Life of Tung Bui - Actor and Stuntman

Varmuus on stunt-miehen tärkein työkalu (HAASTATTELU)

2010-04-09T18:50:00.001+03:00

Stunt-mies Tung Buille pelko merkitsee ainoastaan liian vähäistä harjoittelua.

- Jokainen päivä on mulle uusi lähtöpiste, toteaa Tung Bui, 27.

Itseään ensisijaisesti stunt-ammattilaiseksi tituleeraava Bui onkin ehtinyt paljon nuoreen ikäänsä nähden.

Karaten parissa varttunut nuorukainen valmistui neljä vuotta sitten ekonomiksi, mutta ymmärsi pian, että lapsuuden haaveet bisnes-urasta saisivat odottaa.

- Olin just valmistunut kauppakorkeasta. Otin hirveän riskin, kun lähdin näihin hommiin. Ajattelin vaan, että hei mä oon 23-vuotias maisteri ja musta tulee stunt-mies.

Jo samana vuonna hän aloitteli stunt-uraansa muutamissa televisiomainoksissa.

- Mulla oli kyllä suuria luuloja. Ajattelin, että vähintään vuoden päästä aloittaisesta oon maailmankuulu, hän muistelee nauraen.

Lue koko juttu Trombit-verkkolehdestä täältä. Toimittanut Laura Soini, valokuvaus Sanna Hiltunen.

Making it Big with Little

2010-03-23T20:36:00.002+02:00

THE JOB

I got a phone call from a production company. They were shooting a new crime drama TV show. Most of the work had been already done but they still had one action scene to do. They offered the fight coordinator's job for me. Before I said yes, I had some questions

Q: When are the action scenes shot?

A: After two weeks.

--> Tight schedule

Q: Who are the actors

A: 2 male actors.

--> Guys are more eager for action but because of that, there's more risks for injuries

Q: Do they have time to train the choreography before hand?

A: Unfortunately, not.

--> Demands a lot from everyone in order to get good quality

Q: Is the scene outdoor or indoor scene?

A: Outdoor

--> In the middle of the winter it'll be cold

THE BIG PICTURE

With these answers I got the picture that

the scene is important,
most of the choreography work has to be done beforehand and
I have to develop alternative solutions just in case as no one knew exactly what kind location we had for the shooting.

THE ACTION

As the shootings we're going on nearly every day getting in touch with the director was difficult. When we were able to discuss about the action scene I had to get clear answers in a fairly short time in order for me to get the information of what was expected.

I was fortunate to have a talented assistant Jesse to help me with the choreography. We had couple of challenging moves that we needed to practice together before we could teach it to the actors, so that they could perform it in a safe manner. I could've managed to plan and teach the choreography to the actors all by myself. But with the two of us we were able to show the choreography as many time as needed to the actors, director and to the director of photography. This saved lots of time, and everybody had a better image of what's to come.

The actors had a long and cold morning shooting outdoors. Before the fight scene they had lunch. Their energy levels were very low. Again, it was good that me and Jesse were there to help the actors memorize the choreography. Some amount of repetitions were necessary but if they forgot something either me or Jesse could tell them the next move instantly.

THE RESULT

Even though the scene was physically tough to perform due to the coldness and tiredness, the actors performed well. Huge respect to them for that. They were thankful for the help we stunt guys could provide. Director of photography saved some time by planning ahead what kind of pictures he would shoot (lens, shooting angle etc.). The director could focus mainly in directing the actors, instead of focusing in how the action should look.

CONCLUSION

Big can be made with little amount of resources (time, money, people etc.). In my opinion the less resources there is, the more planning work needs to be done. The higher quality the planning is, the better the end result can be. Though, even if the plan is awesome there's tons of work required from everyone. Pressure keeps you going ;)

Another example of Making it Big with Little is my new born nephew. Everybody starts small but we all have huge potential!

'Perfection with Passion'

Real-life Gamer

2010-03-09T13:13:00.000+02:00

I was invited as a guest speaker to a Youth Center Happi. This youth center's focus is on game playing youngsters, therefore it has multiple PC's that are connected to the internet. People can play internet based multiplayer games for free as long as there's room for everyone.

MY PRESENTATION

I went there to give a presentation about 'How I've applied games in real-life'. I have played games since the first Atari's Ping-Pong game with two white sticks and a rectangular ball on the screen. It was tremendously fun game back in the 80's ;) As I've grown older the role of game playing in my life has change dramatically. For example in the year 2001 I decided that won't play games at all. I also decided not to watch television anymore. I still don't watch television but games I started to play again on the Christmas of 2007. For the last few years, Christmas has been a period of 2 weeks in my life, when there's nothing going on. I've decided to use that free-time efficiently and play through games that I'm interested in. Once a year I get a quick overview of how games have evolved, and in addition I get a good feeling that I've managed to play through a challenging game (or non-challenging)!

GAMES AND REAL-LIFE

My favorite game type is the role-playing game (Final Fantasy, Fallout 3 etc.). I usually choose to play the good guy, and I try to develop him to become even better as person. In a similar way I build my own life in reality. I learn and develop new skills constantly, and I try to put them in good use. Every now and then I might also play 3D-shooters, 3D-action games and racing games. My last exceptional experience was the Lips sing-along game on Xbox 360. I first practiced singing with that game and after few weeks I had the guts to go sing karaoke with few of my friends. At some point we managed to go sing karaoke once a week. I think I developed as a singer quite well, although I'm very, very, very far away from being a talented singer :) But it's fun skill, and I feel successful when my friend's don't have to cover their ears when they hear me singing ;)

CONCLUSION

In my case games are a good way to learn new things. In role-playing games you can even try out your moral beliefs. It's easier to do bad things in a game but these days some of the games are so well made, that if you do a bad thing, it might really get you depressed. At least they affect me, therefore I also try to be as good as possible even in games.

Sometimes I also use games as a hiding place from reality. But again, advancing in a game makes me feel better; Like I've achieved something. And when I bring this confident, good feeling back to reality, my real-life seems to be advancing in an easier way as well.

For some game playing can be an addiction. As with any kind of addiction, if it controls you, it's not good. But if you control your addiction, then it's okay. Everything done in a moderate level is usually sustainable in the long-run. Top-athletes are always on the edge of going too far. But I bet they understand it better than an average person, when enough is enough.

You are the only one who can live your life to the fullest. If some addiction controls the direction of your life, then you're not necessarily making all the decisions in your life. Know who you are, and then maximize your potential. It's not an easy path but I bet it's damn worthwhile in the long run!

'Perfection with Passion'

PICTURES

My friend Riku who invited me to event.

Multitasking > Multi Time Management

2010-02-20T13:35:00.002+02:00

Since I begun my work as a stuntman in summer 2006 I’ve been focusing a lot in my versatile training. I considered physical skills to be very relevant in my line of work, and I haven’t been wrong. No matter what I’ve done since then, I’ve always kept on training – Although, sometimes more and sometimes less; I’m still only a human. Because of the sports center (Töölön kisahalli) where I’ve trained for years, I have had to train between 9am and 2pm. Nevertheless, there have been times when I have had to make profound adjustments to my training schedules – especially if I wanted to keep on training as actively as always.

For example, I studied acting for a year , and for every day I was occupied with my studies from 9am to 2pm. Because of this I had to go to train right after my school. The sports center starts to be filled up with other people starting from 2.30pm, therefore I had 30min to train in peace. After 2.30pm it took more mental conditioning in order to train and not pay attention to lots of other things that were happening in the sports center at the same time. After I finished my studies, I was able to go back to my more normal training rhythm taking place between 9am and 2pm.

Since January 2010 I have been working for a non-profit organization called Young Finland Association (Nuori Suomi). I’ve been hired for two months to help them with the Web Marketing and the Social Media for the Your Move campaign. A nice change, as I can now do some work that my education (M.Sc. Econ.) has prepared me for :D

Now, I’m required to work at the office for 37,5h per week. In common language it is a day job usually around 8.00am to 4pm and so on. Fortunately, I am free to adjust my work schedules as long as it’s a total of 37,5h per week. Training still continues to be important to me, therefore I’ve adapted to this new rhythm: 2-3 times a week I train 8.00 – 9.30am, and then I can make it to the office at 10am. Time management in this case means going earlier to bed around 10.30 – 11.00pm, so that I can wake up at 6am, have a good breakfast, and then be energetic enough to train at 8.00am.

Multitasking has always played a big part in my life. I’m one of those people who can’t stay focused on only one thing for too long. Something always has to be happening. Until some point, the more the better. Learning to recognize my limits before overdoing things has been a formidable challenge. I’m still not master in Multi Time Management, but at least I have an environment where I can practice it constantly!

Working 37,5h per week in an office, training 2-3 per week, teaching a class 0-2 times per week, working on an ad hoc basis a stuntman or as an actor and building my business as an entrepreneur requires more than just presence. I don’t think I could manage all of this unless all of them are something that I LOVE TO DO. I rarely feel that I’m just working constantly. Most of the time I’m flabbergasted for the great opportunities that life has given me but I’m not counting on it to be like this forever without making any effort. I keep on Multitasking, and with my Multi Time Management skills, I keep myself on a clear path for a wonderful life on this planet! If I can do it, anyone can!

Lessons learned about Multitasking > Multi Time Management

Love you what you do. When you love something, there’s always time for it. If you don’t like it, DO spend some time to think about other possibilities. This is real Personal Management. Watching television etc. might be relaxing but you can’t give the responsibility of managing your life to the TV (or even to another person).

Think constantly about the Big Picture. Everything you do in long-term should direct you towards the same goal (ie. being happy, enjoying life, achieving something X, having a meaningful life etc.). The more ecological, and unselfish your Big Picture / Dream / Life-Goal, the more likely it is that you are heading towards the right direction. And the greater forces help you more on this path.

Identify the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Definitely keep the Good, it is usually a source of positive energy in your life. Identify the Bad, and get rid of it. The sooner, the less long-term negative effects it has in your life. The Ugly is the trickiest as it can be a disguise for both the Good and the Bad. Wisdom in life helps identifying which one it is, but most of the times it’s the Gut Feeling or the 6th Sense that tells you what you should do with the Ugly.

Know your Self-worth. Learn to say NO. If you are a nice person and at the same time acknowledged by other people as a skilled person, you will be offered multiple opportunities to do lots of various things – usually first for their own benefit, and after that comes your needs if ever. If you have gained the status of a Pro, you might still get lots of work requests but at least everyone knows that if nothing else is gained, you require a monetary compensation. There is a common fear about saying ”No, thank you”. I urge you to think about your self-worthiness. If you value yourself low, some people might take advantage of it. If you say no to them, they still might get hurt. If you value yourself high, less people try to take advantage, and when you decline the offer, usually they understand it better. Nevertheless, self-worthiness has to be based on real-life achievements whether it is education, career progress, colourful medals, certificates etc. Unfortunately, it’s just not enough if one day you just decide to be more valuable. But it’s a good starting point for a better life. Value growth requires long-term constant effort. You have 100 years time to grow on value as a human being. Like companies, the more valuable they become, the more they help directly (donations) and/or indirectly (taxes) in making this world a better place (being ecological).

Prioritize. Act. Receive. Be Grateful. Chill-out. Move on. Most people know how to prioritize but that’s just the beginning of actually pulling things through. I guess, it’s human nature, but usually the most prioritized or important thing becomes the scariest at the same time. It’s like betting all your money in one racing horse. You want it to win but at the same time you don’t really believe that it’s your lucky day. Of course, it’s not always like this :) Winning, getting the best result, finishing a BIG project is scary especially if you’ve put a hell of a lot of effort in it. Again, know your self-worth, feel that you really deserve all the good. And if you get it, be Grateful about it, say thank you at least to your life. Celebrate, give some moment for rest, and then move a long in your life. If you plan to live to be a 100 year old, getting the best thing in your life at the age of 30 doesn’t last for the next 70 years withouth continuous effort. Besides, how do you know that it was the best thing?

I’m not saying that multitasking is the only way to live your life. I love seeing people who are focused in only one or few major things. That’s the beauty of life: Versatility.

'Perfection with Passion'

Ideas, the Driving Force of Development

2010-02-05T06:35:00.006+02:00

Do you get ideas? What happens to them? I get ideas constantly. Some of them pop out from unconsciousness but most of them are triggered by some external source eg. people, discussions, writings, events or just plain image or sound.

For the last 5 years I've been trying to get myself exposed to as many things as possible. New things give usually give me new ideas. Of course, I expose myself mainly in the areas that I already feel very comfortable with. In my case I have always enjoyed sports. Since childhood, in a chronological order, I have exposed myself to the following sports:

- Football
- Athletics
- Karate
- Floorball
- Breakdance
- Ultimate
- Acrobatics
- Parkour
- Motorcycling
- Skydiving
- Golf
- Rock'n'Swing dances: Boogie Woogie & Lindy Hop
- Cuban dances: Salsa, Bachata, Rumba, Merenque
- Ballroom dances: Walz, Quickstep, Jive, Chachacha, Samba
- Paintball

As a Stuntman my philosophy for being able to do good quality job is to be able to learn new movements quickly. With this in mind I consider all the sports as a combination of specific movement techniques. This allows me to do almost any sport without me feeling embarrassed (eg. tried out ballet and it's DIFFICULT!). After all, I am there to learn to use my body to for versatile movement - not to become the best of the best in one sport discipline.

With my versatile background in movement, I use it again for my stuntwork for example when I design Fight Choreographies. I want my fight choreographies to be fairly realistic in effectiveness but I also want them to be visually good looking. In more common terms I try to combine power and grace which is usually more easily said than done. And the doing part usually requires lots and lots of training in order for the movement to sink in to my body.

One of my first short-film productions Yakuza Diaries depicts a little bit of this philosophy of power and grace in fight choreography. The film was made in 2004, so my philosophy hadn't really come out yet in it's fullness (though, it still hasn't) :D

A new Thai film Raging Phoenix is a good example of innovative fight choreography. They've managed to use breakdancing in it's pure form for a fight scene. To my eyes it's a lot about beautiful movement but I'm not convinced about the power in the techniques. Nevertheless, I loved the idea that they didn't want to make a hybrid breakdance fight style but instead go nearly 100% with original breakdancing. a great IDEA in my opinion!

To conclude, for me creating ideas, looking for ideas and understanding other people's ideas is a key essential tool for my line of work and in my life in general. Every day I feel like starting my life from Day 1. My eyes and mind are wide open to devour new and interesting things! And some day an idea might pop out. Then it's another story what comes out of the idea :D

Below is a picture that portrays 8 ways that can kill and idea. Knowing your enemies is half the battle ;D I got the picture from my friend's blog at Samiviitamaki.com.

On-Air

2010-01-31T18:33:00.001+02:00

I received an invitation for an interview for YLE Radio Savo radio channel. Although, it is a regional station in Mid-Finland it has around 70 000 listeners. The story was focusing in my professional life as a stuntman, actor and as an entrepreneur. It was only for 10 minutes but it really felt like 2 minute interview!

If you feel really lucky with the Finnish language, please hear the recording of the interview from the link below. See also the video where I demonstrate little bit of Acrobatic Body Control!

YLE Radio Savo with Tung Bui

Concealed Lives turning in to Public Life

2010-01-20T11:41:00.018+02:00

Concealed Lives (FIN: Salatut Elämät) has been the 2nd most viewed TV program since it was first broadcasted in 1999. It only seconds to the Daily News, which is amazing as Concealed Lives is a drama series (soap opera). With average of 800 000 daily viewers for the last ten years it means that being an actor in it exposes you to ca. 1/5 of the Finland's population. Concealed Lives to us actors turns in to Public Lives, and the public's opinion of us actors is sometimes surprisingly based on the fictional character that we portray on the television.

THE ADVENTURE

My adventures on the show begun in September 2009. My character, Noa Okada, was an 18-year old exchange student from Japan. His father was a Japanese but his mother a Finn. As Noa's mom was very strict on teaching him the Finnish language, his spoken Finnish was perfect. This made my acting million times easier! As I was chosen to act Noa's role, his background got additions with active training in martial arts and gymnastics. See the example videos below to see, how these characteristics were used in the show.

Noa vs. Miro

Noa vs. Miro on the dance floor

Noa chose to come to Finland as he wanted to experience himself what it means to be a Finn. He was excited about everything! This included going to the sauna and drinking heavily with the boys with dramatic results ;D In real-life I have seen exchange students coming to Finland, and these two activities are one of the first things to introduce to a new visitor! The dramatic results are based on the person himself ;D

Noa also started to have feelings towards his first friend in Finland, Oona Kiviranta. Oona was friendly towards him right from the beginning and made it easy for him to get used to the Finnish culture. Oona was also very interested in Japan and Japanese youth culture, therefore they had a lot in common. But Oona already had a boyfriend, Miro Holm. Their relationship was having difficulties as Miro had to put business before their relationship in many occasions. Still, Noa tried to behave himself in an honorable way all the way to the end. Huge problems begun when after a sushi dinner, arranged by Noa to Oona, both of them got accidentally drunk. Miro's mother Isabella Holm didn't approve Oona's and Miro's relationship, therefore she was willing to sabotage it as much as possible. Eventually, Oona kissed Noa, which totally surpised him as well. The truth didn't hold for long, and the true drama begun with drastic outcomes. After all, it is a drama show :)

After a very special exchange student experience Noa left back to Japan on the episode that was broadcasted on 18th January 2010. Towards the end he and Oona continued to be just friends. In the last scene between these two youth they said farewells in a positive manner.

POST-ANALYSIS

Noa, as a character, was designed to be a good guy. He was well raised, and he considered himself to be a descendant of a Samurai. Therefore, he always tried to be as honorable as possible. Nevertheless, he was still a teenager in a foreign country with its own culture, which created conflicts in his own mind and in his life in Finland. As much as I've paid attention to Noa's popularity in real-life, he has fans who like him, people who dislike him, and people who couldn't care less. No matter popular the character is, they have at least all these three groups of viewers.

In total, Noa was seen on 37 episodes between 11.9.2009 - 18.1.2010. Acting in Concealed Lives has been my most visible role so far in my acting career. Yet, I consider it to be just one great job among the many other jobs I've been privileged to do as a stuntman or as an actor (see my CV). I couldn't tell beforehand how the publicity from Concealed Lives would affect my life, and now as it is over, I can't tell yet how it will affect from this day onward.

What I know, is that deep down as a person, I haven't changed much (my subjective opinion). I've gained tremendous amount of new experiences and knowledge regarding actor's work and living as a more public person. But I've always worked hard to make my dreams come true, and as I'm still on the same path, I continue to work hard :D

I've enjoyed mainly positive publicity, and I am very thankful for everyone for that. I do my best to keep my image as positive as possible now and always! I am a happy person, and I love sharing this feeling to others as well! The more I share, the more I get in return. The Circle of Happiness where no one has anything to lose! :D

What I'm going to do in the future hopefully can be read every now and then from here, in this blog. How will I look, I don't know. Below are various pictures from my professional life over the years. I know it's me in them, but sometimes I think I look cooler in the pictures than in the real-life, hahahah ;D

Story of me in Ekonomi magazine. Photographer Tommi Tuomi (2006).

Acting as a Ninja Pirate in a corporate video. Photographer Paavo Mikkola (2007).

Actor/Stuntman for the Leet Promotion Video (watch it from here). Photographer Robert Örthen (2007).

Stunmant in Nissan Tiida TV commercial (watch it from here). Photographer Boyd Benkenstein (2007).

Parkour model in Salcomp Inc. company's Annual Report publication. Photographer Mikko Tikka (2007).

Model for the Extreme Running mobile game promotion materials. Photorapher by Joonas Mäntynen (2007).

Personal promotion picture. Photographer Sirpa Heikkilä (2007).

Stuntman for a TV commercial. Photographer Antti Lahtinen (2007).

The Cat with my mom from the Alice in Wonderland theater play. Photographer my sister (2007) :D

From Nokia N79 Active Promo video (watch it from here). Photographer Timo Lampinen (2008).

From Yakuza Diaries - Blooming Flower short-film (watch it from here). Photographer Mika Laurila (2008).

Personal Promotion picture. Photographer Jere Hietala. Visualization by Jay Style (2009).

See more pictures and videos of me from my website WWW.TUNGBUI.COM

YOUR MOVE Youth Campaign

2010-01-13T13:04:00.006+02:00

After 6 years of extremely active training I received my 1. dan black belt in karate in year 2000. With the help of friends I founded the Finnish Parkour Association in 2003. Our vision was to share information about the sport for the Finnish public. In addition, for the ones who wanted to train the sport we wanted to offer teaching and training possibilities, thus I became one of the first teachers in parkour in Finland. These days many of my old students have surpassed me skill wise, but I'm very happy about it as now many of them have become parkour teachers themselves. In my opinion, putting the good forward is the best that everyone can do ;D My path with the Finnish Parkour Association ended in the beginning of 2006.

Later that year, in the summer, I received my Master's degree from the Helsinki School of Economics. Instead of having a more common career path I decided to become a stuntman. I can never thank my mentor H-P Virkki enough for giving me all the support in my career as well as in my personal life. Although, it might appear that things have gone really well for me, there have been times when I have really thought of giving up my dreams and going back to a more stable life-style.

I guess life just wanted to play tricks with me because during these times of insecurity I was blessed with good fortune. I got the role of Noa Okada in the most popular Finnish TV drama, Salatut Elämät (Eng: Concealed Lives). Since September 2009 my character has been seen on nearly 1 million Finns' television sets. Some people even recognize me in the local grocery store. So far, all experiences have been positive and I am very thankful for that!

Sports, health and well-being has played and important role for me since childhood. I am happy that I have been given an opportunity to share my knowledge and life experience to the Finnish youth through the Nuori Suomi (Young Finland Association), a respected non-profit organization that is partly financed by the Ministry of Education. I am involved with the Your Move youth campaign that aims to improve the sporting activities in schools. Instead of adults making all the decisions and actions, Your Move campaign activates youngsters themselves to do as much as possible by themselves.

My role as a Superfan of the campaign is to inspire youth for taking action. In general Superfan is a person who is known and respected among the youth; usually they are somehow related in sports or in the entertainment industry. I am looking forward to attend various events arranged by the youngsters themselves!

My first task was to help Nuori Suomi with the Suomen Urheilugaala 2010 event (Best Athlete Awards) that took place on 11th January 2010. The main organizer of the event was Finnish Sports Federation. For Nuori Suomi the event was a great way to inform top athletes and their various associates about the Your Move youth campaign. By giving Nuori Suomi access to my personal contact network they got Will Funk For Food (WFFF) locking crew and mr. Elmeri Rantalainen to perform in the event. Both of them are known for the Finnish public from the Finland's Got Talent TV show. In addition I helped recruiting three talented parkour boys, Riku and Werner Gröhn and Winston Spennert, for the same event. Riku had already worked with Nuori Suomi before so everything worked smoothly!

In overall, attending the event itself was a blast! All the hard work everyone had done paid off as most of the over 1000 invited guests came, there were thousands of people in the audience, and probably a few hundred thousand Finns watched the show from the TV! I am really honored to been given a chance to work in these kinds of massive 'good feeling' events :D

See the pictures below what happened in the event (from our point of view):

Will Funk For Food (WFFF) performing at the day event.

WFFF boys and the Nuori Suomi people working on the Your Move campaign.

Your Move team at the Urheilugaala's evening event at the Hartwall Areena. I was the photographer ;D

From the left: Superfan Motoriikka Miikka (Winner of the Finland's Got Talent show), Laura Lepistö (European World Champion 2009 in figure skating), Superfan Elmeri Rantalainen and me.

Your Move Expo Area.

Elmeri signing autographs.

Parkour boys Winston and Werner performing at the entrance of Hartwall Areena. Picture taken by the 3rd parkour boy, Riku.

Elmeri performing on the main stage.

Motoriikka Miikka performing on the main stage.

Mid-Body Control from the Mid-Finland Perspective

2010-01-05T17:30:00.011+02:00

I'm glad that in my line of work I also get to travel around and see the world. Last summer I was in Hamar, Norway for couple of weeks training Theatrical Fencing in a workshop organized by the Nordic Stage Fight Society.

Me and the actor Elmer Bäck performing our Broadsword scene.

The beginning of this year I found myself in Kuopio, a city with ca. 90 000 inhabitants located in Middle-Finland. Kuopio is known for its ski jumping activities among many other things! One of these are its well organized martial arts activities, hence Kuopio has many practitioners training various Eastern and Western styles!

I had the chance to come teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for the Tenchikan aikido club. We agreed that the first time would be an introduction class, and only after that we would talk about the future trainings. After all, I can never tell beforehand whether ABC is good for them or not, so better try it out first! :D

I was happy to see that 22 brave adults came for my ABC class! Even one aikido gentleman from Helsinki who happened to be at that point in Kuopio decided to pay a visit to my class. Few weeks earlier I had taught his son when I had an ABC class for Akari aikido club's kids' group. What a nice coincidence, although I'm these days rarely surprised anymore how small this world can be, especially Finland :D

Sami Poutiainen, my contact person from Tenchikan Aikido club had done his work well, as most of the practitioners knew beforehand who I was. Yet, there were still few persons who didn't have any idea who I was which gave me a good excuse to give them a 3 minute presentation about who I was and why I was there :D I also mentioned my mentor H-P Virkki, as with his 25 years of experience in aikido training, he is well known and respected among the aikido people. After the class I was even asked to give H-P regards from Tenchikan aikido club! Well, I can only be grateful for H-P's personal achievements as the world looks so much more welcoming when standing on a giant's shoulders ;D

After the introduction speech I started the class with a warm-up routine. In addition of making people move their body to warm their muscles, I also ask them to make vocal sounds. This ensures that they are breathing consciously, and in addition it activates the body from within. And if people are not used to making vocal sounds during a warm-up it also has the effect of activating (or mixing) ones mind.

I believe that learning acrobatic techniques requires 80% of the mind's capacity and only 20% of the body, therefore freeing ones mind is essential in learning advanced body control. Please note, that this 80/20 rule is just a theoretical relation. Mastering acrobatic techniques still requires high-level physical skills. But like in any other physical discipline, a true Master is not known only for his/her physical skills.

Although ABC has the word acrobatic in it, its main focus is still in Body Control. And in my philosophy a normally functioning body CAN be controlled well at ANY age but how to get to that 'good body control level' varies between everyone. The feeling of having a 'good body control level' can still exist for two different persons at the same time, even though the other one can do a somersault and the other one can just walk in an ergonomic way. After all, there are many ways to get to a top of a mountain. Enjoying and learning from the climb (process) is the most rewarding experience at the end of the day :D

ABC focuses right from the beginning in developing the mid-body. Instead of just training the muscles e.g. doing lots of sit-ups, I use movement techniques that as a side-product strengthen the muscles surrounding the mid-body. In the introduction class I used walking techniques, two-legged bouncing techniques and movement techniques that required both arms and legs put on the ground. As I said in the beginning, ABC is difficult to explain. Even seeing someone doing it won't give much. Only trying it out yourself can you truly tell what it really is about ;D

Many of the techniques put some stress to the muscles around the hip bone, therefore I also emphasize the importance of stretching. Due to time issues I try to stretch mainly the muscles that are involved in the movement. Back muscles are used nearly in any kind of movement, therefore I always stretch them respectively.

1,5 hours went by fairly quickly. I enjoyed teaching the class, as I felt that all of the attendees had the right attitude for it. Attitude to constantly learn something new is what keeps people going forward (sometimes by first taking few steps backwards). And when I feel people really want to learn for the right reasons, I really want to give them as much as I think they can possible learn in such a short time.

I thank all the attendees for the warm welcome and for the great learning spirit! Hopefully, I'll be seeing the Kuopio's Tenchikan aikidokas again!

MIRACULOUS NEW YEAR 2010!!!

2009-12-31T17:04:00.003+02:00

It has been an amazing year 2009! I want to thank everyone for the wonderful moments that I have had the privilege to experience! I truly hope that my presence has also given something for the better of the moment :D

Below are some of my career highlights for the past year 2009:

- Salatut Elämät / Concealed Lives TV Drama
> Noa Okada vs Miro
> Noa Okada vs Miro on the dancefloor

- Seppälä TV-commercial working as a choreographer

- Launching of Tung Bui Shop

- In addition I've acted in two TV-series that might be shown on the Finnish television next year.

- Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) classes have gone well, and the year 2010 might bring new opportunities! Looking forward for this!

In general together with my mentor H-P Virkki we've been working together for almost 4 years now. 2010 should be brighter, but it will only come if we're willing to work as hard as before! Nevertheless, I believe that we will always keep up the good work!

Thank you for reading my blog! See you again in the next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!!!

Working with Talents

2009-12-27T23:58:00.004+02:00

The benefit of being a professional - in my case a stuntman - means that I many times get to work with talented people. And when everyone is really good in their own field, it means that there's lot to learn for everyone. Sharing is caring as some might say :) My professional CV can be seen from website WWW.TUNGBUI.COM.

Lately I've been working together with a young talent. His name is Elmeri Rantalainen, and he became known from the Finland's Got Talent TV program. His focus is in Extreme Martial Arts (XMA), which is a hybrid style that uses Martial Arts as a basis for a show performance. See Elmeri's performance on the Talent Show's finals from here.

Elmeri is only 19-years old, and at the moment he is studying to become a sports teacher. In addition to his excellent skills in XMA, he is also quite a rare personality as he seems to know pretty well what he wants in life, and how he's planning to achieve it. And one important thing in his life plans is that he knows it's not going to be an easy job for him. In my opinion it makes one very humble, if he knows that it's not easy to make dreams come true, yet still thriving to do a hell of a lot of work to achieve it. If it's hard, it's worth it as Les Brown would say.

I hope Elmeri will never stop believing in himself and in his dreams. As I've said to him, it's the personality of a person that will take him to the furthest. But skills are also a necessity in the journey, especially if one wants to be as self-sufficient as possible. Having both awesome skills and a good personality makes a person very wanted partner to work with. This is good if you get to work with people who also have something to give to you. But many times people want to work with talents just to get something from them. Wisdom is about identifying the right from wrong, even if the wrong feels very much like the right.

Me and Elmeri after our 1st trainings together on 18th December 2009. Photo by Laura Koskinen.

Some wannabe-fancy picture that we just HAD to take ;) Photo by Laura Koskinen

Teaching Children vs Teaching Adults

2009-12-17T07:51:00.011+02:00

I begun my sports teaching career in 1996, when I got my green belt in Finland's Kokondo (Seirenkai, nowadays) karate. My first assignment was to be the assistant teacher for the children's beginners' class. I didn't know I was up for it but eventually I kinda started to enjoy it. When I got my 1. dan in 2000, I officially became a Sensei, and taught a group of karatekas from yellow to black belts. I continued teaching various groups in our dojo all the way until I ended my training at Kokondo in 2001. Every now and then I go back there to train with my old friends. Brings back good old memories :D

For the last two years I've had this habit to teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for two different children's group at the end of the calendar year. The other group is the Finn-Aiki aikido club and the other is Akari aikido club. See pictures below.

13.12.09 Teaching ABC for Finn-Aiki aikido club's children. Photo by Pekka Sipilä (2009)

14.12.09 Teaching ABC for Akari aikido club's children. Photo by Kyösti (2009).

The children in both of the groups were somewhere between 7 to 14 year olds. As many of them were so young my initial attitude towards teaching children is fundamentally different compared to adults. Below I have listed my main ideology of how I approach a children's group as a sports teacher:

Children get bored after 45 seconds when I've introduced a technique that they should try out. Therefore, I have to be able to bring something new or deeper information after 40 seconds in order to keep their attention towards me.

I am nice if the children are nice towards me. If they are nice to me and they ask me to show some special move, I might do that if I feel that they've been hard working enough to deserve it. This way, the children learn to think that they get a prize if they perform well or follow my instructions as well as possible.

Usually, I start as a nice teacher but if they think that kindness is weakness and try to abuse my kindness, then I quickly turn the table around and become more strict teacher. Especially in Martial Arts, the Sensei has the highest authority, and in my opinion it should be understood fairly early in ones training; Even at fairly young age.

I emphasize to the children many times, that I have been training for many years in order to obtain my skills I have these days. Therefore, if they don't succeed immediately they shouldn't feel depressed because of that. I try to make them understand that training in general - especially in Martial Arts - can be a life-long path of constant development. Note! When the physical improvement starts to slowdown at a higher age, it usually is compensated with a faster rate of development regarding the mind and soul level awareness. This I usually communicate more to adults. For both groups the message is that everyone has the potential for constant development if one can think him/herself as a combination of body, mind and the soul.

Children's classes aim more for fun than for technical improvements. If they improve technique wise then that is just a bonus. If the class has older child students, then I might try to improve their technique as well. In the end, the balance between fun and technical advancement is based on the skill level of the children. Usually, the older children are able to grasp more detailed technical training. With the adults I usually try to find the balance between technical details and repetition. If the adult students learn fast, then more technical details and less repetition per movement. This way, in one class I can teach more various ABC techniques. Again, balance is what I always try to achieve in all my classes. Therefore, I don't plan the class ahead on a piece of paper. I allow everything to affect everything, even the substance of my each class. For the adults class fun is usually a feel-good bonus ;)

Conclusion

I believe that it's more worthwhile for me to teach motivated and physically capable adults. Their body and mind are more receptive for what I want to give them as a teacher. Therefore, at the moment I teach mainly professional actors and performers. In addition (genuine) Martial Artists are excellent students. Usually they hold at least a rank of 1. dan in some of the Asian style Martial Arts.

16.12.09 Teaching ABC for a group of actors, athletes or otherwise physically motivated persons (note the Dummy in the middle!) :D

Regarding children, I feel that I learn more from them than they from me. Therefore, I usually teach a children's class 1-3 times per group per year. I'm interested to know how children are nowadays, and I feel that being exposed to them 1-3 times as a teacher is sufficient. Maybe in the future it might be interesting to teach the same group of children for a year, eg. once a month, in order to be able to see their progress, and find out whether my skills as a teacher have significant positive impact on their learning.

Training among Great Men

2009-12-13T09:59:00.007+02:00

Mr. Auvo Niiniketo and me at Hokutoryu Jujutsu Martial Arts Club's home dojo in Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki 12.12.09. Photo by Matias.

I am honored that I have had the chance to teach Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) for the practitioners in Hokutoryu Ju-jutsu Martial Arts Club. It is the biggest in Finland, and the most wide-spread Finnish Martial Arts style globally. In addition to Finland's over 6000 (2004) practitioners it has international branches eg. in Iran, Ukraine, The Baltics, Poland, Israel, Columbia, Russia, and in Equadorissa. Hokutoryu Ju-jutsu self-defence techniques have also been taught to the military, police and security professionals.

All this began in 1977 when Mr. Auvo Niiniketo held his first ju-jutsu classes after retiring his boxing career and started to train ju-jutsu in Stockholm, Sweden. Mr. Niiniketo received his 1. dan black belt in 1979. In November 2007 he received the rank of 9. dan from Mr. Richard Morris (10. dan). Since then, in ju-jutsu, his title has been Soke (Eng. Headmaster or Grand Master).

I met Mr. Niiniketo in person in 2006 when I was teaching a private student in ABC in Hokutoryu's home dojo in Kaapelitehdas, Helsinki. Mr. Niiniketo wanted to expand the physical abilities of his club's senseis, and we decided together that I could teach them the Basics of Acrobatics once a week in a workshop that lasted for 10 weeks. As I was a student of Mr. Pekka Oey, one of the most known karatekas in Finland, and the founder of the Finnish Kokondo Karate Club (now Seirenkai) where I began my martial arts training, Mr. Niiniketo could trust me right from the beginning. All the top martial artists in Finland happen to be friends together in one way or another :) Just to mention, Mr. Pekka Oey holds the Guinness World Record in breaking 5 blocks of ice in a single karate strike. See the video on YouTube.

My Basics of Acrobatics classes were appreciated by the students, and I was asked few times to go back there to teach more. Finally, I could make a come back after 3 years. This time my style had developed from the Basics of Acrobatics to Acrobatic Body Control. We had the last class on Sunday 12.12.09 and below is a picture of the happy students (and happy teacher). Photo was taken by Toni, who was also one of the students :)

Teaching Acrobatic Body Control

2009-12-10T14:55:00.005+02:00

Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) is a discipline of combined movement that I've developed. It's not really anything new, as it just combines my skills in acrobatics, martial arts, parkour and in various dancing styles. It's main focus is in the development of person's body control using movement (not eg. static muscle training). So far I've founded acrobatics to be one of the most challenging discipline of movement, therefore I use it as a measuring sport. If a person can do acrobatic techniques well I believe that his body control skills are above normal. I develop a person's body control skills so that eventually he could be able to do acrobatics in an ecological and natural way. ABC is based on my philosophy of movement that I call Body Dynamics.

This week I have already held three different classes. Tuesday's morning class is at 7.15 - 8.15am, which means that I wake up already at 5.00am. Fortunately, when we start the class people usually wake up pretty well :) On the same day I had shootings for a TV series. I was a member of a criminal underworld, and in my scene I had a minor fight scene with the lead actor. It was fun! :D Hopefully the scene works on television!

Wednesday evening I held another class, this time at 20.30 - 21.30. Below is a picture of the small group of people from Finn-Aiki aikido club. Even though, I'm a 1. dan black belt karateka, and I teach for martial arts clubs, we don't wear a budo outfit in the ABC classes. This is because, I see ABC only as a supportive discipline for the main sport people are training. And as it is about body control, not martial arts, sports trousers and a t-shirt is more than perfect training clothing :)

Thursday morning I had another ABC class. This class is mainly intended for professional actors and performers. I also welcome my old students there to whom I've taught acrobatics some time before :) See the picture below for the attendees (from left: Aarni, Jarkko, Maria and Tiina).

An Action Packed Week

2009-12-03T17:11:00.003+02:00

Tuesday begun with an alarm clock starting its beautiful ringing at 5.00am. It was the 2nd of the 3 morning Acrobatic Body Control (ABC) training days that I'm having for the Finn-Aiki aikido club. The trainings begin at 7.15am and last for 60 minutes. This time we had it at the gymnastics area at Myllypuro's Liikuntamylly (Eng: Sports Mill) in Helsinki. I normally train at the gymnastics area but it was a new thing for the aikido people. They seemed to enjoy it as the floor was softer than a budo tatami :)

Although, the class is very, very early in the morning it wakes up pretty well. When I teach, I also take part in the physical part. Not as much as the students but enough so that I can feel in my body what parts are getting tired. And as I'm getting physically tired, it means that the students should feel tired as well. Then I'll change the strain to some other area of the body so that everyone can train with at least 80% efficiency through the whole class. Even though, I'm the teacher it is still very important for me to warm-up my body as well. Usually, towards the end of the ABC classes we do more advanced techniques which requires more from myself as well, when I demonstrate them.

After the class I had few hours to chill-out and prepare for the evening. Me and my mentor H-P Virkki had been assigned to a new TV-series as 'actors'. We didn't get to have any lines to say... :D But we were chosen to do the physical parts. Johannes Hentunen (also seen in the Yakuza Diares - Blooming Flower as one of the bad guys) was also with us doing the same things. On Tuesday's shootings our role was to thrash up a warehouse. It's always nice to get to destroy places with a permission. The director enjoyed the show, so I guess we 'acted' it pretty well :D

Wednesday we had another shooting day. This time our job was to runaway from machine gun fire. The special FX guy Ari Arvola had rigged an exploding glass, and then he was also responsible for creating the sparks that came from the bullets hidding the background stuff. Me and H-P did minor stunt falls as we jumped away from the gun fire. We only needed one shot, and again the director came away from his monitor with a wide smile. H-P went to make a quality check, and he was satisfied, which is more than enough information for me.

I'm always happy to work with H-P because with his over 15 years of experience as a professional stuntman he has loads of information about loads of stuff regarding filmmaking. I know it'll take me a life-time to master this field of business. And as the industry is evolving constantly it means that there will never be enough time to learn everything. But again, constant development and opportunities for that is what I seek personally. I wouldn't want to imagine living even a day when there's nothing new to learn. Life is just too multidimensional and complex in order it to ever be static or 'routinized'. I love living. It's better than TV ;)

Day 1 on this blog

2009-11-27T07:07:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone!

Here I will reveal in more detail every now and then about my professional life as an Actor and Stuntman. I begun my career in 2006 when I had the chance to meet my mentor H-P Virkki.

Since then we've been working together and my career has progressed from live performances to TV-commercials, Music Videos, Films and now as an actor in the most popular Finnish TV drama, the 'Salatut Elämät' (Eng: Concealed Lives). Check wikipedia for more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salatut_elämät

General information about me, and tons of image and video material can be found from my homepage

http://WWW.TUNGBUI.COM

I'm also active on

Facebook

Twitter

If you're Finnish (or understand the language), then also on

IRC-Galleria

Hope to share more information about me soon!

Best regards,

Tung Bui