seconds it's over in two seconds and that's because when the movie was finished and there were enormous problems with the producer director and Paramount. It was a daily battle, it was a complete nightmare, miserable experience from that point of view for me and everybody else because you know when you're doing a movie you're working 12 to 16 hours a day with the same people and you got to get along you know you got to fight for the common goal of making the movie the best that it possibly can be. So the movie is now finished I went to Paramount and questioned the editing of the fight scenes explaining that this doesn't go there this goes there how come this was taken out I know we shot that that's what got me into the editing bay for the first time remember this is my first movie I've never been in an editing bay before so when I went and made my case for how the fight scenes could be better and consequently longer because stuff was out that should have been in so they allowed me to go in and re-edit all the fight scenes now we're done with all that they came back to me and said we want to do one more fight scene because the way that the director turned in the other fight scenes there were much more edited let's say choppy it just when they were watching what they call the dailies which is what you shoot that day the one thing they kept coming back and saying to me is we watch a entire fight scene from a wide shot and it works everything plays and it's beautiful and powerful and dynamic and when you go in and cut that you lose that impact from the audience of wow what was that so they wanted to bring the crew back and shoot a completely different fight scene that was never in the movie so we created the wallet scene and after the movie was done just to give us the opportunity to shoot so like you just expressed your opinion of you know you had to go wait a second and rewind it and watch it again and watch it again just to try to figure out what that that was the goal if you think about watching that fight scene compared to the taekwondo gym fight scene for example you'll see that the camera sits still kind of low and runs a fight scene and everything happens like that people who love martial art movies who are not martial artists really love the taekwondo fight scene the most people who love the movie and who are qualified martial artists they love the wallet fight scene the alley fight scene the best that was the most realistic maybe not the most sensational and and that was the intention to have something that looked more like what Kempo really is as opposed to what an edited version of Kempo is if you like what we do here and you want to support us you can pick up your own colors of combat t-shirt or a grandmaster t-shirt and canvas at our store it's like you're giving me a warm internet hug and you get a cool souvenir to show for it we appreciate you all and thank you for keeping this channel going i love that you drew the connection to the gym scene the taekwondo scene because it's both scenes deal with multiple opponents but in the gym scene it's really more even though there are three guys against one it was really almost like a one-on-one type of dynamic where now you're facing four guys that are of equal danger in that particular moment and i've heard you talk about the term previously before gash of state of motion how does that constant play into how the scene played out yeah that's exactly what it is that's so cool that you recognize that that's very very much an ed parker term which reverts back to the brilliance of who ed parker was it's really about filling the volume of the environment all at once as opposed to compartmentalizing and only taking one and then turning and taking two and turning and taking three it's about having your awareness of the entire environment so by way of example you as you know there are several techniques in the system referred to as a multiple attack or two person attack techniques and if you understand them in the context that they are to be taught you're learning how to use your environment to try to keep yourself safe so if there are two people and you're in the middle i'm going to step off to the side and try to use one body to block the other so the gaseous state of motion refers to filling the volume of the environment i want to compare this to another multiple attacker scene which is one of my favorite scenes both just in terms of the camp involved and cinematically but the crock pit scene that is such a fun sequence uh what are your initial thoughts on that on that scene it was a fun scene to watch and it was a fun scene to do again it was the pleasure of having a couple of days to do a huge fight scene with multiple cameras and the full crew in that particular scene in the crock pit once again we were able to expand perfect example of the gaseous state of motion but in this particular case you're in a bar you're not in an alley where you're alone where there's a car and a dumpster and a pole and an uneven footing because there's a step or whatever you're in a different environment because now there are a whole bunch of civilians around and tables and chairs and glass that can be broken and on and on the character that i play jeff sanders he knowingly walks into that environment where there's many many options stacked against him but he's driven by his emotional state of losing the life of his very dear friend who was responsible for helping to raise him and put him in the martial arts in the first place so again this is another scene that's full of little easter eggs that i like to go back and watch over and over and you could pick out techniques you could pick out grip of death love the reverse image for amity eagle which is kind of cool that those are peppered in there um was there any particular way that you mr parker approach to see in terms of choreography or techniques chosen most of if not all of the techniques were chosen either directly by ed parker or by ed parker and myself there was never a time that i chose a technique to do in any one of the fight scenes and the perfect weapon that was not first discussed and approved by ed parker if you couldn't make an argument that there has got to be one movie where an art like this is exposed the way it's supposed to be not the way the distributor wants it not the way the producer wants it not the way the director wants it the way the karate professionals want it i mean that's an enormous difference but on the other hand the perfect weapon was written for me and that's very different than to do a movie that they already own you know it's sort of in their closet and they meet somebody they like they go hey we got a movie that would be and now they make the pairing that's not what happened here we decided to work together but then they wrote the movie for me which is really another great thing that paramount did to help me and to help kenpo so taking that scene now so now fast forward to now 2023 if you were to remake that scene the crockpit scene today using kenpo 5.0 what would you change well how would how would different would that scene look now the new in quotes skill set that we brought from prozone juditsu and mma into kenpo now the good news is kenpo is built for that ed parker designed it so that the application of science and the cause in fact in the geometry of the moves everything is changed for us in kenpo how we move how we think how we approach conflict everything is totally different in the world of 5.0 because we accepted the responsibility of addressing that issue i think i would still do everything i could to remain on my feet you're being smothered and intentionally vision blocked just by one person to help one person but if you're in a mass attack sort of a situation where there are other people that could be combatives in the same environment for you to select to go to the ground would be a very dangerous choice because there are many variables you can't defend against i'll tell you that i would take advantage of many more joint dislocation opportunities that are very very common in juditsu and mma that are not common in kenpo in kenpo 5.0 when you have a position you'll take advantage of that position to dislocate a joint or break a bone and then move on to the other strike we even go out of our way to try to create a scenario where you have that option to do this first before you go do that it's a hugely expanded skill set and just curious are there any fun production stories or any any production notes that that day that that people might not know about yeah i'm gonna share some with you now you're gonna have to go back and watch the scene to really appreciate the story i'm about to share with you there were many almost all the stuntmen lined up to try to be in the first ed parker movie and there was such respect and reverence for who he was and what he has done for stuntmen to be in the first parker movie the first kenpo movie however you want to phrase it was such a big deal to them so in that particular scene there was one of the i was going to do 360 spinning heel kick on one of the stuntmen across the face he was going to take that hit and throw himself across and into tables with chairs around them that were full of glasses and when a stuntman does that i mean that stuff can still cut you i mean you can still get hurt big time even though it's breakaway glass and so every stuntman will take the hit and they'll lead with their hands right so that they can protect themselves from that uh what this one particular gentleman came up to me and said i'm going to take this hit for ed parker and i wasn't really sure what he was talking about except when you watch this scene i 360 kick he takes the hit and his hands drop to his side which would have been the more realistic reaction from somebody who just got hit with a cowboy boot and he let his hands drop to his side and his face was the first thing that hit the tables in the breakaway glass that he was okay at the end of it but he took that very very high risk just because this was his opportunity to make a contribution to the first ed parker movie but that was the theme that followed through the whole movie you know everybody wanted to do good for ed parker and um that was a very cool thing to be a part of the rewatchability and especially for people in kenpo this there's so many easter eggs and there's so much meat to chew on and i just love that we're able to take that and share it with those people who might not know some of this material that's in there because it's just it's just condensed like it's not just the movie that features kenpo it is a kenpo movie and it's the only one of its kind so i definitely appreciate your time today uh next time we're going to do another episode i'd like to talk to you about the warehouse scene because that's got a completely different thematic a different field than the other scenes we've talked about so far so for those of you who are watching uh join us in the next episode we're going to go in further into that and mr. speakman thank you so much for joining us today on this one you're very thank you for the invitation to be with you and all your your fans this was a quick glimpse of the dynamic structure kenpo has to offer for more information about kenpo 5.0 and mr. speakman's approach to modern fighting click on the link in the description down below now this is a four-part series and if you have not yet seen it part one featuring the taekwondo gym scene is available right here and when part three is available you'll be able to find it right up here as always we thank master jess speakman for sharing his time with us