Polar / Martial Arts

All I’ve done this week is work out and read books. Here are the books.

Martial Arts of the Orient

Some time in the 90s, I went to a car boot sale somewhere in the UK, probably in the Yorkshire Dales on a family holiday or the like. I found a copy of Martial Arts of the Orient, by Hamlyn Gondola publishers. Although I flipped through it, I never sat and read it. This was way before I ever set foot in a Muay Thai gym at 18.

When I moved out at 28, I did a huge clearout of old books, but this one I hung onto. By that time I’d done 7 years of Muay Thai and 3 years of Mixed Martial Arts. This book came out in 1985, during the Karate boom, the same year as The Karate Kid hit cinemas and martial arts grew hugely in popularity. Since then, the martial arts sphere has grown further and morphed considerably, largely in thanks to the popularity of Mixed Martial Arts tournament UFC.

Due to this expansion, and due to changing societal attitudes generally, Martial Arts of the Orient has dated, and a lot of its claims just aren’t relevant any more. Back then, maybe jujitsu did ‘lack exposure to the general public.’ But it’s now a core component of MMA. Meanwhile, other disciplines are lauded as worthwhile endeavours but are notably absent from the MMA training sphere- Tai Chi, for example is one art I tried after MMA (and found to be utter bullshit). Kung Fu, it claims, is ‘here to stay’- I bet it isn’t. Karate is still a key combat sport in modern western countries, and in fact has been added to the Olympics this year. But in this book, the effectiveness just isn’t believable. Muay Thai isn’t mentioned. The views on women taking up martial arts are badly dated, each sport isn’t properly concluded and the book itself has no overall closing paragraph.

But some of the advice, and some of the details of the art’s origins, are well researched and engaging.

Polar: Came from the Cold

Victor Santos’ sparse, violent graphic novel of a deadly hitman taking on his former employer was recently adapted by Netflix, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Matt Lucas. 

 

The film had made some adjustments: the employer’s motives are slightly different, and the unfolding of the revenge is more detailed in the movie, but the icy North American landscape and even icier characters slice out of each page. The effect of the scenery is accentuated by the unique landscape layout and limited black-white-and-red palette. A snappy, creative thriller.