Recommend Martial Arts Movies

the genre always kinda had limitations in that keeping things "full on Fu, no guns" meant keeping all of the movies to a confined time period, so I kind of enjoyed when the genre branched out to things like Police Story, where there was still fu but modernities as well.

but damned if my favorites aren't literally all Shaw Brothers Gordon Liu flicks lol

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin being my fav

I love wuxia first and fights second tbh

i want my fights to be like a good ballet. just as much fun watching someone acrobatically dodge punches without throwing one as it is him going full-on haymaker. probably why I like Liu so much.

looking for a way to stream "Special ID," I found it on free-with-ads Tubi, which appears to have a pretty deep catalog of martial arts movies, maybe more than Netflix, Prime, etc. ... are other free streaming services similar?

I mean I do like lots of 70s stuff, it's just that there's so much that's routine/pretty good but can't get enthusiastic about. I feel like a lot of kung fu comedies have a weak first act and redeem themselves by the end. Most of my favorite stuff is 80s to early 90s. Despite my strong fondness for period costume/countryside stuff I often somehow prefer the urban films.

I also don't care much for the gritty crime trend of the modern stuff, but... if that was in the early 90s there's a good chance I'd love it, there'd be tons of nice blue lighting at least. Like Crime Story with Jackie Chan.

And the scene is so much bigger than Hong Kong/Taiwan now.

Think the gritty crime stuff is on its way out too, no? Huge in the late 80's/early 90's with John Woo and Ringo Lam, kept alive by Johnnie To and the Milkyway guys but there's only so much grit you can create under a Chinese Hays Code.

I love Johnnie To but tbf most of his stuff/the gritty crime genre has barely has martial arts at all by the '00s.
I don't think there's any shortage of gritty HK crime though - seems to be a new one on Netflix or Hulu every month. Human trafficking/Taken type stuff, etc. Louis Koo still getting a lot of work!

As a kid I was turned off by kung fu comedies and Jackie Chan - seemed so uncool compared to the Shaw's bloody revenge sagas - but as I got older I gain a new appreciation for them and in particular Jackie's death-defying choreography and stunts

RAG, agreed. but with so many options/streaming networks it's tough to figure out the good ones! Hell, I think there's a half dozen Uko Iwais films that came out after The Raid that I need to get around to

Can very much recommend 'The Night Comes For Us' if Iwais/Raid type stuff is your thing. Brutal and unrelenting.

Despite continuing with vinyl/cd, I barely buy any physical film media anymore and it's frustrating how much of the Chinese/Hong Kong stuff is missing from streaming services.

I watched the trailers for Wu Assassins tv series and the movie sequel Fistful Of Vengeance and just wasn't attracted but they have Uko Iwais and Juju Chan. Anyone seen them? Or Jiu Jitsu?

I repped for The Night Comes For Us when I saw it a couple of years back - brutal and brilliant, and I'd love more new martial arts films in that vein

I do wonder how much learning different job skills there is these days, like how so many notable people in the 70s-90s done quite a few jobs in front and behind the camera. Even Lo Lieh, Gorldon Liu and Yuen Biao directed a bunch of films.

There's a limited bonus disc on Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon with the documentary I Am The White Tiger about Mark Houghton. I've been thinking about it a lot, never knew anything about him previously but he became the disciple of Lau Kar-Leung and teaches his daughter alongside his own daughter Charlene Houghton. He made a promise to Lau to continue the teachings and keep the film business going. He also talks about times people have tried to kill him.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2KVlN0UIyE

I'm always caving in and spending too long on twitter but it amazes me just how many great looking action films were coming out from Hong Kong and Japan in the 90s that I've never heard of that fans tweet about. Takashi Ishii died recently and I never really knew anything about him and never saw any of his films but they look lovely.

Just watched Joseph Kuo's The Old Master, which is almost charmingly shoddy and unglamorous looking, the total opposite of modern polished martial arts films. The lead actor uses a fighting double for the majority of the fights and it's as awkwardly done as you'd imagine. I think it's the only film in the Cinematic Vengeance box which is set in modern day (unless the Shaolin films surprise me).

I'm not sure if I remarked before about how in the Chang Cheh films Crippled Avengers and Brave Archer, someone gets their eyes gouged out but the actors still show their clearly intact open eyes for the rest of the film, so we're pretty much asked to ignore it. It's not easy to work around for fast and complex fight scenes but nothing is done to disguise it at all.

Watched another Joseph Kuo film Shaolin Kung Fu (title is both utterly generic and really doesn't fit much of the film). I'm not sure what to think of how people use the word "manipulative" to describe art or films that make me really angry at cartoon villains, but this one goes all-in to push your buttons by showing total scumbags preying on the weak and so much horrible injustice that the ending feels not nearly brutal enough. The martial arts aren't particularly fancy but it kept up the tension, I was sweating.

Hero (1997) - Corey Yuen's remake of Boxer From Shantung is fun and extremely over the top, but it's a bit messy and sometimes it looks like it was edited by a child. Might be the first time I liked a martial arts film much better than the person writing the sleeve notes.

Hah, that's funny. Still a solid movie though and a decent update of the original film. They took out the grimier stuff towards the end of Boxer

Just saw King Hu's Raining In The Mountain on MUBI and it ruled.

Currently luxuriating in the Sammo Hung oeuvre and loving every ridiculous, incorrect and hilarious minute of what I’ve seen.

I recommend “Dragons Forever” if only for the amazing final fight. Jackie Chan’s great in this as a kung fu lawyer, btw. And a great, goofy villain.

*Plus there’s a killer goofy villain.

Ned - have you seen Legend Of The Mountain? I think that's even better but it probably has even less martial arts. I don't think either has that much though.

Jay Vee - I'm really pleased how much of Hung's films were prioritized on bluray early on, Moon Warriors still hasn't come yet but it's one I often forget is directed by him. Don't know how many notable films there are left by him.

Ned - have you seen Legend Of The Mountain?

Yup, some while back.

The fight in Hero (1997) on top of the hilariously fake horse is great too but there's moments where I thought they were using a real horse but I didn't scrutinize it much.

I finished that Cinematic Vengeance: Joseph Kuo set last week. The last 3 films are very much like Shaw Brothers films. My favorite of the bunch is still 7 Grandmasters and I preferred the ones like that that were set out in the countryside more often. Did people not shoot in the grass more often because of bugs or something? Because all the grassy fields of these countries seem underutilized.

Location is just more expensive and difficult I think, I agree that it looks great when it's used

Those King Hu epics being a case in point

That Master Rocking character in The Odd Couple is a lot of silly fun.

I'm sure I queried about villains as protagonists before and Return Of The 18 Bronzemen is such a film. Although he is a despicable ruler, his shaolin training is maybe the one area where the story asks your sympathies.

https://cityonfire.com/the-boxers-omen-blu-ray-arrow/
all 14 titles plus features announced for Shawscope 2.

I really don't know how to pace these box sets because the sight of them nags at me until I finish them but more than ever I'm craving variety so I don't like to binge martial arts films as much as I did, one every week is getting too much for me. I don't know all these films but it seems like Boxer's Omen is the most offbeat choice? Finally going to see the 36th Chamber films, they've been a notable gap for me.

Any quick way to find out how many lead roles Kara Wai has had in martial arts films? I think Chi Kuan-Chun has only one?

Legendary Weapons Of China is a good time, Kar-Leung and Kar-Wing have a long fight and the secret weapons are fun, I love 3 section weapons

I feel like I just watched that one in the last year. any HK film taht focuses on the weapons is always great

The big fight in the toilet water was a surprise

Been seeing clips from Mismatched Couples floating around. Never seen anything more than clips
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j9yWnwIEoY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bnRKEPJBXA

Dismayed to find the Tiger Cage trilogy has sold out super fast and I have to pay a bit extra now. Iceman Cometh is selling really fast now on pre-orders so get it if you haven't seen it, it's a favorite of mine but I'm not in a hurry for an upgraded version. But I pre-ordered On The Run, Righting Wrongs and Ebola Syndrome just to be safe. Magnificent Warriors (Michelle Yeoh) coming in a few months.

Why is Lau Kar-Leung so insistent with giving Gordon Liu terrible ear injuries?

Still hoping Tiger Cage Trilogy gets a US release

Nice seeing this getting thousands of retweets, bring on the blurays please

Was there ever a better time than 80s/90s Hong Kong cinema for women action stars? pic.twitter.com/AAQ8RVHOJd

— One Perfect HEADshot (@HeadExposure) August 31, 2022

On a tangent all these posts about Hong Kong reminded me of:
https://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.com/

But sadly it seems to have closed. It was written by a chap called Philip Edward Kenny. He seems to have turned it off in late 2021. I wonder what happened. It's still available via the internet archive, which is great because the world needs to know where Bloodsport was filmed:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211028080108/https://hongkongandmacaufilmstuff.blogspot.com/search/label/Bloodsport

It originally had a .hk extension so perhaps he moved out of Hong Kong, or got bored, or someone got fed up with him posting screengrabs. It was a fascinating thing although Hong Kong is in a process of continual physical transformation so a lot of the locations no longer exist. It does highlight the fact that Hong Kong is an incredibly versatile physical location.

As I've said before, I'm not much a fan of Venoms-era Chang Cheh but it's funny seeing a guy fight on after a giant spear shot through his body and there's the most ejaculation resembling splash of blood I've ever seen on screen.

Like Legendary Weapons Of China, Shaolin Mantis his some really surprising twists it seems to be part of an era when Lau Kar-Leung was very focused on family stories. The mantis scenes much like Jackie Chan watching the cat in Snake In The Eagle's Shadow. Does David Chiang remind anyone else of Donnie Yen?

It's hard for me to shake his romantic lead image, even though I know and have seen his action films

Have you seen him as a romantic lead?

Forgot to name the Chang Cheh film: Flag Of Iron.

I love Flag of Iron! I watched it on an Amtrak once and I think the kids behind me may have inadvertently seen the decapitation scene that I didn't know was coming.

xp mostly from trailers and posters. did not appeal to me

Chiang and Fu Sheng taken a while to grow on me.

I feel like there's something of the spirit of saturday morning cartoons about the Venoms films.

Dead And The Deadly announced by Eureka.

Martial Club was fun, especially the narrowing walls sequence and how the opponent's main agenda is just pure martial arts appreciation.

Was enjoying the Flying Guillotine 2 music and realized quickly it was just stolen from the Daimajin series! I think it's much better than what I remember of the first Flying Guillotine.

Oh, hey has "Holy Flame Of The Martial World" ever been mentioned here? because...wow!!!

Yeah I like it, that's the one with the laughing powers and rolled up ears?

yes that's the one!

xp Big fan of Martial Club - I think that's the only movie I've seen where Johnny Wang Lung-wei isn't a straight-up moustache twirling villain. Great character and final fight.

and yup, Holy Flame is super bonkers