MARTIAL ARTS, CINEMA AND MORALITY: BODY IMPULSES AND SELF-CULTIVATION

Abstract

This philosophical essay aims to present a critical perspective on the association between martial arts, cinema and morality. First, an interpretation will be conducted of Wong Kar Wai’s film “Ashes of Time”, seeking to problematize some relations regarding cinema and martial arts, especially in the less heroic moral dimension of this film. Subsequently, there will be a discussion on morals and their relationships with body impulses, seeking to expose the importance of clarification in stabilizing the instincts that characterize the most archaic condition of human beings, which can generate morally unacceptable actions. Finally, some elements will be explained that may contribute to form a courageous moral through self-cultivation and self-creation, directing and channeling aggressive impulses and self-defense in the creative context of martial arts study and practice.