What martial art was used in the mummy 3?

Answer 1

The ones that aren't fake, in what few instances it is not fake, mostly Jian and Dao sword arts. The Jian is that straight sword you saw in "Crouching Tiger; Hidden Dragon," specifically speaking the one called "the green destiny" or whatever, and the Dao, which ressembles a machete. There were lots of spears too and all that but most of the Martial Arts used, were ancient, Qin era sword arts. Believe it or not though, the sword arts practiced in China, specifically the ones involving the Jian, have not changed. The style of sword fighting involving the Jian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian

Learned in Kung Fu schools today, is the same style used by the pseudo historical character Liu Bei of the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" novel. It is also the sword style that was used by the Qin Emperor.

However as with all martial arts choreography, the weapons styles used in the movie combined Beijing opera, with martial arts moves, a trend started by Bruce Lee. See, traditional Beijing Opera, has its own "fighting style," its called "stage fighting," and it is a separate discipline of its own accord. Its not a martial art, but it is a discipline that requires many years to learn to do well. Bruce Lee, was skilled in both Beijing opera AND martial arts, he was an expert of both, that is why he blended the two so well. Most Chinese stunt performers these days learn both Kung Fu, and Beijing stage fighting although, I think they have been doing it for so long now that the blend of Beijing stage fighting and real martial arts has become a discipline in its own right. In Hong Kong, I think Jackie Chan even has an academy that teaches "movie fighting." If you are serious about being in a martial arts flick, that is the place to be; again, fake fighting is a completely different animal from real fighting.

In real fighting, the moves are quick, direct, to the point, and no motion is ever wasted and in all truth, boring, and ugly. In fake fighting the moves are grandiose, pretty, and "glorious." Now if Chinese Kung Fu forms have "pretty moves," those are not meant to be used in a fight; the reason Kung Fu routines have such large, expansive moves, is the philosophy that "if you can do big moves quickly, you will do the smaller moves for a real fight, even more quickly." Even Karate has that thinking; think about it, in a given Karate Kata, the punches, the kicks, the blocks, they are far too "big" to be used in a fight. Kung Fu is the same way; in a given form those moves are just too "big," they waste too much movement. In a real fight, even in striking, most of the moves are small and subtle, if in tournaments such as K-1, or even boxing, you see wide, arching strikes, those are just the fighters putting on a show for the audience but trust me no professional fighter, would ever use big, wide arching movements in a real fight, its dangerous.

To further answer your question; obviously there was also a lot of wire fu, and Brendan Fraser's character used a lot of "fake brawling." Believe it or not, even movie brawling, is a separate discipline; making a brawl look real, is demanding work. However movie types are so skillful these days they can even make a fake street fight look convincing enough to even fool bouncers or cops, people who often witness people fighting.

Finally, the movie used a lot of the religious, mythological side of Daoism; Michelle Yeoh's character, and her daughter, were not godesses, they were in fact normal human beings, what was different about them, is that they were versed in the "secret arts" for prolonging life. That is, Yeoh and her daughter were both Daoist immortals, who, through Daoist internal alchemy had managed to achieve extreme age. Not martial arts, but, letting you know where their "magic tricks" came from.