Martial Arts movies

abetarrush

I'm lookin for some good MA movies t watch

Not mad into the chinese movies that are Crouchin Tiger-style [even though CTHD was good]

More along the lines of Kill Bill, Blade etc


CheerZ

Karl Hungus

I know what you mean there. I find the over stylised and balletic fights of a lot of Chinese movies a bit contrived, and ultimately rather dull as of late.

If you like the more comic book style of Kill Bill and Blade, I'd say check out Azumi. There's a certain flair that Ryuhei Kitamura has for action, I think it's exactly what you'd be after. Lady Snowblood is something you really should see if you Kill Bill, it's the film that really inspired Tarantino a lot. He really payed a lot of homage to it, in the way that only Tarantino can, if you know what I mean. It's a bit dated, but well worth seeing.

More of a historical epic, but Korean film The Warrior is well worth a look in for some extremely good fight scenes.

Bit of a wierd one, but I have to say it's one of my favourite films, Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi is a masterpiece. Much more period drama than action, but it's just fantastic, from the characters, storyline, acting, and indeed some great swordplay. If you like that, then you could check out some of the older Zatoichi films, there's tonnes of them, he's like the Japanese James Bond in that sense.

So I don't know if you might like some of the Samurai films, but if that tickles your fancy, then you must see the classics like Yojimbo and Sanjuro.

Anyway, hope that does it for now. I could probably recommend a load more, but you've probably got enough on your hands with that lot.

RAIN

Zatochi is one of my favorite movies of all time !!! superb , twin dragons (jackie chan) has a crap story but superb fight scenes recently id recomend warrior king as the best iv seen this year ..... or hero is worth a look even if it is a bit crouching tigery

Lex Luthor

anything by Jet Li....he makes Bruce Lee look like an amateur....

by the way, I think Bruce Lee is God

Karl Hungus

Lex Luthor wrote:

anything by Jet Li....he makes Bruce Lee look like an amateur....

by the way, I think Bruce Lee is God

Therefor... God is an amateur?

Of course!

monkeyfudge

Early Jet Li stuff like Once Upon a Time in China and The Heroic Legend of Fong Sai Yuk are brilliant.

Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain is another one worth picking up.

Oh and Mr.Vampire beacuse it's really funny and has great fight scenes in it as well.

kawaii

Some of my faves (random order)

A Touch of Zen
Fist of Fury
Master of the Flying Guillotine (-madness)
Zatoichi
The Street Fighter(!!!)
Return of the Street Fighter(!!)
Way of the Dragon (Bruce Lee v Chuck Norris)
City Hunter (My fave Jackie Chan so far)

also I hear Ong-Bak is supposed to be very good. Shall Be checking that one soon...

abetarrush

I aint too mad about Bruce Lee

kawaii wrote:

Some of my faves (random order)

A Touch of Zen
Fist of Fury
Master of the Flying Guillotine (-madness)
Zatoichi
The Street Fighter(!!!)
Return of the Street Fighter(!!)
Way of the Dragon (Bruce Lee v Chuck Norris)
City Hunter (My fave Jackie Chan so far)

also I hear Ong-Bak is supposed to be very good. Shall Be checking that one soon...

I heard Ong Bak was sh!t, but that Warrior was deadly

Karl Hungus wrote:

lol! I ordered Azumi 1 and 2 last night, and Lady Snowblood on Screenclick. I agree, i hate the over stylised crap, esp when they say their moves like FLYING SHADOW KICK, and theres never any blood. My friend loves chinese movies and i said the Japs were better, then he was gobsmacked when i showed him Princess Blade

kawaii

I saw the warrior. It was pretty good. Better than that goddamned Bichunmoo anyways. Silly, silly stuff.

Korea!

kawaii

hint

Lotsa gems in that list.

Necronomicon

If you liked Ong Bak you should check out Born To Fight, same producers. Not a patch on OB, but pretty decent flick.

Brotherhood Of The Wolf and Crying Freeman are two of my favourites, although they have a lot more about them than just martial arts.
Drive is another good movie, thoroughly enjoyable watch. (I'm not just trying to pimp Mark Dacascos films, honest )

Fuzzy_Dunlop

I would recommend Ong Bak, it takes a while to get going and some of the fights are quite repetitive

knees and elbows everywhere!:)

, still very entertaining

Lex Luthor wrote:

anything by Jet Li....he makes Bruce Lee look like an amateur....

by the way, I think Bruce Lee is God

I would agree that a lot of Jet lis movies are good, i liked Kiss of the Dragon myself for one of the newer ones, but some of them contain a lot of awful crap cheesy humour, Meltdown immediately springs to mind

LundiMardi

Gorgeous - Jackie Chan - Again, it's an awful awful film, but the fight scenes are just some of the best i have ever EVER seen!!!

Also, Ong Bak is class,

When he eventually decides to fight and takes yer man out with one kick is SLICK!!

Operation Condor - Jackie Chan - Great film, one of Jackie's best imo.

Bloodsport:) Legendary film heh heh, even if it is van damage!

spacecoyote

without a doubt check out zatoichi if you liked Kill Bill, its a samurai movie done exactly how a samurai movie should be done!

Also check out Shogun Assassin, again samurai's. Its excellent, a bit more hammy, but essentially its a mash-up of all the best bits from a serious of movies called "The Babycart..." movies. Very entertaining and some brilliant lines!

Ong-Bak and Born to Fight are both a good watch. What i liked about Ong-bak is the fact that the hits in it look quite painful. I would probably class Born to Fight as more of a stunt movie and its very entertaining.

For pure stupidity I'd have to recommend to everyone "The Story of Ricki" aka "Riki-Oh". Its one of the most hilarious & gratuitously (sp?) violent kung-fu movies i've ever scene. Definitely one to watch with the lads and a few beers!

I saw Kitamura mentioned above. If you like Kill Bill then i'm sure you'll like Azumi as there is plenty of good swordplay. Also check out another of his movies called "Versus" if you like blade. Best way I could describe it is Gunfight-Swordfight-Zombie-Action movie. Same kinda thing as blade with the techno soundtrack, but not quite as slick production.

The likes of Yojimbo & Seven Samurai are obvious classics. I have to agree with "The Warrior"/"Bichunmoo" comment. I had high hopes for Bichun from the story outline but it fell way short of my expectation. The Warrior is definitely worth a look though.

And Jet Li does not make Bruce look like an amateur. Li is essentially a circus performer. He's excellent at what he does, but just imagine someone with the speed & physique of Lee working in the modern era!!!

abetarrush

I have Versus ages, its savage!


And Azumi 1 & 2 are finally on their way in the post

And yeah, Love Li, not too mad on Bruce

Unleashed was d shiznit

Cheers everyone!

RAIN

Versus is tripe

Rcuomo

alot of what you guys are mentioning aren't martial arts films - seven samurai, yojimbo?

you should check out a chinese martial artist/actor called yuen biao. His early films are great. he's probably the most acrobatic martial artist ever (yes more then jackie chan - they grew up together) One of the best is the Prodigal son (you can rent it in that place near the top of george's st. in dublin) Also Knockabout is great too.
as for jet li, im a big fan, he has some great films - fist of legend, once upon a time in china I&II, fong sai yuk, ta chi master, his new one fearless is pretty good too - not ballet-like at all, quite violent fights actually.

donnie yen has also done a few good ones. Iron monkey is first that springs to mind.

i'd say jackie chan's best one is Drunken master II. drunken master, dragons forever, police story 1,2,3 (with michelle yeoh) are also great.

you know that fat guy sammo hung? he used to be in a t.v series called martial law on sky one? well he's directed and starred in some great martial arts films. He directed some i mentioned above, the prodigal son and knockabout. Check out 'magnificent butcher', and 'warriors' two also. some of the comedy is lame but the fights are always great.

let us know what ya think.

spacecoyote

Rcuomo wrote:

alot of what you guys are mentioning aren't martial arts films - seven samurai, yojimbo?

I know you couldn't necessarily class them as martial arts, but the OP said he didn;t want crouching tiger style movies, more stuff like kill bill, etc...(which couldn't really be classed as martial arts, more a samurai revenge flick, and as such i think they are suitable recommendations!)

Agree with Donnie Yen and Yuen Biao, both class martial artists as well as great fight choreographers!!! Iron Monkey (apart from the few too obviously sped up sequencs) is definitely worth a look.

WOuld say to check out Brotherhood of the Wolf (mentioned above), kind of martial arts meets gothic creature feature & is very entertaining stuff!

abetarrush

Rcuomo wrote:

alot of what you guys are mentioning aren't martial arts films - seven samurai, yojimbo?

Samurai is martial art [Kenjitsu (Sp?)] But I see where your comin from

monkeyfudge

I remember seeing a John Woo swordplay movie many years ago... it was the usual John Woo stuff with men respecting each other a 'little bit too much' but had some great fight scense in it, lots of fast paced sword battles.

Just found it on IMDb:

Last Hurrah for Chivalry

the_syco

I thought Hardboiled was good.