BASHER: The origin of the term.

[GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG]

Basher:

Is not even a word in the dictionary, although bash is.

When was this term first used by the kung fu crowd.

To me I think it comes from the period of the kung fu movie era where the Chinese vs the Japanese. Thus Chinese kung fu vs Japanese Karate.

Your thoughts please.

GD Y-Y

 

bash

 

 

[bash] 

Spell Syllables

• Word Origin

verb (used with object)

1.

to strike with a crushing or smashing blow.

2.

Chiefly British, Canadian. to hurl harsh verbalabuse at.

noun

3.

a crushing blow.

4.

Informal. a thoroughly enjoyable, lively party.

Idioms

5.

have a bash (at), British. to attempt; make anattempt.

6.

on the bash, British. working as a prostitute.

[shukocarl]

I think it was someone like Toby Russell who came up with the term, If not him it was another of the London-centric crowd...Chris Alexis maybe?

[DragonClaws]

2 hours ago, GOLDEN DRAGON YIN-YANG said:

When was this term first used by the kung fu crowd.

To me I think it comes from the period of the kung fu movie era where the Chinese vs the Japanese. Thus Chinese kung fu vs Japanese Karate.

I guess some fan came up with the term when these films made it to cineams in the West. Probably to distinguish the early to mid 70's style of fight choreography, from the shapes orientated late 70's to early 80's productions?. There are a lot of Chinese VS Japaese movies from the first half of the 70's that use this arm flailing style. Where people literally get bashed into submission by people.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

I would not call them flailing arms. All of Bruce Lee's movies are "bashers". Basically the fighting is generic, as most street fights or brawls have a certain amount of useful techniques and the rest is impractical, or at best, very low percentage. Sure, you can spin kick some dud in the head, but against a real fighter, it's pretty straightforward. Shapes are pure fantasy, and if you are going to use a tiger claw, it'll be a lot more on the lines of Chen Sing in his early roles where he uses them as a sort of palm strike/gouge, without all the twisting stances, etc. I sometimes wonder  if animal forms were more for cultivation rather than actual "moves" per say. They did shapes in the early WFH movies, but when they saw the action in Japanese Samurai and Kempo movies, Wang Yu decided to go for a much more direct, and fierce style. If you look at old HK spies movies the hero or heroine actually practices Judo or Karate  many times, not Kung Fu, such as Angel with the Iron Fist, and so on. There's definitely a sort of street brawl, on the job training style of Kung Fu in The Duel of the Iron Fist and Man of Iron, so there are different forms of bashers, compared to say Fist of Fury or Hapkido, which offer really good, broken rhythm martial arts. 

[DragonClaws]

19 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

All of Bruce Lee's movies are "bashers".

I'd say The Big Boss leans more towards the basher style, especially Han Ying Chiehs work on the film. Fist Of Fury less so, its features some graceful and nicely staged action by Lee, with good use of camera techniques. Way Of The Dragon is certianly not a basher, by this time Lee had gotten better in terms of camera techniques and choreogrpahy. With the old basher movies, they often tended to just film the action in a generic way, no creative use of camera techniques etc. Though there are exceptions to this I'm sure. When you look at the choreography in Enter The Dragon and the little he filmed for Game Of Death. He had created a style alll his own, that was unlike any other at the time. It became less unqiue in the years following his death, as other filmakers borrowed and improved on what he started.

[NoKUNGFUforYU]

7 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

I'd say The Big Boss leans more towards the basher style, especially Han Ying Chiehs work on the film. Fist Of Fury less so, its features some graceful and nicely staged action by Lee, with good use of camera techniques. Way Of The Dragon is certianly not a basher, by this time Lee had gotten better in terms of camera techniques and choreogrpahy. With the old basher movies, they often tended to just film the action in a generic way, no creative use of camera techniques etc. Though there are exceptions to this I'm sure. When you look at the choreography in Enter The Dragon and the little he filmed for Game Of Death. He had created a style alll his own, that was unlike any other at the time. It became less unqiue in the years following his death, as other filmakers borrowed and improved on what he started.

There is no definite style, however, in his films, it is very eclectic. He's not doing a classic northern or southern style, the kicks are from Tae Kwon Do, the punches boxing, etc.

[DragonClaws]

10 hours ago, NoKUNGFUforYU said:

There is no definite style, however, in his films, it is very eclectic. He's not doing a classic northern or southern style, the kicks are from Tae Kwon Do, the punches boxing, etc.

Bruce Lee's use of the camera and visual style also seperated him from a lot of productions of the time. Like how he used the zooming in and out technqiue, to emphasize the power of his kicks during the first fight in Way Of The Dragon. 

[Cognoscente]

On 5/22/2017 at 5:04 PM, shukocarl said:

I think it was someone like Toby Russell who came up with the term, If not him it was another of the London-centric crowd...Chris Alexis maybe?

According to Toby, it was Wayne Archer.