Recommend some good Martial Arts films

G-Money · 30-08-2011 9:41pm #1

I'm interested in watching some good martial arts/ninja films but I'm a little out of touch with recent releases.

I guess I like the more mainstream Hollywood (english language) releases than the Hero/House of Flying Daggers style films. While they are nice, I guess I prefer a more "western" feel.

Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, just looking for some good films to watch.

Thanks!

Glico Man · 30-08-2011 9:55pm

Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon?

Or I'd recommend the Tony Jaa collection - Ong Bak 1,2,3 and Warrior King. While the plot and story aren't all that special, the martial arts and fight scenes are brutal and very impressive. Good way to pass an evening.

EDIT - This is the trailer for the first Ong Bak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAYUv9wjV48

Cavehill Red · 30-08-2011 9:58pm

Ip Man - a Hong Kong biopic about Bruce Lee's master. Absolutely superb piece of film.

Edit: Here's a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJxXQ7xojE

Scealta_saol · 30-08-2011 10:01pm

Fearless is quite good (but serious)

Unleashed has some of the best fight scenes in a martial arts film. And the plot is excellent. To quote friends of mine "it's freaking awesome"

hidinginthebush · 30-08-2011 10:03pm

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Ip Man - a Hong Kong biopic about Bruce Lee's master. Absolutely superb piece of film.

Edit: Here's a trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AJxXQ7xojE

FYP

+1 on Ong Bak and Fearless!

I'd recommend Drunken Master with Jackie Chan or the Magnificent Butcher with Samo Hung. Both are old and Chinese, but feature some of the best fight scenes I've ever come across. Anything with Samo is actually worth the watch.

Kung Fu Hustle is also very enjoyable and light hearted!

Cavehill Red · 30-08-2011 10:10pm

hidinginthebush wrote: »

FYP

3 minutes after I already fixed it myself. Your moves are slow! ;-)

Pride Fighter · 31-08-2011 5:20am

G-Money wrote: »

I'm interested in watching some good martial arts/ninja films but I'm a little out of touch with recent releases.

I guess I like the more mainstream Hollywood (english language) releases than the Hero/House of Flying Daggers style films. While they are nice, I guess I prefer a more "western" feel.

Sorry if this sounds a bit vague, just looking for some good films to watch.

Thanks!

With the bit in bold in mind I am going to completely avoid Asian martial arts films. I'd recommend the following.

Enter the Dragon, Kickboxer, Bloodsport, Drive (starring Mark Dacascos), Crying Freeman (starring Mark Dacascos), Rapid Fire, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Best of the Best, Best of the Best 2, Karate Kid series:o , An Eye for an Eye, China O'Brien, The One, Timecop, The Expert.

There are many more, but they cannot come to me at the moment. I tried to give you the more mainstream ones, there is a whole host of B movies in the martial arts genre, some amazingly good, most amazingly bad. Start off with Showdown in Little Tokyo, its not a long film and has Tia Carrere from Relic Hunter/Waynes World, Brandon Lee and Dolph Lundgren. It's great fun.

fitz · 31-08-2011 7:19am

13 Assassins for some samurai awesomeness.

Otis Driftwood · 31-08-2011 7:28am

Id recommend the Lone Wolf and Cub series.6 movies from the 70s Japan.Lots of blood letting,some great action scenes and not a bad movie in the lot.The first 2 were originally cut in half,spliced together and released as Shogun Assassin.Worth checking out imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m848QZ-0C-U

G-Money · 31-08-2011 7:59am

Thanks for the suggestions so far.

I've already seen quite a few of those films, Enter the Dragon I nearly know line for line, Ong-Bak, Timecop, Bloodsport, Kickboxer, Showdown in little Tokyo, most of Bruce Lee's films, Kiss of the Dragon.

I have Fearless on DVD but haven't watched it yet.

I guess what got me started is that I was thinking of the Matrix and the Matrix Reloaded and I love the fighting in those films, especially Reloaded. So I was thinking of modern western style mainstream films that had more of that.

Renn · 31-08-2011 8:26am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvkpuTRQbGs

G-Money · 31-08-2011 8:42am

That IP Man film looks good.

Skerries · 31-08-2011 8:43am

a great martial art movie with some of the best fight scenes in any modern film is Universal Soldier: Regeneration

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtfrY5mWCkw

Cravez · 31-08-2011 8:47am

Watched IP Man there on Sunday, really good martial arts film.

Frank Bullitt · 31-08-2011 8:49am

Ninja Terminator, accept nothing else.

abouttobebanned · 31-08-2011 8:52am

No retreat, no surrender

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRk5AVF7vXA

GarH · 31-08-2011 12:28pm

You should watch the "Once Upon a Time in China" trilogy with Jet Li.
Best martial arts action ever.
Or anything with Jet Li. His movies are more fluid than the rigid looking fights of early Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao.
But dont let me put you off these actors. their films are still brilliant.

G-Money · 31-08-2011 1:42pm

I have the Once Upon a Time in China trilogy but to be honest the time I went to watch it, it was putting me to sleep

weemcd · 31-08-2011 4:47pm

Best of the Best & Best of the Best 2

ziedth · 31-08-2011 4:51pm

I'll second Warrior King and Ong Bak. Two absolute classics. Stories are Shíte at best but the action more then makes up for it.

Edit: Just saw your follow up post. I'll get back to you

ziedth · 31-08-2011 4:54pm

Never back down is more MMA and it's a little **** but I enjoyed it for what it was.

GarH · 31-08-2011 5:04pm

How about....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xX4td1XCkP0

glimmerman123 · 31-08-2011 5:08pm

Fist of Legend with Jet Lee fight scenes are brilliant. Mission of Justice and Martial Law With Jeff Wyncott. These movies are from the nineties and would be classed as B movies but the fight scenes are good.

nix · 31-08-2011 6:21pm

Can't go wrong with Donnie Yen, which reminds me, i need to get the finger out and watch IP man... Is the 2nd worth a look too anybody know?

Also does anybody know when this is released?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AARG8e8wNM

Also Kung fu hustle is awesome, its OTT kung fu with quirky cgi humor, great laugh and a sequel on the way..

BopNiblets · 31-08-2011 6:33pm

Black Dynamite!
/thread

sonic85 · 31-08-2011 8:59pm

the legend of drunken master is a great movie. brilliant fight scenes

Lamper.sffc · 01-09-2011 3:51pm

Equilibrium was good fun. Matrix in spirit but with a much smaller budget.

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

Im guessing you have watched Blade 1 and 2 and also V for Vendetta. Good choices for a more western feel.

Its quite hard to put up a list of martial arts movies without mentioning some asian ones. Hope these suite and you hav nt seen too many of them. All these are entertaining martial arts flicks imo.

Chocalate. Along the same lines as Ong Bak but with a Girl. The end fight is great and while the story is very basic, the action keeps you entertained.

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

SPL

Good cop/kunfu film. Again with a great finish.

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

City of Violence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o5KxvuEftM

Arahan. A bit of a comedy/fantasy/martial arts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNVrNDg3EOw

Dragon Tiger Gate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0qPUiPPgQc

Not sure if you would be into Animation but these have some decent action both fighting with and without guns. Lot of slow mo similar to the matrix.

Applseed, Appleseed Ex Machina and Final Fantasy 7 (Advent Children)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ilZlS6rbuQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZkag7M_i5A

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

G-Money · 01-09-2011 8:13pm

I haven't checked out all the suggestions yet but IP Man still looks one of the best

Kess73 · 02-09-2011 12:37pm

nix wrote: »

Can't go wrong with Donnie Yen, which reminds me, i need to get the finger out and watch IP man... Is the 2nd worth a look too anybody know?Also does anybody know when this is released?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AARG8e8wNM

Also Kung fu hustle is awesome, its OTT kung fu with quirky cgi humor, great laugh and a sequel on the way..

Nowhere near as good as the first film, but still well worth a watch.

Killzone is another very entertaining Donnie Yen film, with the always excellent Sammo Hung as the villain. A bit obvious in terms of plot, but the fight scenes and the ease at which the leads carry their roles makes for a good watch.

Zapp Brannigan · 03-09-2011 5:21pm

Watched Ip Man last night. Awesome stuff. The

1v10 fight was pretty gruesome

Mickeroo · 03-09-2011 5:29pm

BopNiblets wrote: »

Black Dynamite!
/thread

If anyone wants to see Michael Jai White(Black Dynamite hisself) break some people then watch Blood and Bone for some awesome straight to DVD bad assery. He's also in Undispued 2 which I've heard is decent aswell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5zwiWqtKIE

MagicMarker · 03-09-2011 5:31pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5zwiWqtKIE

If you watch the trailer, then you've pretty much seen the movie, but there's some great martial arts in it none the less!!

Edit: SNAP!

G-Money · 09-09-2011 9:38am

Turns out I already had both Fearless and Unleashed on DVD, came as a twin pack. I liked them both and had watched them before but had forgotten about it. I liked Unleashed better, possibly because it had more of a storyline I could follow and didn't have to rely on subtitles.

I must keep an eye out for more Jet Li films. I have Kiss of the Dragon on DVD that I might watch this evening.

nix · 09-09-2011 1:54pm

I watched IP Man, probably now my fav kung fu movie, seriously awesome fighting..

MagicMarker · 09-09-2011 5:07pm

nix wrote: »

I watched IP Man, probably now my fav kung fu movie, seriously awesome fighting..

If that's your fave kung fu movie then you must have never seen The Legend of Drunken Master.

Hank_Jones · 09-09-2011 8:51pm

The Streetfighter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMAtZtEx3hI

nix · 09-09-2011 11:57pm

Watched IP man 2 tonight, great flick!

Also watched the movie i highlighted earlier in the thread, Legend of the fist: the return of Chen Zhen, it was a dubbed version, i hate dubbed voices but it was complete pile of crap anyway. Fighting was ok but sparse and the story was muck and the scenes were poorly edited, i was left confused and highly disappointed..

Ridley · 10-09-2011 12:16am

G-Money wrote: »

I must keep an eye out for more Jet Li films.

The One and The Forbidden Kingdom are both Jet Li and western movies.

By no means classics but they're good fun in my opinion.

nix · 26-09-2011 12:57am

Got around to watching the The legend of the drunken master tonight, couldnt stop laughing at any fight scene where jackie was drunk and doing his drunken boxing.. Great movie altogether.

Also watched True legend and Dragon tiger gate, True legend is a must see for anybody who likes martial arts movies, OTT fighting, but loved it..

Dragon tiger gate has some good fighting but the story is pretty weak..

Anybody got any other kung fu recommendations?

Mickeroo · 26-09-2011 7:33am

nix wrote: »

Got around to watching the The legend of the drunken master tonight, couldnt stop laughing at any fight scene where jackie was drunk and doing his drunken boxing.. Great movie altogether.

Also watched True legend and Dragon tiger gate, True legend is a must see for anybody who likes martial arts movies, OTT fighting, but loved it..

Dragon tiger gate has some good fighting but the story is pretty weak..

Anybody got any other kung fu recommendations?

Magnificent Butcher starring Sammo Hung is worth a look!! He sure can move for a fat guy

G-Money · 20-11-2011 4:04pm

Just finished watching IP Man. It was quite good I thought.

Icaras · 20-11-2011 8:22pm

i liked Zatoichi, not a massive amount of fights but when they happen they are good.

Whiskey in the Jar · 22-11-2011 1:43pm

Fearless - the story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910) playd by Jet Li, awesome movie

Phony Scott · 26-11-2011 11:52pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt4LBY_PLoI

'Chocolate' is excellent in the martial arts department. Prachya Pinkaew directed it, he of 'Ong Bak' and 'Warrior King' fame, and though this is tamer in its brutality, the action is still top-notch.

27-11-2011 11:46pm

Some of my personal favourites are The 36th chamber of Shaolin, Master of the flying guillotine, Ninja in the dragons den and Iron Monkey. Five deadly venoms is also pretty darn good!