Meditation on Violence

Chao-Li Chi shadow boxes indoors and practices with a sword outdoors. The film theoretically describes three degrees of traditional Chinese boxing—Wu-tang, Shao-lin, and Shao-lin with a sword—in a single continuous movement. A long, ballet-like, sinuous Wu-tang sequence becomes the more erratic Shao-lin. In the middle, there is an abrupt change to leaping sword movements, centered on a long-held freeze-frame at the leap's apogee.