Author: Adam Hornsby
Rating:
Each episode has the following aspects:

1)Background in the history of the art.
2)Learn about the culture of the people of the area. The etiquette of the training area.
3)Meet prominent people in the arts and her attempts to immerse herself in aspects of the art.

There is no instructional aspects to the episodes however there are at times some interesting sequences that can be taken as representative of the arts.

The DVD's feature Josette's interaction with fellow women martial artists at certain points. This can be encouraging for women to see other women participating and
being higher skilled exponents of the arts. I showed it to my girlfriend who is a martial artist and she was interested in this aspect.

There is also a section that is not mentioned in the review that while in Thailand, Josette is exposed to Krabbi Krabong a Thai martial art incorporating weaponry and unarmed combat, and while in France she does some La Canne, a method of French stick fighting.


The DVD spends a lot of time on Josette's own immersion and introduction in the art which I found interesting initially but by the end of all the episodes it became repetitive and tiresome and I was wishing that she would instead feature more of the higher practitioners of the art, to see some of the more advanced or diverse aspects of the art.
For example, a good portion of the savate episode is where she is training and getting equipment for her sparring session with a female boxer. I give full credit to Josette for trying new arts, especially it is apparent that she is out of her comfort zone in many of them, but it does not make good viewing on a repeated basis throughout the series.

In summary, these DVD's are a brief introduction to various arts of the world, and for reference, readers may wish to contrast their search for different martial arts styles with "Mind Body and kick ass moves" Set #10914.

Author: Anonymous
Rating:
Although it shows a shallow look at martial arts, I found this to be entertaining. Josette shows excellent courage and spirit through the video, and I found this series to be far more enjoyable and educational to watch than newer offerings like Human Weapon and that other Discovery show.