best martial arts movies ever
the best of the best!!!
List activity
12K views
• 0 this weekCreate a new list
List your movie, TV & celebrity picks.
35 titles
- DirectorRobert ClouseStarsBruce LeeJohn SaxonJim KellyA Shaolin martial artist travels to an island fortress to spy on an opium lord - who is also a former monk from his temple - under the guise of attending a fighting tournament.
- DirectorWei LoStarsBruce LeeNora MiaoJames TienA young man seeks vengence for the death of his teacher.this movie is actually 'fists of fury', but due to an international mix-up when bringing this and 'big boss' overseas, it got named chinese connection. either way, this one is so much better than 'big boss' (what eventually got named fists of fury in the states). i think bruce got more time to work out the fights and every 'bruce-ism' is present. acting-wise, you get to see a little more range. but for the most part, he's just seething and pissed off. of course, the fighting is what makes this film legendary. where big boss fell short, fists of fury makes up for this in spades. there is so much of bruce's unbelievable speed on display married with that swagger that we all know and love. you can see how bruce was infusing a lot of his real style into the fights. the one with the russian is amazing to watch, especially when gets into his sideways horse stance and really digs in. still is extremely impressive 50 years later because there were no wires and no cg. bruce is king.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsJackie ChanSiu-Tin YuenJeong-lee HwangWong Fei-Hung is a mischievous yet righteous young man, but after a series of incidents his frustrated father has him disciplined by a master of drunken martial arts.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsJackie ChanSiu-Tin YuenJeong-lee HwangAn orphan who has been raised at a kung fu school, where he is treated as little more than a dogsbody and practice target for the students, has a life-changing experience after helping an old peripatetic beggar.
- DirectorGordon ChanStarsJet LiShinobu NakayamaSiu-Ho ChinIn 1937, a Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai to find his teacher dead and his school harassed by the Japanese.while i absolutely love the chinese connection (or as it's originally titled, fist of fury), fist of legend is one badass flick. you gotta have balls to remake one of bruce's best movies, but jet li pulls it off excellently. one thing that makes this work is that it modernizes and fleshes out the story, which ultimately makes it almost like a completely different movie. and jet li has never hit as hard as he does in this movie. it's a true jet li tour de force.
- DirectorJackie ChanStarsJackie ChanJames TienDean ShekA young man whose sickly grandfather has taught him a secret form of Kung Fu, starts to make a living off of his unique fighting style, only to attract the attention of his grandfather's mortal enemy.
- DirectorBruce LeeStarsBruce LeeChuck NorrisNora MiaoA man visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them.
- DirectorWoo-Ping YuenStarsRongguang YuDonnie YenJean WangA martial artist/doctor steals from the corrupt authorities as a masked thief to give to the poor while another martial artist/doctor is forced to hunt him down. But a major threat unites them as a powerful and traitorous shaolin monk takes over the authorities.probably my favorite wu xia title, this robin hood inspired tale unfolds like a fable. colorful characters and yu rongguang and donnie yen make an excellent team. while the title is misleading for martial arts fans (no monkey fu in this title), the kung fu featured is badass. my first and favorite tsui hark experience.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuYuka MizunoYasuaki KurataA Chinese man (Liu) marries a Japanese woman through an arranged marriage and manages to insult all of her Japanese martial arts family by issuing a challenge to her that is misinterpreted by the others. He must then prove how good Chinese Kung Fu really is through a series of duels with the seven Japanese martial artists who come to meet the challenge.an amazing vehicle for gordon lui featuring some of the most realistic and authentic kung fu styles going head to head against a horde of japanese weapons experts. the choreography is excellent thanks to chia liang liu's masterful vision. story-wise it's a little lopsided; most of the story occurs in the first third of the movie. after that it's pretty much non stop fighting. Yasuaki Kurata as the main opponent (the ninja) is extremely formidable and the fights are tight. i don't think anyone else could have pulled off 'crab style' with this much credibility. another great aspect of this film is the respect and care that is taken with the japanese martial arts. while it's a given that the chinese hero will trump the japanese, the japanese are not villified in this movie (as they are in movies such as 'fists of fury'). this is without a doubt my favorite gordon liu movie
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuJackie ChanStarsJackie ChanHo-Sung PakLung TiA young martial artist is caught between respecting his pacifist father's wishes or stopping a group of disrespectful foreigners from stealing precious artifacts.
- DirectorCheh ChangStarsJimmy Wang YuChiao ChiaoChung-Hsin HuangA noble swordsman, whose arm had been chopped off, returns to his former teacher to defend him from a villainous gang of rival swordsmen.my favorite jimmy wang yu movie, one armed swordsman is the archetype for not only many martial arts movies to follow, but also westerns as well. even knowing the title, you have to have a mild freak out when he loses his arm. the story is pretty good, but i think jimmy does a fantastic job of really making us care about the hero here. the fighting is very good for its time, especially the swordplay. one of my old school faves.
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuLieh LoYue WongA man studies kung fu at the Shaolin Temple to fight back against the oppressive Manchu government.the definitive gordon liu movie that spawned countless shaolin training sequence movies (many starring gordon). the story unfolds at a nice pace and each chamber offers a new challenge that keeps us invested in the progress of our hero. gordon is definitely one of the greats of martial arts cinema.
- DirectorWei LoChia-Hsiang WuStarsBruce LeeMaria YiJames TienA young man sworn to an oath of non-violence works with his cousins in an ice factory where they mysteriously begin to disappear.bruce's first, but not his best. still, it's bruce! it was hard not putting it in the top ten, but honestly it's not that great of a movie and it doesn't even feature the best of bruce's fight choreography. the movie teases you the first half and then when bruce finally gets to unleash, it's nearly the end. still, it is bruce's first and definitely has a lot of nostalgia for me.
- DirectorWei LoStarsJackie ChanNora MiaoJames TienTong Huo-wan (Jackie Chan) seeks redress from the man responsible for his master's death, but becomes entangled in a feud between a local clan and gangsters.one of jackie's early movies, a year after his breakthrough success with drunken master and snake in eagle's shadow. while this one is not close to being as good as those two excellent movies, it is very good. you also get to see jackie play a serious role and i think he pulls it off pretty well. the lovely nora miao plays a supporting role as well. i also really like the style jackie displays in this movie. the dragon fist looks hard
- DirectorGareth EvansStarsIko UwaisAnanda GeorgeRay SahetapyA S.W.A.T. team becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster and his army of killers and thugs.holy smokes...just saw this one a few months ago. i will definitely be keeping my eye open for iko uwais. silat is one bad ass martial art. the story here is pretty simple, but it is immersive and you do feel the intensity of being locked in a building with psychopathic killers. oh and maddog? holy shhhhhh.....
- DirectorChia-Liang LiuStarsChia-Hui LiuLung-Wei WangHou HsiaoWhen thugs prey upon innocent factory workers, a small-time scammer trains for revenge by studying the moves of Shaolin temple monks.not a true sequel to 36th chamber, but a surprisingly entertaining movie nonetheless. unlike the original, this one has a comedic tone throughout and while the story revolves around typicaly manchu occupation/oppression, no one dies in this movie. kind of a refreshing change of pace. gordon's hapless character is quite hilarious, but fear not, there are still plenty of the shaolin training sequences we know and love. and they manage to invent an entirely new type of kung fu in this one...scaffolding kung fu. lol. sounds ridiculous, but trust me, this is an excellent movie, almost as good as the original.
- DirectorPrachya PinkaewStarsTony JaaPhetthai VongkumlaoPumwaree YodkamolWhen the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.my first introduction to tony jaa and what an introduction it was. this movie did a lot to help reinvigorate the martial arts movie genre. tony's brand of muy thai is very acrobatic and brutal...a winning combination indeed. the story and acting is fairly bleh, but there's so much action you won't care
- DirectorSiu-Tung ChingKing HuRaymond LeeStarsSamuel HuiCecilia YipJacky CheungA kung-fu manual known as the sacred scroll is stolen from the Emperor's library. An army detachment is sent to recover it. Meanwhile, a young swordsman and his fellow disciple are accidentally drawn into the chaos.fantastic story and the wire fu is done very well. a very colorful cast of characters here and you have all sorts of deceit and trickery afoot. also, some very inventive techniques that deal all sorts of interesting deaths. i've yet to see the sequel with jet li, but this one was so good, i'm kinda sad that sam hui didn't reprise his role.
- DirectorJoseph KuoStarsYi-Min LiJack LongKuan-Wu LungAn aging martial arts expert is gifted a plaque from the Emperor declaring him the Kung Fu World Champion. Unsure of whether or not be is deserving of this title, he embarks on a journey to defeat the 7 Grandmasters.the first jack long movie i ever saw. wow, this dude is phenomenal. the fight choreography is fantastic. very tight and inventive. i wish i could've seen a sub instead of the cheesy dub, but the good thing about a dub is it allows you to focus in on the fighting. story is fairly banal and very predictable towards the end, but when the fighting is this good who cares.
- DirectorYuen ChorStarsLung TiJason Piao PaiLi ChingTeng Piao went to jail for fifteen years on a frame up for drug smuggling. Now that he's out, along with his iron chain and hungry for revenge.definitely one of my favorite ti lung movies, mainly because ti actually gets to show off his considerable empty handed (and footed) kung fu quite a bit more than he typically does in his sword based wu xia dramas. which is a shame because ti is a fantastic movie martial artist, very underrated. the choreography is very good in this movie and there are lots of fights. story-wise, you have a pretty engaging whodunit style mystery and there are a ridiculous amount of twists and turns that occur all the way to the final frames of the movie. very recommended.
- DirectorHark TsuiStarsTony Ka Fai LeungChao DengCarina LauAn exiled detective is recruited to solve a series of mysterious deaths that threaten to delay the inauguration of Empress Wu.another tsui hark masterpiece, detective dee is an excellent mystery/suspense flick filled with some beautifully choreographed wire-fu, strong characters, high quality cg effects and an engrossing story. andy lau plays a chinese version of sherlock holmes who is released from prison by the empress to solve a series of gruesome murders that threaten her inauguration. the sets are lavish, but the story and the characters are the main focus here. one of my favorite tsui hark movies (although i still prefer iron monkey better).
- DirectorJing WongSammo Kam-Bo HungStarsJet LiSharla CheungChingmy YauA wild, rollicking martial-arts fantasy extravaganza that features prized swords and swordsmen, a crazy monk attached to a rolling boulder (yup!), serious clan and cult rivalries, and lots of magic and flying.this movie is crazy. pt1 of a trilogy that never was realized, you get to see some crazy pre-cg effects and some bizarre wire fu and costumes. it's silly, but i like jet li in this role and wish they could've finished the trilogy.
- DirectorCheh ChangStarsMeng LoSheng ChiangLi WangThe Wu Tang chief sends out his men, each of whom is given a symbol so they can recognize each other. The largest is given to Lee, whom the others are to obey.as blasphemous as it is to say, i'm not a fan of the movie 5 deadly vemons. the kung fu is just not good enough. but this movie (which features 3 of the venoms i believe) is much better. lo meng and chiang sheng are fantastic in this movie and the kung fu is tightly choreographed. plus they kill a guy by ripping his balls off in mid flying kick...how cool is that??
- DirectorCheh ChangHsueh-Li PaoStarsLung TiMu ChuChing TienWu Sung, a military swordmaster, is acused of murdering his adulterous sister-in-law and a thug, and sent to exile in Meng Chou. At the prison camp, Shih En, son of the camp commander, intercedes in his favour, to spare him the humiliating 100 bamboo lashes. When Wu Sung knows that a local thug, Chiang Chung, attacked and wounded Shih En to rob his wine cellar at the Delightful Forest, the military trainer decides to interfere. He defies the thug to a duel, in which he wins, at a cost - the thug is a drunkard who fights well, even when he has drunk too much! Later, after making sure Wu Sung has drunk too much, it's Chiang Chung who demands, and gets, his revenge. Chiang Chung moves political influences and treachery to provoke the downfall of the military instructor, again. Wu Sung returns from yet another exile, to get satisfaction.one of the few ti lung movies where he actually does more hand to hand kung fu as opposed to weapon based kung fu, delightful forest is a seriously quirky movie. it's like cheh wanted it to be lighthearted and humorous at first and then halfway through decided to make it a serious 'out for revenge' affair. either way, the kung fu is very good and ti lung is a fantastic dramatic and physical actor.