(Demura claims he was approached to play the character but declined when he saw the size of the role, citing his poor English.) Miyagi in The Karate Kid that the stocky, amiable sensei struck up a lasting closeness with Morita. It was after turning down the part of Mr. He knew what the public wanted.”ĭirected with sometimes plodding and hagiographic adoration, The Real Miyagi spends considerable time on Demura’s scrappy roots, traveling with him on a recent visit to Japan to pay respect to his family, and the 2011 health crisis that landed the now-76 year old Demura in a coma. “He was very intelligent about showmanship. “He wanted to use that weapon so he started practicing with that book and asking questions,” Demura says. The sensei himself recalls how Bruce Lee came to him to learn the art of the nunchaku, keen on perfecting the right presentation that would wow his audience. “Demura sensei’s the real thing.”ĭemura’s precise moves and thrilling choreography earned him the attention of Hollywood types just as Hong Kong chop-socky cinema was making waves stateside.
All they do is bullshit people and talk about all the people they studied with and all the things they did, when they really did nothing,” he says.
MIYAGI KARATE MOVIE
“There are so many people in the martial arts and in the movie business who never really studied the martial arts. Sprawled across a couch with a throw pillow across his lap, Seagal puts it another way.
But Demura wasn’t an empty-headed guru spouting exoticisms, Seagal tells the camera. It was there that future action star, seventh-dan black belt, and sometimes lawman Steven Seagal was known to literally beat the drum for Demura’s shows as a young wannabe martial artist. martial arts scene in the 1970s performing karate demonstrations with his fledgling band of students where he could, in forums like Buena Park’s now long-defunct culturally-themed Japanese Village and Deer Park. The partially crowdfunded documentary, which earned a berth at last week’s genre-focused Fantasia Fest in Montreal, recounts Demura’s rise to prominence in the U.S. “I just would cut off pieces of broomstick and put a chain around it and swing ‘em around like a crazy person, and I thought I was kinda good.” “I sent away for a book called Advanced Nunchaku-which is funny because I didn’t know anything about nunchaku,” laughs White. “He was so masterful… it looked like somebody took a pen and drew him in each movement, it was so precise.”īlack Dynamite and Mortal Kombat: Legacy star (and nine-discipline black belt) Michael Jai White recalls how, as a kid, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on one of Demura’s early how-to tomes.
“I’d never seen anybody move their body so sharp and crisp like that,” he says. Tae-Bo legend Billy Blank remembers seeing Demura perform karate with wide-eyed wonder. Over the years Demura picked up several other high-profile fans, like Chuck Norris, who once credited his success as a karate fighter to the beloved instructor, author, and stuntman. The 1961 All-Japan karate champ started gracing the covers of Black Belt Magazine, which martial arts-obsessed youngsters, including future Expendable Dolph Lundgren, saved up to buy and pore over. Knowing no English but armed with training in karate and the weaponry-focused kobudo, he went on to found his own influential karate practice in Southern California, teaching his craft to generations of students-including a nunchaku-obsessed Bruce Lee. In real life it was a gentle-voiced master from Yokohama, Japan named Fumio Demura who taught Noriyuki “Pat” Morita the true meaning of sensei, sparking a decades-long friendship between the Karate Kid star and one of modern martial art’s most iconic figures.ĭemura’s impressive legacy is chronicled in Kevin Derek’s doting documentary The Real Miyagi, which traces how the son of a silk tradesman came to America in the 1960s with nothing but $300 and a suitcase.
MIYAGI KARATE HOW TO
Miyagi taught Daniel-san how to wax on and wax off like a pro, sending karate into the hearts and minds of America with one swift, perfect crane kick.
Back in 1984, a gentle-voiced Okinawan named Mr.
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