Intro: So we have looked at African Martial Arts and started off with Asian style originating from South Asia. We decide to mix things up a bit and look into more regions of the world regarding martial arts. So heading over to the South East of Asia in the Pacific Ocean. We have the nasty dirty art of Kinamotaty. but what makes its a dirty nasty fighting style?
Martial Art: Kinamotay
Style: Grappling, Nerve points
Country: Philippines
Origin: Cebu Province
History: An interesting inclusion of a style that less about martial arts for sport, in fact it is rather a style that permits it practitioners to use any means necessary. If you've heard of it at all in martial arts. This Filipino style is brutal with a focus on techniques from Biting, pinching, scratching, gouging and other dirty fighting techniques. This truly is a style where anything goes. However this style not encourage dirty technique for no reason. There are targets to aim for. As many Kinamotay practitioners tend to use effective grapples and joint manipulations to hold their opponents in place a take the opportunity to attack a vulnerable point ranging from pressure points, joints, groin, nipple, solar plexus, neck, eyes, ear and Latissimus Dorsi. All these targets are intended to be exploited for the 'Uninterrupted Bite' or in other cases just gouging fingers/nails into to inflict as much pain as possible. In the most extreme cases, these biting and gouging techniques can sever arteries and cause bleeding.
Culture: It is believed that the root word for the martial art originates from the Cebuano word Kamot meaning Hand. In the Cebu province, the art of Kinamotay and its techniques are culturally associated with women (Pinching, Scratching and Gouging), however is a recognized as an effective technique to take down, harm and intimidate enemies of all sizes. Many martial arts schools such as Filipino Eskrimador schools teach aspects of Kinamotay for unarmed self defense techniques, but the idea of these technique are to be last resort.
Warrior: It is believed that this style was possibly used by vulnerable women during some of the Philippines darker moments in history. Many women would be victims of exploitation or assault by men typically larger and stronger than them. So developing technique that take any means necessary to another level makes sense. Overtime these viscous street techniques likely was picked up on by popular organised martial artist to create it into a system of self defense style for all genders and people. Due to the nature of this style, there is no real clothing requirement due to the idea that this is to be used in unexpected times and for desperation to protect oneself. Practitioners of several Filipino styles may have come across or be made aware of Kinamotay's reputation and how it can be applied.
Media/Potential: So how could this style make its way to mass media? Well I'm sure we've heard of several accounts of people biting each other whether they are Boxers (Mike Tyson), wrestlers (Shayna Baszler) or even football players (Luis Suarez). It is not considered a legal technique in any of those sports however this has not stopped Fighting Games from having characters that like to sink their teeth and claws into their enemies. In most of these cases, these characters are animalistic, but when regarding the female associations we can see how a fighter like Mortal Kombat's Mileena would actually be a suitable example of how a Kinamotay fighter could be brought into a video game. On top of this there is one unique film example from the Thai film Tom-Yum-Goong. During the bone breaking scene, Tony Jaa (who is predominantly a Muay Thai fighter) uses techniques that look like they came from Kinamotay notice in the video below how he bites the arm of his attacker and also digs his fingers into the collar bone region of another. Now imagine a femme fatale character with with weaponized nails a la Lady Deathstrike in a film using such techniques. In Filipno legends, there is a creature called an Aswang (a shapeshifting creature) which appeared in Grimm & an Manananggal which appeared in Marvel Anime: Blade. So you can imagine how the art of the uninterrupted bite can fit when you've got Filipino Vampires.
Now THAT would be a perfect fighting style fitting Mileena! Hope MK 2021 can implement that.