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Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but Seriously Uneven Muscle Development
Review: I am a black belt in Kempo, and TKD with an Instructor Sash in Kung Fu who learned the whole form as best as I could from just using the book. I found it clear and easy to follow. It took a couple of months to learn, after which I ordered Doc-Fai Wong's instructional video on the same 5 animal form later. I found that I'd done a fairly decent job on learning the form by book. I'd missed about 10% of it, which were mostly circling movements transitioning from one step to the other. One problem I had, which eventually led me to discontinue practicing the form is that it's seriously unbalanced. If you practice it regularly, you will have very uneven muscle development, especially in your legs. There is a big stress on jumps and standing on one leg using your right only. To alleviate this problem, you'd have to learn how to do the whole form with the opposite side and if you are just starting, it could easily take you half a year to learn this extremely long form both ways. Once you do learn it, it'll take you about 12-14 minutes to practice it just once on each side. To become really proficient at learning a martial art form, you should practice it several times each session. For a form such as this one, you would need a significant time committment to practice enough to do it justice. If you like to train in other ways such as running, weights, other martial arts, etc., be prepared to commit a lot of time.
Rating: 
Summary: Covers the Form, Not the Art???
Review: I hate to do this in a space dedicated to review the book, but I have to disagree with the author of the comment titled "Covers The Form, Not The Art". The author points out the "fact" that "the greater the number of techniques that are introduced to the neural network, the central nervous system, the slower the response will be to external stimuli". That seems to me like a comparison of the human brain with the computer... the more applications you open, the slower the computer gets. Although in many ways the human brain and the computer are similar, in this aspect humans differ because they have the ability to selectively retrieve information, rather than randomly giving priorities to different operations. For instance, I am fluent in both Spanish and English, and currently learning Chinese... that does not slow my speech. Over the years I have increased my vocabulary, that does not slow my conversation either. Furthermore, the author advocates not having different techniques for the same attacks since that would slow down the response. I would like to ask him or her, if there was only a few techniques available against an attack, wouldn't it be easy to defeat that person... after all, I know what he/she is up to. One of the beauties of kung fu is the variety and sophistication of its techniques. Each animal in the five animal kung fu has a different spirit, one is fast, other one strong, flexible, etc. Sometimes a strong technique is preferable, other times you have to be soft. Many practitioners of other martial arts argue that animal mimicry is wasteful, inefficient, and prefer a more to-the-point approach. For the individual who is only interested in a quick-to-learn self defense method, that statement might be true. But for the individuals dedicated to mastering the intricate movements of kung fu, animal mimicry has a very powerful, devastating self-defense purpose. Having said that, I would have to agree with other reviews that state the need for better explanation of the movements and more demonstrations of applications.
Rating:
Summary: Good basic book on Five Animals, but needs much, much more
Review: I have trained in Five Animals for 15 years and taught the art for five. I consider this book to be a good basic introduction to this style of kungfu, but it needs a LOT more info to be considered a martial arts masterpeice. #1. To get very much out of this book, you really need a good bit of prior martial arts experience, preferably a kung fu style. #2. The book really needs more explanation. The transitions to each move are not descibed in enough detail and a whole lot more self defense is needed. In fact, much of the self defense shown in the book is a cover up for the real moves that the Chinese masters intended. Overall, it is a great intro to 5 animals, but it needs much much more to be considered a great work. As far as an overview of the five animal essences, well, it rates a B- with me.
Rating: 
Summary: masterpiece
Review: only a true lover of kung fu
see the beauty in it.
Thank you
Master Doc Fai Wong
your student
Leo Nguyen
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Shelf Decoration
Review: The book begins by giving a brief history of the animal styles, and then describes the differences between the five styles and the intent on which you should attack. Although I found this information very interesting, I found the same information on the internet shortly after purchasing the book. In addition, it is safe to assume that the author believed in the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" because they included very vague details on how the form should be executed. I am used to books that give very good instruction on how each movement should be performed and at times provides pictures showing the same move but from various angles. This book does not! Moreover, I prefer books that go into detail on the direction in which your internal energy should flow as well as when to breathe (there are some books that give you this information). I was very disappointed that they did not even attempt this considering that some of the animal styles are supposedly internal styles. Furthermore, the book does not give detail on the applications of all the techniques. This might have been a very good book, but they tried to fit too much into a small amount of space; thereby, omitting much needed detail.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Shelf Decoration
Review: The book begins by giving a brief history of the animal styles, and then describes the differences between the five styles and the intent on which you should attack. Although I found this information very interesting, I found the same information on the internet shortly after purchasing the book. In addition, it is safe to assume that the author believed in the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words" because they included very vague details on how the form should be executed. I am used to books that give very good instruction on how each movement should be performed and at times provides pictures showing the same move but from various angles. This book does not! Moreover, I prefer books that go into detail on the direction in which your internal energy should flow as well as when to breathe (there are some books that give you this information). I was very disappointed that they did not even attempt this considering that some of the animal styles are supposedly internal styles. Furthermore, the book does not give detail on the applications of all the techniques. This might have been a very good book, but they tried to fit too much into a small amount of space; thereby, omitting much needed detail.
Rating:
Summary: Decent demonstration of the form
Review: This book seemed more geared towards learning a form, and introducing the "Five Animals" principles, than presenting an entire art. However, the form itself is fairly complex, as it is in essence five different forms strung togeather in a logical manner. The first chapter is just a couple of pages long, giving a brief history on developement of Chinese fighting specific to the animals style. The following five chapters detail the five animals one by one: the dragon, tiger, snake, crane, and leopard, with no apparent order. Those chapters cover the physical and mental/spiritual/psychological characteristics of the different styles. Then there is a short chapter on the stages of learning the form, and finally a chapter showing the complete form. I'd say that this part was pretty easy to follow, with the main problems being that some possitions were only shown from behind. Each photo has text describing it's actions underneath it. It is an eye-opening and physically challenging form, and is great at least for developing ballance and endurence. The last chapter shows applications of some of the movements. All in all, I'd say that someone with a background in most striking arts ought to be able to grasp what's going on. The chapter on the form itself is the meat of the text, with the rest of the book being a good intro into the Five Animals form, but nothing extrordinary stands out to me.
Rating:
Summary: Good book, but Seriously Uneven Muscle Development
Review: This book seemed more geared towards learning a form, and introducing the "Five Animals" principles, than presenting an entire art. However, the form itself is fairly complex, as it is in essence five different forms strung togeather in a logical manner. The first chapter is just a couple of pages long, giving a brief history on developement of Chinese fighting specific to the animals style. The following five chapters detail the five animals one by one: the dragon, tiger, snake, crane, and leopard, with no apparent order. Those chapters cover the physical and mental/spiritual/psychological characteristics of the different styles. Then there is a short chapter on the stages of learning the form, and finally a chapter showing the complete form. I'd say that this part was pretty easy to follow, with the main problems being that some possitions were only shown from behind. Each photo has text describing it's actions underneath it. It is an eye-opening and physically challenging form, and is great at least for developing ballance and endurence. The last chapter shows applications of some of the movements. All in all, I'd say that someone with a background in most striking arts ought to be able to grasp what's going on. The chapter on the form itself is the meat of the text, with the rest of the book being a good intro into the Five Animals form, but nothing extrordinary stands out to me.
Rating:
Summary: .......A Journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step
Review: This book serves one purpose: to provide the practitioner with a means of practicing a single form. It fails, however, with meeting the realistic need for self-defense and self-improvement. This is one of those books that lends to the mistaken belief that kung fu's strength is in the quantity of what you learn rather than the quality. Kung Fu instructors all over the world could teach you for a lifetime all the moves and principles of the numerous styles and animal forms, yet still fail to make you effective at self-defense. The simple fact is that the greater the number of techniques that are introduced to the neural network, the central nervous system, the slower the response will be to external stimuli. THAT'S JUST STRAIGHT SCIENTIFIC FACT. So said, teaching different responses to the same attacks for each system or animal reduces the student's effectiveness as a fighter. WHAT IS MISSING IN THIS BOOK, AS IS MISSING IN SO MANY ANIMAL STYLE BOOKS, IS THE SIMPLE STATEMENT THAT LEARNING ALL OF THE ANIMALS IS NOT NECESSARY FOR SELF-DEFENSE, AS WELL AS A GUIDE LINE OF THE BINDING PRINCIPLES OF EACH ANIMAL THAT MAKE IT EFFECTIVE IN FIGHTING.
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