C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

Director Ke Zhou’s second directorial effort (the first being “The Master”) is more stylish than it is good, but it has enough drama and decent martial arts action to please aficionados, while the casual viewer would probably be best suited watching something else. I can remember the joy as a kid - and already a martial arts practitioner at the age of 9 - when I first saw Hong Kong kung-fu films.  There was something so different about them, and I’m not just talking culturally, I’m talking about the martial arts themselves.  It wasn’t until I was older that I realized just what that “something” was: the martial arts moves were fast .  This was in stark contrast to the martial arts films of Jean Claude Van Damme or even earlier ones starring Chuck Norris.  (And they were even more of a far cry from watching “Kung-Fu” as a kid, with the non-martial artist, non-Asian David Carradine!)  In American-made martial arts actioners - what few there were - the actio...

If you haven't noticed, the blog has a new look.  You may have also noticed a new Header, with a subheading that explains the fact that this blog will now focus on essays - as opposed to traditional articles - on a wide range of subjects. I thought it fitting, then, that the first essay with this new focus would actually concentrate, in some way, on all of the topics that I will be writing about. *** "Damon of Athens said, 'when modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.'  Artists cultivate our culture.  Politicians can write as many laws as they wish, but they will never change the heart of the culture.  This belongs to the artists - we do battle for the soul of society."   -Jonathan Jackson in The Mystery of Art: Becoming an Artist in the Image of God The above quote by the Nashville actor Jonathan Jackson covers fundamentally what I'm going to cover in this essay, only with more detail.  But if you unde...