Kung Fu movies.....

shawn474

I grew up on "Blabck Belt Theater" and lately have been renting a few movies that take me back to those genres. A couple of the war films that I have seen lately that I recommend are "Red Cliff" and "The Warlords". Anyone else have any suggestions on good movies of this genre?

Shawn

[Deleted User]

I got hooked on kung fu movies when I lived in DC and went to an Asian movie theater whenever I could. A movie I liked was Kung Fu Hustle by Stephen Chow. It's a comedy but the stars are real classic performers from the old school Hong Kong movie era. Really fun!
"You have brought much dishonor to our school"

Conradicles

House of Flying Daggers is pretty sweet.

cnh

Good Stuff.

In Hong Kong, entire channels are devoted, mostly, to this genre.

I'd also add, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but you all know that already. What you don't know is that the soundtrack for that film (academy award) was composed by an old Chinese roommate of mine.

And also Jet Li's (director-Zhang Yimou) Hero, etc. Not pure Kung Fu but plenty of swordsmanship and Martial Arts!

cnh

packetjones

I saw some reviews for a film capped IP man. Looked great. I am currently waiting for it in my netflix queue.

Conradicles

Hero sounds fantastic in my H/T...

shawn474

I have seen Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Kung Fu Hustle (in fact I own them all). I will check out IP man. Thats pretty cool about your old roommate doing the soundtrack.

Tony M

"Curse of the Golden Flower" was pretty well done I thought. The colors are great on a big screen.sorry about the small pic. but there are links to photos when you search for the title.

Elinvader

Great movies mentioned above...But I have to love them 70's "my mouth is still moving" kung fu movies they're the best...

bklynNupe

Elinvader wrote: »

Great movies mentioned above...But I have to love them 70's "my mouth is still moving" kung fu movies they're the best...

I agree, give me a Shaw Brother's flick with something like "...avenging the death of my teacher" in the plot any day.

These flicks also remind me of going to the movies with my older brothers and friends on the old scuzzy 42nd Street when I was a kid.

Disc Jockey

Kung Fu Hustle is hilarious. Just watched it with my 11 y/o daughter again the other night and she was cracking up too. If you're looking for good 70's era movies, one I remember was The Five Deadly Venoms. Kung Fu night at the drive-in was a staple in my early years.

hockeyboy

Kiss of the Dragon with Jet Li is great! Another movie that's a lot of fun with some good fighting is Big Trouble in Little China. Totally different flicks but double feature em.

kuntasensei

Ip Man is fantastic. I also strongly recommend the Once Upon A Time In China trilogy. For something in a similar vein, the recent Zatoichi was ridiculously good, though it's more of a samurai flick. You should also check out the Tony Jaa movies (Ong Bak 1&2, The Protector, etc.) and a flick called Chocolate.

The 4+ hour International Version of John Woo's Red Cliff is freakin' awesome (especially on Blu-ray). Definitely a must-see. I liked The Warlords, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.

BigMac

Just saw Ip man last night and I have to say it was kick ****. One of the better martial arts movies I have seen. Insane fights scenes and the story isn't that bad either. Overall a great rental that will not disappoint. Wax on.

[Deleted User]

One of my favorites is Jet Li's "Fists of Honor" just amazing! If you haven't seen this one, put it on your "must see" list.

98Badger

Jackie Chan's Drunken Master is a classic. Not to be confused with his newer (relatively speaking) Legend of Drunken Master which is nowhere near as good.

Danny Tse

bklynNupe wrote: »

I agree, give me a Shaw Brother's flick with something like "...avenging the death of my teacher" in the plot any day.

These flicks also remind me of going to the movies with my older brothers and friends on the old scuzzy 42nd Street when I was a kid.

98Badger wrote: »

Jackie Chan's Drunken Master is a classic.

98Badger wrote: »

Jackie Chan's Drunken Master is a classic. Not to be confused with his newer (relatively speaking) Legend of Drunken Master which is nowhere near as good.

I remember those times too (the late 70s thru the mid 80s). My dad would have to drive the whole family from Oakland to San Francisco's Chinatown to watch the latest Hong Kong movies. I remember Jackie Chan's "Drunken Master" specifically as it was one of the few HK movies that had a line of people waiting around the block for the next showing.

I don't want to come across as "name dropping", but my uncle is Chor Yuen. He was one of the biggest directors for Shaw Bros. Studios in the 70s, although I think most would recognize him as the bad guy in Jackie Chan's "Police Story". Funny that "Legend of Drunken Master" was mentioned....Ti Lung, the actor that played the father to Jackie Chan's character in the film, visited my home when my uncle visited back in the 80s. He was a very soft-spoken and well-mannered man. You would've never know that he'd go on to do the ultimate HK mobster trilogy, "A Better Tomorrow", with Chow Yun-fat.

Gonna go visit my uncle later this year.

iskandam

Wow you're Chor Yuen's nephew!! That's awesome. I love his Shaw Brothers wuxia films from the 70s.

It's funny that whenever this topic comes up, a lot of people tend to bring up those cheap, low budget, horribly dubbed kungfu flicks from the 70s. Well there have been many quality movies made in the past 30 years. The most recent ones are available on bluray with impressive lossless soundtracks:

Bodyguards and Assassins
An Empress and the Warriors
Warriors of Heaven and Earth
Fearless
Invisible Target
SPL (released in the US as "Killzone")
Flash Point
The Banquet (released in the US as "Legend of the Black Scorpion")
Ip Man
Ip Man 2
Dragon Tiger Gate
Forbidden Kingdom

Danny Tse

iskandam wrote: »

That's awesome. I love his Shaw Brothers wuxia films from the 70s.

He wrote and directed many of them, although I think it should be mentioned that he jumped started the entire Hong Kong movie industry back in the early 70s with a comedy, "The House of 72 Tenants".

iskandam wrote: »

It's funny that whenever this topic comes up, a lot of people tend to bring up those cheap, low budget, horribly dubbed kungfu flicks from the 70s.

I think it should be pointed out that those kung-fu movies of the 70s were indeed low budget (when compared to even American TV series) and horribly dubbed. Those movies were made on a shoe-string budget because the target audience was basically the population of Hong Kong itself (about 4 million in the 70s). There wasn't an international market for these movies until the mid to late 70s. As for horrible dubbing....many of the actors are dubbed, even in the native Cantonese version. Jackie Chan didn't do his own dialog in the movies, even in Cantonese, until the late 80s. Until the 90s, most HK movies are generally dubbed by voice actors.

bklynNupe

Good for your uncle, it looks like he's had a very full career in film!

DeusExa

Saw Ip Man and Ip Man 2 last week. Both were superbly done, especially the martial arts choreography.

Recommend Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. Great sound, too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kingdoms:_Resurrection_of_the_Dragon

iskandam

+1 for Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon. The director of that movie just made another period martial arts movie "14 Blades" that's even better. Also out on bluray

I'd also recommend Yuen Woo Ping's new movie "True Legend." Non-stop action and top notch choreography shot and edited in a way that's easy to follow and appreciate

kingtut

SPL/Kill Zone and Flash Point, superb martial sequence action.

iskandam

Also available on bluray and highly recommended:

Seven Swords
Battle of Wits
Mulan (no, not the Disney cartoon, the 2009 live action with Zhao Wei)

These are contemporary action flicks with some gunplay and plenty of fast, hard-hitting, and expertly choreographed fights in the same style of SPL and Flash Point. If you can look past the horrible acting and story there is plenty of enjoyment to be had here:

Fatal Contact
Fatal Move
Bad Blood
Legendary Assassin

jflail2

Some wonderful films mentioned here.

Just as an FYI, the Ip Man prequel appears to be out in Asia now, as is Ong Bak 3.

A couple of caveats:

Ip Man "3" does NOT have Donnie Yen, but the real Ip Man's son (who is in his 80's now) plays his master in this prequel.

Ong Bak 3 looks like Tony Jaa's last film, as it appears he as become a Buddhist monk and is chasing spiritual enlightment instead of more films (and good for him.)

Red Cliff was epic, as were the original Ip Man, Ong Bak and SPL...

Danny, that is AWESOME. Hard Boiled, The Killer and A Better Tomorrow were my introductions to Asian films.

LeftCoast

Two that no one has mentioned that are among the best I've seen:

Musa: The Warrior About South Korean emissaries in China

Azumi About a Japanese assasin.

Has anyone else seen these films?

kuntasensei

Musa The Warrior was just okay to me. Azumi is freakin' AWESOME though!

munk

I think it's awesome and amazing you guys remember all this. I try but fail. All I know is there is a renaissance happening with this genre and many of the films are outstanding. Way beyond, 'just a kung fu movie'
I tried to get my 80 year old Mother to watch one before she died.

Japan seems to have a film noir dark detective thing going, which are often better than what Hollywood is putting out. Obviously Tarantino is plugged into this. What is it about Japan and ghost stories? It's wonderful, they weave this cultural long standing belief in the spirit world into a modern detective film.

LeftCoast

Speaking of Tarantino, we forgot Iron Monkey

munk

What's that anime (sic) film about the last blood vampire? It was made into a mediocre movie and I've never seen the original.

iskandam

Speaking of Musa, one of the actors (the slave with awesome spear skills) will be in a new martial arts movie along with Michelle Yeoh and co-directed by John Woo -- REIGN OF ASSASSINS. Mr. and Mrs. Smith set in ancient China.

Another one to look out for is Tsui Hark's new epic DETECTIVE DEE AND MYSTERY OF THE PHANTOM FLAME. Chinese Sherlock Holmes set during the Tang Dynasty with action choreography by Sammo Hung.

Both movies open in China the end of this month, so the blurays should be available before the end of the year