Martial Arts Movies

[zomgmouse]

Yesterday I watched The Man from Hong Kong, Australian-Hong Kong co-production with Jimmy Wang Yu (of the aforementioned Master of the Flying Guillotine) and George Lazenby (Jameo Bond) and a fun supporting cast of Hugh Keays-Byrne, Sammo Hung, Frank Thring and others. Excellent action sequences (including a fight in a Chinese restaurant and a dizzying car chase) and excellent ham - hindered only by one inexplicable romantic interlude. At one point the lead kicks a man off a motorcycle. A must!

[Famous Mortimer]

7 Grandmasters

Ageing martial arts master is named "champion" by the King just as he's about to retire. But he decides he needs to prove he's the champion by going and beating the titular grandmasters before he can hang 'em up for good. He takes his students along, and one guy who you think is the comic relief, who just tags along begging to be trained.

There's a plot about someone trying to ruin the teacher's reputation, but it's mostly an incredible series of fights of great complexity and speed. Oh, and the main villain is kicked so hard in the balls that he dies. Two enthusiastic thumbs up, and it's available on Youtube for free.

[The F Bomb]

7 Grandmasters

Superb film, best of the eight in the Eureka Joseph Kuo set. I think they're doing a few more soon.

I just watched Yes, Madam! for the first time in a long time and what a film it is. Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock on top form, but also pretty much a who's who of HK cinema at the time, lots of crossover with the Lucky Stars films and a shitload of regular Sammo players. Some blatant stunt doubling by blokes, not even wearing a blonde wig for Rothrock, but it all adds to the charm.

It's all great, cast on top form, some cool fights and relatively funny stuff, costumes are absolutely sick. The final fifteen minutes are spectacularly brilliant, some insane stunts, loads of smashing glass, spines getting dismantled, plenty of people getting booted in the shin or nuts or cunt and just folding, and an incredible last frame of the film. This is up there with Righting Wrongs/Above The Law for me. Top tier.

[Famous Mortimer]

Superb film, best of the eight in the Eureka Joseph Kuo set. I think they're doing a few more soon.

I just watched Yes, Madam! for the first time in a long time and what a film it is. Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock on top form, but also pretty much a who's who of HK cinema at the time, lots of crossover with the Lucky Stars films and a shitload of regular Sammo players. Some blatant stunt doubling by blokes, not even wearing a blonde wig for Rothrock, but it all adds to the charm.

It's all great, cast on top form, some cool fights and relatively funny stuff, costumes are absolutely sick. The final fifteen minutes are spectacularly brilliant, some insane stunts, loads of smashing glass, spines getting dismantled, plenty of people getting booted in the shin or nuts or cunt and just folding, and an incredible last frame of the film. This is up there with Righting Wrongs/Above The Law for me. Top tier.

For no good reason, one of the few major Rothrock films I've not seen. I'll have a bash at correcting that soon.

[phantom_power]

There was a bit of a trend for them in the 80s with your American Ninjas and what have you. No idea if those films stand up now, I yummed them up as a kid though. I suppose the likes of Kickboxer and Bloodsport count too.

I know there have been people like Scott Adkins kicking peoples faces off in the name of Blighty but thats in Hollywood or Asian films, have there been any good British martial arts films?

Accident Man is basically British

I used to love American Ninja, No Retreat No Surrender and the like when I was a kid but I rewatched AN recently and it was fucking awful. The fights are terrible and at one point you can clearly see the body double of the main actor. It isn't even an action scene. He is just walking out of his boss's office and he must have not been on the set that day so they used his double. He walks straight towards the camera.

As for non-Asian films I remember really liking Drive (not that one) when it came out (1997), starring Mark Dacascos and Kadeem "Dwayne Wayne" Hardison. I remember it being a fun buddy movie, and Dacascos is a great martial artist. A bit scared to watch it again in case it doesn't hold up

I watched The Crippled Avengers recently and it is a bonkers delight. A blind, dead and clinically stupid (he has his head put in a vice and tightened until he becomes mentally disabled) fight an evil warlord who made them that way. Some amazing fights, dodgy comedy and bizarre plotting (it starts with some people trying to kill the warlord but him not being home so they chop of his wife's legs and his son's arms) make this a great fun watch

[BeardFaceMan]

Mark Dacascsos gets my pick as most underrated martial arts film star.

[phantom_power]

I watched The Crippled Avengers recently and it is a bonkers delight. A blind, dead

[/s]

Deaf, obv. It would be a bit tricky for him to overcome that disability in order to fight the overlord

[Vodkafone]

I really want to watch the documentary Michelle Yeoh Kicks Ass, which is on the Criterion channel. Does anyone know if there's a way of watching this without subscribing to Criterion?

[greenman]

Mark Dacascsos gets my pick as most underrated martial arts film star.

Drive I think does stand out as an early example of a US martial arts film which really seems to know what its doing, so many of the American Ninja kind of films really pale in comparison to asian stuff of the same era but it does feel like its bringing across that level of talent in how to film martial arts action.

Helps as well that I think is also a surprisingly self aware semi comedy, Walter the Einstein Frog perhaps the best "fake tv show within a movie" ever made?

Six String Samurai I think also worth checking out, lower budget and more on the arthouse side but I think live sup to the idea of a Kung fu Buddy Holly fighting his way across a Mad Max style wasteland.

[Famous Mortimer]

Six String Samurai I think also worth checking out, lower budget and more on the arthouse side but I think live sup to the idea of a Kung fu Buddy Holly fighting his way across a Mad Max style wasteland.

Agree, it's a great movie.

Talking of Adkins (who would have been a global megastar if he'd come up twenty years earlier) and Britain, he did one for WWE Films which was set mostly in London, "Eliminators", and is decent. This list, while I don't agree with all the placing, is a good primer for him.

The No Retreat, No Surrender sequels are far superior to the original. Both the star and Jean-Claude Van Damme were signed on for the sequel, but for no good reason JCVD just decided not to show up. He convinced the original star not to either, which tanked his career, such as it was. Loren Avedon was brought in at the last moment - so the story goes, a producer called his dojo and just asked if anyone there wanted to act - and was brilliant. Part 2 has innocent abroad stuff, buddy-buddy stuff, Matthias Hues being taught to fight on the set, Cynthia Rothrock as a cool helicopter pilot, lots of retreating and surrendering, great action set-pieces...it's a classic.

[phantom_power]

Obviously the GOAT of western martial arts films is The Last Dragon. Or anything involving Sho Kosugi (Enter the Ninja. Pray for Death)

[Famous Mortimer]

Obviously the GOAT of western martial arts films is The Last Dragon. Or anything involving Sho Kosugi (Enter the Ninja. Pray for Death)

It's very good, but I'd rank "Brotherhood Of The Wolf" and "Undefeatable" a whisker above it, and "Undisputed 2" and "Drive" around the same level. But it's not like there's a lot in it.

[kalowski]

Recently watched Executioners from Shaolin. Utterly brilliant.