The Power of Aikido

Not really aikido (except for the initial credits) - but Sonny Chiba does kick butt!
I study aikido and enjoy Sonny Chiba on the screen, so bought this video, not expecting too much since as far as I know Sonny Chiba did not study aikido (at least not like he studied karate and kendo, in which he has black belts). As it turns out, the movie features his younger brother as the lead, and Sonny is his nemesis. The intro credits roll to the background music of pretty decent Japanese 70's funk music, with footage of the second head of aikido, Kisshomaru Ueshiba, doing techniques with students.

OK, so far so good. But that's as authentically aikido as it gets. The movie is about the biography of the founder of aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, but it's almost entirely fictional. There are some vague echoes here and there of the actual biography, but names, places, and events are different. And worst of all, the movie version is actually much less interesting than the real biography. While they're bastardizing everything, the characters, of course, barely do anything...

carlos
I don't like it. The only one good is the beginner part. The rest is a distortioned history of O'Sensei.

The Power of Aikido
This is the story of Morihei Ueshiba, the founder of Aikido. So great is the profile of Mr Ueshiba that in the last few decades of his long life many people swore that they had seen him walking through a solid wall. In some basic sense, Aikido is the same as Tai Chi. It uses Ki(Ch'i) and the power of one's opponent against himself. But, not every martial artist can master Aikido or Tai Chi. After persisting with Tai Chi for a few months, Bruce Lee gave it up. Similarly, even though this reviewer is a senior instructor in a Kung Fu school and a black belt in Ju Jit Su, he is unable to use Aikido or Tai Chi as a fighting art, even though the famous movie star, Steven Seagal is certainly able to do so (He is the only Caucasian who has an Aikido dojo in Tokyo). Still, this movie is quite enjoyable to watch. Even though Aikido stems from ,inter alia, Judo, its throwing techniques are very different from Judo or Ju Jit Su, or for that matter the Chinese Chin Na. If you are a martial arts...

Click to Editorial Reviews