Kenpo & Multiple Attackers in The Perfect Weapon (with Jeff Speakman)

The Perfect Weapon is the ultimate Kenpo 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 are approached in two key scenes. First, a more realistic approach in the alleyway scene, and then a more cinematic display in the crock-pit club. We also talk about how different the movie would be today using this updated Kenpo 5.0 system. This is the second of a four-part series, and you can find a 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 Tsunaka, 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 to see just exactly what you did to take them all out. Just so first, 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 and 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 and 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 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 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, they 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 an 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 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 happened. 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 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 both scenes deal with multiple opponents. But in the gym scene, even though there were 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. I've heard you talk about the term previously before, gaseous state of motion. How does that concept 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, as you know, there are several techniques in the system referred to as 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 Kemper Evolved and cinematically, but the crock pit scene. That is such a fun sequence. What are your initial thoughts 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 a 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 a uneven footing because there's a step or what have you. 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 played, 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 can pick out techniques. You can pick out grip of death, reversing mace, ramming the eagle, which is kind of cool that those are peppered in there. Was there any particular way that you, Mr. Parker, approached the scene 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 could 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, sort of in their closet and they meet somebody they like and 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 Kempo. So taking that scene now, so now fast forward to now, 2023, if you were to remake that scene, the crockpit scene today using Kempo 5.0, what would you change? How different would that scene look now? The new, in quotes, skill set that we brought from Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA into Kempo. Now, the good news is Kempo is built for that. Ed Parker designed it so that the application of science and the cause and effect and the geometry of the moves, everything has changed for us in Kempo. 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 Jiu-Jitsu and MMA that are not common in Kempo. In Kempo 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 production notes that people might not know about? Yeah, I'm going to share something with you. Now you're going to 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 Kempo 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 a 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. So every stuntman will take the hit and they'll lead with their hands, right, so that they can protect themselves from that. 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, a 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 and the breakaway glass. Now 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 that was a very cool thing to be a part of. The rewatchability, and especially for people in Kempo, there's just 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 with those people who might not know some of this material that's in there, because it's just condensed. Like, it's not just a movie that features Kempo. It is a Kempo movie, and it's the only one of its kind. So I definitely appreciate your time today. Next time we're going to do another episode, I would like to talk to you about the warehouse scene, because that's got a completely different thematic and different feel than the other scenes we've talked about so far. So for those of you who are watching, 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. Thank you for the invitation to be with you and all your fans. This was a quick glimpse of the dynamic structure Kempo has to offer. For more information about Kempo 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 Tae Kwon Do 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 Jeff Speakman for sharing his time with us.