[Cause]

I have the need to watch a good old fashioned martial arts movie. I cant think of one being made recently.

So what are your top martial art movie recommendations. Looking for good fight choreography with a good story ideally.

[worry]

Project A 2.
Pedicab Driver.

[amphibian]

The Raid, The Raid 2, Ong Bak, Hero (with Jet Like starring), Streetfighter, and Kung Fun Hustle are all great martial arts movies.

[PLUGO]

Donnie Yen has been putting out some solid work, Give Ip Man a try. Ip man 2 is also good but instead of 3 go for Ip Man: The Final Fight.


Jet Li's Fearless was really solid, but quite a few years old. For some of the more modern pieces check out Tai Chi Hero & Tai Chi Zero as well as The Grandmaster. I still have a major soft spot for House of Flying Daggers though the last 20 minutes could've been cut.

Honorable mention goes to the MARCO POLO Netflix series as well.

[amphibian]

 I Got Crabs, on 26 October 2016 - 12:11 AM, said:

Jet Li's Hero is really cool but it's very much CTHD flying around etc. very good though.

The point of Hero is to engage in Chinese mythological figures in a way that's somewhat similar to, yet different from, superheroes in Marvel movies. The cultural figures of the Warring States time are well enough known that the spins into famous assassins/martial artists and so on were pretty easily understood. The choice of doing the wire-fu in the slow, graceful way is entirely purposeful and done because wire-fu is so Chinese/Hong Kongian in origin. The message of Hero is one that's very, very strongly Chinese nationalism in terms of a monolithic state and almost everything in it is done specifically to bolster that narrative and image. It's a very interesting movie beyond the visuals and the fights if you look at the messaging and undertones.

[Tsundoku]

Jet Li - Fist of Legend, Once Upon a Time in China.

The Raid 1 and 2 and Ong Bak are just insane. In a good way.

[Aptorian]

No mention of Kung Pow yet? For shame, people:



Also Honorable mention of Kung Fury which you can watch in its entirety here:

[Abyss]

 Cause, on 25 October 2016 - 10:48 PM, said:

I have the need to watch a good old fashioned martial arts movie. I cant think of one being made recently.

So what are your top martial art movie recommendations. Looking for good fight choreography with a good story ideally.

I know you said recently, but classic Bruce Lee is timeless.
ENTER THE DRAGON just never gets old.

 PLUGO, on 26 October 2016 - 01:20 AM, said:

...
Honorable mention goes to the MARCO POLO Netflix series as well.

Can second this... The show has some glorious fight choreo, particularly s2.

 I Got Crabs, on 26 October 2016 - 02:05 AM, said:

...

Nom may want to look at AMCs Into the Badlands. Nice action but limited/confusing story. S2 should help with this.

Fun but vacuous show. Some of the fights were pretty great, but there was an underlying 'trying to look film on a tv budget' thing that kept this form moving beyond popcorn viewing, even for what it was. I hope S2 can improve it.

[Cause]

It was actually Marco Polo and Badlands along with a recent viewing of Marc Pilgrim VS the Wold that made me realize how long its been since I have seen a great martial arts movie. I suppose Genres come in waves and they are currently on the backfoot while comics and book movies are in the vanguard.

[QuickTidal]

Oh boy, this used to be my JAM in my late teens and early 20's...I got some moderately obscure recco's for you to find that are GREAT!

GEN-X COPS (great fight choreography, great [but completely batshit insane] story, and great characters...plus a chunk of it is in English as well)...sidenote: If you like the characters enough you can check out the sequel GEN-Y COPS...but it's not nearly as good...but they English-ized it even more by having Paul Rudd playing an FBI agent in it who comes to Hong Kong and interacts with the leads (who basically just make fun of him).



TOKYO RAIDERS



You've probably seen it, but SHAOLIN SOCCER is a blast....and I will second Amph's recco of KUNG FU HUSTLE (both by the same director).

SHAOLIN TEMPLE is Jet Li's best and oldest film (it was his debut)..and it holds up well. The only issue is finding a decent copy of it. Since it's from 1982 in China, the quality of say the full version you find on YouTube would be sketchy. Better to see if you can find a DVD remaster or something.

I will also always recommend IRON MONKEY....Donnie Yen stars as folk hero Wong-Fei Hung's father in a Tsui Hark produced flick directed by Yuen Woo-Ping in which Wong Fei-Hung is gender flipped into a girl too (and the kid who plays her, Angie Tsang is an incredibly gifted martial artist..who iS now a cop in Hong Kong!). You kind of can't get a higher pedigree of kung fu film.

There is also HIGH RISK (also known in the States as MELTDOWN), which is a Jet Li HK action comedy that spoofs a lot of Hong Kong/martial arts stuff in a satirical way (including making fun of Jackie Chan, and he was not happy about it)....but is most know for basically being a Hong Kong Die Hard.

This post has been edited by QuickTidal: 26 October 2016 - 01:16 PM

[Aptorian]

I also kind of liked The Man with the Fists of Steel that came out a few years ago. It had a surprisingly star-studded cast.

This post has been edited by Apt: 26 October 2016 - 01:18 PM

[Primateus]

A Kung Fu movies thread without the Kung Fu song? Say it ain't so!




You're welcome!

[Cause]

The lightsabre reminds me. Any good sword fighting movies are welcome also

[champ]

Not so much Kung-Fu but awesome crazy action that hasn't got a mention yet - Red Cliff 1 + 2.

[amphibian]

The Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon was really decent. Better storylines and comedy than the Ninja Turtles.

[nacht]

I recently saw Magic Archher Series on Prime. It was weirdly entertaining (I watched all three movies)
Kid with the golden arm

[polishgenius]

Has anyone seen The Assassin, from 2015? I really wanna see it but haven't been able to yet (hard to get foreign films subtitled in English in Germany). It seems to be a Wuxia so more Crouching Tiger than Bruce Lee but it got fantastic reviews.

[QuickTidal]

 polishgenius, on 26 October 2016 - 06:21 PM, said:

Has anyone seen The Assassin, from 2015? I really wanna see it but haven't been able to yet (hard to get foreign films subtitled in English in Germany). It seems to be a Wuxia so more Crouching Tiger than Bruce Lee but it got fantastic reviews.

It's VERY, very good. Also, make sure to get your hands on a solid HD copy of it, as it is SUMPTUOUSLY filmed.

[Primateus]

What about The Warrior's Way? It's sort of a Ninja's vs. Cowboys. It's much, much better than that sounds.

[polishgenius]

 QuickTidal, on 26 October 2016 - 07:19 PM, said:

It's VERY, very good. Also, make sure to get your hands on a solid HD copy of it, as it is SUMPTUOUSLY filmed.

Given that I mostly watch films on a 10-year-old laptop, that's unlikely to happen. But cheers for the note.