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DOUG
ANDERSON is the rookie and Jimmy Smith is the
professional one. Both are fighters, not in a
metaphorical sense but in the physical sense. They
engage in combats and they are into this thing called
“mixed martial arts.” And they appear on Discovery
Channel, a channel that has always been known for
documentaries that open visual avenues to places and
sites, and to developments in science and technology. In
a sense, Fight Quest also brings us into new
geographies; regions that we never thought ever existed.
Well, that’s how I responded anyway to some of the
episodes shot in the
Philippines.
The
documentary showed Doug and Jimmy going around the world
to learn of the different martial arts developed by
other martial artists. The two experienced the world of
fighting styles that include wushu from China, pencak
silat from Indonesia, Krav Maga from Israel, as well as
jiujitsu as practiced in
Brazil and boxing in
Mexico.
In the Philippines, they encountered this martial art
form called kali, a form I thought was severely imagined
for the show. I look at the martial-art form as
performed and could barely see there that which we call
arnis. But then again, Discovery Channel describes kali
as one of the “deadliest, most ancient fighting systems
on earth.” That’s a mouthful and much as it is a title
we can always be proud of, together with our other
tourist hyperboles like Mayon being the “most perfect
cone in the world” or Taal being the “smallest volcano
in the world,” I consider myself ignorant about our
republic hiding a lethal martial-art form.
One of
the things that confused me was how kali, with its
overwrought rituals of initiation and elements, escaped
the local imagination. Where was I, I asked myself, as I
got introduced via these two fighters to a world so
exotic and yet so in my neighborhood? Did the producers
stage the performances? Did the local informants and key
sources embellish the narrative of kali for the
delectation of the outsiders? Several months back I also
had a problem with a discovery of a ritual called the
lukayo, where women in the nearby
province
of Laguna performed a ritual built around phalluses. In
that documentary shown by the intrepid Howie Severino,
many asked if someone “interfered” in the ritual so that
the merely phallic symbol in eggplants and other plants
became wooden penises kept in the aparador of our
lolas and titas. Although moralists then
raged against the rituals, my problem really was more
classically anthropological: why a ritual that was so
in-your-face with the use of penises (I am serious with
that phrase) would ever escape the local imagination? As
of this writing, we have yet to confirm the information
that someone instructed the women to carve phalluses
perhaps for a more exotic version of the ritual.
Now this
kali. Upon arrival in the Philippines, the two warriors
were separated. Doug was taken directly to a jungle camp
to train with the Kali Grand Master Leo Gaje, while
Jimmy remained in a place described as Inner Manila to
train with another grand master, Cristino Vasquez.
The
Manila episode is exotic in its depiction of squalor and
poverty. The fighter walked the streets and encountered
people with enviable expertise. One woman showed off her
skills right in front of Jimmy, enough for the American
to say that kali was being practiced by practically
everyone in the city. The scenes of Doug were straight
out of Hollywood’s depiction of Orientalia: his room,
though simple, had Zen written all over it. Mist covered
the area and Doug himself had to undergo a purification
ritual that was part bayanihan, part kung fu. The
scent of the films of Roberto Gonzales in the late ’60s
permeated the episode.
I was so
taken aback by my lack of awareness of certain things in
the documentary that I had to call the people behind
Discovery Channel here. They then hooked me to one of
the masters in the episode—Cristino Vasquez—who provided
me with many answers to my questions. One clarification
was the difference between arnis and kali, with arnis
differentiated as the martial-art form using rattan
sticks. Kali, according to Vazquez, was the native term
for the weapon (kris?) used by the early Filipinos.
When
asked about the organization behind the martial-art
form, Vasquez indicated a fairly recent date, 1997, as
the time they initiated forming a group linked to the
international practitioners. It appeared that a trip
abroad made by one of the masters was one of the urgent
factors that united the group of Vazquez. Far from being
ancient, most of the practices done—the greeting or
pagpugay—are offshoots of the gestures commonly made
by the military. In the documentary, the military (i.e.,
Marines) seem to be part of the more formal institutions
behind kali.
At a
certain point, Doug and Jimmy became wary that the
martial-art form of kali was being developed to hurt or
harm others. Vasquez in the interview, however, talked
about the martial-art form as having been created to
strike fatal blows when needed. The master spoke of how
kali ceases to be kali when it is taught to people whose
aim is to kill. In the words of the master, “Unawain
mo ang tinuturo ng instructor, para kung sakaling
may maka-engkwentro ka, marunong kang pumalo na hindi
fatal” [Try to understand what your instructor is
telling you, so that if you encounter someone, you know
how to make a nonfatal blow]. He went on to say: “Kung
tuturuan mo ang isang tao na makapatay, masisira ’yung
art, hindi na kali” [If you teach a person to
kill (using the martial art form), then that is not
kali].
There is
enough about tourism and terror in the documentary,
which makes the viewing of Fight Quest
compelling. In between their trainings, Doug and Jimmy
walked the streets of Manila sampling food like balut or
some animal’s testicles. Will we attract tourists if we
engage them with the undersides of our country? I do not
know but as I watched Fight Quest, I felt a sense
of natural high, a rabid eagerness for things martial
and terrifically exotic.
Catch
the documentary and its other episodes. For schedules,
visit www.discoverychannelasia.com. When you watch the
episodes, be wary, be very afraid but keep your mind. Be
very critical. You may be watching culture being
pummeled and trashed. |
