gun kata

See also: gunkata and gun-kata

English

Etymology

Compound of gun +‎ kata (“martial art movements”), from Japanese 型 (kata, “style, pattern”). Attested from, and possibly coined around 2003 for the film Equilibrium (see quotation below).

Noun

gun kata (uncountable)

1. Synonym of gun fu (a style of balletic gunplay in action films)
   • 2005, Roger Ebert, Roger Ebert’s Movie Yearbook 2005, review of Equilibrium, page 208:

     I learn from Nick Nunziata at www.CHUD.com that the form of battle used in the movie is “Gun-Kata,” which is “a martial art completely based around guns.” I credit Nunziata because I think he may have invented this term.

2. A fictional martial art based on gun fu.
   • 2003 April, Andy Richards, “Equilibrium”, in Sight and Sound, volume 13, page 35:

     The early 21st century. The totalitarian state of Libria has been established following a third world war and is presided over by the ubiquitous video-image of ‘Father’. To maintain harmony, the populace are forced to self-medicate with the emotion-suppressant Prozium. Sense Offenders, who skip doses and secretly hoard artworks, are hunted down by an elite squad of Clerics, trained in the martial art Gun-Kata (which enables its practitioners to predict the path of bullets fired at them).

Derived terms

• gun-kata (adjective)