Recommend Martial Arts Movies

plus:
Arhats In Fury
Tigers of Shaolin
Dragon Princess
Duel to the Death

all i ever seem to watch for kung-fu these days is a sonny chiba ten pack a few years back.

Fong Sai Yuk 1 & 2
The Swordsman 2
Fist of Legend
Tai Chi Master
New Legend of Shaolin
Once Upon At Time In China 1 & 2 & 3
Bodyguard From Beijing
The Black Mask

There a couple of earlier ones which are good, too, but I can't remember the titles off the top of my head.

Jackie Chan must sees:

Police Story
Drunken Master 1 & 2
Project A 1 & 2
Armour of God 1 & 2

Non-Jet, non-Jackie classiques:

Eastern Condors
Iron Monkey

Non-Jet, non-Jackie stuff, not very martial art-y but super worthwhile:

The Blade
Ashes of Time
Time and Tide
Full Contact
Heroic Trio
Naked Killer
Rikki O
Black Cat
Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain
Bride With White Hair

I will come back with some 70's/early 80's stuff later.

also, for american work, you could always go for Rapid Fire(Brandon Lee doing Wing Chun). It has Powers Boothe as a crusty policeman!

any Stephen Chow flicks.

Bruce Li's Deadly Strike - can only find this on vhs I think and the pan and scan is terrible, but I love it. kind of a chinese dirty dozen with cool villians starring Bruce Li(not in fake-Bruce mode though, he kicks ass here)

Shaolin vs. Lama(not Shaolin against Lama! which is terrible)

Master of the Flying Guillotine(as opposed to the inferior but still enjoyable Fatal Flying Guillotine) - the DVD edition comes with commentary, which is rare.

any of the films now marketed under "Wu Tang Collection" (Iron Man,
Ninja Checkmate, Invicible Armour, et al.). sometimes come with Wu videos!

I'll spare you some others I like, I have a high tolerance for this stuff so I might have a skewed vision of what's "good" at this point.

"Dragons Forever" and "Wheels on Meals" - both starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Biao, and Sammo Hung, and each climaxing with a punch out between Jackie Chan and real life kickboxing champ Benny 'The Jet' Urquidez. I can never decide which of them is my favorite kungfu fight onscreen.

ha, i saw this recently. its a love story about a boy & his elephant! theres one amazing scene where he rips through a vice den, i dont think its in one take but it fells like it is & goes on for about 10 minutes, he wastes about 100 people

One-Armed Swordsman and Return Of The One-Armed Swordsman (the third can be ignored, but might be worth a watch for completists' sake)

Magnificent Butcher - classic Yuen Woo Ping flick starring Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao. Amazing fight choreography and funny as hell.

(Actually, I think Kung Fu is more interesting to watch.)

"They've just never felt the sting of Japanese fists!"

Pluck the Needle from the Bottom of the Sea!

Jade Lady Works the Loom's Shuttle!

Snake Creeping on the Ground!

(fwiw, these really are some faves of mine)

Anyway, for sheer spectacle - if not coherence or depth - I gotta recommend it.

If it's true that after the balletic fighting and heroic, tragic gore the main charm of these things is the extravagantly terrible dubbing, this might be an alltime winner.

Also, do not see "No Blood, No Tears."

I watched "Dynamite Warrior" last night, do not repeat my mistake. It tries to combine "Ong Bak" and "Kungfu Hustle" but fails to replicate any of the virtues of either, while also failing to bring in any original virtues of its own. The choreography sucks, the fx are weak, the jokes are dull, and the plot is too convoluted to follow or care about. There are several germs of good ideas in here, but none are developed in an interesting way at all.

I heard something about Tony Jaa being cast as a villain in the next Bond picture, though. That would be something worth seeing.

Not it, but that sounds worth a watch...

Let's keep them coming folks, we're mapping out a subgenre here!

...yeah, I had no idea there'd be this many (or any) near misses...

can't believe that wasn't it tbh i thought i'd nailed it, yes this is obv a genre

....anyone seen this "Fist of the Condor" flick from Chile?

Korean Film Council just dropped this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pg6_yPMn9Js

ah well. it's Returned a Single-legged Man: 2, Korean martial arts cinema from the 70's.

So Close would have been a lot better if it wasn't striving to be so modern, it's a very post-Matrix film and (songs aside) the soundtrack is completely generic action movie stuff. Still kind of liked it, I had never seen Karen Mok in anything before, she is in an action trio with Shu Qi and Zhao Wei.

I don't tend to enjoy what little I sample of chinese pop stars but has anyone here heard much Karen Mok? She seems to be insanely popular, one of her concerts set a world record that I don't understand.

Shawscope Vol.3 announced.

https://www.arrowfilms.com/blu-ray/shawscope-vol.-3-limited-edition-blu-ray/15407476.htm

Also Arrow are doing Vol.2 for £60 as a tie in.

Vol 3 might be the best yet. Or at least most varied.

Tsui Hark’s The Blade (1995) is a masterpiece. Seeing it in a theatre was an absolutely transcendental experience

I'm kind of filled up on these now, can't see myself getting another boxed set like this. I did kind of want to see Intimate Confessions and (on the Shout Factory set) Bells Of Death.

Still haven't seen Miracle Fighters even though I've wanted that a long time. Happy to see Black Cat 2 and Sex & Zen getting released.

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In was an over the top blast. A little weirdly syrupy but some excellent set pieces

Syrupyness is a big part of so many Hong Kong films from the golden era, I kinda expect it. Also the film is looking back at an old era at a time when Hong Kong is going through painful changes so I feel like there's some real pathos to the sentiment.

yeah and most of it suits the movie just fine. there's some mysticism as well with one of the big bads, which was a nice touch harkening back to old school martial arts, particularly villains like Pai Mei.

mostly I'm just happy to finally see one of these in the theater

they really don't use Sammo Hung much, fighting wise, until the end, (probably cos he's 72), but he gets a cool little fight sequence. a lot of the actors didn't know martial arts coming in (or only had a little training) and were taught them for the film.

naturally the most experienced of the younger bunch (Philip Ng) got the most badass shit to do lol

Black Cat 2 - This actually has more traditional martial arts than the first film. I was a bit concerned because Jade Leung is kind of sidelined for the first chunk of the film, because she's almost like a faulty robot that needs reprogramming. The sound in the fights seems a bit off. The action scenes are far more impressive here but I prefer the first film. I hope there's more Jade Leung blurays coming because she's really cool, difficult to explain her quality.

i bought the Chang Cheh box in the arrow sale and have watched the two Shaolin films so far and they look great for things from the mid 70s.

picked this one of the three because i thought it said The Five Deadly Venoms but looking at it closer it's just The Five Venoms. but it turns out it might be the same film after all. i guess we will see.

The Five Friendly Venoms

seeing this thread reminds me that i really need take some time out this weekend to watch Black Storm (打黑), with this elevator/lift fight (35.58 in if this link takes you to the beginning)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_KayMDsaUs

(it was the same film)

that's a hell of a fight scene for sure.

i was reading about the various edits of swordsman ii and learned that the most complete version, the taiwanese mandarin dub, was released on blu-ray in 2023... but only in germany, on media vision. of course it's impossible to track down in the states, even streaming afaik. well, i'll be on the lookout at least...

> Revive!
> Crippled Masters exploitative or not?
> ― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 27 January 2006 18:56

ha, it's a film that i think they'd have trouble getting approved today. or they could reframe it as a disability positive film.

(it's odd that they don't have deaf events at the paralympics. i guess it doesn't affect things as much as blindness or missing limbs)

ha, it's a film that i think they'd have trouble getting approved today. or they could reframe it as a disability positive film.

― koogs, Monday, April 28, 2025

crippled masters: inspiration porn or not?

oh, the one i watched was Crippled Avengers, the second Venoms film. possibly the same film.

(not the same film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crippled_Masters

and probably more worthy seeing as the actors themselves were disabled and not just wearing the world's least convincing prostethic makeup (iron arms, iron legs)

Was mentioned in the Boutique thread but deserves notice here: Shout! Factory starting up the rollout of the Golden Princess library in 4K:

HONG KONG CINEMA CLASSICS | UPCOMING DIGITAL RELEASES
Action fans and martial arts and movie enthusiasts will relish these definitive releases of Hong Kong cinema masterpieces, available for digital download and on-demand across major digital entertainment platforms in the U.S. Presented by Shout! Studios, the first titles to be made available digitally in 4K include:

June 24, 2025 John Woo’s HARD BOILED in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Chiu-wai).

June 24, 2025 Ringo Lam’s CITY ON FIRE in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Sun Yueh, Danny Lee).

July 8, 2025 John Woo’s A BETTER TOMORROW in 4K (starring Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat), A BETTER TOMORROW II in 4K (starring Leslie Cheung, Chow Yun-Fat), and A BETTER TOMORROW III in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Tony Leung Ka-fai).

July 22, 2025 Tsui Hark’s PEKING OPERA BLUES in 4K (starring Brigitte Lin, Sally Yeh, Cherie Chung).

July 22, 2025 John Woo’s THE KILLER in 4K (starring Chow Yun-Fat, Danny Lee).

August 5, 2025 Tony Ching’s A CHINESE GHOST STORY (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang),A CHINESE GHOST STORY II (starring Leslie Cheung, Joey Wang), and A CHINESE GHOST STORY III (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Joey Wang).

August 19, 2025 John Woo’s BULLET IN THE HEAD in 4K (starring Tony Leung Chiu-wai).

HONG KONG CINEMA CLASSICS | UPCOMING PHYSICAL MEDIA RELEASES

Collectors and loyal movie fans will rejoice over the first titles to be made available for physical media from HONG KONG CINEMA CLASSICS™. Each highly collectible edition boasts an exciting movie presentation and will contain insightful bonus features, which are currently in progress and will be announced at a later date.

July 29, 2025 THE JET LI COLLECTION (4K UHD + Blu-ray): FIST OF LEGEND, TAI CHI MASTER, FONG SAI YUK, FONG SAI YUK II, and THE BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING. (HKCC #1-5)

August 26, 2025 Ringo Lam’s CITY ON FIRE 4K UHD+ Blu-ray (HKCC # 6)

September 23, 2025 Tsui Hark’s PEKING OPERA BLUES 4K UHD+ Blu-ray (HKCC #7)

Shucks.

lol ok i guess that answers my question about The Swordsman II. It's not on that initial list but it is on the longlist of titles Shout! Factory got the rights to in January. I missed that announcement because I was distracted with something or other, can't recall what though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u5wlUez1KA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbYvqpf7A6M

Cine Asia has the first one on disc in the uk, I have a feeling that I won't like these because everything looks so fake but I am still quite impressed by the spectacle

Maybe sequels to League Of Gods?

Shawscope Vol.4 looks nuts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcB7Lnu8wcg

Surprised that I've seen 9 of these. The new Sammo Hung box looks fun, I haven't seen them and don't even remember seeing them on his imdb.

Rosa with Yuen Biao is also new to me

I wish Peacock King and Saga Of The Phoenix were bundled together because they really ought to be. I guess some labels overdo the boxed sets but 88 Films underdoes them at times.

Fingers crossed for Kid From Tibet.