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Everyone here has probably read the "I am pissed off post". It is still available on this site. To many who have read it, this one post's accusations were rather vague since whom it was directed to was unspecified. I never had any issues against kuntawman on other forums outside of this one post.
I only wish him and his students well in their studies of the arts. This is only here for clarification.
Everyone please read the rest of the story here:
huntedmovie.com
then click on the North East section where it will show the Production Notes.
Midway through the notes you will read this:
"Kali is the term that's used here in the west" says Kayanan. "In the Philippines it's usually by the tribe, or the family, which is where the Sayoc Kali (my note: term) comes in that Tom (Kier) refers to. It also goes by Arnis - Eskrima."
Simply translated : In the Philippines, an indigenous survival fighting art always existed in some form. There was no consolidated TERM for it, so people named it what they wanted to name it. If they called it anything at all. When the Spanish arrived they influenced the language of many Filipinos through Conquesta. Therefore, some began calling it with the Spanish lingual influences like Arnis and Eskrima - nothing wrong with that.
However, the Spanish themselves acknowledged a form of tactical fighting existed prior to their arrival.
The root words of many Filipino terms depicting war are not Spanish at all, but rooted in Sanskrit. From the influence of the SriVisayan / Filipino commerce that existed well before the arrival of Islam and Spain.
Today, some Filipinos acknowledge that and refer to this Filipino survival fighting art as KALI. It does not mean it was called KALI back then, but they refer to the consolidated Filipino native arts as Kali because they do not want to call it the terms which the Spanish influenced speakers called it. It is their prerogative as modern day warriors.
Thus, I can understand when people call KALI the MOTHER ART. It states the arts were there prior to Spain and IF one wants to use a term for it- why not use a Sanskrit based one. One could just say these fighting arts (KALI, ARNIS, ESKRIMA) represent the BLOOD of the NATION. For that is what our ancestors paid for it.
Here's when things begin to get hairy...
Due to miscommunication, mistranslation or outright deception by others, the term KALI has been a thorn for other Filipinos who favor the terms, ARNIS, ESKRIMA. For many it denotes a sort of cultural elitism that may or may not have been intended.
However,
The term for the collective Present day Philippine Island's Martial Art / Mother Art can be anything we choose to call it today. KALI... ARNIS... ESKRIMA... FMA... FFA ...etc. That's because the art is alive and evolving the way combative arts are supposed to.
I believe Kuntawman and I agree on that.
Kuntawman's issues are with a studio's website authors who one must understand are NOT Filipino history buffs, are non - FMA's , nor were they present on set or training with us. They spoke to me on the phone briefly - approximately two minutes on the origin of FMAs - lucky I got anything in about Arnis - Eskrima at all. I believe my statement on the website combats that.
You will even note the website credited the Italians as a major influence on FMAs when I and everyone else knows the Spanish had more to do with it. I believe they may have fixed that error in other sections of the site.
Now ... we still have to make sure our system got credit for what got on screen.
Our system just happens to be called Sayoc KALI.
Of course our students/ fellow instructors want it to be known that it was Sayoc KALI who worked on the film. So we are not going to call it Sayoc ARNIS or Sayoc ESKRIMA (nothing bad about it but we use the term, KALI). Likewise, we wouldn't assume that anyone else would be obligated to call for the sake of an example: San Miguel ESKRIMA... San Miguel KALI, if SME got a chance to work on a film. We'd be very proud they got on set, repped and did their thing.
From now on we are crediting anything we do for film:
SAYOC COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY.
This way it states that :
1. It is for choreographic purposes, so people can distinguish from Sayoc KALI's methods and stuff for film.
2. It is the work of SAYOC people only.
3. And that our forte in this sense, are working on films that have exciting combative scenes in it.
This way when a newbie inquires about that martial art style on the screen... it will be interpreted as whatever an instructor dictates it to be.
Perhaps KARATE instructors will say it is KARATE, KUNG FU will say it is some ancient Chinese art. SILAT folks will call it SILAT.
And KALI / ARNIS / ESKRIMA will do what they do.
so...
SAYOC COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY
You'll see it again.
Gumagalang,
--Rafael Kayanan--
CO -Choreographer and Consultant on THE HUNTED
---SAYOC KALI---
-----
-----
-----
I only wish him and his students well in their studies of the arts. This is only here for clarification.
Everyone please read the rest of the story here:
huntedmovie.com
then click on the North East section where it will show the Production Notes.
Midway through the notes you will read this:
"Kali is the term that's used here in the west" says Kayanan. "In the Philippines it's usually by the tribe, or the family, which is where the Sayoc Kali (my note: term) comes in that Tom (Kier) refers to. It also goes by Arnis - Eskrima."
Simply translated : In the Philippines, an indigenous survival fighting art always existed in some form. There was no consolidated TERM for it, so people named it what they wanted to name it. If they called it anything at all. When the Spanish arrived they influenced the language of many Filipinos through Conquesta. Therefore, some began calling it with the Spanish lingual influences like Arnis and Eskrima - nothing wrong with that.
However, the Spanish themselves acknowledged a form of tactical fighting existed prior to their arrival.
The root words of many Filipino terms depicting war are not Spanish at all, but rooted in Sanskrit. From the influence of the SriVisayan / Filipino commerce that existed well before the arrival of Islam and Spain.
Today, some Filipinos acknowledge that and refer to this Filipino survival fighting art as KALI. It does not mean it was called KALI back then, but they refer to the consolidated Filipino native arts as Kali because they do not want to call it the terms which the Spanish influenced speakers called it. It is their prerogative as modern day warriors.
Thus, I can understand when people call KALI the MOTHER ART. It states the arts were there prior to Spain and IF one wants to use a term for it- why not use a Sanskrit based one. One could just say these fighting arts (KALI, ARNIS, ESKRIMA) represent the BLOOD of the NATION. For that is what our ancestors paid for it.
Here's when things begin to get hairy...
Due to miscommunication, mistranslation or outright deception by others, the term KALI has been a thorn for other Filipinos who favor the terms, ARNIS, ESKRIMA. For many it denotes a sort of cultural elitism that may or may not have been intended.
However,
The term for the collective Present day Philippine Island's Martial Art / Mother Art can be anything we choose to call it today. KALI... ARNIS... ESKRIMA... FMA... FFA ...etc. That's because the art is alive and evolving the way combative arts are supposed to.
I believe Kuntawman and I agree on that.
Kuntawman's issues are with a studio's website authors who one must understand are NOT Filipino history buffs, are non - FMA's , nor were they present on set or training with us. They spoke to me on the phone briefly - approximately two minutes on the origin of FMAs - lucky I got anything in about Arnis - Eskrima at all. I believe my statement on the website combats that.
You will even note the website credited the Italians as a major influence on FMAs when I and everyone else knows the Spanish had more to do with it. I believe they may have fixed that error in other sections of the site.
Now ... we still have to make sure our system got credit for what got on screen.
Our system just happens to be called Sayoc KALI.
Of course our students/ fellow instructors want it to be known that it was Sayoc KALI who worked on the film. So we are not going to call it Sayoc ARNIS or Sayoc ESKRIMA (nothing bad about it but we use the term, KALI). Likewise, we wouldn't assume that anyone else would be obligated to call for the sake of an example: San Miguel ESKRIMA... San Miguel KALI, if SME got a chance to work on a film. We'd be very proud they got on set, repped and did their thing.
From now on we are crediting anything we do for film:
SAYOC COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY.
This way it states that :
1. It is for choreographic purposes, so people can distinguish from Sayoc KALI's methods and stuff for film.
2. It is the work of SAYOC people only.
3. And that our forte in this sense, are working on films that have exciting combative scenes in it.
This way when a newbie inquires about that martial art style on the screen... it will be interpreted as whatever an instructor dictates it to be.
Perhaps KARATE instructors will say it is KARATE, KUNG FU will say it is some ancient Chinese art. SILAT folks will call it SILAT.
And KALI / ARNIS / ESKRIMA will do what they do.
so...
SAYOC COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY
You'll see it again.
Gumagalang,
--Rafael Kayanan--
CO -Choreographer and Consultant on THE HUNTED
---SAYOC KALI---
-----
-----
-----
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