The touch of death (or death-point striking) is any martial arts technique reputed to kill using seemingly less than lethal force targeted at specific areas of the body.
Dim mak is depicted as a secret body of knowledge with techniques that attack pressure points and meridians, said to incapacitate or sometimes cause immediate or even delayed death to an opponent.
[3] In 1985, an article in Black Belt magazine speculated that the death of Bruce Lee in 1973 might have been caused by "a delayed reaction to a Dim-Mak strike he received several weeks prior to his collapse".
Other authors have also said Lee's death may have been due to a "quivering palm technique"[4] (alongside an article about Choy Li Fut instructor Wong Doc-Fai) to the effect that "dim mak does actually exist and is still taught to a few select kung fu practitioners.
According to Montaigue's own account, dim mak is an aspect of traditional old Yang style taji quan which he claims he began learning in 1978 from a master called Chiang Yiu-chun who died in the month of May.
[9] A "Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique" appears in both the Shaw Brothers films Clan of the White Lotus (1980) and Executioners of Shaolin (1977).
[citation needed] Dim mak has become a kind of camp pop culture item which is recognized also outside the genre of martial arts films.
[citation needed] The lead character of the British TV series Gangsters (1978) is murdered by hired assassin "The White Devil" using a similar attack, with death occurring four days after he is touched.
In the film, Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) proves that he has been trained by Senzo Tanaka (who is also well-respected within the fighting world) by demonstrating a variation of dim mak to the judges to back his claim.
In the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, the character Ty Lee uses a form of Dim Mak called chi-blocking to cripple or immobilize opponents and leave them unable to "bend" (control the elements).