Recommend Martial Arts Movies

pretty strange contrast since raid 1 is notable for having next to no plot at all. but the director has said the script for raid 2 predated the first one. it's an awkward movie but I basically ended up loving it anyway since it still delivered 100% on what I was watching it for (extremely violent martial arts action)

yeah watching it go linear was strange at first but it worked IMO.

the sheer scope of the action in the 1st was tough to beat though.

Not seen it yet.

Kindle spell correct must have changed Knockabout to knockout in my previous post.

It seems like virtually every semi famous HK martial arts film is on YouTube. Maybe that's why recent martial arts DVD selections have been so poor. A lot of films are getting rare and expensive so I'm unlikely to get back into these films in a big way unless I get a streaming service with a large selection.
Though the quality of some DVDs are horrendous. I bought Green Snake last year and made sure to avoid one edition that was said to be missing a huge chunk of the film, seemingly not from editing or censorship but just a major fuckup. But the other available version had a very small screen size and poor quality picture. I didn't like it that much but I guess it wasn't really a martial arts film.

I also have to say that the fandom for martial arts films seems to have seriously dwindled, there should be tv channels devoted to them.

rented a johnnie to dvd from netflix the other weekend (the mission) and the quality was totally laughable. there was text burned into the print that was visible the whole time! and the aspect ratio was totally weird. but I just rolled with it, and tbh, the shoddiness kinda made me nostalgic for when I initially got into hk films and was getting any weird bootleg I could get my hands on.

Can't recall the name of the film but there was a DVD of a 70s film I have with English subtitles, English dubbing and some East Asian subtitles (don't know which language) and it was hilarious how different the English dubbing and subtitles were. Sometimes it was like translations of two different films.

Zu Warriors From The Magic Mountain

I went on a big wuxia kick last year and this was my favourite of the bunch. Such a great mix of schlock and epic.

Yes, I wish there was more like it. I bought quite a few films in search of something similar. There was a film called Maidens Of The Heavenly Mountains that I couldn't make head nor tail of and it wasn't that exciting, but quite pretty.
I'd strongly recommend Buddha's Palm (make sure you get the Shaw film and not the modern tv series), it is kinda similar in style and has a funny character who shouts his own name whenever he enters a scene.

I wouldn't know where to start if I got back into these films. I find a lot of the older ones a bit of a slog (sounds like blasphemy but I found some Bruce Lee films quite boring), I'm not terribly fond of the adventure style films that Jackie Chan often did and a lot of newer films are blandly slick. I guess I should probably go for the King Hu, Tsui Hark and Jackie Chan classics I haven't seen. I'm very fond of Yuen Biao and Sammo Hung so maybe getting more of their highlights would be the best way.

Imdb is really good for going to each martial artist's forums and usually there is a thread for ranking the best films for that actor. Maybe I should look over this thread again.

Just came back from Raid 2 and it probably surpassed my expectations. What surprised me was how much more cartoony this film was with videogame style characters and less realism in general.

I assume there is no further sequel to come?

Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars. This is part of a series (I've always been confused by so many Hong Kong series with similar titles but no numbering, or even lots of unrelated films with similar titles.
This film is like two in one, a crime film but also a beach holiday comedy about a lecherous group of guys. Chan and Biao don't even show up until 30 minutes in. Some of its quite funny, a bit too little fighting but a few scenes are really good but could have done with less camera cuts.

pretty strange contrast since raid 1 is notable for having next to no plot at all. but the director has said the script for raid 2 predated the first one. it's an awkward movie but I basically ended up loving it anyway since it still delivered 100% on what I was watching it for (extremely violent martial arts action)

Raid 2 is amazing. No less than a half-dozen amazing fight sequences plus one absolutely stellar car chase. Plot totally unnecessary but frankly anyone who gives a shit about that probably shouldn't be trusted.

Often I would agree that the plot should be thrown out but in this film it takes up a lot of space (yes maybe a bit too long) and even creates some real suspense.

If you were talking about Drunken Master 2 I'd totally agree. One of the best martial arts films despite the terrible weakness of the non-fight scenes.

I actually thought the plot was pretty good too and the acting was serviceable (for the most part) but even they were both total garbage when there are this many great pieces, I am deeply suspicious of anyone complaining about either one.

Hoping to see Righting Wrongs soon. Supposed to be one of the better Yuen Biao films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GUmBHVK9cQ

She Shoots Straight trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xm2V7r0FKjY

Interesting when it looks like they're not even fighting
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv-O_530Kp8

two words: dirty. ho.

Gonna watch The Raid 2 tonight. I watched the first last night and loved it.

liked that video

Raid 2 is great but it falls into more traditional movie format this time. just a word of forewarning

the best part of seeing The Raid in a theatre was the not knowing it was an MA flick going in and just thinking it would be a foreign gritty cop flick and then seeing the martial arts show up 30 mins in and feeling like I just got a surprise xmas gift

Yeah, the plot wasn't as gripping this time, the spacing between action setpieces more predictable. I like the kind of contained setting that the first movie has. But, you can't have a car chase in a building and that was an amazing scene. Yayan Ruhian steals the show in both.

Now to check out Merantau? It looks like there are some other silat films out there - not sure if they're anything like these ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silat#Film

Some of the main guys in the Raid movies are going to be in Star Wars too.

I have seen the raid 2 but not the raid 1

I thought it was really impressive but the brutality was a little much for me, lol @ me

Some of the main guys in the Raid movies are going to be in Star Wars too.

Yayan was so great in boh film, though it was kind of bizarre to have him play basically the same character

The bad guy in Merantau is the biggest scumbag of a villain I can remember in quite some time.

the raid 2 was... way... too... long. eventually i got kind of numbed.

Yes, but it takes a while to single-handedly kill all the gangsters, and that's really the only way to solve complex undercover anti-corruption cases.

worked for Crockett/Tubbs iirc

xpost

yes, and settled law says you have to take them on one and a time.

one AT a time

tbf there's still a shitload of gangsters alive at the end who are probably ready to take over the city in The Raid 3
but yes I love this movie's attitude that you have to kill EVERYONE to tackle this level of systemic corruption

for an old-school head who used to have to hunt this stuff down in sketchy video stores, the YouTube/download era really is a revelation.

also every time this thread gets bumped I read it as "marital arts movies" and chuckle.

but that's just me, right?

for an old-school head who used to have to hunt this stuff down in sketchy video stores, the YouTube/download era really is a revelation.

been pretty impressed lately watching these remastered digital HD films put out by Shaw Brothers/Celestial on iTunes. just watched Challenge of the Masters the other day, good stuff

also every time this thread gets bumped I read it as "marital arts movies" and chuckle

EASTERN CONDORS

Despite the acclaim, I resisted this one for a while because I wasn't interested in the guns and grenades/military/war stuff, but there is actually a lot of proper martial arts in here too.

Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Joyce Godenzi, Yuen Wah and Lam Ching-Ying (who unfortunately has no fight scenes in this film).

It's all over the place in terms of seriousness/humour, so it was difficult for me to tell what was supposed to be taken seriously, but it never drags the film down because it's pretty fun.
Sammo Hung lost loads of weight because he thought his usual fatness was too funny for this film but that doesn't really make sense because even the death scenes are loaded with jokes.

I found the plot very hard to follow, the whole thing seems extremely unconvincing but even that doesn't really bother me too much because they clearly put so much effort into the action. This is a really ambitious production for Hung, with quite a few things I'm not used to seeing in Hong Kong action films.

The original trailer reveals lots of scenes that were cut from the final film. I really wish they had kept them in because they looked good. But apparently they're gone forever.

see: Heroes of the East
― Nhex, Monday, June 1, 2015

lol touché

omg, Killer Clans was so dope. I mean the last 25 minutes are so clumsy with the 3 million plot twists, but as a pseudo-wuxia it actually works (good dialogue too!). wish the fight sequences lasted longer, but they are fairly bloody which is cool.

also enjoyed Flying Guillotine (not to be confused with "Master of the Flying Guillotine") and "The Avenging Eagle".

Not sure if a lot of the titles are similar on purpose, on the Chinese end or English translation or English re-titling.

Heads up to UK readers who own a television, starting tonight in 2 hours

http://www.film4.com/whats-on/martial-arts-gold-on-film4

From Friday 15th January Film4 brings you Martial Arts gold, a season dedicated to kung fu classics from Hong Kong’s legendary Shaw Brothers studio.

Our season begins with The 36th Chamber of Shaolin and continues for the next three Friday nights, with King Boxer (featuring superstar Lieh Lo), Come Drink with Me (directed by martial arts maestro King Hu) and the original One-Armed Swordsman, from director Cheh Chang. A second season – including Five Deadly Venoms and The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter – will follow in March and April. All films are in their original aspect ratio, and original language with English subtitles.

nice

I missed 36th Chamber but King Boxer was very good. A standard plot, two dimensional characters thoroughly manipulating your emotions through horrible injustice and revenge.

New film The Assassin probably doesn't have enough fighting to be a martial arts film but has anyone seen it? First Chinese wuxia film getting a proper western release in ages, but I doubt it'll do much business.
I'm intrigued because it looks lovely, and without the overly artificial gloss I've become used to from 00s onward wuxia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxkr4wS7XqY

Keep meaning to see King Boxer, definitely on my list.
Saw a preview of Ip Man 3 last week. It was decent. Yuen Woo Ping choreography, so that was good. The villain from The Grandmaster did a really good job in his role. Thankfully the jingoism was minimal this time around, which sort of ruined it the first two for me. All those movies have good production but don't rise to the level of great.

xp oh god karl whyyyyyyyy

keep an eye out for ya, stingray!

xxxp the assassin is dope, there's some talk on the Hou Hsiao-Hsien thread.

Come Drink With Me must be the oldest martial arts film I've seen (1966). Good film, lovely in places, some singing, some surprising brutality but the fights aren't edited very smoothly, I don't know whether this is just the rough early days of complex Hong Kong fight scenes or what King Hu fans would defend as good choices?

The early days of East Asian cinema are sketchy for a lot of casual viewers but I just realised I know nothing about when Hong Kong martial arts films started or found their form. Were female main characters who can fight always there?

Watched on youtube Art Of Action: Martial Arts In The Movies (2002). It's pretty poor overall but it did fill me in on the things I wanted to know most and some of the interviews are interesting.
Samuel L Jackson presents it, there's lots of silly editing and music choices, the camera is right up in Jackson's face most of the time, too much about the western films influenced by Hong Kong.

There's a decent amount of footage of silent martial arts films and stuff up to the 50s, I get the impression they were always popular but it doesn't really say. To be honest, not much of this footage was very dynamic.
It did say that women were mainly the stars until the mid 60s because male actors considered films beneath them, so women were usually playing men. Or were they? From the footage I saw, it didn't look like they were trying to be men. At the start of Come Drink With Me, the main character is bafflingly mistaken for a man (that actress is interviewed here and I had no idea she was the older woman in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon). So it seems that King Hu in the 60s was the main turning point in the genre?
The very biggest directors and actors are discussed. Annoyingly, it never tells you who the people being interviewed are.

Another documentary, Kung Fu Fighting, from the late 90s and its only half an hour but was quite good considering it was a third of the length of the other documentary.
It talks quite a lot about how dangerous it is to make these films. I guess this could be the main reason these films have declined, people are generally less willing to take that kind of risk today, even though that annoys me, I can't really blame them.

In both documentaries, Bruce Lee and Donnie Yen talk a lot about martial arts as self expression. I never completely understood this.

It can be as much self-expression than ballet or wrestling. Many martial arts movies are very much about physical expression of ideas. Have you seen Dirty Ho?

I haven't seen that, but I got the impression they weren't just talking about their performances, but the entire discipline as self expression.

I just watched King Hu's Dragon Inn. It's good in places, it feels like a Kurosawa film to me but far too long and I didn't like it as much as Come Drink With Me.