Origin & Evolution of the Chi Blast - How the Trope Started 

I have always wondered about this question, and it took me months researching this topic. Hope you all enjoyed it.

The mention of Ultraman possibly inspiring some chi blasts is pretty interesting, as Ultraman is basically pure sci-fi yet some of the poses and beam style could have transferred over

Wow, I never imagined that those Sentai series (kamen rider, power rangers, etc.) were fighting in Chinese martial arts form, but you are right. New perspective!!!

One minor error in the thumbnail - The Kamehameha's placement on the timeline should be 1985 rather than 1983. The Dragon Ball manga didn't release until 1984 and the chapter in which the Kamehameha was introduced (chapter 14) was on 5th March 1985.

Thank you so much for your videos (and huge research) about the Wuxia and Xianxia genres. I host a podcast in Brazil about chinese culture, I wanted to explain to my audience what is wuxia and its origins and your videos are perfect, it's not easy to find information on this subject if you cannot read in chinese (my case). It's a great source for me, of course, I will indicate your channel when the podcast episode goes on air. I have to congratulate you for all hard work you put on this channel, it's amazing, Thank you so much!

Growing up in Korea, I remember renting a live action Street Fighter TV series, which depicted the Hadouken with exaggerated hand motions and steam jets. I found out years later this was adapted from a Hong Kong manhua for the game.

I just finished Legend of the Condor Heroes, and I have to admit I thought about Hong's Dragon Subduing Palm immediately. Very informative video, as always. Keep up the good work.

to put this in perspective, buddha's palm came out 10 years after the first godzilla movie

The 18 Dragon Subduing Palm is still the best cinematic Chi Blast

The recently deceased Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba together with his proteges Etsuko Shihomi, Hiroyuki Sanada and Yasauki Kurata were also very instrumental in capitalising off the Kung Fu craze from Hong Kong by producing their own "chopsocky" type films featuring Japanese martial arts like Karate, Aikido, Judo and Shorinji Kenpo later going on to make Ninja films in the 80s, to see just how obsessed Japanese people became with the Kung Fu craze from Hong Kong, just watch films like Sister Streetfighter starring Etsuko Shihomi

_ Seeing somebody blew up from poking at their pressure points in Hokuto no Ken never stop being funny _ There is also a 3rd kung fu super sentai called Gekirangers where the Qi blast manifest as energy-mechanical beast(they can even become physical object that combine into the mecha)

There's some movies have genre like above in Indonesia and we called as"Film Laga"or "Film Silat". I give two keywords"Barry Prima"and"Saur Sepuh".

For us, 80s Indonesian, the first time we heard Buddha's Palm was from Tony Wong Yuk Long (Huang Yulang)'s manhua, which was actually an adaptation of Gu Long Impeccable Twins. I never watched any Legend of Condor Heroes prior to 1983 but when I read the novel and Lee Chi Ching's, I know the original dragon subdued palm did not mentioned non-contact touch.

I think I speak for all East Asian boys growing up in the 80's and 90's when I say, we all tried doing the Chi Blast.

I grew up watching HK wuxia series. It would be cool to see a video about the history of 轻功 in chinese literature and movies. I have fond memories of condor series from TVB and fights with 一阳指

Hillarious fact in DC Universe and Marvel Universe you all can see many blast of chi,but without trainings and names of the styles or the tehnics😊

Most curious; finally I know what's going on in the ending of Kung Fu The Movie (1986). The original 1972 Kung Fu TV series was devoid of supernatural features; David Chow, the first martial arts assessor was against presenting Kung Fu masters as superhuman beings. Later in the series Wuxia and mystical elements start to appear. In the 1986 movie sequel, Caine is totally a Wuxia hero, and at the end overcomes the villain with something to this day I had no idea what it was. It was a Chi blast! The original series was pretty good, the movie, not so much; best thing was Brandon Lee in his first movie role. Personally, I prefer Kung Fu over Wuxia. David Chow's intent of presenting realistic Kung Fu masters instead of superheroes, I think, is a better ideal. Chi is mentioned from the beginning, but as a unity of mind and body, obtained with training and moral strength. Much more achievable than pseudoscientific energy blasts.

i always wondered when and where the first 氣 blast came from

Never been this early for Cool History Bros before!

Hi there, Cool History Bros. I just wanna know, do you have any plans to make a video on the port city of Quanzhou? Is that topic already on your to-do list? Thank you very much.

Thank u for the video.

wow this is great bro i like it

It's funny because Hong Kong copied chambara films in the beginning, Chang Cheh was "influenced" by Hideo Gosha for example. Bruce Lee films took clues from Zatoichi and the Sleepy Eyes of Death films starring Ichikawa Raizo. The whole film industry in Hong Kong also knew who Akira Kurosawa was. A lot of wuxia films to me were also influenced by the Ninja films that Japan made in the 60s.

Such a nice video, after wacthing this video i have a question about origin of Whirlwind in game (such as diablo)

It's Over 9000

Hi CJ, Appreciate all the wonderful knowledge you have shared on your channel. I recent discovered it and have greatly been enjoying all the content. About this topic about chi blasts, I wanted to ask a clarifying question. You mentioned (something along the lines) that in the original Jin Yong novels, chi blasts were never really portrayed (as in projectile-like attacks). I wanted to ask about the YiYang Finger as well as the Six Meridian Divine Swords techniques, signatures of the Duan family, and whether they were considered chi blasts in the novels? To my understanding they were, and were almost like chi "guns" (I actually assumed that Yusuke's Spirit Gun was inspired by the YiYang finger). If you get to this, thanks for your time!

Would love to see a video on all the East Asian cultural influences on the original Star Wars trilogy - a force which permeates the universe and allows users to shoot lightning bolts sounds familiar. ⚡️

It's interesting to see how this changed over the years, and where it got its start. I didn't realize Ramenman had his own spinoff. I wish the Kinnikuman and Ultimate Muscle series were available to watch on streaming services over here. I can't even find a subbed version, and my understanding of spoken Japanese is very inferior to my ability to read Japanese.

Let's just says many power systems in pop culture based on qi, or mana. Hamon, Haki, The Force, Spin, Breathing Style, etc...and we don't much know what's stronger

Huh, so the Buddas Palm style from Kung Fu Hustle turns out is a shout out to the actual Buddas Palm. TIL.

So qi blasts in fiction don't predate actual Lasers? I wonder if science was part of the inspiration?

Okay now what about the chi wire flying lightness skill and not the magic flying or jumping 10,000 miles skill?

Maskman was awesome. When they changed the robot to a single truck, I lost interest in it. XD

Hey CJ, just wanna ask. Do you want to cover the Ming Dynasty ? Or Chenghis Khan ?

I wonder if Superman's heat vision might of had a possible influence? A bolt of light coming out of a part of the body to attack things.

2:56 that's what she said~ 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

5:24 Lightning bolts and flying swords; why do I get the feeling this is the kind of thing that would go onto inspire George Lucas?

36th Chamber of Shaolin, 1978 Hong Kong

I always do my best chi blasts in my bathroom.

Ramenman reference? In my Cool History Bros video?

Been following kininku for a while but never realized there was a ramen man spin-off.

So miscellaneous question. In Chinese dramas, there's the trope of a character slitting their own throat as a form of suicide. Was this actually done irl or a modern invention?

how about mario’s fire ball

So it wasn't the Kamehameha... Cool video

quite a long history

如来神掌？

I too know how to chi blast 💥 but it doesn’t come out of my 🙌

Wait was George Lucas inspired by this when he had palatine attack with force lightning the effects look similar to some of the buddha plam stuff

It’s one of my favorite. Always felt it’s very Japanese

Sith lighting vs Chi Blast, which one is deadlier?

#ChiBlast

Can you talk about Kaitou Joker?

哈哈哈哈哈 霊弾

narutoは？　螺旋丸　風遁・螺旋手裏剣　etc.

牛逼 考據大神

- 3:19 "What I'm trying to say is..." ... even the Power Rangers is a shitty westernization!!! The Super Sentai were much cooler! 😅😅 - The Wuxia buffs know Buddha's Palm from the 1964 movie, the unrefined ones, instead, will remeber it from 2004's Kung Fu Hustle!

Are you going to explain about the whole arrogant protagonists who can do kill people and sleep with many women in Chinese cultivation webnovels/manhua eventually? I mean, if you're planning to cover that, of course.

I thought the Chinese and Japanese hate each other’s?

I think you missed some mutans or super heroes that ability do it ki blast like Cylops,Phoenix and Mrs Marvel.

This is actually the modern history of kung fu. It's all fantasy tropes that look cool in movies but don't work in real life.

Can you talk about how Star Wars is a rip-off of Daoism und Wuxia? Should be enough content for several episodes. "This is the WAY"