The One And Only Martial Arts Thread!

[Guest razazteca]

anybody have an opinion on Storm Riders? I think it is overrated, and not a big fan of CGI in Kung Fu movies.

[Guest Lethargic]

I kinda like Storm Riders. Not my favorite or anything. Don't need to watch it more than once, but it was interesting to see them mix together kung fu and CGI FX. It was entertaining because it was like a living video game.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

It's safe to say that no one here truly understands the poetic grace of the martial arts films. The emphasis on style and discipline. You people are the reasons we get horribly dubbed films where every piece of dialouge that the feeble-minded distributors can't quite "get" is replaced with "Damn you!" You guys really don't understand that Kung-Fu in particular is not a fighting style, it is a way to live. If you'd like to talk personally with someone who knows what their talking about as far as Kung-Fu, PM me. as for this thread, here's my list of the best Kung-Fu films:

 

DRUNKEN MASTER

LEGENDARY WEAPONS OF KUNG-FU

THE CHINESE CONNECTION

THE FIVE DEADLY VENOMS

THE STREETFIGHTER

POLICE STORY III: SUPERCOP

CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON

MASTER KILLER

 

 

Best Samurai Films:

 

YOJIMBO

SEVEN SAMURAI

BABY CART IN THE LAND OF DEMONS

THE SAMURAI TRILOGY

SHOGUN (TV Miniseries)

SWORD OF VENGEANCE

YOJIMBO II (It's technical name escapes me. I'll check IMDB.)

[Guest razazteca]

what about Lone Wolf and Cub and RAN as Samurai films.

 

If you want to talk about the purity of Martial Arts films then you must consider Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee films as end all and be all of what it should be? But in this day of time the message is lost and has become commercialize thu the wire-fu of Yuen Woo Ping.

 

When I watch a kung fu movie I generally do not want to watch another movie with the message of the EVIL WESTERNERS destroying asian culture again, I rather watch a spotfest wire-fu or sword play or comedy movie. I rather not watch a movie about politics or propaganda.

 

But a movie about loyalty, honor, respect that uses martial arts as a vehicle for the message, then I can enjoy a great film like Last Hurrah For Chilvary as directed by John Woo.

[Guest Lethargic]

When did this thread go from "what's your favorite martial arts movies" to "you guys don't understand the ways of the kung fu lifestyle"?

 

Movies are supposed to be entertainment. Not a documentary about kung fu. If somebody gets enjoyment from watching American Ninja or they get enjoyment from watching a badly dubbed Hong Kong movie, they have the right to enjoy that as much as you do from watching a boring action-starved movie like Crouching Tiger.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

what about Lone Wolf and Cub and RAN as Samurai films.

 

If you want to talk about the purity of Martial Arts films then you must consider Shaw Brothers and Bruce Lee films as end all and be all of what it should be? But in this day of time the message is lost and has become commercialize thu the wire-fu of Yuen Woo Ping.

 

When I watch a kung fu movie I generally do not want to watch another movie with the message of the EVIL WESTERNERS destroying asian culture again, I rather watch a spotfest wire-fu or sword play or comedy movie. I rather not watch a movie about politics or propaganda.

 

But a movie about loyalty, honor, respect that uses martial arts as a vehicle for the message, then I can enjoy a great film like Last Hurrah For Chilvary as directed by John Woo.

Baby Cart is Lone Wolf, genius.

 

Kung-Fu films should be about (at least in part) the discipline, commitment, compassion, and dedication needed to live the Kung-Fu lifestyle. If they arn't then they just movies that happen to feature Martial Arts.

[Guest Lethargic]

Kung Fu movies should be about a good school and a evil school. The evil school goes to the good school and breaks their sign! And then hurts the Master! So the best student, who is always in trouble, finally straightens out , trains and then goes to the evil school to break THEIR sign in revenge That's every kung fu movie ever. It's all about breaking signs people.

[Guest Karnage]

Anyone see the Category III film Naked Killer before? I want to know if it's worth checking out.

[Guest razazteca]

the breaking the sign comment was funny

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

When did this thread go from "what's your favorite martial arts movies" to "you guys don't understand the ways of the kung fu lifestyle"?

 

Movies are supposed to be entertainment. Not a documentary about kung fu. If somebody gets enjoyment from watching American Ninja or they get enjoyment from watching a badly dubbed Hong Kong movie, they have the right to enjoy that as much as you do from watching a boring action-starved movie like Crouching Tiger.

I never said they had to be documentaries. You people don't listen. I simply said, that in order for them to be true Kung-Fu films, and not just action movies that happen to have martial arts in them, they must in some manner examine what it truly takes to become a master of martial arts. (See: DRUNKEN MASTER, MASTER KILLER, and, in a lesser respect CHINESE CONNECTION, which examined the Confucian bond between master and student.)

 

 

Oh, and I respect other people's opinions, but if you feel AMERICAN NINJA ma cheap, poorly-made, B-Grade action pic, is anywhere close to the cinematic experience of CROUNCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, then you have no business in this thread.

[Guest Lethargic]

Oh, and I respect other people's opinions, but if you feel AMERICAN NINJA ma cheap, poorly-made, B-Grade action pic, is anywhere close to the cinematic experience of CROUNCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, then you have no business in this thread.

The only thing I can think of similar to Crouching Tiger is going through chemotherapy.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Oh, and I respect other people's opinions, but if you feel AMERICAN NINJA ma cheap, poorly-made, B-Grade action pic, is anywhere close to the cinematic experience of CROUNCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON, then you have no business in this thread.

The only thing I can think of similar to Crouching Tiger is going through chemotherapy.

Statements like these are easy to make since they are very generalized and make it diffacult to argue, because you never actually state *why* you don't like a film.

 

Here's why I love CTHD:

 

- Beautiful locations

- Great Score

- Brilliant Cinematography

- Excellent Performances: Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, and Zhang Zi Yi

- Great story, rather than mindless chop-sockey. (Which you people evidently expected.)

- Brilliant choreography

- Storylines Intertwined perfectly.

- Examined honor, love, feminism, martial arts, and friendship in 19th Century China

[Guest razazteca]

just what we needed an elitist Gung-Fu mark, and I thought some of the Puro guys were bad......DAMN

 

Crouching Tiger is one of the best movies ever made, regardless of its genre. I'm guessing Lethargic dislikes due to the love story plot other than that I have no ideal for the hate. Crouching Tiger did have alot of action scenes all of which actually made sense in the grand scheme of the overall plot.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

just what we needed an elitist Gung-Fu mark, and I thought some of the Puro guys were bad......DAMN

I'm not eletist. That would mean that I look down on what I consider "bastardized" kung-fu. That's not the case. I only feel sorry for you guys, because most of you have never seen the *really* good stuff.

 

And when you consider this thread began with KICKBOXER, BLOODSPORT, and BEST OF THE BEST mentions, then I think you guys made my point for me.

 

Those arn't Kung-Fu movies. KB and BS are Van-Damme vechicles, and BOTB is a Rocky rip-off with five Rockys instead of one.

 

Good to see someone recognizes Crouching Tiger's brilliance.

[Guest razazteca]

there is some good in everything.....Bloodsport is a real Kung-Fu movie.

 

1) Frank Dux goes to the Kumite to honor his teacher and later on to get revenge for his friend

 

2) There is a training session flashback of Frank Dux as a kid learning respect and using Martial Arts to cleanse his spirit to become a better human. It pays homage to Gordon Lui Shaolin Temple training movies.

 

3) Frank Dux wants to represent his School

[Guest Lethargic]

I hate Crouching Tiger because the story was completely pitiful, whiney, long, boring, pointless, dragging, went absolutely nowhere at all and the action scenes were nothing but a bunch of watered down scenes stolen from dozens of other movies that came before it. I don't think it's one of the worst kung fu movies I've ever seen. I think it's one of the worst movies I've seen period.

[Guest razazteca]

scenes stolen from other movies? how can this be when Yuen Woo Ping was the fight director, his stlye is in everything from Drunken Master to Matrix to Charlie Angels to every F'N action movie made in the last 2 years!

 

I think that the fight scenes were great:

 

1) roof walk

2) restuartant fight

3) forrest tree fight

4) cave scene

5) desert scene

6) the school girl fight

7) Chow Yun Fat vs Zhang YiYi

8) Silver Fox set up

 

they had all seemed liked a perfectly directed dance scene showing gracie and skill.

[Guest Lethargic]

scenes stolen from other movies? how can this be when Yuen Woo Ping was the fight director, his stlye is in everything from Drunken Master to Matrix to Charlie Angels to every F'N action movie made in the last 2 years!

 

I think that the fight scenes were great:

 

1) roof walk

2) restuartant fight

3) forrest tree fight

4) cave scene

5) desert scene

6) the school girl fight

7) Chow Yun Fat vs Zhang YiYi

8) Silver Fox set up

 

they had all seemed liked a perfectly directed dance scene showing gracie and skill.

I mean stolen, maybe that's the wrong word, because the way I saw it....if somebody had never seen wire kung fu....it was kinda cool, but for someone like me who had seen a million wire kung fu movies for years, that stuff wasn't exciting in the least to me. It was old hat. There was nothing new or refreshing about it. It was just the same old fight scenes with different faces.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

If ANY film wasn't the same old wire-fu it was CTHD. It had Oscar-level performances, sweeping visuals, a beautiful score, brilliant SFX, and precise choreography. It had a shitload of cool Kung-Fu weapons to boot! (Admit it, the Million Needle Gun was the shit.)

[Guest Karnage]

CTHD is kindof overrated to me. I'm not saying it's a bad movie though.

The guy's facial expression in that scene where he gets hit with those sharp metal throwing thingies is priceless.

[Guest razazteca]

the sword fight at the school was favorite, as Michelle Yeoh used nearly every possible weapon to challenge Zhang for the Green Destinty sword. The only weapon that was missing was the Soul Caliber Ivory chain sword!

[Guest HBK16]

I have a huge thing for Jackie Chan films. I have seen probly all of them. Have most of the movie posters from his movies, a book in Chinese, shirts, autographs, everything you can think of. I even have a video of him walking down Hollywood I recorded myself. As for movies, I love Who Am I, Ruble in the Bronx, Drunken Master, Miracles, Mr. Nice Guy, Jackie Chan's First Strike, and Project A.

 

I also liked the Once Upon a Time in China 1, 2, and 3.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Jackie Chan films are awesome. I really think he's the premier action director in the world, and I've been a big fan of his since Rumble in the Bronx hit stateside. Let me rate all of his films that I've seen:

 

 

Drunken Master: **** 1/2

 

Project A: *** 3/4

 

Wheels on Meals: **** (It's tough to find, but this movie is awesome swashbuckling kung-fu fun. I literally had tears streaming down my face, I was laughing that hard.)

 

Police Story: ****

 

Armor of God: ** 1/2 (Awful film for Jackie, but it made a SHITLOAD of money at the HK box-office. he improved greatly with the sequel.)

 

Project A II: **** (See Wheels on Meals. A lot of fun.)

 

Dragons Forever: **** (I got super-lucky and found this one at Blockbuster. This is the last of the "Three Dragons" movies (Jackie, Sammo, Yuen Biao) and they're all worth 4 stars.)

 

Police Story 2: **** 1/4

 

Miracles: *** 1/2 (An experiment at less kung-fu, and more story driven films. It's not bad, but I think he could have put in a few more fights for his stubborn action fans.)

 

Operation Condor: *** 3/4 (The sequel to Armor of God, this movie features tons of cool stunts and a great final battle in a wind tunnel. However, the film feels too much like 007 and not enough like Jackie for my tastes.)

 

The Prisoner: *** (This film has an all-star HK cast of Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, Tony Leung, and Jimmy Wang Yu! It's not really a jackie Chan movie per se. Look for the ending where Jackie channels Chow Yun-Fat with two 9mms.)

 

Twin Dragons: ** (I hated this movie. The plot was ridiculous, the fights were mediocre, and Jackie was just sub-par.)

 

Supercop: **** 3/4 (Everything a jackie Chan film SHOULD be. See it NOW.)

 

City Hunter: ** 3/4 (Found this one at FYE. Based on a Japanese manga. I didn't like it very much, too broad and slapstick, not enough kung-fu.)

 

Crime Story: *** ( I will never get used to seeing Jackie playing a badass Dirty harry type character. Ever. Other than that, this was good.)

 

Legend of Drunken Master: ***** (Perfection.)

 

Rumble in the Bronx: **** (Great film for Jackie. Great stunts with the hovercraft. Great showdown with the gang leader.)

 

Jackie Chan's First Strike: ** 1/2 (Just didn't like this one. Had trouble sitting through it. Once the film goes to Austrailia, it falls apart.)

 

Mr. Nice Guy: * 3/4 (The worst film Jackie has done since his days with Lo Wei. I hated this with a fucking passion.)

 

Who Am I?: **** ( Great rebound from Mr. Nice Guy. Loved this film, especially the roof stunt.)

 

Rush Hour: *** 3/4 (Funny, Funny, movie. Not that great as a fight film. But very funny.)

 

Gorgeous: *** (Very charming fun film.)

 

Shanghai Noon: *** 1/2

 

The Accidental Spy: ***

 

Rush Hour 2: ** 3/4

 

The Tuxedo: DUD

[Guest razazteca]

City Hunter was funny for the SFII2 scene! real goofy comedy

 

Project A has Jackie pretending that he is Erol Flynn fighting pirates

 

You must search for and buy Snake in Eagles Shadow! not only does it have the old man bum drunken master Sam Seed it also has Cassanova Wong in an awesome fight. I think the same team that did Drunken Master did this movie also.

[Guest Karnage]

For reference, Operation Condor over here in North America was Armour Of God 2 in Hong Kong and Operation Condor 2 was Armour Of God 1 in Hong Kong.

Supercop is Police Story 3 and First Strike is Police Story 4 also.

[Guest HBK16]

I hated The Prisoner.

[Guest DVD Spree]

I'm a little out of date in my responses, so you'll have to bear with me while I catch up.

 

WIth regard to the "foreign love", well, I just figured most people here wouldn't be too familiar with the smaller names (the admittedly tongue-in-cheek "Sonny Chiba < Van Damme" is a case in point). After all, Gary Daniels can rip it, but only a few people here will recognise the name.

 

Yes, Once Upon A Time In China is available on DVD, but FOR GOD ALMIGHTY'S SAKE don't buy the Region 1 version. Get a multi-region player and get ahold of Hong Kong Legends' Region 2 version (check out http://www.play.com for a decent price) which has a great transfer and shitloads of extra stuff.

 

And anyone who tells me I don't "get the spirit of martial arts film" CAN GO AND FUCK THEMSELVES. I'm a first dan fucking black belt in karate, a national champion, and I've fought on the England team twice, kicking the shit out of many nations' fighters, so unless you are similarly qualified, you are not fit to tell me shit about martial arts.

 

<RANT OVER>

 

That said, it's nice that this thread is so lively and hasn't fizzled out at twenty posts...

[Guest razazteca]

in respect to Gary Daniels, I hated his Fist of the Northstar movie, what else has he done?

[LaParkaYourCar 0]

in respect to Gary Daniels, I hated his Fist of the Northstar movie, what else has he done?

Wasn't Vader in the Fist of the North Star movie?

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

And anyone who tells me I don't "get the spirit of martial arts film" CAN GO AND FUCK THEMSELVES. I'm a first dan fucking black belt in karate, a national champion, and I've fought on the England team twice, kicking the shit out of many nations' fighters, so unless you are similarly qualified, you are not fit to tell me shit about martial arts.

 

<RANT OVER>

 

That said, it's nice that this thread is so lively and hasn't fizzled out at twenty posts...

I assume you're speaking to me.

 

 

(Ahem) With all due respect, I'm not a fucking mind reader. I made a general statement about those who posted on this thread before and for the most part it was true. I didn't even see your post. (But if it did contain Van Damme > Chiba, can you blame me?)

 

Oh and those are pretty impressive qualifications, but reemeber this:

 

1. I'm not insinuating that you're lying, but the internet was created for people to talk schmack so I'm taking it with a grain of salt.

 

2. Not that it matters, but what style do you practice. This is out of curiosity.