Product Details

• Actors: Verious Tae Kwon Do Masters GeneralChoi
• Directors: Don Warrener
• Format: Black & White, Digital Sound, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Number of discs: 1
• Studio: RISING SUN PRODUCTIONS
• DVD Release Date: November 23, 2005
• Run Time: 55 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00009ZK6A
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #79,946 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Captured for all Tae Kwon Do enthusiasts. See the founder General Choi as well as many of the early Tae Kwon Do masters performing, forms, drills, self defense, breaking and much more. Plus Hapkido’s famous 20 cane techniques, these rare , dynamic and explosive techniques are of value to all styles of martial arts. You will see performed all 25 patterns of Tae Kwon Do from Chon-Ji to Tong-II. Each pattern is performed and then many of the self defense applications are taught by the master performing.

Approx. 77 minutes B/W.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars decent archival footage - but what's with the waltzes?!, January 26, 2005

By 

Jedi Turtle "jedi_turtle" (Albany, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Masters of Tae Kwon Do (DVD)

This DVD contains archival footage (as is the case with many Rising Sun Productions DVDs) of General Choi and others performing I.T.F. Taekwondo forms, techniques, etc. The footage has not been cleaned up in any way, thus the image quality is what you'd expect for 40 year old film. That I can handle - but who decided to use waltzes for the entire audio track????? I don't know what music would have matched the movements, but the waltzes just don't cut it for me... it's too incongruous. I had to turn down the sound to finish the DVD.

I think there is tremendous value in preserving this type of footage on DVD; Don Warrener and Rising Sun are to be commended for these efforts. It would be great if it could be digitally cleaned a bit (admittedly an expensive proposition for material with a such limited appeal, so I suspect it will never happen) and if it had more appropriate music.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing footage - I'm happy it's preserved, February 14, 2007

By 

Thomas O. Morrison (Ogdensburg, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Early Masters of Tae Kwon Do (DVD)

This video should be in every TKDist's collection. The main portion of the video is in grainy black and white with a few "bad" sections from the original source but it is still very clear and absolutely fascinating. It shows many of the early masters performing the original Chang Hon forms (24, no "Juche" by the way) in the "old way" without sine-wave and in a very Shotokan-esque "hard" style.

Granted, the overdubbed music is a bit over-the-top and the black-and-white may be offputting but the content is amazing. There is a lot of material to see from comparing the "old way" of doing the forms to some of the demos, step sparring, training drills, and especially the Hapkido cane at the end.

Between forms, they perform breaking demos, self defence, sparring and other such stuff. It's priceless to see the art as it was in the 60/70's and to see how much has changed. Following the first part, there are some "newer" demos from the 70s (I guess) with more breaking and one steps, again very interesting.

The last section is old video of a Hapkido artist demonstrating 20 cane techniques. This is awesome and a must for any HKDist in my opinion.

Highly recommended for serious students of Taekwondo (and Hapkido). I would recommend this for more advanced students who are ready to explore a bit more beyond the dojang.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Put me to sleep, February 18, 2006

By 

detroit chris "CW" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Early Masters of Tae Kwon Do (DVD)

I had been studying Tae Kwon Do for about 8 months as I eagerly awaited this dvd (which looked home made when I recieved it.) I was disappointed with what I bought. The footage is extremley grainy, the sound is poor/ (music?) and I was foolish enough to think I would benefit from viewing this. Well I did learn something about myself. Dont act impulsivley.There must be better footage than this. My opinion is that this dvdr is not worth the s&h I payed