Martial arts movies aren't usually known for their gripping stories, but a rare few of them can break the mold of the genre with genuinely fantastic narratives alongside gripping action. For the most part, martial arts movies are given a lot of leeway when it comes to their stories, with gripping hand-to-hand fight scenes being the primary draw for audiences of the genre. That being said, some of the best fight scenes in martial arts movie history come from films with brilliant narratives that compliment the action.

Martial arts movies with earnestly great stories come in multiple varieties. Often, the period setting of martial arts films allows for some fascinating political and cultural drama sprouting from the relevant movements or historical events of the time they take place in. In other cases, lovingly choreographed action is used as an emotional vessel for two characters to hash out their relationship, mirroring the intimacy of other areas in life with the intimacy of combat.

1. House of Flying Daggers
2. Everything Everywhere All At Once
3. Drunken Master II
4. The Prodigal Son
5. Come Drink With Me
6. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
7. Dragon Inn
8. Ip Man
9. Five Deadly Venoms
10. Last Hurrah For Chivalry2

This is a pretty horrible movie in terms of acting, plot, realism, special effects, etc. The one redeeming value is the following. Apparently it was made with the support of the local chapter of the Japan Karate Association, a "traditional" shotokan karate organization known for the rigor and quality-control of its training. So every once in a while you'll see people doing karate moves that clearly demonstrate they've spent years of practice on them.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/14991177

A famous martial artist, Steve Hunt, travels to the desert for what he thinks is an Olympic-style competition. The competition turns out to be a trap set by Baron von Rudloff, an ex-Nazi general who is still bitter over the humiliating defeat of his martial arts team

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_or_Be_Killed_(1976_film)

It has a sequel, you know....

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVHFcQlOiM0 - this film, "Kill or Be Killed"
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5hwo2Cu6Sg - the sequel, "Kill and Kill Again"

Blazing fast combat. Pronounced tension between tradition and modernity. Sound effects so intense that several foley artists probably died of exhaustion. A fight to inherit a famous martial arts academy, galvanized by a mutual obsession over the late master’s unbeatable secret technique. “100 Yards” is nothing if not a classic martial arts movie, and yet this bruising story about turn-of-the-century Tianjin — co-directed by Xu Haofeng, who previously scripted Wong Kar Wai’s “The Grandmaster” — has been shot and staged with such radical elegance that it seems less like a throwback than it does the pursuit of a new form. It’s a form this film is only able to achieve at the cost of its soul, as Xu and his brother Xu Junfeng struggle to sustain any of what makes their initial premise so compelling, but the moments when “100 Yards” lands its blows are exhilarating in a way that makes the movie feel miles removed from most of its competition.

Trailer

IMDb

Tony Jaa (Expend4bles) is back with a vengeance in the action thriller Striking Rescue!

This film came out of nowhere with no details besides the fact that it co-stars fellow martial arts star Xing Yu (Flashpoint).

Striking Rescue is set to premiere on the Chinese streaming service Youku on November 8th.

Trailer

If you want more excitable coverage try: Tony Jaa is Back ONG BAK Old School Body Obliterating Style in the New & Insane Actioner STRIKING RESCUE!

In a career that has spanned seven decades, Hong Kong action movie legend Sammo Hung has seen a lot, and moreover, his body has been through a lot. So it wasn’t a surprise to see the 72-year-old use a cane as he took the stage for a masterclass session at the Tokyo International Film Festival. But as he captivated an appreciative audience, the confidence and humor that have seen Hung through his illustrious career in martial arts movies shone bright.

Born into a showbiz family, Hung’s career began as a child actor while at the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera school in Hong Kong. He made his film debut in the early 1960s, aged nine. A slightly grainy, black and white clip of the film showed a fresh-faced boy Hung, to coos from his assembled admirers. “Training at the school was very severe. We learned all the fundamental movements. By the time you’ve graduated, you can do nearly any move,” said Hung.

One of his big breaks came when he fought Bruce Lee in the opening scene of 1973’s seminal Enter the Dragon. Lee’s death that year left Game of Death unfinished, and in 1978, Hung was charged with the fight choreography for the reshoots.

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In his 1977 directorial debut The Iron-Fisted Monk, in which he also starred, Hung incorporated more of the comedy touches he had noticed audiences reacting well to in previous films. It helped kick off a trend for comedy kung fu flicks, made famous by rival and collaborator Jackie Chan in classics such as Drunken Master. “And Hong Kong films at that time were mostly in Mandarin, but we used Cantonese [for The Iron-Fisted Monk], and from then on decided to do all our films in Cantonese,” said Hung.

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Hung was also instrumental in creating the jiangshi genre of horror kung fu in the 1980s, inspired by his childhood love of ghosts and monsters. “I was always thinking about new elements that I could add to my action movies,” he said. “I barely took any time off during that golden era of Hong Kong cinema. I was still young and could go at that pace. Making movies was preferable to resting.”

While the 1990s didn’t see Hung reach the heights of previous decades at home, he starred in two seasons of CBS’s Martial Law from 1998 to 2000, making him a rare East Asian lead on a U.S. broadcast network show. Co-starring with Arsenio Hall, the show was a surprise hit, despite Hung’s dialogue being limited by his English ability.

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Next up was a clip of the iconic table-top fight scene between Hung and Donnie Yen in Ip Man 2 (2010). Hung was asked if it was difficult to shoot the combat sequence with the athletic Yen, known for his martial prowess and training across multiple disciplines.

“It wasn’t hard work with Donnie, he’s very skillful, and I’m also very skillful. We could do a lot of those in one take. Donnie is incredible, but I’m even more incredible,” smiled Hung, to laughter and applause from the audience.

Here is the Sammo Hung Masterclass from the Tokyo International Film Festival (no English subs)

Despite only having a short stint as a kung fu movie star, Bruce Lee had a tremendous impact on the genre, one that steered the direction of so many Hong Kong movie studios for years. For filmmakers, there was obviously a lot to learn from Bruce Lee's martial arts movies, but some did more than just take inspiration from the fighting in his films; a sizable number copied them directly through a strategy now commonly known as Bruceploitation.

Movies associated with the Bruceploitation era typically starred actors with stage names similar to Bruce Lee's, so much that the difference sometimes only came down to the spelling. This approach also extended to the stars' physical appearances, as several of these actors were cast based on their resemblances to Lee. Unsurprisingly, this unapologetic effort to capitalize on Bruce Lee's popularity certainly received its share of scrutiny. However, that's not to say that Bruceploitation movies weren't entertaining.

1. The Three Avengers
2. Golden Dragon, Silver Snake
3. Clones of Bruce Lee
4. Challenge of the Tiger
5. The Dragon's Snake Fist
6. Bruce's Deadly Fingers
7. Fist of Fury II
8. Enter The Invincible Hero
9. Bruce Lee's Secret
10. New Fist of Fury

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/19139649

Sammo Hung is a legend in martial arts and kung fu cinema, playing many different roles as an actor and also producing, directing, and choreographing fight sequences, setting the trend on many aspects of the genre overall. He was a pivotal figure in the Hong Kong New Wave movement, creating some of the best kung fu films of the 1980s, popularizing the kung fu genre to a larger, international audience with his focus on clever stories, dramatic narratives, and more Western-style action and special effects, as well as other technical aspects, like synchronous sound and filming movies on different locations.

Whether in front of the camera or behind it, Sammo has left his mark on the culture of martial arts cinema. Films like The Prodigal Son and Pedicab Driver are landmarks in their genre, with stand-out acting, storytelling, and fight scenes that are as iconic today as they were back then. Even 50 years later, Sammo's work is still held in high regard, and his ability to mix comedy and action blazed the trail for many future stars to come. An icon of kung fu cinema and cinema in general, Sammo's influence has created some of the best action films of all time.

1. The Prodigal Son (1981)
2. Pedicab Driver (1989)
3. Warriors Two (1978)
4. Painted Faces (1988)
5. Project A (1983)
6. IP Man 2 (2010)
7. Dragons Forever (1988)
8. Encounters of the Spooky Kind (1988)
9. Knockabout (1979)
10. Eastern Condors (1984)

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/14266267

Lee remains a singular presence in film history, and rewatching all his work recently reawakened me to just how good he was. He wasn’t just a great martial artist, but a tremendous screen presence. His characters don’t want to kill but they do so, without mercy but also with tremendous regret. That’s a particular kind of acting, a well-tuned harvest of subtle, authentic emotion. There was nobody quite like him before. Frankly, there’s been nobody since.

That is why studios around the world started exploiting Lee’s image mere months after his death, creating a short-lived but vast genre now referred to as “Bruceploitation.” Films with titles like Super Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Goodbye Bruce Lee: His Last Game of Death, The Dragon Lives Again and The Big Boss Part II promised “unseen” work by Lee to audiences in the pre-information age. These films starred men with stage names that often mimicked Lee’s own, such as Bruce Li or Dragon Lee. Martial artists themselves, they mimicked his fighting styles, battle cries, costumes and famous characters.

At first blush, there’s obviously something inherently disreputable about the entire endeavor. It’s bad taste at its core, particularly if you’re a fan of Lee’s work and philosophies.

But could it also be a treasure trove of hidden gems? A library of films that capture a particular time, place and filmmaking approach that feels impossible today? What about men like Bruce Li (real name Ho Chung-Tao) or Bruce Le (Lǚ Xiǎolóng)? These were talented martial artists playing the roles available to them. To what degree does their work deserve recognition, well after generations of fans have had time to process Lee’s death and the decades of work that have honored him hence?

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Those questions form the hypothesis behind Severin Films’ new Blu-ray set, The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1, an eight-disc set featuring 15 films curated to give new audiences an introduction to the genre and what it had to offer. The set also includes the recent documentary, Enter the Clones of Bruce, which serves as an introduction to the overall set and makes up the first disc. It’s essentially a must-watch thesis statement for why the set exists and provides a more forgiving lens through which to view the films.

As an avid reviewer of this sort of thing, it’s a unique pleasure to view a product so exquisitely crafted around asking a viewer to look at an entire genre in a new light. There’s no shortage of odd cult films receiving gorgeous restorations and fancy packages these days, filled with essays and commentaries attesting to their worth. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen something quite as deeply researched and passionate as the Game of Clones set.

This isn’t a release that just dug up a bunch of oddities, threw them on discs, shoved them in a hardshell and commissioned some artwork. This entire project is constantly, earnestly attesting to the underappreciated significance of the Bruceploitation genre and has the scholarly receipts to make its case. The commentaries by Hong Kong film expert Frank Djeng and director / actor Michael Worth (who also does introductions for each film) are informative and, frankly, a little seductive. They, along with Severin, have created a set that begs you to watch every single disc. It feels like a curated adventure. That may be the highest praise I can give a product like this.

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The Game of Clones: Bruceploitation Collection Vol. 1 is an early contender for the best Blu-ray box set of 2024. Even my beloved Shawscope sets from Arrow Video — perhaps the height of martial-arts film curation in my eyes — operate with the understanding that their sets all include a few unimpeachable classic films as a selling point.

That’s not the case with Game of Clones. Everyone involved in this production understands they are operating on their back feet. They’re the underdogs, introducing new viewers to truly cult material. They understand the indescribable pleasure of discovery that comes with being a fan of schlock, of rarities, of true cinematic ephemera. And by god, they really manage to convey it. It’s not only that, but the selection of films and supplementary material really crafts an argument that these films — exploitative as they are — remain an enduring, even positive aspect of Lee’s legacy. I’m deeply impressed.

Tech specs at Blu-ray.com