Product Details

• Actors: JIM WILSON
• Directors: Y. ISHIMOTO
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: RISING SUN PRODUCTIONS
• DVD Release Date: November 11, 2003
• Run Time: 50 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00011HJ20
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,904 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

FightingSpirit.com
Excellent tape on both, the technical and the production aspects!

Product Description
Taught by Jim Wilson member of former Champion team of Kendoists. He shows basics, cuts, blocks, & footwork, as well as all decorum & etiquette associated with the way of the sword.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do NOT waste your money ..., January 10, 2007

By	Paul "JSA Junkie" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

Hmmm ... where to begin. While the author may be a successful martial artist, it is painfully obvious from watching this video that he has NO knowledge of kendo at all, and very little of iaido. The movements and techniques that he espouses as correct are so sloppy as to be almost unrecognizeable. His movements and precision are laughable. Combine this with the terrible quality of the video, and it wasn't even good enough to enjoy for its comedic value, although I did laugh out loud several times.

Definitely a waste of time and money for anyone that is truly interested in the Japanese sword arts.

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good content very very poor DVD quality, May 22, 2004

By	J. Leigh "jleigh7" (chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Pros:

Good introductory video providing a broad overview of the area and delivers everything that is outlined on the box cover.

Lots of good demonstration of the movements.

Cons:

No chapters so there is no easy way to jump to specific portions of the video. It would have been good to organize the categories of movements so you can jump to the chapters and review them.

It would have been better if each motion could be repeated several times, one after another, so that you can watch first the arm movements, then the leg movements, then the two together. That's how I learned Tai Chi and Tai Chi sword. Instead you will need to use your DVD remote to zip back and forth. This is not particularly easy to do when you are holding a boken (unless they can build a DVD remote into the boken ;^) But of course the only real way to learn Kendo or any martial arts is to work with a sensai.

Audio quality is very very poor. This is particularly problematic when he utters Japanese terms and the audio has dropped out.

I have played this disk on my Xbox and at the 35-minute point the disk is completely unreadable.

I then played it on my laptop and it was viewable but audio was extremely stuttery.

So be warned that you may experience playback problems.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth either your money or time, September 17, 2007

By	David Chin (Wayne, PA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

While I can't speak for his skill in other martial arts, I know for a fact that this man knows next to nothing about kendo. His technique is sloppy at best and all of his movements are laughable. He may have had some training but it is obvious that, at the most, he attended a handful of practices, thought he "mastered" kendo, and decided to produce this film and make money off of it. Please, do yourself a favor and do not waste your time on this man or this DVD.