The Top 30, or so, Martial Arts films...

[D_Davis]

We're Going to Eat You (1980) - Dir: Tsui Hark

Anticipation can be like a double-barreled shotgun, held by a hyperactive child all hopped up on goofballs, pointed straight at your face – a precarious situation to be sure. If you happen to live through the moment, the exhilaration can be euphoric, and nearly orgasmic, but usually, the spastic kid's trigger finger twitches and – BLAMMO – you've got a bloody-nubbin spurtin' gore where your head used to be. Tsui Hark's We're Going To Eat You is a film that I anticipated for many, many years – almost nine to be exact - ever since I was first exposed Once Upon a Time in China, back in 1993. I had heard about, and dreamed of seeing this legendary film, but up until last year (2005), it had been completely unavailable in a subtitled, official, remastered capacity. So, it is with great relief, and honest excitement, that I am able to say this film far surpassed my heightened anticipation – yeah, it is really dang good.

We're Going to Eat You is the finest kung fu-cannibal-comedy you will ever see – perhaps it is the only film in this rarest of sub-genres: the kung-can-com. The film perfectly strikes a balance between the outrageously funny, gory, scary, and action packed sequences with skill and style not often seen. The way Hark and the actors expertly straddle and execute the shifting tones and styles is masterful, and offers a scrumptious treat for the senses. The film stars Norman Chu as Agent 999, a man sent on a mission to investigate some strange occurrences in a remote village deep in the heart of an Asian jungle. Upon arriving at the village, Agent 999 soon discovers an entire gang made up of Leatherface-wannabes, that kidnap unsuspecting victims to be killed, carved, and eaten by the village's bizarre inhabitants.



Tsui Hark and action-choreographer Corey Yuen create some truly memorable set pieces. While the action isn't quite up to snuff, or comparable to best from time period, they make up for the lack of martial-skill with style and frenetic pacing to spare. Norman Chu moves quite well, and keeps his cool, while dispatching cannibal after cannibal in a variety of wacky showdowns. One moment in particualr that will surely leave jaws on the floor, and fans scrambling for a pause-rewind-slow-mo-retake, is when Agent 999 takes a brief break in the middle of a chaotic bout of fisticuffs to roll a cigarette on a goon's face. He then lights it, and continues to fight while smoking his face-rolled ciggy – perhaps the only time this feat has ever been attempted on screen! And oh yeah, make sure you're prepared for some amazing roller skating antics.



There are a ton of little moments like this peppered throughout the film, moments that demand strict attention – blink and you might miss something awesome. There is almost always something cool happening on screen, and Hark captures it all with the grace of a camera-equipped ninja. Whether laughs, gasps, groans, or cheers are elicited, one thing is certain: the pacing never lets up – the film is full of Hark-patented kinetic energy. The entire thing is framed like some kind of live-action comic book, and I mean this as the best of possible compliments. Each shot looks like an expertly laid-out comic book panel, as the utmost attention to detail, lighting, and composition is used in almost every frame. Just as there are moments of physical action, and comedy, that will be remembered far after the film is over, so too are there shots that will continue to haunt the mind's eye after the end credits roll.



We're Going To Eat You just oozes with style. It is a grotesque, bizarre and gonzo journey into the heart and mind of a filmmaker that loves to let it rip. It has the action martial-arts fans demand, the comedy to shake things up, and the gore and scares to quench the horror fan's thirst. However, under Hark's watchful gaze, all of these elements fit together like a well designed puzzle – nothing feels forced or out of place. The quickly-written and balls-out style of the narrative is perfectly complemented by the zig-zagging work of the camera, and it all comes together due to the wonderful cast and crew. It truly is a rare film – a film that is fun, exciting, and nearly perfect, and a film that lives up to its legendary status.

[D_Davis]

Holy Flame of the Martial World (1983) - Dir. Lu Chin-ku



Holy Flame of the Martial World is one wicked kung fu film. Imagine the zaniest most bizarre thing you have ever seen, all hopped up on goofballs, with many moments of sheer brilliance sprinkled about a gaggle of freaked out fisticuffs and enough crazy weapons to fill a museum. Now imagine something even crazier and more fun than that: if you can’t fathom a film so full of awesomeness, (and I fear for those who can) then just click on over to hkflix.com and order yourself up a helping of Holy Flame. This is a premier example of what I like to call, WTF-Cinema.

Holy Flame is a tough film to describe because so much of what makes it so damn amazing is in the unique visuals. The blazing colors pop off the screen, the sets are a gaudy kaleidescopic mess of neon nick-nacks, and the pure visceral aesthetic energy is a treat for the eyes. At its core, the film is a simple kung fu tale about the ultimate weapons in all of the jiang hu, The Holy Flames, and the quest to find and utilize said weapons. The film also uses the old two-twins-separated-at-birth-one-raised-by-good-the-other-by-bad trope that seemed to be oh so common during the glory days of my beloved genre.

So we’ve got two twins, each looking for a magic sword called the Holy Flame, and each must battle their way through a motley crew of the craziest bunch of kung fu masters this side of a Robert Tai film. I know, it sounds like a clichéd disaster just waiting to happen – but here’s the thing: it’s not. The two main characters, however, are not the most memorable characters in the film. As a matter of fact, they are actually quite boring, and their personalities are rather passé. Luckily for us, the rest of the cast of madcap players is brimming with some of the most bizarre and outlandish kung fu fighting, back flip flipping, high jump jumping, snake controlling, green suit wearing, zombie conjuring characters you will ever lay your eyes on. And, just to prove my point check out these examples:

Er Mai - Man, this chick is crazy and really pissed. Just look at her scowl in the mug shot and you can see what I mean. She’s got this really cool gray hair, and to tell you the truth I am bit baffled by her appearance. You see, I am not sure if she is playing a woman who is disguised as a man (a common trope in the wuxia genre) or if she is playing a woman being a woman who just happens to look like a man. Anyhow, I bet she wishes she were a man, because she is the leader of a school full of nothing but hot assassin chicks who really kick ass.

The Phantom - Alright, this guy wins the “Freaking Insane Laughter” award, and as all of you long time Shaw Brothers fans know, there are a ton of crazy-laughing kung fu masters – but this guy’s laugh truly dominates the martial world. One laugh to rule them all and in the darkness bind them, and all that jazz! The Phantom uses his Ghostly Laughter as a weapon to create a sonic wave of sound that causes people to go crazy. It also causes the wind to blow really violently. Oh yeah, and did I mention he is played by none other than Philip Kwok, Venom and fight choreographer extraordinaire? So yeah, he pretty much rocks the world.

Crazy Green Corpse Zombie WWF Robot Fighting Guy - Eeven without a proper name, this guy still kicks ass and he is totally memorable. Green Corpse is a fighter that is under the control of the poison clan's crazy master. He wears skin tight green pajamas, and constantly pounds his chest and screams and yells a lot, while kicking a ton of butt. He fights like some crazy robotic WWF fighter with stiff arm techniques and a ton of drop kicks, throws and grabs. So basically, he is really, really freaking awesome.

The best fight in the film, and there are quite a few, takes place right after Wan, one of the main twins, finds his Holy Flame. He teams up with Duan, a pupil of the master named Monster Yu, and together they attack the poison clan’s fortress. Man, this sequence is so cool it hurts my brain. First of all, the evil cult master uses his evil Taoist magic to animate four zombie-skull fighters from some hanging tapestries. The zombie skull-fighters are birthed from their cotton-womb, and proceed to bust some heads. This fight is straight out of a crazy-ass comic book ,with the six combatants jumping, flying, dashing, swinging, slashing, punching, kicking and generally beating the crap out of one another.



Once the four zombie-skull fighters are dispatched, the Taoist cult master unleashes the above-mentioned Green Corpse Zombie fighter guy. Our two heroes and Green Corpse fight a battle that is so loopy, and so over cranked, that it turns into pure action-comedy gold. The camera work during this fight is brilliant, as the DP utilizes super quick zooms and pans, and really makes the fight seem chaotic. This is pure wuxia magic here folks, and should not be missed.

There is one set piece that without a doubt is truly remarkable. It occurs after Wan enters the Moonlight cave to obtain his Holy Flame. In the cave there is a secret room (behind a, wait for it, waterfall! Who would have guessed?) with a large drum at one end sitting in front of a huge yin-yang symbol on the floor. Around the symbol are a series of buttons, that once pressed unleash – okay are you sitting down? – giant Chinese words that attack the protagonist. Yeah you heard me, Wan gets the beat down from a sentence, a real grammar assassin, and a group of ruthless letters.

The killer-calligraphy flies around the dark Tron-like, neon-lit room, spinning and dashing at Wan as he nimbly avoids contact, jumps, ducks, and eventually even rides one of the characters like the Monkey King on his nimbus. Wan proves to be the master of the sky surfing killer-calligraphy and smacks each one down in order to display the answer to the riddle of the cave. If you thought the cool cave scenes from the Indiana Jones films were awesome, trust me, compared to this crap they are less so.



If you haven’t guessed by now, Holy Flame of the Martial World is one long series of great lasting impressions. The film is just so wacky and entertaining that it’s hard to believe how much crazy crap they crammed into this cinematic-wunderkind. 1983 was a pivotal year for the kung fu and wuxia genres, with the focus then on new special effect techniques and extravagant wirework to lure back the genre's shrinking fan base. Holy Flame, along with Tsui Hark’s groundbreaking Zu Warriors, helped to usher in a new era of kung fu cinema, while changing the landscape of Chinese action films.

If any thing, Holy Flame is almost too gonzo, as everything in the film is designed for ultimate sensory overload. The colors are garish, the sets are overly decorated, the characters are boisterous, and their actions preposterous. After watching this film for the first time, I actually had a really freaking strange dream. I dreamt that the characters in the film were all played by the cast of the British television show The Office. They all spoke in their British accents, but performed the entire film totally straight in my dream. As weird as that sounds, it’s really not all that bizarre when compared to the actual film.

[Fried Egg]

Wow, I only just noticed this thread.

I do really enjoy martial arts movies and must confess to having seen far too few of them. I appreciate the effort you've gone to in this thread D.Davis. Cheers.

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by Fried Egg

Wow, I only just noticed this thread.

I do really enjoy martial arts movies and must confess to having seen far too few of them. I appreciate the effort you've gone to in this thread D.Davis. Cheers.

Thanks.

Although, it's not much of an original effort.

Just copying and pasting from my top 100 and my website.



Glad you like reading though, thanks!

[D_Davis]

Project A (1984) - Dir. Jackie Chan

Note - I wanted to include better screenshots, but my DVD kept on crappin' out.



Project A is Jackie Chan's best film, and the best film co-starring his Peking opera brothers, Sammo Hung and Yeun Biao. Project A is a swashbuckling, high-flying, tightly-paced, entertaining adventure yarn complete with pirates, kung fu, comedy and action sequences galore. In other words, it totally rocks, and delivers a non-stop series of laughs and action in a way that only a Hong Kong film can. And, as good as everyone else in the film is, Jackie Chan totally steals the show. It has often been said (even by the man himself) that Jackie is his own special-effect, and this film proves the notion true.



Like a live action Lupin III cartoon, Project A is a boy's own film that preys upon the desire for grand adventure and action. It approaches its action and adventure with an innocence and lightheartedness, and even when the violence erupts it maintains a sense of fun and naivety. In many ways, the film reminds me of the imaginative adventures I had as a kid, and it is this quality that I admire most. Its “awe-shucks” earnestness and tangible energy bolster each other, and the filmmakers use these qualities to craft a film that is highly endearing, memorable, and effective.



While the film does come up pretty short in the plot and character departments, it more than makes up these shortcomings with pure energy. The film benefits from the stars' unique personalities, youthful charm, grace, and energy. Project A was Chan's first major, and financially successful, directorial effort, and it is clear that he approached the film with the exuberance of kid free of adult supervision in giant toy store. Jackie and his “brothers,” Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, create some of the most fun and memorable action pieces of the era.

Key sequences include a musical-like bar brawl, complete with food-in-face gags, broken chairs, prop-assisted action, and Yeun Biao's signature tumbling, a siege of a pirate's hidden cove, a restaurant fight, with Sammo and Jackie cracking wise, and an amazing sequence that begins with an incredibly inventive bike chase and ends with Jackie facing off against my favorite bit-player, Lee Hoi-San, in, and on, an imposing clock tower. This clock-tower set-piece contains one of Chan's most famous and deadly stunts: a nearly 5-story free-fall, broken only be a series of flimsy awnings, at the end of which Jackie lands painfully on his melon. And oh yeah, he does the stunt multiple times to get the best take for the film.



The film's setting is also unique, and helps the film break free from the plethora of old-school martial arts flicks churned out by the Shaw Brothers and Golden Harvest studios during the previous decade. Set in the nineteen-thirties, against the backdrop of civil unrest, the film comically examines the impact of British Naval control in Hong Kong. Gone are the typical kung fu masters, training sequences, and tournament style battles. Also gone are the pangs of vengeance, the classical weapon combat, and the Shaolin-style open-handed combat. Project A approaches its action and drama in an all together different way. The city in which the film is set is more modern, and the milieu feels more alive and vibrant. Everything is on a much grander scale, and the tangible surroundings make for many memorable sights and sounds.



There are a few films that typify the mid-school era of Hong Kong action cinema, but none do so as well as Project A. The nineteen-eighties were a time of incredibly creative output from this small Island, and spearheading this cinematic-advancement was Jacki Chan, Sammo Hung, and Yuen Biao. Like a perfect mix between the Three Stooges, Fred Astaire, Harold Lloyd, and Bruce Lee, these three young men helped to define a nation's cinema, and Project A is a premier example of their creative output. It is a joy to watch, contains many moments of breathtaking stunt work and action choreography, and is simply far too much fun to look away.

[D_Davis]

The Bride With White Hair (1993) - Dir. Ronny Yu



Asian film directors are able to create worlds, situations, characters and action traditionally limited only to animation. One of the greatest examples of this phenomena is Ronny Yu's The Bride With White Hair, starring the late Leslie Cheung and the incredibly gorgeous and talented Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia. Like the classic Romeo & Juliet, The Bride With White Hair is a tale detailing the doomed relationship of two lovers from warring political factions. The film is made of visual and poetic dualities; it is both a beautiful, touching and poetic romance, and a tragic, violent, and gruesome action film, often at the same time. Ronny Yu, Peter Pau, the cinematographer, and David Wu, the editor, craft a world that is visually dark, yet alluring, violent, yet peaceful, and so full of visual imagery that it can easily cause vast sensory overload. From the opening scene of a swordsman protecting a flower whose power might restore his lost love's humanity, to the climatic bloodshed of action, every moment of this film is worthy of framing and displaying.



Leslie Cheung plays, Zhuo Yi-Hang, a Wu Tang student who is fed up with the traditions and "pleasantries" of his martial discipline. He doesn't want to be involved in the day-to-day politics of the jiang hu, and lives, instead, for romantic adventure. Brigitte Lin plays, Lian Nichang, a top assassin of an evil cult hell-bent on the total destruction of the various martial schools. Leung and Lin have a link in their past, and are drawn closer to one another while also manipulated byu the political corruption of their warring schools. Zhou, a romantic at heart, wants nothing more than the love of Lian, however, the more realistic Lian knows that this love cannot be. She ultimately becomes so full of rage and hatred, stemming from and directed towards her brain-washing cult, that she becomes the spirit of lost love incarnate, the Bride With White Hair, a hateful, beastly woman destroying all who stand in her way, including the only person who ever loved her, Zhou Yi-Hang.



After seeing Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China for the first time, I needed more, and I will be forever grateful to the video store clerk for suggesting this film to me. I could not have asked for a better follow up to Tsui's mind-blowing epic. Upon repeated viewings, The Bride still stands up, and I am often surprised at just how effective it is. There is a magical quality at work in the film, a magic that Ronny Yu never quite found in any of his other Hong Kong productions, and a magic lacking from many other films of the era. The film seems to exist completely in its own world ,and we the audience are some how privy to view this world through the eyes of the director.



Ronny Yu generously opens up the window to his imagination and allows us a glimpse of the greatness within. The Bride With White Hair is a superior genre film, and a film that transcends genre conventions and boundaries. It contains moments of hard-hitting action, a musical interlude, sadness, depravity, violence, and elements of horror all, wrapped around a narrative of passionate romance. It is a film that would be perfectly at home on the DVD shelf of an avid kung fu junkie or an admirer of art house cinema. This is one of those rare films that really does get everything right, and a film that Ronny Yu should be eternally proud of.

[sunnye]

yeeh!
I love it !
I'm Chinese!

[D_Davis]

Disciples of the 36th Chamber (1985) - Dir: Lau Kar Leung



Disciples of the 36th Chamber literally begins with a punch to the gut, and the film continues to assault the senses at each and every turn. The film, in a word, is grand: the production values soar, the action is sophisticated and expertly choreographed, the humor - while broad at times - works within the narrative, and the story itself is simple yet moving. For Lau Kar Leung's last Shaw Brothers outing, he executed what might be considered a "best of" approach, as Disciples features everything that made his previous films so outstanding, polished to near perfection. We get the human drama from Executioners of Shaolin and Challenge of the Masters, the pageantry from Martial Arts of Shaolin and The Martial Club, the humor from Return to the 36th Chamber and Mad Monkey Kung Fu, and the jaw-dropping action from Heroes of the East and 8 Diagram Pole Fighter. This film only proves and solidifies Lau's standing as the premier force behind martial arts cinema.



In the film, Gordon Liu once again dons the robes of the monk San Te, and Hsaio Ho plays legendary shaolin rebel, Fong Sai Yuk – a dual force to be reckoned with for sure. The narrative begins with the hotheaded and angst-filled Fong Sai Yuk causing a ruckus in his school, and being a total punk at home - a true rabble-rouser full of disrespect and misplaced anger. Fong Sai Yuk takes his shenanigans one step too far when he insults and challenges an evil Manchurian governor, and finds himself being hunted by the Manchu-oppressors. Fong Sai Yuk's mother begs the shaolin temple's monks to take him in as a layman, and under the mentoring eye of the monk San Te, Fong Sai Yuk begins his apprenticeship.



In the original 36th Chamber, Lau Kar Leung defined what would come to be known as the "training sequence," and a good portion of that film was devoted to the training of the young San Te. In Disciples, less of the running time is devoted to the training of Fong Sai Yuk, but it works well within the narrative. Because Fong is already such a rockin' martial artist (his mother trained him at an early age), he constantly blows through the training exercises and mocks the other trainees and monks.

However, San Te notices Fong’s poor attitude and portentousness, and is present at every turn to beat some humility and level-headedness into the young rebel. Every time Fong thinks he can outsmart or outmatch San Te, he learns that he can't - the hard, painful and embarrassing way. During one such training sequence, Fong talks a ton of smack about his own tea-bench fighting skills, and San Te calls him out – oh yeah, it’s on. This particular sequence features prop-assisted choreography that even Jackie Chan would be proud of (or perhaps jealous of), as San Te and Fong lock hand and foot, as they deftly spin around, on, over and under the twisting and twirling tea-benches.



Disciples is not filled to the brim with action per se, but it is never boring. There really are only a few actual fights peppered throughout, but everything is handled with such aplomb that it really is a joy to behold – the film is a testament to the expertise of its makers. Structurally, the film resembles 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, in that the entire narrative is presented as a build up for one final and epic confrontation - only here the action is even more jaw dropping, as if that is even possible. Never ones to take the easy way out, Lau Kar Leung's and Gordon Liu's work in the final showdown is something of a true marvel, and Hsaio Ho's physical skill here is the definition of the word awesome. For the last 12 or so minutes, all hell breaks lose as monks and apprentices are jumping, diving, fighting, dodging and making fools of the Manchurian officials and their warlords. San Te busts out his super-custom three-section staff and lays some serious hurt down on those sad sap Manchus. Every inch of the screen is used to optimal effect, as fists and legs and bodies fly from the foreground to the background, and tumble from rooftops to the floor. The action during this sequence feels immediate and chaotic and the tension is as palpable as the rebel’s purpose.



It really is amazing to think of Lau Kar Leung’s career, and the work he did under the Shaw Brothers banner. It is safe to assume that the mark he left on genre cinema is second to no other filmmaker, Eastern or Western. I will rest easy when Lau’s name is mentioned casually along side other great directors like Leone, Scorsese, Kubrick, and Spielberg, but until then, his name must be praised by those of us who get it. Lau Kar Leung’s films are as hard hitting and spectacular today as they were over 20 years ago, and will continue to be an inspirational beacon of light for filmmakers and fans to come. The Disciples of the 36th Chamber is a perfect film to top off a perfect era of one of the all time great filmmakers.

[Connavar]

Wow thats the sequal to Master Killer which i loved.

Chia-Liang Liu is how i know Lau Kar Leung i understand much better now .

Since he is the director of 3 of my favorit martial art movies. Master Killer,Drunken Master,I,II.

Thats his name in imdb when i check out who made the movies.

[D_Davis]

Originally Posted by Connavar

Wow thats the sequal to Master Killer which i loved.

Chia-Liang Liu is how i know Lau Kar Leung i understand much better now .

Since he is the director of 3 of my favorit martial art movies. Master Killer,Drunken Master,I,II.

Thats his name in imdb when i check out who made the movies.

Yeah - in the States is more known as Lau Kar Leung, while in Europe he is more often known as Chia Laing Liu. Which is confusing, because his adopted brother/student, Gorden Liu, uses the Liu pronunciation in the states.

So when people speak of the Lau or Liu family of martial artists, they are speaking of the same family.

Master Killer is originally called 36th Chamber of Shaolin

[Connavar]

Yeah i saw that in imdb that its also called 36th Chamber of Shaolin but when i rented it last year i knew the DVD name which was The Master Killer.


Easy the best Shaolin movie i have seen, i loved the training and the choreography was one of the best i have seen from shaolin,monk type movies. Specially for a 1978 movie.

I didnt knew about a sequal, i must have it now

Gorden Liu is totaly unknown to me too. Since i didnt know his english sounding HK name. Hi Liu something i read in imdb, i call him H Liu for short :P

[D_Davis]

Return of the One-Armed Swordsman (1969) - Dir: Chang Cheh



Return of the One Armed Swordsman tells the continuing story of Feng Geng (Jimmy Wang Yu), and how he is pulled out of seclusion back into the Jiang Hu, or the underground world of martial arts. After enacting his revenge in the first film (getting back at the people who robbed him of his arm), Feng leaves the life of chivalry and martial arts behind and sojourns to the country with his new wife Hsiao Ma. Together they live their lives as simple farmers and have little contact with the outside world. Since forsaking the way of the swordsman, Feng has hung his broken-bladed sword on a mantle: it's presence and that of his missing arm serve as reminders of his previous life. But all too soon, Feng Geng is reluctantly called back into action, as the 8 Demon Swordsmen threaten the other martial clans across the land. With some gentle and, eventually, coarse prodding from a group of young masters and his wife, Feng once again wields his broken blade and sheds ample amounts of enemy blood



The action in this film is not as technical as it is in many of Cheng Cheh’s other films. It is not necessarily even kung fu, as this film has more in common with the Japanese chambara genre than it does with a typical Hong Kong kung fu picture. This is a wuxia pian, and an early one at that. However, whatever the fights may lack in technical prowess, they more than make up for it with bloodshed, abundance, and chaotic energy.

Perhaps the most intricately staged fight sequence is when Feng Geng and the young masters, take on Hell’s Buddha, one of the 8 Demon Swordsmen, and his band of thugs. Hell’s Buddha specializes in ninja-like abilities, as he and his cohorts zip and fly around a bamboo thicket, hiding and vanishing and bursting out of the ground with blades swinging. This sequence is fast and furious, and the editing is top notch. Although some primitive wire work is used, as well as some not so special effects, through the power of editing and the skill of those involved, the bamboo thicket quickly and beautifully becomes a collection of lost limbs, and small geysers of blood.



Return of the One-Armed Swordsman should be considered a top-tier film, genre or otherwise. Why this film isn’t talked about with the same enthusiasm or respect as the films of Kurosawa, Leone, Peckinpah, Scorsese or other great genre filmmakers is a mystery to me. Sure, it is made on a smaller scale than the film's of these other masters, but such were the times at the Shaw Brothers' studios. RotOAS is classic cinema, period. The film is mature, undertakes a complex character study, and has beautiful cinematography, a wonderful score, and breathtaking action. The writing is multifaceted in that it competently touches upon elements that make it entertaining as well as showcasing the emotional depth of a multitude of characters.



Not only does RotOAS have intact all of the elements of “great cinema”, but it also manages to be highly adventures in its narrative while offering pure entertainment. I often feel that many film critics and self proclaimed Internet film buffs are afraid to attach such accolades to genre cinema. To them I ask this question: what more does a film need to be considered important or a great work of art? So far as I can tell, RotOAS possess these elements, and more. I would argue that well made genre films are often the most artistic of films because they not only contain the elements that make films great art, but they also do something else - they entertain and have the ability to engage a wider audience.



Well made genre films require the filmmakers to be ultra-creative. After all, they are not working within an established reality, but instead, the filmmakers must create an entire world with logic and rules and physics of its own. The only limiting factor of great genre cinema is the limits of the imagination of its creators. Chang Cheh’s name should be mentioned with the rest when anyone talks about the important filmmakers. Hopefully as we champions of genre-cinema preach and inform the uninitiated, Chang and filmmakers like him will get the credit they really deserve and films like Return of the One-Armed Swordsman will be discussed along side other films deserving of the “great cinema” title.

[Celeritas]

good picks.

i'd add "my father is a hero" with jet li and tse miu.

and my son adores the same actor combo in "legend of the red dragon"

wonder is there is a martial arts film gene.....??


oh and "deadly china hero" of the wong fei hung movies with jet li where he does his angry drunk version of drunken style and fights a giant centipede dressed as a chicken. priceless.

[D_Davis]

A martial arts film gene, eh?

Probably explains it...



Deadly China Hero is ridiculous, and oh so much fun. Totally irreverent and gonzo.

Up next...

Not so much a review, more of an essay on how this film changed my life.

Once Upon a Time in China - Dir. Tsui Hark



While I have enjoyed, and loved, many films throughout my life, there is one film that stands out because of the doors it opened for my cinematic journey. This film opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at genre cinema, and led me to discover countless other films, directors, actors and filmmakers. It also opened my eyes to seeing, and appreciating, an entire country's cinematic output in a way I had never done before. This film is Tsui Hark's landmark martial arts epic, Once Upon a Time in China.

Being a child of the '80s, I grew up loving karate and ninjas. I've said it before, but it deserves repeating, the '80s were in fact the “just add ninja,” era, and ninjas were about the coolest things ever. G.I. Joe had two awesome ninjas (and we all loved G.I. Joe), and the home video retailers always had a plethora of cheaply made ninja movies ready to be consumed by our VCRs and mimicked on the playgrounds at school. I was also quite fond of Black Belt Theatre, my weekly escape into the kung fu genre that wowed me and entertained me for many years. I would watch, and wanted to watch, anything that had anything to do with ninjas and the martial arts – that's just the way it was, it was meant to be.

After the 1980s and the death of Black Belt Theatre, kung fu cinema, and ninja-cinema, kind of fell off of my radar. These, of course, were the dark days of home cinema – great foreign genre cinema was almost impossible to come by on VHS. That is until around 1993, when a young Blockbuster clerk pointed me in the direction of a local Asian-video retailer called 5-Star Video, and I discovered Once Upon a Time, Jet Li and Tsui Hark. Upon my first viewing, I had no idea what to expect, and I thought the film might offer up the same kind of cheesy revenge-narratives and hokey dubbing found in the kung fu films I devoured as a youngling. Well, I couldn't have been more wrong. My mind was fully blown – glowing from my television was a film that not only contained some of the best and most outrageous action I had ever seen (I'll never forget my first experience seeing Jet Li move), but the narrative on display was far more complex and involving than any other martial arts film I had seen up until this point.

Once Upon a Time is awash in political intrigue and civil unrest, and depicts Hong Kong during a time of great change and turmoil. It is a story of a great Chinese hero, Wong Fei Hong (Jet Li), and how this hero led the people of Hong Kong to stand up against the imperialistic western invasion of the British colonizers. The story told in this film opened my eyes to the true abilities of Hong Kong filmmakers. I mean, I knew they could make some highly entertaining martial arts films, but I just never expected to see a film offer up such a moving and epic narrative. This wasn't because I didn't think Hong Kong filmmakers were capable of making “real” movies, it was just because I never even knew to look past the caliber of films shown on Black Belt Theatre. For this I am most grateful, this film opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at world-cinema, and also opened the doors that have led to a lifelong passion for Asian filmmakers.

From the moment the film was over, I knew I had to see more: I wanted more Tsui Hark, and more Jet Li, and, not to mention, more of this wicked wire-assisted action. From here my cinematic endeavors gravitated towards the films of Ching Siu Tung, Jackie Chan, Jing Wong, and Yeun Woo Ping, and films such as Butterfly and Sword, The Flying Daggers, New Dragon Gate Inn, and A Chinese Ghost Story. It was like discovering a whole new section at the video store – a section that happened to contain some of the greatest, most beautiful, most action packed, and amazing films I had ever seen. I truly felt alive, and like I had discovered some great cinematic secret-treasure. I became a young man on a mission, a mission to unearth as many of these films as possible – I dug through the dark and dusty shelves of video stores clearly on the wrong side of the tracks, and worked hard to gain the trust of the retail clerks who wanted nothing to do with a gweilo such as myself.

But alas, it was all worth it. All of the strange looks, and mispronounced titles and names, and all of the driving around looking for the next best flick – it was all for my passion. The seed for this passion may have, in fact, been planted with the help of Stormshadow, Snake Eyes, American Ninja, and Black Belt Theatre, but it was Tsui Hark and Jet Li who really fostered and nourished my love for Asian cinema. And because of this fact, I will always hold Once Upon a Time up in the highest regard. This film is my mythological herald, calling me on my journey to seek out, discover, and understand all of the great films from Hong Kong, China, Korea and Japan