Weng Chun is the internal art of Southern Shaolin and is a concept-based fighting system based on the 18 Kiu Sau strategies. Andreas Hoffman trained under Grandmaster Wai Yan until 1996, when he accepted the inheritance passed on to him and today represents Chi Sim Weng Chun worldwide.
My first impressions of Weng Chun Kung Fu are very good. The production values and camerawork are professional and the audio is clear and precise. During the first ten minutes, we are shown demonstrations of some of the Weng Chun fighting strategies, with Hoffman and his student going through some pre-arranged fighting sequences. We are also treated to a brief history of the Weng Chun system and how Hoffman came to learn it. Although this is interesting viewing, I feel that on a 50-minute DVD, the action and tuition sections need to come a lot sooner.
Hoffman continues with a demonstration on how the Weng Chun practitioner uses the concepts of Heaven (long range), Man (forearm distance) and Earth (fighting on the inside) to close down their opponent’s range, deal with their attack and then launch an attack of their own. Hoffman then shows us how this relates to Chi Sau. Again, I am left a bit confused, as there is no explanation of how this is actually achieved—just a demonstration of how good Hoffman and his student are at this complex martial art (which incidentally is very good).
The viewer is then taken through the 18 Kiu Sau strategies one by one in numerical sequence. Although this section is informative, we are not really shown how to execute all the actions correctly; it is just a performance of the concepts shown. This would be fine if the aim of Hoffman is to showcase the Weng Chun system but as an instructional DVD, we need more explanation of what we should be doing and why.
So in conclusion, Weng Chun Kung Fu is a fantastic showcase of the Weng Chun system, but falls short as far as instruction is concerned. Having said that, if you were already training in Chi Sim Weng Chun, I believe this DVD would be a valuable asset to your learning.
Buy at Everything Wing Chun!
Language: English, French, Spanish, German and Italian
Running Time: Approx. 50 min.
Format: PAL
Region: 0
Number of Discs: 1
Review by: James Woodcock
