I’ve been a Starwars fan ever since I saw the first movie in the 80s. Much to my surprise, I did not know then that the fight scenes were adapted from Samurai sword techniques known to the Japanese as Kenjutsu that later became the sport Kendo. The lightsabers were represented by the katanas while the Samurai warriors were the Jedi knights. Filipino martial arts were not popular during that time.

The ensuing Starwars fights has utilized other martial arts styles like Wushu or Kungfu as was excellently demonstrated by Ray Park who portrayed Darth Maul in “Phantom Menace”. Ray is a Northern Style Shaolin practitioner. The “Obi Ani” spin is also derived from Chinese martial arts specifically the Plum Blossom weapon spin of Shaolin.

I have yet to see a distinguishing feature of the Filipino Martial Arts used in a Starwars fight scene [I haven’t seen “The Force Awakens” yet, yeah, I know, I know, it’s been months :(].

The only thing slightly Filipino in Starwars is the lightsaber of Count Dooku (si Drakula) which was designed based on the Filipino traditional weapon called “Barong”, a medio-corto weapon and a favorite of the late Grandmaster Tatang Ilustrisimo.

In the Philippines today, lots of young Padawans are gathering together to show their lightsabers and their skills in wielding it and even battle with each other with battle-ready ultrasabers. Just recently I have learned that there are people involved in Filipino Martial Arts who seems to despise these groups and gatherings as they think that training in a “real martial art” is more practical and useful as opposed to “dancing” and performing the “Obi Ani”. I mean what the hell, why would some think that? The first time I held a battle-ready lightsaber with lights and sounds made me feel like I’m as powerful as a Jedi, thereby fulfilling my childhood fantasy of wielding one and be one with the force. I guess if you are an FMA practitioner and not a fan of Starwars, you will never understand the joy in this. Besides, if you practice any form of martial arts, there will always be someone out there who will tell you in a very sarcastic way that you should learn how to use guns instead of self-defense [“Pakara-Karate ka pa! Isang bala ka lang!” or “Di ko na kailangan yan, me baril ako.”].

As a teacher of FMA, I really appreciate the choreography and duels in these lightsaber gatherings. There is no ego involved when dueling with a fellow Starwars fan and zero injuries too. There may be a bit of politics but not as horrible [yet] as is a common case in many FMA groups.

Here is a short video of an FMA free-style lightsaber wielding with two of my RRK brothers, Guro AA and AJ Quidlat. This was made during a Philippine Lightsaber Guild [PLG] meetup somewhere in The Fort, BGC.