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Raya & The Last Dragon Ft Ervin Quintin
735 Plays4 years ago
Filipino Martial Arts expert Ervin Quintin joins us to break the cultural and martial arts influences on Disney Animation's Raya And The Last Dragon
IMPACT MARTIAL ARTS LINKS:
https://youtu.be/wfrFB7rC9pI
https://www.impact-athletes.com
https://www.instagram.com/impactallday/
IMPACT MARTIAL ARTS LINKS:
https://youtu.be/wfrFB7rC9pI
https://www.impact-athletes.com
https://www.instagram.com/impactallday/
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Transcript
Introduction & Podcast Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
Welcome back to Animation Deliberations, the podcast where we take action animation and cartoons seriously, but not
Exploring 'Raya and the Last Dragon'
00:00:07
Speaker
too seriously. On a very special episode, we are covering Disney animations, Raya and the Last Dragon.
Insights from Martial Arts Expert Irvin Quinton
00:00:13
Speaker
And to do so, joining us is a very special guest, Irvin Quinton, a guru in Filipino martial arts with more than 20 years experience is here to break it all down with us. But we have to pause for a second. That's right. We're going to turn it to statues for just a moment, but we trust that you're going to put your trust in us that we'll be right back after these ads we have no control over.
Advertisement Break
00:00:32
Speaker
You're invited to explore cypress swamps and magical gardens and float along the rushing waters of an old-fashioned swimming hole. Plan your journey at visitmississippi.org slash outdoor adventure. Mississippi. Wanderers welcome. Sing along if you know the words. A one, two, three, it's time for animation deliberation. A conversation and a celebration.
00:01:00
Speaker
of our favorite action animated series. Yeah. All right, folks. Welcome back. This is Animation Deliberation, the podcast that takes action animation and cartoons seriously, but not too seriously. I'm your host, Jay Scottie
Post-COVID Movie Rewatch Excitement
00:01:15
Speaker
St. Clair, and I am joined, as always, by Mr. Zuhair Ali. What's going on, Zuhair? How are you?
00:01:20
Speaker
Hello, hello. Finally watching this movie again after seeing it in theaters post COVID and all that. Fantastic movie. Really excited to talk about it. And I'm really excited about our guest today. Oh, me too. I have to thank you for bringing in such a special guest. So why don't you go ahead and introduce them?
Guest Introduction: Guro Ervin-Kinten
00:01:40
Speaker
All right. My guest is the owner of Impact Martial Arts in Virginia Beach, Virginia, which has just celebrated its 12th anniversary. He has 20 plus years of experience in multiple arts, most notably a black belt and Muay Thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and my favorite Filipino martial arts, which is also known as Kali. It's my pleasure to welcome Goro Ervin-Kinten. Thank you for joining us. How are you? Thank you guys for having me. It was awesome. Even the scene right in the beginning of the episode right here. So I really enjoyed it. I was looking forward to that, actually.
00:02:09
Speaker
Awesome. I'm glad you enjoyed that. And thank you for being here. Really excited to have an expert in martial arts. It's an area that I appreciate a lot. I don't have a lot of knowledge there. So with a movie as fantastic as this was, Ryan the Last Dragon was, really excited to get a couple of guys like you guys, the platform to kind of nerd out about it. So let's do it.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, girl, you know, we've talked about this movie plenty on and off the mat because it was a lot of stuff even from the trailer that we saw that we were really excited about.
Cultural Connections in 'Raya'
00:02:42
Speaker
And you took the time to put a video on Impact's YouTube page talking about the comparison between Ryan the Last Dragon along with Filipino and Eastern Asian culture. Where can our listeners find that video and could you give a gist of like,
00:02:59
Speaker
some things that really stood out to you and really caught your attention for this film. Sure. You can find the video on YouTube on our YouTube channel Impact Martial Arts Academy in Virginia Beach. I think if you type in impact all day as one word with no spaces, you'll find the YouTube channel and
00:03:21
Speaker
I have everything listed there in a kind of like a color coded type system, red for Filipino martial arts and you'll see like a Raya thumbnail right on the very first image. So then when you click on it, it gets right into it. Cool. So what are some cliff notes on the video?
00:03:44
Speaker
A bit of Cliff Notes on the video, I shared some weaponry, a little bit of the cultural background, some of the little tidbits that you find in there like the Mount Tuk Tuk, a little bit of the, let's see, what else is in there? The heritage, a little bit of lineage as well, but mostly like connecting to the historical and the cultural parts that really stuck out to me the most.
00:04:10
Speaker
I really enjoyed the whole movie. Like right in the very beginning, you can see a whole bunch of stuff they put together. And one of my first impressions was that Disney actually did their homework. As soon as you see a bit of the emotions and from let's say the very beginning where
00:04:27
Speaker
She's about to walk up the stairs and she takes her shoes off. She goes to the door and pulls out two rattan sticks. And you can tell they're rattan sticks for Filipino martial arts because of the burn marks and how everything kind of opened up from there. Oh, that's already fascinating right off the bat. So what can you tell me a little bit more about these rattan sticks? What are the burn marks signify?
00:04:51
Speaker
The burn marks, they're different on each type of rattan stick. Well, rattan is like a bamboo stick. Usually, when it's growing, it's curly. And in order to make it straight, you actually have to dip it in some water, soften it up a little bit, straighten it out, and then dry it in the sun. And then you go through a hardening process by fire, put some of these sticks into like a fire stove.
00:05:15
Speaker
And then like bring out the natural resins of it and make it harden from there and then you have some people who use like brands or just use like the flames itself to You know pattern create a pattern around the rattan stick
00:05:30
Speaker
So depending on which system or family that you would be training with, they would have a particular pattern. So in the movie itself, they had it actually, I don't want to say they copied it, but it resembled one from probably over 20 years ago. I remember seeing a pair of sticks and it's been burned that way ever since and it's more in a spiral pattern.
00:05:58
Speaker
So now one really connects to like, say, some of the Inno Santo Blend. I've seen it a lot. It used a lot from the Inno Santo Blend practitioners. Okay. That's where you can see that.
00:06:12
Speaker
Interesting. Yeah, that's all super fascinating.
Disney's Cultural Detail & Representation
00:06:15
Speaker
And you talk about Disney, you know, doing their due diligence and doing the research. And even as somebody that's a little more ignorant, just kind of on the outside looking in, I just had to appreciate the attention to detail from the music, the choreography with the fighting. You talk about the weapons. I felt like there were a fair amount of weapons on display as well.
00:06:35
Speaker
But then even just like the different types of martial arts that were on display Can you either one of you guys can you talk about some of the ones that were maybe like focused on primarily in this story? The one that I was most excited about is the sword that I actually own which is the Chris. Oh, yeah That's the one that Raya has that has the waves I was I was really stoked when they pulled that out because I just kind of looked over I was like, oh, hey, there's mine
00:07:01
Speaker
A couple of moments that like stuck out to me was when they were when Namaari and Raya were both children having lunch together. And they were having the conversation of, Oh, do you like this or this or this or this? And it was like empty hand or sword. And she says blade all day and does this motion around her head, which we called the piong.
00:07:19
Speaker
Which is a umbrella motion. Okay, so that was kind of like the first little tidbit of like oh Wow, like they're they're taking these motions and stuff seriously. This is this is really cool
00:07:31
Speaker
And then every scene that Namari and Raya had where they were facing off first, going into blade stuff, going into the disarms, the empty hand, and just being able to track the motions and understand exactly what they were doing just really blew my mind. Guro, do you have anything to add to that or? Kind of on the same train.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yeah, the Chris sword. The Chris sword is especially when you saw like her father pull it out and then he was like, oh, that's the Chris sword. Very indigenous to the Philippines. It's also shared with Malaysia and Indonesia. They all pretty much in the same geographic area. And depending on where you come from, they have the different names. So the one in particular, we're thinking that it's the Sudang, which is from the southernmost Philippines.
00:08:20
Speaker
Okay, very, very look provocative. Yeah, very unique looking shape. You'll see like, let's say the the Chinese wavy sword, that one looks a little bit more straight. But the sudang itself has this triangular shape to it. And in particular, by the hilt by the handle.
00:08:37
Speaker
It comes out with a longer triangular piece, so instead of a flat brass rectangular shape, it's more of a triangular and it's not more horizontal but has a particular angle to it.
00:08:53
Speaker
And they have like these little markings on it where you can see notches and there are different aspects of the notches as well. Some say that each notch can represent how many heads it took or each notch can represent a generation that had passed down. So from the family perspective, I kind of am more biased towards how many generations it's moved from one hand to the next.
00:09:20
Speaker
especially with the context of, you know, the father passing down the responsibility of being the guardian of the gem to his daughter. I think that I think that empowers that sentiment a little more. Yeah, I totally agree. Yeah, the fact that she inherits the sword from him and the fact that he is so much of a pacifist kind of character, but you talked a little bit about the geography and some of the cultures that influenced the
00:09:45
Speaker
the weaponry that we saw there, but let's talk about the land of Kumandra, this kind of fantastical place that we're set in. What specific cultures are we drawing from? And with all the different tribes that represent the different parts of the dragon, is it pretty easy to say, okay, they're focusing on this culture here and here and here, or is it a little more spread out? What can you guys tell me about the tribes and the locations?
00:10:12
Speaker
Well, I think what I think Disney was trying to use from Kumandra was the Majapayat Empire. In the movie itself, they depicted about five countries or five different people. In particular, I saw two cultures. One would be the Filipino culture and the other one would be the Thai culture.
00:10:36
Speaker
The other three I'm, I would be guessing, so I don't want to say anything incorrect from like the South Eastern Asia. Like I'm thinking the Mongols, I'm thinking the Indonesians itself to that country. If I had to pick the third one.
00:10:55
Speaker
I don't know, maybe somewhere around Laos perhaps. That's just me guessing and kind of tossing something out there. But for sure, Philippines and Thai. And Raya was representing, from what I could see, is representative of the Philippines. And Namari was from Thai. And the one thing that kind of picked out or made it more apparent, it was Thai with some of the names that they were using.
00:11:20
Speaker
So I can't think of any of the other people's names, but when I hear the accent that they're using, I was like, yeah, that's more Thai. Her mother's name was Chief Farana. There was like a man in there. The chief, it started with an A. Yeah, it sounded like Ayutthaya, which is an actual city inside of Thailand. So that's where I kind of like, that's pegged right to the Thais.
00:11:49
Speaker
Okay, okay. And then I definitely agree with you. I mean, I might be making some assumptions here, but I would definitely think that spine and that snowy landscape where we had Benedict Wong's character Tong, I definitely think that was very Mongol inspired.
00:12:05
Speaker
And then with Talon, the thieving kind of commerce, city of commerce and merchantry there, that was supposed to be Bangkok, if I'm not mistaken, right? That was my understanding. Okay. Yeah. Okay. That all sounds like it tracks there. Let's just, now we've talked a little bit about the landscape and the culture one. Let's talk about the movie and the story itself. What did you guys think overall?
00:12:33
Speaker
It was very much drawn into the cultural aspect, but I think it's more on, like if I could tie it back to the Majapai Empire for a second and how all the different countries were all spread apart. Once upon a time, they were all unified, just like how the movie was talking about. And then something happened in the middle. So in this case, Raya had the monsters and the dragons and the trust issues there and then how people wanted to,
00:13:02
Speaker
take the gym for themselves. So that would be their internal squabbling, right? So from the Majapai Empire, they had something similar and I believe, and I'm just gonna be guessing from here that it all started from the sea trades and how some people would jump onto the boat, go to a different country and then start traveling in between and then they have their preferences of their goods. I wanna say it started from there.
00:13:29
Speaker
And then eventually the Empire actually broke up from there. Okay, okay.
00:13:36
Speaker
So definitely that's the part that stuck out to me and how the movie wanted to bring them all back together. Now from some of the historical point of view and some of the books that I've read, you can see that they've been wanting to bring it back together, but it's all the, I guess all the politics and the different value sets. And now that you have unique cultures, it's a little bit more difficult to bring everybody together.
00:14:02
Speaker
I think one of the scenes that kind of solidified what you said about the trade routes was in the beginning when the chief was talking about the leaders of the other lands visiting, he had ingredients from each of those lands that he was making the stew with. So I think that was an important part that there was like, there is still trade and relations going on with these other lands, but it's at a very minimal capacity just to get kind of what they need.
00:14:29
Speaker
but they don't like cross borders too much. So there must be a central area across these rivers where trade and relationships and, you know, the, the, the Alhambra of what it is, you know, the centerpiece of where they pass knowledge and ingredients and spices and trade and all that sort. So it seems like there is still something of that sort. There is still a connection between these lands, but there isn't a common ground for them to want to unify.
00:14:59
Speaker
Mm. It's more of just the thrive of power. That was the scene that I was thinking of, too, when you, you know, like when Raya was coming into the kitchen with her dad and then she's like talking about all the different types of traps and weaponry that she wanted to use for the upcoming war, right? And he's like talking about the ingredients and putting into the stew pot. We're going to place them? He's like, no, we're going to offer them some food. Like, yes. What kind of food is that?
00:15:25
Speaker
That's a good question. Whatever it was looked tasty. And it was a beautiful moment later in the movie where they were arguing over like what the meal was lacking and Raya had the last ingredient and then one person from each of those lands was actually sharing a meal on that boat together.
00:15:40
Speaker
You know, I was looking inside of that kitchen, I was looking for the big spoon and fork, which is a big thing for the Filipino culture. And as I was trying to look for it inside of the kitchen, you know, the scenes were switching around. And I believe on the video I created on our YouTube channel, I think there was a comment saying that there was a spoon and fork in there, but I didn't actually go back to to hunt for it again.
00:16:03
Speaker
That's cool. I wouldn't be surprised. All the environments are so rich. All the backgrounds have so much detail. And we're kind of getting into the story a little bit here, but it's just worth saying there were times where the landscapes, the textures, they've gotten to a point here, Disney animation, where it's almost like photo-real.
Art Style & Emotional Themes in 'Raya'
00:16:26
Speaker
The cloth, the hair, the textures. I mean, it's just amazing.
00:16:30
Speaker
It looks like that they're really diving in there a little bit, you know, to get it more accurate to the people. I noticed that they're really opening up the world to seeing the different cultures from, I think the first one they were using was from Mulan, showing some Chinese culture and now they have Raya and they're expanding the whole southeastern Asia part of the,
00:16:56
Speaker
the world and you can see they're really putting in as much of that effort because I believe that if you can touch the different cultures and it helps share a little bit more because everyone has their pride in where they come from. So it helps definitely share the wealth of culture around the world.
00:17:15
Speaker
I think two other Disney properties that kind of fueled this as well was Moana because they actually did the auditions from people from Hawaii so that they could actually get somebody with the natural accent to be able to say the words that they intended on using in the film. And another one being Black Panther.
00:17:38
Speaker
heavily set in Africa I was reading an article about how initially they were actually intending on getting the actors to use a British accent because typically when you hear like a foreign culture you think British it's like okay British is foreign to America so cool fancy foreign accent
00:17:55
Speaker
But the director actually opposed that and said, no, if this is going to be in Africa, we should be focusing on African cultures and African dialects, and we should be learning from them and using those accents and then so that the the culture could be exposed to the world a little more. So because of the feedback that the positive feedback that Moana and Black Panther both got, I think that's made Disney a little more comfortable with just being like, sure, let's dive into the accuracy of these cultures when we put them into these other films.
00:18:24
Speaker
Oh yeah, totally, totally. I agree 100% with Moana being an influence, and I agree with Black Panther being an influence as well, but that one surprised me a little bit more. I thought maybe you were going to go towards Coco, but I 100% agree and love that point that you brought up there.
00:18:39
Speaker
I did want to pivot back a little bit to just talking about the culture being represented and the story being represented both visually or the culture and the story coming through visually. The main thing I'm thinking of there is when we get the opening narration where Raya flashbacks, initially we get the whole opening scene where she's like, I know what you're thinking, lone rider in this dystopian landscape,
00:19:05
Speaker
let's paint let's go back a little bit and show how it all started and you get that sequence where the story gets told and it's almost done like through a living mosaic that I have to imagine was very much influenced by the the art of this area and I always love when they can change up the art style I just talked about how beautiful the film was but those scenes not was not withstanding what you guys think about that stuff
00:19:28
Speaker
I thought that was pretty cool, like if I were to bring up her mount again, tuk tuk. Yeah. As soon as I heard her say the name of, was it a roly poly or was it an armadillo? That's gotta be right. Gee, Scotty, you looked that up earlier. Yeah, I actually looked it up because I was so curious. It's a hybrid, it's a third pill bug, a third armadillo and a third pug. The pug threw me off, but it makes sense. I don't see the pug in there. Was it like maybe the face? I guess so. I guess so. Yeah, yeah.
00:19:56
Speaker
But the name itself, Tuk Tuk, is the sound that the tricycles make when you go over to Thailand or Philippines. So like a motorcycle, right? You got Tuk Tuk, Tuk Tuk, Tuk Tuk, Tuk Tuk Tuk. So I'm like, oh my gosh. Once they said the name, I was like, oh, that was perfect for the metal. That's awesome. I love that.
00:20:15
Speaker
Yeah, that artwork at the beginning was just stunning. I've been trying to think of the word of like how to describe that, that style of art. It's very tessellation, very, you know, tapestry type stuff. Sure. A lot of like calligraphy type form in it, which is a lot of Indian art as well. You see it modernly used in Mandy or henna tattoos very often. Sure. That type of pattern and flow and, you know, symmetry and
00:20:43
Speaker
repetition and design and whatnot. So that, that really appealed to me like right off the bat in the beginning of the movie. So I liked that. They did it in a style where it made it look like a, you know, a stop motion scroll. Yeah, that's a good way to describe it. Just to keep it with that, that design to keep you interested, but still to throw it back to give like that cultural, here's a story from long ago type of because it was a 300 year gap, right?
00:21:11
Speaker
I think it was 500. Yeah, I think it was like 500 years. Right. So I think it did a good job of like using art to establish timeline. Yeah, totally. Well, let's let's just talk a little bit about the story and some of like the most emotional moments I kind of told you here off offline. I've seen the movie twice now and I was a little surprised by how effective the emotional scenes are and how much they got me on a second viewing.
00:21:39
Speaker
It's just a beautiful story and it's not a story that you often see in action movies. I mean, as awesome as the action is and as consistent as the action is throughout, it's really a story about, you know,
00:21:53
Speaker
forgiving and trusting your enemy, and especially that moment at the end where we have this ragtag team of all the members of the various tribes, and Raya is the first one. Time and time again, Namari has proven herself untrustworthy and such a bitter enemy, and she's the first one to make that sacrifice and place her trust in her, and both times that happens. I can't help but well up. It's just a beautiful moment.
00:22:21
Speaker
What were some of the moments that stand out for you guys? And what do you think of the story overall? I think the trust part, like just like you said, especially towards the end. And you can see like the Mari having those internal conflicts because she looked like in the very beginning of the movie, she genuinely befriended Raya and then had an interest for her own country and her own people.
00:22:43
Speaker
Sure, you had those two things that was mixing in. And then throughout the movie, you can see that it's more tribalesque and how they were butting heads. But you can see that there's still that connection that was wanting to bridge the gap between the people.
00:23:01
Speaker
And then like towards the end, you can see even more where, you know, just like how she's about to take that first step, the trust that's supposed to be there or the hope and the faith and then how you want to really bring people together. And then the turmoil between like, I really want to trust you, but all your actions tell me that I can't, but I'm going to do it anyway because there's faith now and I really want to bring their people back together.
00:23:28
Speaker
And it's a very powerful moment, especially as soon as she makes that first move and then everybody followed suit. So to the listeners out there, if you haven't watched it yet, a bunch of spoilers already. Everyone dies.
00:23:45
Speaker
But you can see from the innocent part, especially from Sisu, the innocence in there, wanting to trust unconditionally and then pushing that even more, having other people believe, and then really getting to that final moment or all the moments that really when you compile them together, you can see that people still have that desire to still be together, although there's different tribes.
00:24:14
Speaker
On regards to Sisu's innocence, it really cracked me up where every time they went into a new nation, she wanted to bring a gift. Yeah. And that was very relatable with my mom because I have this tendency now where it's like whenever I go to somebody's home for the first time, I have to bring something for them. Hmm.
00:24:31
Speaker
Whether it be, you know, like a small cake or dessert or, you know, if it's the first time moving into the home, like a small homecoming gift. But like, I feel like I felt that cultural connection of, you know, how to greet your guests and to make the formalities of it all. So the innocence of that was was really relatable. But I think the movie really did kind of
00:24:58
Speaker
You guys mentioned the word trust. The main word for me was tunnel vision, about how people have these perspectives on how they see people from other cultures or other places or, you know, other ethnicities or religions or whatever. And it's like, whatever was initially put in their head is what you think of them.
00:25:18
Speaker
So it's like the people from fang were snooty the people from spine were just big mindless oafs with axes and towns were all cons but you know, they all found that moment where when Raya actually engaged in a conversation,
00:25:35
Speaker
instead of being like, oh hey, you're just this and this, and they actually had the opportunity to say it's like, no, I lost my family doing this.
Cultural Gestures & Symbolism
00:25:43
Speaker
I'm doing this because this and this happened, or we all have this similarity. The opportunity to abolish a little bit of ignorance was a very prominent theme throughout the movie, because one of the things that all of them did have in common
00:25:59
Speaker
if you noticed whenever they saw, whether it be a statue of a dragon or a dragon, they all had the same salutation. Yeah, of putting their hands together and coming up to the head. So there is commonality between people between cultures between perspectives and state of minds. And I think this movie was really trying to push the perspective of like, Hey, listen to your neighbor and the people you come across and see what they actually have to say and what you can learn from them.
00:26:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. You hit the nail on the head there. I couldn't agree more. And I have to ask why you bring it up that salute, the bringing of the hands together in the form of a circle just above the forehead there. Is that indicative of any particular culture or credo that you know of either of you guys? Well, I do know from Filipino martial arts, right? Like if you take, if you take like a blade, long blade, or maybe a stick and you put it onto your forehead,
00:26:55
Speaker
Right? So the normal salutation would be putting it onto your forehead and then with your other hand, your empty hand, you would create like a cup type of object and then put the butt of the stick into that cup. So that would be like the greeting and the farewell at the same time. I can see how they can put the circle and they put it on top of their forehead in the same kind of manner to gesture a respectful manner.
00:27:25
Speaker
Um, so I'm thinking it's kind of correlated in there, but to bring it a little bit more, you can see like when they turn into a statue, they put their hand, their hand up, right? Like as if to offer something or to hold something in their hands. Sure. So I can see, it's more like, I don't know, I can see unity and then an offering of unity. If you wanted to bring those two gestures together, even though they're separate, one is them living in one of them is as their, their stone.
00:27:51
Speaker
Now in the Filipino martial arts or Philippine culture, we have this thing called Mano.
00:27:57
Speaker
or mano po, which is, mano is Spanish for hand, po would be the Filipino language to say ma'am or sir. So it's more of a gesture to ask for the hand, and there's a respectfulness behind that. So as they're doing that to each other, and I think from all of the Southeastern cultures, they have that exchange with each other.
00:28:22
Speaker
So I think they're showing the differences and also showing how they are actually common or similar.
00:28:30
Speaker
Okay, okay. I like that explanation and it does tie back into what Zuhair was saying. We talk about trust being such a strong through line, but I also agree with what Zuhair brought up about recognizing that maybe these stereotypes and these prejudgments that you made beforehand are not necessarily so true. And I think one of the ways that that's brought home the most strongly is the fact that as much as Namari and the Fang people are a bit of an antagonist,
00:29:00
Speaker
in terms of how the story plays out. It's really the Druun that is our main malevolent force here. And it's not even anything that has a real identity. The main thing we learn about it, I think it's from Sisu through dialogue. She says it was born of human discord. So that really just kind of ties back into the whole theme of the story. I have to think that that circle represents becoming whole, the unity, the Kumandra becoming whole again, the dragon being reunited there.
00:29:30
Speaker
Right, right. I'm going to add a little bit on what Gura was saying just based off of Islam culture. So the cupping of the hands when they actually were in stone, during a lot of our prayers were on our knees or sitting on the floor. That's actually the genuine gesture that we do.
00:29:49
Speaker
So when the when our equivalent of a priest are like the general priest that kind of like runs the prayers and runs ceremony and whatnot is supposed to be like a spiritual connection to You know the higher being and whatnot. So when they're giving blessings and
00:30:06
Speaker
we have that gesture of nodding our head and keeping our hands together and that's the gesture of collecting the blessings because you're holding it in your hand and at the end you cup your hands together and put your fingers to your head you know just like if you were to clap your hands together and just kind of like put it up to your head so it's that's that's the gesture of
00:30:27
Speaker
collecting what spiritual essence or spiritual energy or blessings are being given to you and then putting it up into your head, which is the source of your intellect or knowledge, your being. So there's a lot of symbolism in that. So I kind of took that as when they were stuck in that moment, like all they could do was offer spiritual essence.
00:30:53
Speaker
Okay. And they were in that motion of prayer, of whether to be to get out of that situation or for things to go well. Like that, that's how I took it as just a spiritual guide to like, all we can do is have spiritual lessons because our physical is frozen in stone. And also at that video, um, that girl is referring to on his YouTube, I actually do that salutation at the end of it. So check that out if you actually want to see how it looks.
00:31:20
Speaker
Yeah, get a visual to go along with the audio description we're giving here. And again, I think you hit the nail on the head there because it makes me think back on that scene where we see Chief Banga. Anyway, when he throws Raya off the... Benja, thank you. I felt something was off there. Chief Benja. We hear him referred to as Ba for most of the film. That's why I was a little off there. But when he throws Raya off the bridge into the water and you see him actually, I think
00:31:47
Speaker
outside of that final scene we talked about where our heroes get turned to stone. He's like the first time you actually get to see somebody have that moment of release and it really does look like he just kind of gives into it almost and it is that pose of releasing himself onto this and just kind of placing that faith into Raya to be that guardian that he's trained her and trusted her to be. I think that was the most heartfelt moment in the movie for me too.
00:32:16
Speaker
He never blamed Raya for being the reason that Namari got in. He was fulfilling his duty and making sure that his daughter continued to fulfill her duty as well. So he tried doing it the best that he could, but when the time actually came in regards to preparedness, it was like, hey, I gave you everything that you need.
00:32:40
Speaker
this is your time to finish this mission and for her for her to have to do it without him and every time that her father was mentioned throughout the film and like you could see her you could hear in her voice starting to break up and starting to tear up and things like that like yeah she's really sarcastic i love a character that's like hard on the outside but like in private they show like the emotional weight that they're holding
00:33:03
Speaker
Oh yeah. You've been watching My Hero, so Lock and Grow was a good comparison to that as well. And Inosuke from Demon Slayer, so like those three ones where it's like when they're in front of their enemy, their top-notch peak performance, they can handle it, but that emotional offload later that was very consistent throughout the story was really
00:33:26
Speaker
was really big for me. And again, when she had that final showdown with Namari, it was just full emotional offload. Like it was just she was actually going with anger instead of any strategy or mission at that point. And it was beautifully done, especially the way and the anger that was in the way she said in the Mario was like, Oh, this, this is going to be rough. It's about to go down. Oh, yeah.
00:33:47
Speaker
It was like a big betrayal of what her father was trying to do that whole time. And then she just totally ended it right there when she shot the arrow out. And she's like, okay, it's about to go down right now.
00:34:01
Speaker
That was that was a rough moment and we'll go back to this, but I kind of have my issues when the Mari kind of said like Sisu's death is just as much my fault as yours. I think that's a little debatable, but no Raya is a total badass. Like that scene you're talking about where she kind of she the camera is like centered centered directly behind her. She's got her hat on. She's got her sword.
00:34:20
Speaker
her capes flowing behind her and she's just like making a bee lining through the the fang tribe yeah it is totally badass and just like that was i she's great throughout the movie but that was the moment i was like hell yeah i'm glad that they gave our protagonist this moment just to like
00:34:37
Speaker
be so badass. That's the only thing I can say. The music with that was so epic. Two war drums kicking in and they had this very consistent vocalization. I don't want to butcher it, but like the type stuff that went with it. I know exactly what you're referring to. Yeah. It was so beautifully done. Raya. Where's Raya?
00:35:31
Speaker
And like I was telling you offline, I've watched this movie like three, four times already, but every time that scene comes up, I'm at the edge of my seat with my eyes super wide. I can't believe how well and how beautiful everything was done in that. It was just perfect. I've got all the chaos and the randomness that's going on in the background, and you can see her clear, making a straight line right for that place.
00:35:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's so well done. The music, the camera work. Yeah, it's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about the performances though. So we're just talking about Raya. That's Kelly Marie Tran. I think we can all say that she did a phenomenal job, you know, showcasing the callous nature as well as some of the more tender moments and really showcasing that growth that Raya undergoes. Did you guys have anything you wanted to highlight about her performance?
Performance & Plot Twists
00:36:23
Speaker
She's amazing.
00:36:25
Speaker
It was really good. I remember seeing an interview with her later on and she was all excited about being the next Disney princess, right? So, so she did a really awesome job, I thought. Yeah, she did. She did. And then on the other side of the coin there, we talked a lot about her adversary turned friend, turned enemy, turned friend again. Yeah.
00:36:50
Speaker
Namari was played by Jima Chan who has popped up and a few more mainstream things here She was in Captain Marvel as Minerva for those Marvel fans and then she's actually gonna be popping up again in Eternals But I thought she did an excellent job not only being I won't call her full-on sadistic. She was What's I want to say this the right way? She was
00:37:21
Speaker
I'm really struggling on getting the right word here, but she was likeable and unlikable at the same time. As much as she was a thorn in the side to Raya and you felt that, I couldn't help but like constantly like I almost liked her as much as I liked Raya the entire time, despite the things that she was doing. And I think Jima Chan did a great job.
00:37:40
Speaker
broadcasting that conflicted nature. And when Sisu has those moments of like still wanting to trust her, you're not, you are sold on that. So I talked a little bit about, you know, my hesitations on, on whether or not Sisu's death was equally their fault. I think it was a little bit more than Mario's fault, but I can still see why Sisu trusted her there at the end.
00:38:02
Speaker
Yeah, she was in Crazy Rich Asians as well. Oh, beautiful performance in that. And yeah, she did a fantastic job. Yeah, she she matched the persona that I love about Raya, where it's just like this badass when it comes to the mission. But when she's offline, it was just that, you know, the turmoil and the regret and the, you know, questioning the decisions of what her and her mother are doing.
00:38:31
Speaker
Overall, the character was just so beautifully done.
00:38:34
Speaker
Also, another character who was in Crazy Rich Asians was Aquafina who played Sisu. That was Sisu, right? Yeah. I think Raya was actually the first time I had been exposed to Aquafina. Like I've heard interviews with her before. Okay. So I was familiar with her being a comedian and she nailed the role. Like whenever the hard hitting moments came in, like her tone was perfect, but every time she had to crack a joke, she
00:39:03
Speaker
nailed it. It was just so perfect, so spot on. She's going to be in a Marvel property as well, Shang-Chi, which comes out this year. Oh, yeah, that's right. Aquafina's going to be in Marvel? Mm-hmm. Yep. She looks like she's playing like Shang-Chi's best friend that kind of accompanies him as his maybe willing or unwilling sidekick.
00:39:26
Speaker
Yeah, it seems like he's trying to like live the normal life instead of like what he's destined to do from his family and their best friends. And she's kind of getting like dragged into the superhero world. Yeah, yeah. She'll be great for that. I mean, you can tell it with this performance here. She like toes that line between the fantastical elements. She really drives those home. You get like a kind of regal and majestic vibe from her. But then at the same time, yeah, she can be very irreverent.
00:39:54
Speaker
and funny and somebody I can't remember who brought I think it might have been Zuhair there that brought up the the innocent nature of Sisu but that innocence provided some of the most hilarious moments like I think about when Boone told her that she could buy things on credit
00:40:16
Speaker
And she finally gets confronted and I know we're focusing on Sisu here but when she does get confronted somebody calls her a binturi and that was like an insult that came up a lot in the movie. Do you guys know anything about that?
00:40:31
Speaker
You know, I looked that up, I believe that's a made up word in there, but it seems to be related to being a traitor. There was another one that they used later on in the beginning of the movie was Depla, and I'm not sure if I'm saying that right.
00:40:52
Speaker
But I found someone suggesting that was coming from the Vietnamese language, which actually means best friend or beautiful, something like that. So the exchange between binturi, meaning trader, and then the other one, depla, meaning best friend, there's that little sarcasm that's going on between them saying, well, you're my best friend while you're the trader. So there's kind of like this.
00:41:17
Speaker
this hidden animosity from the exchange of just those two words. So I thought that was really cool.
00:41:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I'm glad you brought that one up too, because that one did come up a couple of times. And one of the times that comes to mind is when Namari came in riding on the cats right after they recovered the piece of the dragon gem from the dead tail chief there. And she's like, oh, you finally made a friend. I was worried that you were going to become a cat lady like me.
00:41:50
Speaker
Even before when they were giving the when when the motif Benju Benji Benji, what was Ryan's dad's name? Benja Benja
00:42:02
Speaker
when he was saying like, okay, what do you know about the other lands? And they were talking about the cats and Tuk Tuk was like impersonating one of the cats. That's right. It's like cats and he just comes like meh. I love when they have a good balance between serious tone and comedy because they nailed it on that. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:42:27
Speaker
And in addition to Awkwafina and Sisu, I think the supporting cast did a great job providing a lot of that comedy, too. We had Boone. I do not know the voice actor's name off the top of my head, but I know he popped up in. Now I'm struggling to think of the name of the movie. Good Boys. Good Boys, that one that was like
00:42:45
Speaker
basically an adult comedy that focused on like 12 year old boys. But anyway, then there was also Khan baby who was not we didn't have a name for for the longest time. So that was kind of a good joke there when we got the revelation that she actually had a name and it was noi. And then we talked about Benedict Wong as Tong. Did you guys have any any favorites of those or any any standout moments from any of those guys?
00:43:11
Speaker
I did want to just jump in here while I was on the subject of Boone and struggling on that actor's name. I did look it up. It's Isaac Wang. So credit where credit's due. He did a great job as well. As a young character, he did a good job delivering a lot of laughs and being that smooth salesman. And he had to fire off a lot of dialogue pretty quickly. So I was pretty impressed on his abilities there.
00:43:37
Speaker
But Tong's voice is always very unique. Every time you hear his voice, it's like, I know that guy. I can never remember his name, but I've heard him around and seen him in many different kinds of older movies. So he's like a favorite of mine throughout the movie. It's just the fact that his name is Wong in real life. It's Wong and Doctor Strange and then Tong and Raya. They're not being very creative with the names they can give him, or he just really likes his name.
00:44:06
Speaker
I think he was the character that kind of threw me off the most. Okay. Because I felt like with you know, I was just saying how much I love the balance between humor and serious. I feel like he was silly for the most part and had like his moments of being like a wise chief. So I would have it's a very minute thing, but I would have liked to have seen a little more of him.
00:44:35
Speaker
Uh, just kind of engaging, like being the tough warrior and, you know, having insight and whatnot. But like I said, I think that he brought in a good balance as being that, uh, the soft lumbering, uh, brute, you know, because like when he, when his, his, uh, character was introduced and he saw the baby, you can see instantaneously that he was more of a family man. And the only reason why he was being that way is because, you know, his family was taken from him. Yeah.
00:45:06
Speaker
Another thing on Tong was I don't think they he never directly said that he had a daughter. He said he missed seeing his village filled with his people. And he has that relationship with Khan baby. But the fact that he he didn't want like
00:45:24
Speaker
I guess he didn't want to come off as emotionally weak as he thought he was. Like he was trying to come off as a tough guy as much as he could. Sure. And then to show that he actually had a wife and child on top of missing the rest of his village was like, we assume, but they didn't confirm that until, you know, the hero saved the day and they got to go back and see their families. Yeah, they elicited it pretty good.
00:45:54
Speaker
Yeah, it was never spelled out for you, but I did think that they planted little seeds here and there. He was the only one that had the thought to even look on her collar to see if there was a name or anything like that.
00:46:05
Speaker
I love the Khan baby's little monkeys too. Oh yeah, they were great. Or were they the Onji and they have like nine stomachs according to Boon? Right. Yeah. And I love how she has them on lockdown too. They have a nice little arrangement going on there. Have they not gone on this quest and reunited Kumandru? They might've had a nice thing going on.
00:46:31
Speaker
Ryan might have messed something up there for him. Just kidding.
00:46:50
Speaker
A little tidbit of knowledge around that. I like the droplet. Yeah, the droplet is appropriate. Yeah. Sisu, when I heard that, the name, and I was like, in the Philippine language, we'd like to kind of transpose syllables.
00:47:05
Speaker
So Sisu, if you put it the other way, would be Susi, which actually translates to key. So her character being a key character or a key of the film kind of stuck out. I was like, hmm, I wonder if that just enough seasoning on that to make it more whole, I suppose, wholesome. If I could pick a good word for that.
00:47:31
Speaker
And if that was not intentional, I think the filmmakers would be remiss if they didn't take credit for it being so because I like that a lot. I think that makes a lot of sense. Sorry, Norm, I'm a little bit better at transitions here.
00:47:47
Speaker
Just so stunned by that droplet of knowledge. Yeah, that's right. Let's talk a little bit about, well, yeah, on the subject of water and droplets, let's talk about some of the more fantastical helmets, some of the dragon powers that we got to see on display and how they were related to the siblings of Sisu. So did you guys have a favorite power that she got to broadcast? For me, it was when she inherited her brother, was it Pengu? Pengu's rain abilities. And then we actually got to see her, like,
00:48:16
Speaker
use the rain as like a bounding board and like it lit up with multicolor as she danced through the sky like that was just such a such an incredible moment and and it was kind of highlighted by the fact that that was the moment that we were talking about Tong like he had this dragon gym the entire time and he didn't really seem like the most likely person to have it and after spending a little time there he he entrusted them and this was before he even
00:48:44
Speaker
He even knew, or actually I guess he knew at that point, Sisu was a dragon, right? It was right after that revelation. Was it during that time? I think the previous scene was when Sisu had to step in and rescue Raya, and then the subsequent scene there was when they were all in the water together, yeah. Yeah, because nobody knew, because that's when Raya was like, yeah, she's a dragon, come on, let's go. Yeah, yeah.
00:49:10
Speaker
I was trying to look up the siblings names and on Wikipedia. This is a term that's used in both of our languages. It says inspired by the Naga from Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism.
00:49:24
Speaker
Naga, yeah dragons are in the shape of a snake like Naga is a more serpentine Creature so you can see that the dragons themselves are more serpentine rather than the the full-bodied Dragons that you can see in different kinds of folklore Sure, sure Yeah, it was an interesting design choice for the dragons I felt like it was drawing from a lot of different elements like almost like had kind of a like unicorn
00:49:54
Speaker
As yeah, they did vibe to him as well serpent unicorn Yeah, especially the way that they make the platforms out of like the the air droplets Yeah, like they like kind of form platforms for them to run across instead of just flying which was Really visually appealing it was really beautiful to look at
00:50:12
Speaker
Yeah, I loved all that stuff. And it was definitely Raya and Namaari and Sisu's story. But if I did have to say one little thing while we're bringing it up, I wish maybe I was able to differentiate between the Dragon siblings a little bit more, maybe if we got a little bit more context there. But like I said, I'm just nitpicking at this point.
00:50:33
Speaker
Yeah, let's let's face it. There's going to be a a Disney plus series off of. I'd be amazed if there wasn't the first dragon. I think the coolest, I think the coolest name was Jagan. I don't know why I thought that was an awesome name, but the fog was definitely my favorite ability because they call her a dragon, but she doesn't have like traditional dragon
00:51:00
Speaker
characteristics until she came in to save Raya and actually roared and scared the living bejesus out of everybody instead of like fire. She was like fogging up the place. I was like, whoa, that's cool. Now that really shocked me because it's the sweetheart that wants to forgive everybody and give gifts and stuff like that. So for her to have that roar and have that presence of like, I'm still a dragon. You better chill out was really cool. No. Yeah. I think if I had to pick one of the powers at
00:51:29
Speaker
probably is the fog as well. Yeah. Couldn't really expound on that, I just picked one.
00:51:37
Speaker
Well, they used it to such great effect. So I mean, I would honestly say if I hadn't picked the rain as my favorite, it would probably be the fog as my second favorite.
Humor & Storytelling Pacing
00:51:44
Speaker
So they did an excellent job with it. I mean, they didn't really use the glow stick ability too much. I think it was kind of like convenient for the initial scene and to explain what their abilities were. I mean, her swimming was really cool. Like when they first met Captain Boone and she got under the ship and started kicking so fast that it like turned it into a powerboat was really sweet.
00:52:08
Speaker
Speedboat. Yeah, exactly. Well, on the subject of speedboats, and it kind of puts me in the mind of pacing, that's another thing that stood out to me having watched the movie two times. It clocks in right at two hours. And one thing that I always pay attention to when I'm watching a movie, do I ever stop to look at my phone, to look at the time? Do I ever feel at any point in time like the movie's dragging? And not a once in this film. It has almost like a break
00:52:32
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:52:37
Speaker
I won't say breakneck speed because it doesn't feel rushed. Like everything feels earned and there's proper character development, but it's like so much happens and the movie just flies by. I always appreciate when a movie is well paced and well directed like that.
00:52:53
Speaker
Yeah, I agree with that. Especially, I think you put it, you said it well when you said it's earned, like the attention, all the attention is earned the entire time. It wasn't like rushed or like, let's make so much action here so that way don't make you feel like you get too bored and we have to pull you in. You know, it was well done in a way that you're
00:53:16
Speaker
It doesn't have to be too strong, but it kept a good energy the whole way. And if it needed a spike, it spiked only just enough and then brought it back into its regular pacing. And you guys, Jay Scott, you know that I love a series that can make good world building. And because of that pacing, like it's amazing how they were able to set up
00:53:41
Speaker
cultures and personalities and Expectations like of these nations within such a short time like sure whenever I saw a certain character like I had the understanding of like What was expected to be of them? They explained it so well and balance it so well at the beginning that through The movement of the movie you didn't have to wonder anything like you had an understanding of what these characters were supposed to be and what was expected of them and just
00:54:09
Speaker
hats off to them for that. That was probably my favorite thing about it. Yeah, they do establish a very rich world in a short amount of time. So super effective storytelling there. And I'm not I can't quite explain myself why. But when you started bringing up that point, it made me think of the original talent chieftain.
00:54:29
Speaker
who they describe him as he's a mean guy, so sweet talking might not work. That's why Sisu wants to go get a gift. But basically when Raya infiltrates his house and approaches him from behind, and the guy turns around and he's like, oh, I'm not him. I'm this guy. I'm the flowery guy.
00:54:48
Speaker
Such a stupid moment, but I love that they threw a gag like that in there. It's like, where's your chief? Oh, he's right there. That led you on all the way up to that point. Just the flower guy.
00:55:01
Speaker
But then they lead it even more when they reveal the old woman, right? So you went from this menacing type of character, make you assume that it's going to be some tyrant, and then it's the flower guy. And next thing you know, it's a sweet talking old lady that pushes you outside the door and demands something from you. And you're like, whoa, that gives you an interesting pathway.
00:55:25
Speaker
I loved Seesu's dialogue that led up to that too when they were confronting her about the credit and she was like, oh, let me go find my friend Raya. She has Jade and a sword and gemstones. Oh, yeah. She just took it back right away like, oh, maybe I shouldn't announce that. Yeah. And then while we're focusing on funny moments and we were just kind of like talking about some of the just the world building that they're able to
00:55:54
Speaker
do through the storytelling but even a moment like when I can't remember that what were they the boom bugs or something like that?
00:56:03
Speaker
Anyway, they were the little beetles with the butts that light up, and then they basically- Oh, toot and booms. Toot and booms, yeah, yeah. It was just another great thing. It's a funny moment, and it gives Sisu this moment that, hey, you got to admit, they got cute butts. But it just gives you more of a fantastical understanding of what kind of fauna and flora you can expect in this wild world.
00:56:25
Speaker
And then she was so hungry but she didn't want to eat any of Raya's jerky. I'm not that hungry. I like that they put that as part of her personality, you know, that bit of the nicety because like if it was me, I'd be like, no, this is horrible. I'll tell you right away.
00:56:46
Speaker
And then she was so desperate for good food that once they met Captain Boone and he was like taking their orders and stuff, like, Sisu knew she was on the run, but Riot was like, we gotta go. She's like, oh, no, what are your specials? And I'll take the extra hot, oh, hot, hot, hot, hot, and just jumps over the ship.
00:57:03
Speaker
And then poor Tuk Tuk later on, they kind of do a call back to that when he's just going into town on those little, I want to call them mochi balls, but basically the hot sauce gets poured onto those while he's just going to town. And while bringing up, is it Tuk Tuk or Tuk Tuk, right? Not Tuk Tuk, Tuk Tuk.
00:57:22
Speaker
Yeah, he's a he's I'll say quote unquote voiced by Alan Tudyk. I guess of course he is the vocalizations there exactly Yeah, he has a long-standing history with with a kind of crazy kooky character voices like that. But I He was hey in Moana. So hey, yeah
00:57:40
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. But it was kind of funny how in the opening scene where we saw, you know, young Raya, he was basically just this little tool that she could use as like a stealth tool and then come full circle. Like when the action's going on more often than not, he's too big to even like participate really. So he's just like, all right, I'll just kind of
00:57:59
Speaker
cut you off where I, or, uh, I guess he has that moment where he, uh, he stops con baby in the, in the three monkeys when he's able to cut him off there. Yeah. Yeah. But I did notice when he was like constantly trying to get on the action, but he was too big. So at least he's, he's able to contribute where he can.
00:58:18
Speaker
Man, I love that opening scene. She was so adorable. In the trailer, when they had the scene of the chief guarding the gem and her having to get back, in the trailer, there was no context that that was her father. It was that it was an obstacle. And we saw the scene of like him just using very minor movements and her having to like be fancy to try to get around him. Yeah. When me and Ataserra from Impact saw that, we were like, oh, that's totally Guro.
00:58:49
Speaker
Cause I was just like, man, we got all these fancy moves that he showed us and he's able to like take us out with like very little movement. That's a goal right there.
00:58:59
Speaker
That's interesting to hear that perspective. You paid a lot more attention to the trailers proceeding up to the movie. I remember the first time I watched it. And even the second time I watched it, I still thought they did a good job of setting it up that way with the first time we see Raya, she's out on her own on the dystopian landscape or whatever. She's like, let me tell you how it happened. I really did kind of set her up to make it seem like she was the thief in that situation right up until the first time Chief Bang opened his mouth and you're like, OK.
00:59:26
Speaker
Banja, excuse me. Okay, this is a little more lighthearted than than you initially thought. Yeah. Well, uh,
00:59:36
Speaker
Any other final thoughts as we're kind of bringing the conversation to a close? Any other standout moments that you feel as big martial arts fans and with a little bit more exposure to the cultures that we're focused on in this film? Let me know if there's any other things you want to get off your chest there. Either one of you guys.
Critical Observations on Heart Tribe Defense
00:59:57
Speaker
My one like nitpicky thing was when the firework went off and the chief came in to help Raya. But like everybody else's army showed up. I was like, did Hart not have anybody else to help out? Like, were those literally the only two warriors available? Because clearly everybody knew what happened. That was my only like very nitpicky thing. But aside from that, I mentioned, you know, there was essence in
01:00:24
Speaker
the certain postures and artistic decisions and culture and the things that just connected with me that I thought was really beautiful to see. And then when I got to talk to Grover about it in person and get the expanded version of how he felt about it, it just gave me a whole new appreciate for the movie. So the fact that
01:00:47
Speaker
I had started training Filipino martial arts because the person who recommended it to me spoke about it so passionately. And it was one of those things where it's like, I didn't quite understand it until I tried it. Like, I called into the school, they were like, what do you want to try? I was about to say Muay Thai and I was like, you know, I want to do Filipino martial arts. Let me try something I've never heard of, or have no exposure to. And that was my first exposure to martial arts. I've been doing it for six years.
01:01:14
Speaker
only at impact as well. So it was a really, really cool thing that something that I've been training every day for six years now to be displayed in a movie and to be able to have that relationship and say like, Hey, this is this is like, my extended culture, like, they actually acknowledge this is something that, you know, I'm trying to
01:01:39
Speaker
understand more and be able to explain more. So the fact that there's a movie that portrays my culture as a Muslim, as a Pakistani and then as a Filipino martial artist was really amazing and they did a fantastic job at that and I hope they do make a good series off of it. I love to hear that. That's awesome.
01:01:59
Speaker
Yeah, that stuck out to me too. I like how they, I mean, I could have, um, I kind of wished I saw a little bit more of the uniqueness, uniqueness of Filipino martial arts, maybe like a particular pattern, um, movement pattern.
01:02:15
Speaker
But other than that, I thought it was pretty good, just like you talked about attaching the cultural pride, because obviously it's part of how it grew up and everything, to see that depicted on there and to get a little bit more light shed on that. And it sparks more curiosity to know more about the culture and the history through the art itself. So you can see it in reverse this time where the movie is showing the culture and then
01:02:43
Speaker
you know, maybe lead towards more people practicing Filipino martial arts to understand the movie a little bit more. Or maybe dive into its rich history and culture, which tends to be not spoken of because, you know, more modern times, more modern problems brings our minds away from that. So I like how they bring that together.
01:03:05
Speaker
But in the last note there, I heard you say something about the chicken, hey, hey. And when I saw him come through with the little Easter egg inside of the movie, I was like, hey, isn't that that chicken that was in Moana? And then it was gone. And I was like, OK, let's go back to the movie. I don't think I picked up on that. Do you remember which scene that was?
01:03:23
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know what you're talking about either. It has something... I believe you though. Yeah, it's somewhere around... I want to say it's in the middle or maybe like a quarter way through the movie. They were in a marketplace and there was a bird that had like a basket over its head. So that was Heihei. Nice, nice. That's so cool. So now I'm going to get you to watch the movie again. Yeah, I was going to say like I need an excuse to watch it a third time.
01:03:50
Speaker
Now it's really nice to hear, I mean, as beautifully and well done the movie was done as just for someone like me, that's just a casual fan of, I mean, I'm a fan of animation and action. Obviously I have a podcast about it, but not having been quite as exposed to these particular cultures and these martial arts, just hearing how much it resonated with you guys and the fact that it was a beautiful film for me just makes me feel
01:04:14
Speaker
Really good. You know, sometimes it's tough. I won't get on too much of a soapbox here, but Disney is a monopoly. So I always kind of keep that in the back of my head as much as like I like the content that Disney's putting out there a lot. It's like, OK, they're kind of taking over the world a little bit. But if they're doing things like this, it makes me feel a little bit better about it. Yeah. You know, as soon as Baba Iger stepped down as the CEO and put a lot of his energy into the creative, I can definitely see Disney coming out with a lot more stuff.
01:04:44
Speaker
Okay, cool. Well, I guess my final question, you guys, you kind of gave your final thoughts here, but I do want to ask, did you have
01:04:51
Speaker
A favorite, it doesn't even have to be a favorite fight scene, but if you want to go into a favorite fight scene, just a favorite move, it'd be like, you know, just hand to hand combat or with a weapon. Did you have a favorite move that you saw executed? I'll just go ahead and start with myself. I like the call back from that, that fight when we saw, you know, the, I want to say they were 12 years old, the 12 year old versions of, uh, Namari and Raya when Raya was able to land that overhead kick that caught, you know,
01:05:18
Speaker
Namari on the the collarbone area there. That's what laid her out initially She had the signal for the rest of fang to come and then when we when they fought when they were older Namari had learned and was able to catch that and kind of reverse it on Raya. I appreciate that visual callback and just great action
01:05:38
Speaker
I didn't catch that. Oh, wow. Honestly, neither did I. If you didn't get it either, that makes me feel a whole lot better. Maybe I was breaking down all the other my needs stuff. I'm pretty confident that it's the same kick, but maybe I'm making things that aren't there, but I feel like it was a pretty intended visual callback. No, I believe you. I started thinking about it. My jaw dropped as you were explaining it. Okay.
01:06:05
Speaker
Oh, I think my favorite was the standoff between Ryan Amari at the end because we saw a lot of when they were tame and when they were standoffish, but it was kind of like buying time to kind of get out. This was like full on confrontation like this is.
01:06:23
Speaker
they knew that that was going to be their final showdown. So the level of motion that was in it, being able to understand the movements, because the cool thing about the sword is that it becomes a flexible weapon, which sadly mine doesn't do. If anybody finds a version of the Chris that does that, please send me the link because I'd love to do that despite how much I probably cut myself.
01:06:45
Speaker
But being able to use her sword as single and double and all the hand-trapping stuff that was happening, and then Namaari having the double blades, so having to deal with the shield blashes and the berries and the two against one trying to overpower each other, whether it be with multiple weapons or with just sheer force, it was a really cool thing. I think there was a lot of
01:07:10
Speaker
We talk about in the school how there's 12 areas of Kali and being able to see a lot of them within that fight with double sword, flexible weapons, double hand stuff, a lot of empty hand stuff and then the emotional healing that happened afterwards was a really cool thing. It was years of different styles of Kali kind of all coming into one in that scene and it was really cool to watch.
01:07:41
Speaker
Yeah, super effective scene. Girl, what was your favorite, if you have one?
01:07:47
Speaker
I don't think I would pick a move. I'm just more gravitated towards the accuracy of the objects in the movie, from the Chris sword itself, different shapes. I don't know the name of the blades that Namari was holding, but the shape itself looked like a blade that I saw that Atienza Kali uses. And like the Salakot, which is the rice hat,
01:08:16
Speaker
that she was wearing as well, the different colors of the clothes, different parts that made me really imagine I was part of Southeast Asia, traveling between the different countries. So those were the things that really stuck out to me instead of the martial part of it. It was more of the art part of it.
01:08:39
Speaker
The curve in her shorter spear was really cool too. I can't think of the, I know there's a Chinese type spear that was kind of shaped off of where the staff itself was kind of shorter and it had a curved blade at the edge. The one that she was using in the fight, in the spine village, right? Yeah. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. I liked that one too. More like a halberd of some sort. Yeah. Yeah. Halberd is a good way to describe it. Yeah.
01:09:05
Speaker
Well, uh, sounds like, uh, we're kind of coming to a close here. So I will take this opportunity to think. Ervin once again, thank you for taking the time to talk about Ryan, the last dragon with us and lend some of your expertise and, and break it down one more time. Uh, let the people know where they can find everything that you're doing.
01:09:28
Speaker
If you happen to be in Virginia Beach area, my school, I run it with my wife, my family. It's called Impact Martial Arts Academy. If you're looking to train either in weaponry, striking or grappling, we have it all there. And we're all subject matter experts. You can even see Zuhera there as well. He's a guru in Filipino martial arts. Come visit us, train with us, and we'll be definitely more honored and privileged to share with you. Cool. Impact all day.
01:09:55
Speaker
Yeah, and we'll put the social media leaks for impact as well as the link for that YouTube video that you plugged at the beginning. You'll find that in the show notes description or the show description. Thank you so much for having me. Thanks for joining, girl.
01:10:10
Speaker
Zuhair, anything you want to let the people know about before we get out of here? I'm super excited that we are finally covering Young Justice season three. I know a lot of our listeners have been patiently waiting for us to get that. We thank you for your patience. We are excited to talk about it, excited to watch it.
01:10:27
Speaker
in anticipation of season four coming out this year. Also, we are going to finish our coverage of Demon Slayer season one and a rewatch and feedback of Mugen Train in anticipation of season two coming out later this year as well. You know, my love for animation or sorry, you know, my love for anime, you know, my love for Young Justice and how underappreciated that show is. So I'm excited to get back on it, share with you guys and really excited to listen to your feedback and talk with you all about it.
01:10:57
Speaker
It's a Steve. Take your line. I almost took your line. Very excited to get back into the world of Young Justice. We should be hearing something about season four pretty soon here. So very, very excited for that. I will take an opportunity just to mention we are part of the Stranded Panda Network and kind of, I like to call him the Podfather.
01:11:17
Speaker
Matthew Carroll, Matthew Carillon, if you will. He is a musician. He has a band called The Garage. They just released their album, Save Each Other. So it's all kind of focused on Star Trek. They're all songs inspired by Star Trek. But even as somebody that's more of a Star Trek fan, casual Star Trek fan, there's a lot of good stuff there. It's geeky music with hearts. So if that's your thing, wherever you find your music, Save Each Other. Check it out.
01:11:46
Speaker
and keep tuning in, that's T-O-O-N-I-N. Stay well. Word.
01:11:56
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Animation Deliberation Podcast, a proud member of the Strandepanda Network. If you would like to contact us, you can email AnimationDeliberationPodcast at gmail.com or follow us on Twitter at AnimationDelib1. For this and other great shows, you can visit Strandepanda.com or join the great community that is the Strandepanda Chat Facebook group at facebook.com slash groups slash sbchat. Tune in next time and remember...
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