16. Lei Wulong drinks tea

☰ Recently, while enjoying a bit of Me Time equals Tea Time with some of my Taiwanese friends, I was given a movie to watch called Lei Wulong Baguazhang 雷武龙八卦掌. ☵ Now I know what you are thinking: What's this? An obscure style I've never heard of before? His circle's getting a little irregular! Guys save him from his heresy! ☱ Settle down petals. It is not what it seems. After a big pot of tea 茶, Chinese politics, some deep fried ghosts and congee, I watched the movie with them and afterward proceeded to dig deeper. ☳ Lei Wulong 雷武龙 is a character from the Tekken fighter games. And his moves are mostly based on Northern Praying Mantis 螳螂拳 with a bit of Jackie Chan thrown in. What he has to do with baguazhang is purely fiction. His name just sounds awesome from a Taiwanese perspective. I mean, could you imagine fighting a guy with a name like that? ☶ It turns out that in the movie a woman did, and she used baguazhang 八卦掌. She defeated him. Thrice. ☴ The whole short movie was fictitious, and her non-baguazhang style bits in the battle was pure re-enactment. But when she started the baguazhang sequences, it was clear that past the clothes and make-up was a hidden dragon who actually knew the moves from rigorous practice. Even with the movie's crudeness, a true master cannot hide their skills for long. It will show itself eventually. ☲ As the saying goes: Never judge a book by its cover. The cover attracts the potential student. As masters we do not waste our time asking whether it be real or not, but whether the student actually wants to put in the time, effort and resources to become the real thing. ☷ So the movie ended. I drank up the last bit of my high mountain oolong tea. Left my empty tea cup on the table. And I was happy that our baguazhang 八卦掌 world just got a little bit bigger. Liked what you heard & want to connect with me? Join me at… linkedin.com/in/peterhainzl/