I am dedicating the following to all my fellow martial artists, especially those who have retired from competition but still practice their craft as part of their lifelong commitment to being modern-day warriors.

Focus the mind,
cleanse the soul,
keep sight of my target,
concentrate,
be prepared for the unexpected,
concentrate mind and body as one,
achieve tranquility through movement,
integrate spirit and flesh,
channel the powers,
separate darkness and light,
give birth to yourself,
define your existence,
create your divinations,
from strength learn gentleness,
through gentleness strength will prevail,
tell me what you see beyond your fist?
AWAKEN…

This is from Street Fighter 2: The Animated Movie. I cut out some repetitive parts so the ideas will flow more smoothly and beautifully.

Over the past weekend, so much of yours truly’s free time was spent VF-ing (“veefing”).

I have now come to a most fearsome point where I cast Virtua Fighter‘s video game characters, in my dream movie.

Akira Yuki – Jason Scott Lee
Jason played Bruce Lee in Dragon, the latter’s biographical film, plus they have same compact body structure. Second choice is Paolo Montalban, who played Kung-Lao in Mortal Kombat: Conquest.

Pai Chan – Ming-Na Wen
She played Chun Li in Street Fighter, plus she looks good fighting in a cheongsam. Second choice is Kelly Hu, who stars in the TV action series Martial Law and could also kick some serious butt.

Jacky Bryant – Linden Ashby
He has the speed, agility and arrogance down pat, but they have to put a bucketful of mousse on his hair to make it all spiky. Second choice is James Marsden, because he and Jacky have the same facial features and he is good as a blustery macho-yet-softie type.

Sarah Bryant – Sarah Michelle Gellar
She already has the kick-ass Buffy moves and the blonde good looks. Second choice is Bridget Wilson, who played Sonya Blade in Mortal Kombat.

Kage-Maru – Steven Seagal
Although he isn’t Oriental like Kage, Seagal and the Shadow Warrior are alike in an AWFUL LOT of ways – the chiseled features, the ponytail, the close-in fighting technique. Second choice is Byron Mann, Ryu in Street Fighter, but he looks too “suavely handsome” for the part.

Lau Chan – Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
He is used to playing Big Bad Grand Master parts, as he was Shang-Tsung in Mortal Kombat.

Wolf Hawkfield – The Rock
Gargantuan yet kinda sweet pro wrestler. Need I say more?

Jeffry McWild – Michael Clarke Duncan
Another big sweet lug, this time a family man. Big Mike has the part down pat.

Master Shun Di – Victor Wong
He played Grandpa in the 3 Ninjas movies, plus he already has the Drunken Master slurrish sort of – voice.

Lion Rafale – Orlando Bloom
Rebellious, hot and fairly young. He had all that training in LOTR and Lion’s Torou-ken would surely look good with his acquired elven grace. Hubba.

Aoi Umenokoji – Zhang Ziyi
Schoolgirl Aoi is young, pretty and spirited, plus she’s the love interest of the series hero Akira. Sounds like a made-to-order role for the Double Z.

Lei-Fei – Jet Li
The dour demeanor and the ability to kick ass even in bothersome Shaolin robes and capes, plus he looks good without hair as seen in the many Once Upon A Time in China movies.

Vanessa Lewis – Halle Berry
She played Storm in X-Men and looked okay with white hair, but as Vanessa she has to buff up.

To make our dream package complete, it is either Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) or John Woo (Face/Off, Mission: Impossible II) for director.

Theme song definitely by Korn.

In a Virtua Fighter mailing list, someone asked if anyone knew the original Japanese term for Akira Yuki’s “Stun Palm of Doom” move.

Interesting question. I believe it was also one of showcase moves in the anime, which was repeated in slow-motion and then explained by the voice-over narrator. The downside to this, however, is that the anime’s episodes had been dubbed in Filipino when they were shown in the country. The local voice actor sort of just burbled the Japanese words out.

As far as I could discern, the Stun Palm move is very likely from the practice of Aikido. I absolutely love this fighting style, although it is not really meant for the extensive use of smaller fighters, yours truly being one of them.

Aikido, or even Akira’s “Eight Extreme Fists” or Hakkyoku-ken, is for those who have the breadth and height to go close in without fear of being engulfed to death in his opponent’s arms.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! I hope the Year of the Horse will be fruitful for one and all.

Last year has been trying, to say the very least, but we do not really learn to value life if we do not go through tough times. Good and bad times, hope and despair, joy and pain. These contrasts make us appreciate what we have and what we can do more than if we just have an existence not marked by trials and questions. That is the beauty of life.

Here is a tribute to all those born during the years ruled by the Horse. A rather exciting year to be born under, considering that it is parallel to Gemini in the Western perspective.

Star analyses say that this year will be one for “independence, movement and energy.” The downside may be that we could not really sit still for long, but if we are on the continued search for greener pastures, then perhaps this wanderlust would be worth it in the long run.

Astrology aside, this is one of the best video game fan pages that I have ever seen.

The above website has more than 500 game cast profiles, each of these containing at least 10 pictures of the character, including hard-to-find animated gifs.

Of course, as you all probably know, this is my favorite out of all of them. He has such a nice smile, and he toasts things, too.

I was home early today to watch the Filipino dub of Card Captor Sakura. The episode I just watched was really sweet, wherein Sakura went back in time to ask Clow Reed some questions.

I really liked the real Clow Reed, although his reincarnation is uber-cute, too. The original Clow has these chinky, smiling eyes and a really tall, slender physique. He is just so debonair.

By the way, when I went to the stationery section of a suburb department store on the way home, I passed by the corner where they have all the arcade games lined up. At the farthest end of the row of consoles was a boxy version of Soul Edge. I wanted so much to play it, but I was running after time so I could catch my CCS.

So Syaoran and Yue won out. Maybe I’ll go back to the store some other time and try out their Soul Edge.