Shito Ryu Karate Original

Rating:
Summary: Good Reference Material but Poor Production
Review: If you're looking for some videos demonstrating the traditional katas of Shito-Ryu style and wouldn't mind the picture & sound qualities, this DVD may be a good reference material to you. Here's the actual list and order of the performing katas:



[Part One: Basic Katas Performing Indoor]

PINAN NIDAN

PINAN SHODAN

PINAN SANDAN

PINAN YONDAN

PINAN GODAN



[Part Two: Advanced Katas Performing Outdoor]

BASSI DAI

KOSUKON DAI

JION

SEIENSHIN

SEI PAI



The total run time is about 50 minutes. All the katas are performed by Master Tomiyama. The DVD includes the basic katas Pinans for color belts students and some advanced katas such as Jion, Bassi Dai, and Sei Pai, for brown and black belts students. For each kata, Tomiyama shows in different way so that you can easily pick up the correct forms and movements. He performs each kata in a slow speed version, a correct speed & timing version, and also a different side view version, with the proper 'kiai' points. For the Pinans, Master Tomiyama also shows different application of movements to explain how the kata forms work. It is a great reference material for people to learn and practice the traditional Shito-Ryu katas with this DVD, especially if you're preparing your belt examination.



Unforturnately, the DVD production is quite poor. Both the video and sound qualities are bad. It seems like it's taped in a low-tech video device, transferred to a computer in 320x240 pixel resoluton, and then produced in DVD format. No booklet is found in the keepcase, no DVD feature screen is avaliable but only a 'BEGIN' button to show all the kata performance, and no chapters screen is there to let you select different katas. Among these weakness, it is still a 'not bad' reference material unless you can find a better product out there in the market.



*** Otto Yuen's DVD Special Rating for Shito Ryu Karate Original ***

1. Film Rewatchability: VERY HIGH

2. DVD Featurability: NONE

3. Picture Quality: POOR

4. Sound Quality: POOR



(Reviewed by Otto Yuen, 14-Aug-2004)