How to Structure a Fight Scene | Video Essay
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2024
- Accented Cinema - Episode 39
We loosely talked about how to film a sword fight before, but how to WRITE a fight scene is an entirely different story. Today, we'll talk about how to just that, how to write a fight scene that'll bring out the emotions in your audience. And we'll talk about one of my favourite martial art films of all time.
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I hope someday you talk about the japanese story structure Jo-Ha-Kyu, and how it is used in a lot of media such as anime, manga and games.
Do you watch 我就是演员?
God I've never joined a community so quickly
how you know you made it: a subreddit is made just for you
"A ring? An alley? Or Jackie Chan?"
Perfectly put.
“How a fight ends is rarely as simple as the hero wins.” Just wow.
except, you know, marvel films.
That's exactly it. I skip most of the fight scenes in movies because its obvious that the hero will win.
The villain may be taller and stronger or even agile, but hero always wins.
Like Ipman has won every battle till now.
@@shashankpandey8346they still look good most of the point is that it looks cool because fuck the story when the choreography is amazing
"What is the shape of the arena? A ring, an alley, or Jackie Chan?"
Got into Jackie Chan lately (still haven't gotten to Drunken Master II yet) and...yeah, I get it now.
Are you watching them in order? mid 80s - mid 90s Jackie Chan is the best so just wait until you get there!
BTW, if you're gonna watch the U.S. dub of DM2 (Legend of Drunken Master), just keep in mind that he's still using the Eight Drunken Immortals technique from DM1. They just changed his dialogue to not confuse Americans.
@@supersneaky113 No order at all! Couldn't find a definitive...source for all movies, so grabbing what I can, wherever I can, on various recommandations (just started with Police Story 1-3).
@@jp3813 No english dubs for me (I'm a Frenchie), and trying to go for original dubs as much as I can. Tried a few movies with french dubs for their "B-movie quality" appeal, but other than that, avoiding US dubs like the plague :p
@@JoshuaGuthrie I see. Well, let me chime in w/ some recommendations as well:
Drunken Master 1&2 = Jackie's most iconic role, w/ the sequel featuring his best fight scenes
Project A 1&2 = Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, & Charlie Chaplin's influence on JC in full effect
Wheels on Meals & Dragons Forever = continuing JC's collaborations w/ fellow legends Sammo Hung & Yuen Biao
Police Story 4&5 = you can end his longest-running franchise w/ these two
Armour of God 1&2 = treasure hunting adventures that got flipped in the U.S. as Operation Condor 2&1 respectively
Miracles & Twin Dragons = JC's homage to Frank Capra is one of his personal favorites, while the 2nd features him in a dual role
City Hunter & Crime Story = one goofy live action anime & the other a serious gritty cop flick
Rumble in the Bronx & Mr. Nice Guy = a couple of breakthroughs in the American market
Who Am I & Gorgeous = his spin on the spy w/ amnesia concept & a crack at the rom-com subgenre
This explains why I fell asleep in most Transformers action scenes, the visuals were great but after the first film they felt empty. Great insight, just subbed!
Exactly what I was thinking! The fights just felt like a random mess of CGI.
Which is why the fights in Bumblebee have so much weight. WE CARE.
Not to mention they are just sensory noise.
Pfft dont know about you, but seeing Prime whoop ALL The Decepticons including Megatron all at once in Revenge of the Fallen was freaking amazing.
@@UnifiedEntity Well those ones were pretty amazing, not all the fights bore me but usually the Prime ones are the best!
“What is the shape of your arena?
A ring? An alley? Or Jackie Chan?”
LOOOOOOOL
Its interesting
how this Fight Scene structure is like another Story within a Fight Scene
Every fight scene should be a mini story. Hello Future Me has several good videos on it.
These techniques are pretty much drilled into the minds of Hong Kongers who grow up watching fights be it in films or comics. We know this even subconsciously without studying it. Pity that Hollywood until now still cannot grasp this concept and their fights are boring as hell more often than not.
I believe this structure is called "kishōtenketsu" in japanese, and they use it a lot, from 4-panel comics to whole books. It was also used in classic chinese poetry, but you may know about it way more than I do! I love story structures, but unfortunately I can't find much info on this specific topic, so it would be great if you could teach us more about it. As always, great video!
That is correct. It is used in Japanese, Chinese and Korean poetry and other forms of writing.
That Obi-Wan / Maul fight from Rebels still gives me chills every. damn. time!
Luck bastard you. I still think it was overhyped ,underdelivered, and is a stretch to call good just like saying Darth Jar Jar is a thing even though the latter is more fun then the former ever will be. Though to be fair, his real last fight with Ashoka was what his fight in Rebels should've been (or at least half of that time) so I can't say he was shafted too much
@@alexanerose4820 I've never been a fan of any of the Star Wars movies. From Cheesy costumes, and bad acting, lame fight scenes. The only reason anyone would watch those is due to some emotional nostalgia tied to childhood.
@@alexanerose4820 Obi Wan is old at that time of the sotry, and it is reasonable for him to be weak just like any old person at the age of 80s, while Maul might have the better body physics due to his non-human race, the only way for Obi Wan to win is to kill maul with a swift strike and not prolongating the fight
@@richardmoskalyov8503 Canonically, Maul is 52 here and Obi-Wan is 55. But yeah, the fight shows that Obi-Wan, realizing the limitations of his age, has learned to fight smarter instead of harder, and Maul, suffering the effects of age and his cybernetic body parts and blinded his anger, loses, as he is still using the same tricks and tactics as when he first fought Obi-Wan when he was young.
@@richardmoskalyov8503 Yoda was old. Dooku was old. Sidious was old. Yet all their fights were longer than the Obi Wan vs Darth Maul rebels fight. Its a let down.
Yeeeees, that fight from Rebels had so much to unpack. Solid choice!
Not all of them in fact most of the action is quite static in rebels but man a few of the fight scenes especially the duels have emotional investment (given the series as a whole doesn’t work for me *personally* due to hijinks and incompetence on both the villains and heroes part, but it does have some special moments for me)
@@ravimanne8148 I agree, not all of them (but I still enjoyed the series as a whole). Really the two standouts for me are the Maul vs Kenobi fight and the Sabine vs Kanan duel. I think a lot of the shortcomings with the action scenes are similar issues I had in Clone Wars. If you've seen season 7 of CW and seen the big duel towards the end (which was mo-capped) you can see the difference between how visceral it is compared to most of the lightsaber stuff in CW and Rebels which does indeed feel rather static with hits that seem to lack weight and movements that seem unnatural.
@@NebirosKnight I honestly felt the duel in season 7 was pretty solid. Especially the emotional content and tension and how well the scene was set.
when i watched most of these movies, i was too young to understand what they meant. i just wanted the testosterone rush when i was watching it.
nowadays it almost makes me cry how poetic the writers made those movies out to be. i had hoped i had a family member explain these kinds of things to me earlier.
thanks man!
Maybe it's better that there wasn't a family member to explain it. A good movie can be enjoyed on different levels at different times in your life.
But imagine a kid whose able to understand deep meanings into works like this.. wouldnt be that amazing.
How amazing would that be where theres a lot more who can appreciate art
Damn, I've forgotten how good Fearless was. It was my favorite movie back in high school.
I tried to apply this structure to One Punch Man fights. I think it's pretty much the same except the villain was the one with stakes and everything, lol.
mumen rider fight, he wins the battle against the sea king, but threatens to devalue the other fighters who had stakes in the fight, so he decides to give up his victory.
Mumen rider loses the fight but becomes a true hero in the eyes of the audience
The twist would just be Saitama deciding to punch then? So short aw.
Despite defeating his opponents, Saitama never wins. He never gets the excitement he seeks from battle.
That is the biggest advantage and weakness of One Punch Man. Saitama has literally no stakes, so the side characters must pick up the slack..... Or at least the challenge must not be internal. And not just "who's the strongest".
You are so amazing at these videos. Such a good deep explanation into the emotional connections effect into action with great examples and then the conclusion which really drives it home even with western examples. I'd thought about the beginning middle and end of a fight scene but never how they each act like a poem and micro story of their own. Its amazing how muxh more detail goes into a movie than most fans will ever realize.
Thanks for the video as always!
I think the rise stage of the fight is so relevant and relatable to real life too! As a former karateka, you always start sparring or tournaments with force, but it is usually just a fight. But then you feel it, the adrenaline, the pain, you see what your opponent can do and it makes you stop for a second, take it in and then just put your whole force into the fight, getting accelerated by the competitiveness and the will to win.
As an asian person, i love ur work showing our asian culture to the world, talking from POV of asian film to the west film. Keep up the work
The staredown in Sanjuro is the MOST intense thing I've ever watched. No camera tricks. No music. Nothing. Just incredible.
Accented Cinema, an unexpected great filmmaking teacher that i didn't know i needed. thank you!
From now on, I'll call him Zhang sifu.
Yeah, I don’t need film school, I have Accented Cinema to teach me
THANK YOU FOR SAYING IT! This is exactly the reasoning why fight scenes matter in Chinese films. Great video essay as always and you did it again! Thank you!
All the fearless scenes make me wanna cry especially that final smile love that movie
End of the world bright beam in the sky really is over-used.
The only good/forgivable one is lotr3
@@Redditaurus
kinda disagree, because those meaningless bright beams are mostly pointless, I mean there's no consequences whatsover from those spectacles.
the only beams that actually matters are usually in scifi stories, like ID4 where the beam is literally WMD, however, I'd argue that the only death star beam that mattered was in rogue one, the others where they ompletely destroyed entire planets that we never really know about before are equally pointless as the pointless LOTR beam from minas morgul.
So glad you're talking about Jackie Chan's Who Am I. It's one of my favorites and I feel like its left out of a lot of conversations of great martial arts/action films. Some of the stunts he pulls off in that movie on the sky scrapper still freak me out to this day.
Fearless is a great movie, loved it when I watched in 2006
Fearless was such a movie. I fell so in love with Jet Li. I cried so much, felt hyped so much. Jet Li did such an amazing job.
I showed this video to one of my friends, and he enjoys it, he also said that he’s applying this to animation
And that is why the little action in the end of "once upon a time in Hollywood" is so satisfying. The power of story 👍
gorgeous conclusion and insight! never realised that the outcome doesn’t really matter, and that the best fights dont necessarily end with the hero ending :o
I was reminded of how much I liked Stephen Chow's humor from rewatching Kung fu Hustle not long ago, so I decided to try Shaolin Soccer for the first time the other night (late to the party I know). I proceeded to search RUclips for a comprehensive breakdown of his style of comedy and low and behold, a terrific video essayist was there for me. I'm a couple days in and can't stop binging your work, Well done!
I'll argue that you can have as many twists in the fight as you want. In fact, I'd strongly advise to structure the fight around a lot of big and small twists (also called "reversals"). The more "oh no" and "oh yeah" moments you have, the more engaging the fight.
One excellent example is Cap, Iron Man and Thor vs Thanos in Avengers Endgame. We keep switching between "hell yeah, kick his ass!" and "oh shit they're all gonna die"
Oh absolutely. I didn't bring up fights with multiple twist because those scenes are hard to come by, and even harder to edit into a short video for demonstration, but like a good rollercoaster, a few more drop makes things even more exciting.
I think I understand it now, rewatching the final battle between Ip Man and Miura
Set: the two opponents surrounded by japanese soldiers and the people of Foshan
Rise: they test each other and Ip Man rolls up his sleeves
Twist: he is shot by the japanese officer, dishonoring the fight
Tie: Foshan rises up against their occupiers
Donnie Yen is such a master.
I was confused, thought you already did this when I saw the thumbnail. Turns out I was thinking of Eyepatch Wolf.
Great video! Cheers
“What’s the shape of the arena, a ring, an alley, or Jackie chan” ah yes the infamous arena of “Jackie Chan”
“Fearless” is a masterpiece .
Nice! To actually end a fight scene structure with emotions is a very clever way to teach about a fight scene in a movie. For a movie is all about storytelling, it is right to state that when the fight scene matters to the audience it is not about moves or choreography anymore. Well done, Yang Zhang.
“What’s the shape of the arena? A ring? An alley? Or Jackie Chan?” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 Love it.
I should really watch the live action Kenshin movies sometime.
You should. They're great.
I just watched it 3 days ago. I never even got to watch the anime. (Which probably makes my judgement inviable, but) I loved it, it's absolutely great!😀💖
Kenshin fight choreographer is Kenji Tanigaki, he's a member of Donnie Yen's stunt team
It's a rare case of live actions adaptation of an anime / manga being good and not a copycat of the source material.
10:57 "Three strikes are all it takes"
Coincidentally I wrote a fight scene with three strikes. I'm trying to write it again and again to make it somewhat longer and somehow just make it worse. Give up after some time and just make it short, didn't realize until you mentioned it.
Thank you for the tips man, I can imagine my future fighting scene now.
I watch Fearless when I was in senior high.
I never understand the ending is supposed to be like what you say that Huo holds back which makes a lot of sense!
Damn is it nice to have found a thoughtful, eloquent channel that actually discusses the amazing depth in martial cinema that's almost completely ignored anywhere else.
Dat final fight in SPL, tho. So good. And Obi-Wan v Maul is the best fight in all of Star Wars.
This is really smart. I planned just to watch a few minutes while I finished breakfast. I sat and watched it all. Lovely insight and great writing.
Beautiful video, I had tears in the fearless death scene.
Love that scene from Sanjuro. That scene just does not get mentioned enough. It's one move but the impact is amazing.
I went and re-watched the final showdown from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - five minutes, and literally only three shots fired.
With your note about stakes, I would say the stakes don't need to be high or personal, they need to be immediate. You should feel the stakes in every moment, but especially during the Set. This is why the dumb food fight scenes remain one of the my favourites, because the goal is right there the whole time
It is great how you explain about Huo's smile 09:18
Yessss! 霍元甲，霍元甲!
Also, "elevate the action" 😉🤓😮I caught that.
Fearless is honestly one of the best Martial Arts movies ever made,and a Highlight in Jet Li's filmography
this video is appeared in my timeline right when i want to searching some decent action reference for my storyboard assignment, thanks
Your videos constantly remind me why I love the martial arts genre so much. Thank you so much and keep it up!
As always, such a good exploration! Every video I think I know it already but I always learn something new, either about the topic or movies I ought to watch. The way you incorporate (and edit in) the movies you are using as examples really elevates both!
Cool vid, I never noticed it before that clearly but yeah, putting a fight behind a worthy reason to fight elevates the whole experience a lot
Thanks for this video essay. I had a final fight scene that I was really struggling to start writing and this video and its explanation of Set-Rise-Twist-Tie is really helping me to structure the fight.
Man, I've being watching yours videos since the third one I believe, and they are all fantastically well written and put together! Keep the awesome work.
You've been a huge help to me over the years so I just wanted to say Thank You
I loved Fearless! So few people ever remember it, at least not enough to see many mentions. I was so glad to see you start with that one.
I can't believe RUclips only showed this to me NOW.
Great video! And thanks for bringing up Gorgeous, very underrated Jackie Chan movie imo
Amazing episode as usual. Never knew there was so much depth to a fight scene.
YES! More of these :)
Wonderful essay as always. They have been a great way to introduce my filmmaking peers to East Asian cinema and give context toward my mindset and approach to my work.
i love your work its so good, and the analysis from the proper asian cinema perspective is not only appropriate but super educational! i'd love to see your deep dive on "Hero"... please that would be amazing
This is a very useful - practical - and well thought out analysis. Much appreciated.
-a filmmaker
Your video essays are amazing! Keep up the great work!
Great video. I get excited when I see there's something new from you to watch!
Have you ever considered doing a Video Essay on the Wu-Tang Clan?
With how much Chinese Martial Arts films influenced their music/vibe, it might just be up your alley!
I love your channel Btw!
Lemme just say your editing is always top notch, everything about your videos feels so refined
Your insights are spectacular! I'll definitely be taking notes :)
Fearless. Damn that film is underrated. Solid production all throughout!
I am totally digging these essays about action movies
You are so insightful. Thank you. I wish you had more subscribers. Your content is top notch.
Great video as always!
Your stuff is fantastic and very helpful. I had to watch it twice so I could make notes. Your insight is wonderful. Thank you for making this.
Love this video!
Will definitely help me a bunch with my fight scenes, thank you guys🔥
Matondo, matondo!!! Na yekoli ebele na bilili oyo. Nzambe a pambola bino. ACCENTED CINEMA e sa likolo.
This episode is exceptionally good!
Excellent break down!!
You did such a great job! Thank you for this
Really great video. With Fearless and SPL intermixed I gotta admit I nearly cried a bit ❤️🔥🔥🔥
Gotta agree. that final fight between obi wan and maul, really showed the stakes, emotions but also the growth as swordsmen.
That was the best video I saw about this, It helped me a lot, thank you.
I love how Jackie Chan is its own type of arena.
I'm glad that i have watched this video. Such a well made essay and insight breakdown. The Video was showed me clearly how structure of a good action sequence would like.
I love your videos. You really possess a lot of knowledge about movies, and you really provide great insights through your videos. I learn and have learned a lot from them. Thank you and keep it up.
Set-Rise-Turn-Tie!
Great job - really enjoyed this!!
Your explanation really awesome
If I could ever made a channel like this -- I would be complete.
Bro... all of your videos are on point... all of them
great breakdown thanks
This helped me so much, Thank You!
Was Thinking About Going To Watch Some of Your Old Videos , But You Uploaded A New Video , So I'm Gonna Watch it
Love these videos. So much.
This is so good. Well done my friend. Hope you are staying well.
What a wonderful video essay. You have put to words what I never could.
Maybe now I can finally explain to my wife what makes a good action scene.
VERY AMAZING STUFF... I NEEDED THIS
Love your videos mate. They bring me back memories from my childhood when i used to watch every kungfu movie. Was a big fan of Jackie Chan
im actually taking notes while watching your video
I learn so much from these.
How do you always manage to keep making this well writen and composed tutorial while also secretly making me cry :')
your videos are amazing!
phenomenal essay