Best Martial Arts Movies

[Stickgrappler]

Kenjutsu - countless Lone Wolf and Cub movies, countless Zatoichi movies, countless Miyamoto Musashi movies

however, I'm partial to Takakura Ken/Robert Mitchum's The Yakuza and Christopher Lambert's The Hunted.

 

[Stickgrappler]

In terms of tv/movies that were inspiration to take up martial arts:

Probably the short list:

Karate Kid - Karate
Above the Law or Hard to Kill or Out for Justice - Aikido
Billy Jack - Hapkido
Kung Fu TV series/Green Hornet/Enter the Dragon - Kung Fu

 

[Stickgrappler]

Wrestling - Vision Quest

WCK - honorable mentions - The Prodigal Son (Yuen Biao, Sammo Hung); Warriors Two (Bryan Leung Kar yan, Casanova Wong); Invincible Shaolin (Snake of the 5 Deadly Venoms learns Yung Chun)

Southern Praying Mantis (Chow Gar Tong Long Pai) - Toad of 5 Deadly Venoms learns SPM - in real life, Lo Mang was a Chow Gar student

 

[Hong Kong Pooey]

As an expression of JKD, I feel Way of the Dragon aka Return of the Dragon was better than EtD! Call it sacrilege or what have you, my fave BL movie is indeed WotD.

BKB - another worthy candidate, Charles Bronson's Hard Times.

It's a great movie, and I'm impressed you call it by its proper name instead of Return of the Dragon like most Americans, but EtD is better

I haven't seen that Bronson movie but now I'm aware of its existence I'll try and source a copy and see if I concur.

 

[Hong Kong Pooey]

how about

Bones

Raze

Fight Night

Warrior

Are these all nominees for the MMA category? Sorry, I don't recognise the first 3 just from the titles.

 

[donald1]

The grandmaster was a good movie, it had ip man so I guess it was wingchun

(atleast i thought it was good...)

 

[donnaTKD]

Are these all nominees for the MMA category? Sorry, I don't recognise the first 3 just from the titles.

Bones is not MMA - i don't know what you'd call it -- maybe TKD or Karate - but i'm not familiar with either style as i train muay thai
Raze is a girlie mma fight movie -- to the death stuff

fight night is an anything goes movie - there's all sorts of styles in there.

warrior - mma

also there's

undisputed 2 and 3 - muay thai

 

[Buka]

Like Stickgrappler said, and one I had completely forgotten about, Hard Times! Great fighting flick that captures that era. Great characters.
Charlie Bronson was 54 when he made that, and, man, he was in shape. I think you guys will like it.

One other I had forgotten "When We Were Kings" a documentary about the Ali/Foreman fight, and all it's many trimmings. Won the Oscar for best documentary. If you're an Ali fan, or a boxing fan, this is a corker.

 

[Stickgrappler]

It's a great movie, and I'm impressed you call it by its proper name instead of Return of the Dragon like most Americans, but EtD is better

In terms of timelessness, EtD feels less dated and is more action-oriented... WotD is sadly not as timeless as EtD - some of the clothing really makes it tough. But it's way more philosophical and some of the JKD philosophy makes it through since BL was in total control of the movie e.g. conditioning (he had chuck norris start to gas out); broken rhythm - used it after going classical on chuck and classical didn't work forcing BL to try non-classical and broken rhythm, also his comments to the fat waiter in the alleyway about using what works

I haven't seen that Bronson movie but now I'm aware of its existence I'll try and source a copy and see if I concur.

I posted Hard Times as well as some Trivia in memory of Charles Bronson on Aug 30th.


IN MEMORY OF: Charles Bronson (Nov 3, 1921 ? Aug 30, 2003) - Hard Times (1975) (Full movie) ~ Stickgrappler's Sojourn of Septillion Steps

Enjoy!

 

[Stickgrappler]

The grandmaster was a good movie, it had ip man so I guess it was wingchun

(atleast i thought it was good...)

yeah overall it's a good movie, a beautifully-filmed drama with some action scenes ... at times it was TOO artistic for my simple tastes of enjoying a good fight scene... Yuen Woo-ping filmed the Cung Le X Tony Leung fight scene and auteur/director Wong Kar Wai refilms it as a night scene with rain -- obscuring parts of the fight for me ... one of the best fight scenes IMO is BL X Chuck Norris - wide-angle - see the whole body in action/motion

 

[Stickgrappler]

Like Stickgrappler said, and one I had completely forgotten about, Hard Times! Great fighting flick that captures that era. Great characters.
Charlie Bronson was 54 when he made that, and, man, he was in shape. I think you guys will like it.

above i posted a link with some trivia on Bronson and Hard Times -- one you may know or not - although he was in great shape for his age, he was a smoker, according to director Walter Hill, he could beat anyone on the set probably except after a few seconds he would be winded cos of his smoking!

 

[Buka]

As an expression of JKD, I feel Way of the Dragon aka Return of the Dragon was better than EtD! Call it sacrilege or what have you, my fave BL movie is indeed WotD.

BKB - another worthy candidate, Charles Bronson's Hard Times.

The only thing I don't like about Return...is Bruce Lee's voice. Other than that, I like it even more than Enter. But as much of a Bruce fan as I am, those are the only two of his films I can watch. But I'll watch them over and over!

 

[donald1]

yeah overall it's a good movie, a beautifully-filmed drama with some action scenes ... at times it was TOO artistic for my simple tastes of enjoying a good fight scene... Yuen Woo-ping filmed the Cung Le X Tony Leung fight scene and auteur/director Wong Kar Wai refilms it as a night scene with rain -- obscuring parts of the fight for me ... one of the best fight scenes IMO is BL X Chuck Norris - wide-angle - see the whole body in action/motion

I like the part where he asked the man if he had eaten, and when he hit him it made him throw up

 

[Badger1777]

Question mainly for our American buddies.

Around 1990ish, in the UK, nunchakus were banned and the media censorship people tried to erase them from existence. This even meant that the famous scene in Enter the Dragon where Brucey is trapped, and spends about 2 minutes practicing nunchuks, was edited out of the version of the film that was allowed to be broadcast.

Was this just a UK thing or did everyone else get the same rubbish?

I noticed in a TV airing of the same movie some years later that the nunchuck scene was back in.

 

[donald1]

Bruce Lee swings Nunchucku good. when I practice Nunchucku and I hear the the whipping sound of the Nunchucku passes beside my head even though I'm mostly certain it won't hit me it still makes me nervous

I like how he catches the Nunchucku under his arm, it doesn't seem like much but to me it seems cool

What I like about that movie, the beginning hees training that student
Bruce lee: what was that an exhibition?! And when the student asks a question he would say don't ask its a good one!

And when roper thinks thinks he will fight lee, roper gets in the small boat :lfao:

 

[Buka]

I remember the horror campaign against chucks. It was like suddenly they were considered a nuclear bomb. Oh, the politicians were pounding their fists to rid the world of this menace!

I don't remember any movie censorship about chucks, though. I hate movie censorship. There was a time some years ago that they did it with the movie E.T around here. It was the scene where the kids are getting chased by the cops as they're trying to get E.T back to his spaceship. Their bikes suddenly fly over the police roadblock. In the original, the cops had their service revolvers in hand. Then, digitally, they were changed to radios in hand. (maybe they should've had chucks!) That went on for a good ten years. Now, sometimes it's on TV either way. I think it must be which version of the film the particular TV station must have.

 

[Reedone816]

just to throw in a new style,
silat (sumatra style) - merantau warrior
silat and benjang (folk wrestling) - the raid
silat (the introduction on kerambit) - the raid 2: berandal
all three made from the same director and the same star actor, the first was made with the silek tuo grand master as the fight choreographer.
the second one made based on the silat beksi choreographer.
the third one was showing the slick kerambit works.

but the ma movies that gives me the goosebump are
the grandmaster, "vertical vs horizontal"
donnie yen ip man.
fighter in the wind, kyokusin.
red belt, really good "soft" critique on "brazillian family", the first time i learn about "pulling a car" training that more strength is actually a disadvantage.
kuro obi, the blocks are awesome.
ong back and tom yum goong, muay boran and video games martial art look entertaining, unfortunately, tony jaa signed with lousy producer, his last movie is far from desire able...

also a special mention, ali, phantom punch, million dollar baby, the fighter, all boxing.
chocholate, the kick, bad script but nice choreographs of yanin jeeja.

 

[Stickgrappler]

i don't recall any censoring of the 'chuks during the times i've watched the movie either on tv or rental vhs

 

[Hong Kong Pooey]

Question mainly for our American buddies.

Around 1990ish, in the UK, nunchakus were banned and the media censorship people tried to erase them from existence. This even meant that the famous scene in Enter the Dragon where Brucey is trapped, and spends about 2 minutes practicing nunchuks, was edited out of the version of the film that was allowed to be broadcast.

Was this just a UK thing or did everyone else get the same rubbish?

I noticed in a TV airing of the same movie some years later that the nunchuck scene was back in.

Pretty sure it was just a stupid UK thing. It's uncut on DVD & Blu-Ray.

Not sure if the actual weapon is still banned or not though.

 

[Hong Kong Pooey]

just to throw in a new style,
silat (sumatra style) - merantau warrior
silat and benjang (folk wrestling) - the raid
silat (the introduction on kerambit) - the raid 2: berandal
all three made from the same director and the same star actor, the first was made with the silek tuo grand master as the fight choreographer.
the second one made based on the silat beksi choreographer.
the third one was showing the slick kerambit works.

but the ma movies that gives me the goosebump are
the grandmaster, "vertical vs horizontal"
donnie yen ip man.
fighter in the wind, kyokusin.
red belt, really good "soft" critique on "brazillian family", the first time i learn about "pulling a car" training that more strength is actually a disadvantage.
kuro obi, the blocks are awesome.
ong back and tom yum goong, muay boran and video games martial art look entertaining, unfortunately, tony jaa signed with lousy producer, his last movie is far from desire able...

also a special mention, ali, phantom punch, million dollar baby, the fighter, all boxing.
chocholate, the kick, bad script but nice choreographs of yanin jeeja.

Good call on The Raid!