Black Belt

The room is breathless. A woman is resting face down on a pillow. A shadow passes. All too soon, a 180-pound man is astride her, pinning her arms above her head. The man barks obscenity-ridden instructions. The woman complies, rolling onto her back. The man moves down, sitting on her ankles, pulling at her clothes. The woman is deathly still. Then, yelling, "No!" the woman sits up like a rejuvenated corpse.

Late one evening, a panhandler approached 4-foot-9 Kathy Murphy in a mini-mall as she was about to step into her VW and drive home. "He asked me for money," Murphy recalled, "and I told him I didn't have any money for him and to leave me alone." All that did, however, was provoke the man--twice Murphy's size--who began to curse loudly, wave his arms wildly and come closer.

The bounty hunter Lorenzo Lamas plays on the syndicated series "Renegade" rides a Harley across country as a framed cop seeking to clear his name. In his own life, Lamas' name is nothing if not a steady source of encouragement to work at his craft. His parents--the late Fernando Lamas, an actor and director, and Arlene Dahl, an actress and author--provide good rode models, he says. "My father gave me a great work ethic.

Am I nuts? I ask myself this question, but only in jest. And only on Wednesday mornings when my body seems to hurt the most. My karate class is Tuesday night: 90 minutes of takedowns, jujitsu, fighting, forms, preceded by a warm-up of stretches, pushups, crunches, jumping jacks, kicking drills and other assorted forms of torture. On Wednesday mornings when I wake up, my neck is stiff, my stomach is sore, and my arms and shins are often black and blue.

For 15 years, until he returned to the United States in 1984, Steven Seagal lived in Japan, spoke the language, studied the martial arts and became a master of aikido. Not only did he have a rare inside look at the Japanese martial arts establishment, but he penetrated it as few outsiders had ever done. He was a disciple of aikido's head master, he said, and also became a Shinto priest and the first Westerner to own and operate his own dojo (school) in Japan.

It's Friday night at the drive-in. As the pale-skinned hero of the season's hot new martial-arts flick snaps the bones of the Asian archvillain, the Winnetka 6 erupts in honking horns and flashing headlights. The movie that has the big-wheeled pickups beeping is "Bloodsport." Advertised as the true story of an American who defeated all comers 13 years ago in a no-holds-barred international tournament of warriors, the movie opened last month at 800 U.S.

My son is 12 years old, and he's going through a lot of changes in his life, most of which he'd rather not see published in this column. However, there is one change I have permission to relay: He's started lifting weights under my supervision. I can already hear the protestations of physicians and parents. "Blasphemy!" they cry. "It's not safe!" Many of them believe that weight training should wait until the end of puberty because it can cause serious, growth-stunting injury.

In a year that has seen would-be action heroes Jeff Speakman and Brian Bosworth make well-orchestrated attempts to muscle their way into the action-adventure movie arena, Columbia Pictures is clearly betting that Jean-Claude Van Damme could be the next Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal--or even Arnold Schwarzenegger. "Double Impact," the $15-million action film in which Van Damme plays dual roles, opened well Aug. 9 and has grossed $15.

Say sayonara to "the Samurai Cop." Colleagues of Senior Police Officer Dave Dye will host a send-off Jan. 29 for the 31-year veteran. Dye, 52, earned the Japanese warrior nickname after three decades of martial arts training. He wears black belts in judo, jujitsu, karate and aikido and trains officers in defensive tactics. "There's a lot of officers throughout the county that owe their martial arts and defense training to Dave," said Costa Mesa Police Chief David L. Snowden.