How does Chiaki Kuriyama do the chain mace tricks?

Answer 1

Although Chiaki was dangling and whirling around a 9 lb chained mace, she only attacked Uma with a plastic copy to keep from accidentally injuring her.

Before this intense battle scene was shot which was in China, Chiaki spent three months in L.A., training with a martial arts/fighting choreographer in order to master the "chain mace tricks."

To better explain these "tricks," we'll start out with the actual name of the weapon and the fighting style that Gogo uses. The chained mace is a modernized version of what is called a, "Manriki" or a, "meteor hammer." It is a weapon from ancient China that is part of a wide selection of chained weapons. The style of fighting that is implemented with the Manriki comes from the martial art of "Chángquán," a form of Wushu Kung Fu that involves not only hands and feet, but weapons as well.

You can see the meteor hammer, put to use in the following video clip: http://www.YouTube.com/watch?v=uhW67MBO8M8

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteor_hammer

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changquan

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20148456,00.html