He retired pretty early from competition for the same reason, IIRC.

Not so much brie as a torn ligament, which can (and does) happen to the hardiest of us.

You mean ligaments are not made of brie? The point was, he's not the sort for a comeback tour.

(I'm kind of surprised that's all it was -- ACL or something? People do come back from that in other sports. Although, I don't really follow sports where knees are used as weapons.)

Wu shu's not about limbs as weapons--it's a non contact sport, more like floor gymnastics. A fighter could definitely come back from that--dancers and gymnasts I know less about.

But my point was that he didn't retire because he had creaky knees--he retired because he blew out a joint. As someone with creaky knees and no ligament damage who knows people who are quite the converse, it's a big gap between the two.

But it's apparent I misread brie to be something less catastrophic than I associate with blown knees.

Seems like he's either giving up the genre as being irredeemably tainted, or conceding that he can't or doesn't want to fix it. Shame.

He was on the KROQ morning show the other day, and I heard the interview. He was adorable! They asked him about the LAST martial arts movie thing, and his answer was basically that this film ultimately expresses his philosophy about martial arts (specifically with regard to wu shu), and after this he has nothing left to say on the subject. He plans on continuing to act, and he's happy to make action movies, and even play characters who beat up other characters, but he's done with wu shu movies.

Done with wu shu...that's fascinating. And it makes sense. I did like his movie The One because it had symbolic fight choreography--and I think it used that to talk about wu shu too.

ACL or something? People do come back from that in other sports.

Yes, but it's more than a year out, and another year of being at less than full speed. Your lateral movement is severely impaired. I've mostly seen it with basketball players who have to make sharp cuts. But a blown ACL is fairly significant.

Another dragon movie trailer: [link]

But a blown ACL is fairly significant.

Right, but, people do come back from it. Come back to their former glory, even (or as much former glory as you can get out of Aaron Boone). (Who did it to himself in the offseason, playing basketball.)

he didn't retire because he had creaky knees--he retired because he blew out a joint.

I, uh, don't have any idea how these are different? "Knee(s) made of cheese" and "creaky knee(s)" and "blew out his knee(s)" all mean roughly the same thing to me: bum knee(s). There are bum knees you come back from, and bum knees you don't; but is there something in the elocution that makes that distinction, to you?

There are chronic knee injuries - athritis, which ita has, and inflamed cartiledge, and stuff like that - that I would call "creaky knees" (or, I suppose, "knees of cheese.") There's not much that can be done for them, and they tend to slowly get worse, and lead to pain and stiffness, and gradually reduce ability.

Blowing out a knee - usually slang for an ACL injury, though I think other ligaments can go - is a catastrophic injury. I am pretty sure you can't walk after you do it - it requires surgery. You may come back okay, or you may never be the same, and I think it sort of depends also on how knee-y your sport is (baseball or golf, nsm with requiring the good knees; soccer or basketball or skiing, more knee action.)

What flea said.