Recommend Martial Arts Movies

sounds interesting, i'll have to look into these

Wolf Devil Woman aka Wolfen Ninja was a cute delight btw, I'll try hunt down the sequel at some point (known as Matching Escort lol)

I watched those four films on youtube and that seemed the only option.

Bat Without Wings - this is quite similar to Human Lanterns in many ways but focused on swordplay. The villain has make-up and hair obviously copied from Gene Simmons and a crazy friend chained in his lair.
I found myself pausing a lot to admire the set design. I really like it when Shaw Brothers do the historical gothic setting but it looks good as often as it does frustratingly cheap. So near yet so far.

Battle Wizard - features magic frogs and snakes, a fire breathing wizard with extending steel bird legs, a brute with sharp teeth and a chain extending crab claw on one arm, and the hero getting his super powers from drinking the blood of a giant snake (like in Brave Archer) so the evil wizard wants to feed the hero to his gorilla (a man in a lousy costume) so it can claim the powers.
This film runs on lots of old fairy tale logic and fails to make it work but it's short and amusing.

Butterfly Murders - The first Tsui Hark directed film and it feels really different than his later films to me, maybe a bit darker and less crowd pleasing? I spent a long time assuming this was just a supernatural murder mystery but the martial arts gets going eventually and the later confrontations are more engaging. Not only is there wire-fu but some of the characters use wire devices extensively. Two of the heroes have great hair.

The Victim - Sammo Hung directing and co-starring with Bryan "Beardy" Leung. Quite similar to Knockabout but with a much more flawed maneuvering of the serious parts. Still a lot of fun and I increasingly appreciate Sammo directed fights after seeing more martial arts films.

The Pirate - Ti Lung as a sort of Robin Hood pirate. There is a battle between two ships at the start but most of the action is on land. It's fine.

The Shadow Whip - A young woman (Pei-Pei Cheng) and her uncle wield their whips brutally against large crowds of attackers. Some fight scenes are jerkily sped up and that doesn't work at all and the villain reveals himself in a really dumb way but it's pretty good overall. Pleasant snowy setting.

One Armed Swordsman - Maybe only a year ago I seen this? After hearing so much about how enormously influential this film is, I think maybe it's one of those innovative films that has been so thoroughly absorbed into culture that it just doesn't stand out that much anymore. I enjoy it okay but I cant imagine ever pressing anyone to see it unless they needed to see it for the historical importance.

Dragon Missile - Considered a sort of spiritual sequel to the Flying Guillotine films, this time with a set of boomerang swords doing the decapitations. These weapons cut through large rocks and steel poles yet they're somehow captured by nets! Most of the cast are villains, including Lo Lieh as the main character with boomerang swords.

The Lady Is The Boss - This is a lot of fun. Kara Hui comes from America to revitalize a failing martial arts school by recruiting at discos and teaching sex workers to protect themselves, but her crass American hucksterism, new approaches and take-no-shit-from-anyone attitude doesn't please everyone. There's disco fights, bicycle action, tiny children kickboxing and Gordon Liu looks pretty funny in disco clothes.
Some may be disappointed that the spotlight goes away from Kara Hui towards the end, but I'd recommend you seek this film out.

Lady Is The Boss has been on my list for ages and finally came to Amazon Prime (and general US distro?) a few months ago, gotta get to it

The first two are Shaw competitors that I learned about in this piece.
http://www.davidbordwell.net/essays/shaw.php

Jade Bow (1966) - The fighting isn't particularly noteworthy but it's a cute romance. A shame they couldn't show an onscreen kiss, looks like it's deliberately avoided to comply with censors.

Redress (1969) - A bit like King Hu, but the youtube version I could find was not the best way to view it, it had german dubbing and comedic English subtitles. I did quite enjoy the subtitles, with all the talk of Fanta and Sprite, and when a crowd is gathering their weapons the subtitles say "Get the cutlery! The Good stuff!"

Red Heroine (1929) - apparently the first wuxia film. Unfortunately I didn't get much out of it apart from some interesting hairstyles, storytelling techniques and the general look of the film was inevitably different from wuxia films I'm used to.

I hope Lady Is The Boss comes to the UK bluray series

Sad that Gordon Liu has been in a nursing home so long and with all those family troubles. I haven't seen much of his films but he's such an impressive looking guy.

Super Inframan - This is a Shaw Brothers attempt at the tokusatsu/kaiju genre with a bit more martial arts than I suppose is normal. A lot of people seem to love this (including Roger Ebert) but I just found it boring. Not just daft or outlandish enough to be fun for me. Some of the monsters were kind of funny riding in the speedboat but the only thing that really amused me was the villainess exclaiming "What a Chinese Inframan!" (possibly an inaccurate subtitle but I like the idea of a villain being upset at how Chinese an Inframan is, whatever that means).

I just talked about Legend Of The Mountain in the King Hu thread because there's hardly any martial arts in it.

not really the right thread but have you ever seen Big Man Japan Robert? i think you'd appreciate it.

Saw Super Inframan about a month ago, it was.. OK. I found it goofy and amusing, but it felt really, really long, though I don't think it actually was. The villainess was excellent though.

I've seen the trailer for Big Man Japan. I've heard it's good but I'm not really into kaiju films but maybe it gets by on the comedy? Is it that funny?

i think it's pretty funny yes, in a very dry way. kind of like Kaurismäki or somebody almost.

Someone said on a martial arts forum that 88 Films are going to start releasing Golden Harvest films, if that's true I'll be over the moon but getting released on a monthly basis like the Shaw films seems too good to be true right now. Must have been nice for anyone who was buying them when Hong Kong Legends was bringing them out on dvd, a lot of them are very expensive now. Iceman Cometh wasn't cheap.

Five Deadly Venoms on film4 tonight, englishers. 01:35...

My local Alamo has been showing a lot of the new-ish digital restorations, it's been awesome. Saw KING BOXER and THE DUEL (1971) for the first time, both had way more action and gore than I was expecting from that time period. CRIPPLED AVENGERS was also a real treat.

I missed Five Deadly Venoms but I needed my bed.

Rigor Mortis - Maybe the strangest tribute to an earlier era of films I've ever seen. There's nothing retro about it and the tone is completely different than the films its looking back to: kung fu comedy horror. This is bleak and everyone seems like they've fallen far from their glory days. It has some of the cast of Mr Vampire but I think it's better than Mr Vampire and with slightly better special effects I think this could have been something quite special. As it is, I still recommend it.

Long Road To Gallantry (1984) - Based on same source material as Jade Bow (1966) but with superior martial arts, Kara Hui and Rosamund Kwan. Soundtrack sounds very Italian at points, the first fight scene even has proggy keyboard bashing. Despite so many improvements on Jade Bow, I'm not sure it's definitely better.

I just got my Eureka copy of Iron Monkey. Next they're doing a box of Police Story 1-2! I haven't seen the second or third so I don't know why they stopped at the second.

Recently read criticisms of Celestial, who do the remasters of all the Shaw films. They cut out some scenes if they cant be restored to a certain standard and aren't integral to the story. I understand why this upsets fans but there aren't really many alternatives to a newbie like myself.

Can't see why you couldn't include an uncut version alongside the remaster on the disc

Not motivated by this particular revelation but I cant justify buying every release in 88's current Shaw series anymore, there's just too many other things I want. So I'm skipping Black Magic 2 (which I saw streaming and I just didn't like much) and Human Goddess (a pure comedy, which is valuable because it's a big side of HK cinema that most of the world never sees, but I'm just not interested enough). I just ordered Spiritual Boxer and will probably buy Vengeful Beauty.

I'm generally not that interested in the non wuxia stuff so that narrows it down a bit but I've got a pile of other DVDs I'm meaning to work thru

"Man of Tai Chi" (2013), Keanu Reeves' directorial debut, is a lot better than I expected: an old-fashioned story in a contemporary setting, simple but well paced, with entertaining fights in a variety of styles. Orderly public tournament matches are contrasted with manic underground fights to good effect. Keanu is Satanic as the big boss tempting the young master to misuse his art. He's a much better actor than martial artist and wisely keeps himself out of the action until the big showdown at the temple, where he sells the final scene pretty well in spite of moving like a marionette.

Good fighting! Keanu is edging into Pacino territory with his... weird stylized delivery of... every single line.

Is that the film where they couldn't get the camera they developed for the film? Wasn't the camera part of the purpose of the film?

I gather Keanu's original plan was to use some crazy new robot-arm camera that would move all around the fighters, including overhead, for long continuous shots, but when it came time for actual shooting they decided it wasn't practical to ship that gear to China.

The fights use a lot of energetic camera movement but are edited and framed so you can full-body movements and follow their continuity ... the overall look is pretty typical of good modern-day Chinese martial arts films.

On revisiting, I'm not sure I like Iron Monkey that much. There's some good moments but the tone is all over the place, even for this type of film and the use of the Once Upon A time In China theme music is annoying.

Bad guy really does say "King Kong Palm".

Are we talking about the 1993 Iron Monkey? The final fight scene on those flaming poles is all time :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EC171lpPDt0

It's a memorable scene but other than that I don't think it stands up high in its era. You might have heard that the film was a huge flop until it got western distribution.

Eureka also releasing Project A parts 1-2 and City Hunter.

Very annoyed to find out the Police Story box set has audio and color correction issues. Apparently not completely Eureka's fault but Fortune Star sent them some older versions of the films (some said they lied about it too!), rather than all the newest masters for some of them. There is said to be a replacement coming in a month with all the right stuff.

I'm making do with this version of the box set. Absolute ton of extras and multiple versions of the two films.

Just watched Police Story 2. Might be better than the first in terms of overall quality but the first film is superior for it's best action scenes even if it does drag in the non-action scenes.

Further UK disc releases coming up

Eureka's Once Upon A Time In China trilogy box set (I wont be getting it as I bought the dvd set a couple of years ago).

88Films starting a Jackie Chan collection with To Kill With Intrigue and Dragon Fist.

Just saw that Once Upon a Time box. I've only ever seen the first, are 2 and 3 good?

I kind of prefer them, the first is a tad long.

Project A box set (two films) - Really impressed with these, the second film is one of the greatest sequels ever, but both are great fun, even better set than the Police Story 1-2 box, considering the films and their extras.

First film co-stars Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao (always happy to see him) and Dick Wei. Second film co-stars Maggie Cheung, Rosamund Kwan and features a really brilliant farce sequence in which lots of people gradually enter a house either avoiding each other or unaware of other presences.

There's lots of lengthy interviews in the features. Dick Wei is tired of playing villains and has an amazing house. Something that comes across from Yuen Biao and a lot of these actors is how eager to please large audiences they are, they even ask for negative feedback from fans (HK action films are one of the few instances where I think crowdpleasing doesnt necessarily mean garbage). Mars (who plays Big Mouth in this series) talks quite comfortably about the long line of cruel nicknames he has had, he called himself Mars because people often called him "the martian (that's one of the nicer ones).

Tony Rayns explains some political background, speculates about Jackie Chan's level of iinvolvement in the direction and wether he actually saw those Buster Keaton films that both films homage. I knew that a lot of Chan's fanbase had soured on him due to various politcal statements but I wasnt aware this was a widespread shift in Hong Kong and other parts of asia. Given what China has done to other huge film stars and celebrities who didnt toe the line, I'm willing to consider that Jackie Chan is understandably terrified of not doing so.

Now that UK labels have really started pushing this genre again like they haven't in too many years, I'm biting my fingernails wondering which old dvds to track down and what might plausibly come out on bluray soon. Maybe Eureka will stop after they release some big hits? Those Hong Kong Legends dvds can either be cheap or incredibly steep. Was disappointed see Dreadnaught is the latter but I can still get Magnificent Butcher and a few others for cheap.

Forthcoming

Eureka: Wheels On Meals
88 Films: Battle Creek Brawl and Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin

I like Wheels On Meals but it seems like an odd choice to me. Surprised Eureka hasn't went for Snake In The Eagle's Shadow yet. Maybe they felt it was too similar to Drunken Master to release so soon but Snake is so much better.

Are there any American labels with a martial arts line right now? Or anywhere else outside asia for that matter?

Watched the two Lo Wei directed/Jackie Chan starring films recently released by 88 Films: Dragon Fist and To Kill With Intrigue. I feel a tad sorry for Lo Wei because his reputation seems mostly based around Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan not getting on with him and that he supposedly didn't understand what they were trying to do and was trying to fit them both into an older mold (maybe the Jimmy Wang Yu mold), so Jackie is a very serious hero in these.

And people say that Wei wasn't a very good director but I still like these better than most of the hyped up Shaw Brothers films that 88 Films has released. Bonus features note that Spiritual Boxer was the first true kungfu comedy but I didn't think much of that one either. Dragon Fist and To Kill With Intrigue begin as straightforwardly as possible but they redeem themselves with the complexity of the fights. It's kind of refreshing to see the historians being frank about the films because as much as I appreciate c-man unearthing things and his commentary(I had NO IDEA he was a former ilxor member! He has some involvement with a great number of the films I've been buying over the past few years), his praise is excessive. Nice to see it acknowledged that when we buy these films, we're sometimes buying history more than entertainment.

In Dragon Fist Jackie hands out some surprisingly brutal beatings (a bit reminiscent of the one at the end of Police Story but less comedic). I'm not sure how the mother kills herself here, it looks like she quickly strained her own body to death through sheer will power.

To Kill With Intrigue has Hsu Feng (best known for her films with King Hu) and she has a little lakeside hut, I love these little hermit houses, there should be a video compilation of the best waterside hermit homes from martial arts films.

Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin - Often considered one of Jackie Chan's best early films. The first few scenes, the last fight and joke with the guy who keeps speaking in two word phrases are all great but everything else about it was tedious for me.
Beggar's Union and Fragrant Division are pretty good names for groups though.

I did not enjoy The Prodigal Son.

Very unsatisfying conclusion, with a baddie that weren't all that bad. Very little fu!

Not one of my favorite but I'm sure there are a few great people in there.

Eureka announced a Sammo Hung box set (Magnificent Butcher, Iron Fisted Monk, Eastern Condors) and I've heard about a few more coming (Warriors Two and Dragons Forever?). Filling in some gaps for me. I'm very happy about this but there really needs to be a new Spooky Encounters edition for people who haven't seen it.

people like me!

I think I got it under the (even worse) title Encounters Of The Spooky Kind. But it's great and it has one of the greatest film monsters, and unlike the other hopping corpse films, it has a really well thought out fighting style. Worst thing is that it pretty much drops the horror in the last part of the film, in favor of a black magic infused fight.

Will anyone vouch for the Jackie Chan films Crime Story, Protector and Miracles? I don't know anything about them.

Sammo Hung might have directed a Soul Calibur film. What a missed opportunity! But it went to the Final Destination and American Pie producer before dying.

Holy Weapon - with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung. Persistently silly, lots of gender bending, rape jokes tossed around everywhere, references to Evil Dead 2 and The Thing, a man who turns into a flying blade, metal winged men, a spider woman, a gloopy demon and most impressively, the fight scene where 6 women lock their bodies together to create a larger fighter.
Worth seeing for the audacious fights, some of which work amazingly well considering this couldn't have been that high a budget. How did the flying men and the 6 women fighter jumping around look so convincing?
I discovered this from Movie Bob showing a clip.

That sounds awesome!

I do wonder why it isn't better known considering the last fight. I youtubed it because its very hard to find and maybe only VHS, picture is a bit murky and English subtitles are half offscreen but I followed it fine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQ9JnxgngG0