I bring this up because the movie and Tony Jaa himself reminds me Jackie Chan and Jet Li in, again, their prime performance and without Hollywood influences.
BTW, I don’t know the availability of these movies at the western world, but if you by any chance come across these in the ol dusty corner of your local video shop, hire a copy and see what I am saying.
Geek boy
I just watched Ong-Bak last night. It wasn’t a great movie, but Jaa is incredible. Some of the moves from those fight scenes were amazing.
[quote]AlphaDragon wrote:
Hero
Once Upon a Time IN China
Fist of Legend
Iron Monkey
…so many more…having brain failure[/quote]
You pretty much can’t go wrong with Jet Li or Donnie Yan or both.
I saw Jet Li vs Donnie Yan from Once Upon a Time In China 2, which they have two extremely good fight scenes in it. More than a decade later, see them in Hero again, which they are as impressive as they were.
Master Killer - I can still watch this over and over. One of my favorite movies in any genre. Excellent.
“5 Deadly Venoms” - That cheesy 70’s flavor, but I loved it when I was a kid. I’m still nostalgic over this one, but revisiting it, the seams show a lot more than I remembered.
“The Flying Guillotine” - a quasi-magical long distance head-chopping hat and kung-fu baddasses on trampolines. What more do you need?
Of the newer stuff, anything choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping is aces in my book. “The Matrix” is as good a martial arts movie as it is scifi.
For the knife enthusiast, it’s hard to do better than “The Hunted.” The fight scenes were choreographed by two of the top teachers of Sayoc Kali. Great stuff.
I picked up a copy of Ong Bak from Thailand early last year and the special features section has about 15 mins of fight choreography done in a warehouse with stuntmen. If you haven’t seen this you have to get it out. The athletic ability of Jaa is amazing.
I have to add Big Trouble in Little China - Kurt Russells mullet is legendary
Also I saw a movie with Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison that was awesome. Dacascos played a chinese secret agent with an adrenaline implant that allowed him to ‘supercharge’ into a maniac. Can’t remember the name though. Anyone else seen this?
It’s been years since I have seen a Sho Kusogi movie, but I always liked them.
One of my all time favorite characters was Sho’Nuff from the last dragon.
I always liked Jackie Chan’s The Protector. The fight at the end with Bill Superfoot Wallace made me laugh.
I didn’t like The Matrix. It was all special effects with people who had no real skills.
With simple editing you can make any unskilled person look fairly good to the average person. If you know what to look for it becomes very obvious.
The easiest trick is to jump from one camera angle to another. It can make the action look real fast and it covers up an actors inability to just flow with multiple techniques like a real martial artist. For me it’s a real turn off.
This is one of the reasons why I found Bruce Lee so impressive. Even when it’s choreographed, it takes skill to have a dozen people come at you nonstop and have the fight flow with out stopping. Lees scenes would be one long take from one camera. This made it feel like you were there as a spectator.
This is why I feel that Lee was the greatest fight choreographer ever. His fight senes weren’t a bunch of close up, stop action shots pasted together to make it look like action.
Perfect Weapon is another good example of continuous action. It’s more exciting to watch, because you have multiple follow up techniques, that give you the sense that this guy really could do this.
Kentucky Fried Movie was awesome. I haven’t seen that in years. That was some funny stuff.
[quote]nfisher wrote:
Three of my old-skool favorites:
Master Killer - I can still watch this over and over. One of my favorite movies in any genre. Excellent.
“5 Deadly Venoms” - That cheesy 70’s flavor, but I loved it when I was a kid. I’m still nostalgic over this one, but revisiting it, the seams show a lot more than I remembered.
“The Flying Guillotine” - a quasi-magical long distance head-chopping hat and kung-fu baddasses on trampolines. What more do you need?
Of the newer stuff, anything choreographed by Yuen Wo Ping is aces in my book. “The Matrix” is as good a martial arts movie as it is scifi.
For the knife enthusiast, it’s hard to do better than “The Hunted.” The fight scenes were choreographed by two of the top teachers of Sayoc Kali. Great stuff.[/quote]
Fucking ay!!
A connoiseur of the classics.
Let me add to this list:
Shaw Brothers (Hong Kong)
most of these films starred the awesome Gordon Liu (Johnny Mo (the Kato looking dude) in Kill Bill One and Pei-Mei in Kill Bill 2)
Eight Diagram Pole Fighters
Shaolin v. Lama
Animal Arts of Shaolin
Killer Priest
Shaolin v. Wu-Tang
Duel of the Iron Fist
Fist of the White Lotus (Pei-Mei from Kill Bill is based on the White Lotus, leader of the evil Lotus clan, who makes his first appearance in this film)
The Kid with the Golden Arms
Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend”
Shaolin v. Ninja
Japanese
The Street Fighter (starring the immortal Sonny Chiba - who plays Hatori Hanso in Kill Bill) - famous for the manual castration scene among others!! Tarantino also immortalizes this movie in “True Romance”
Return of the Street Fighter
Shogun Assasin movies - absolute fucking mayhem - this series inspired the splatter scene at the end of Kill Bill one for sure!!
for you hip-hop fans - this is the movie that starts off the beginning and middle and end of the GZA’s “Liquid Swords” album.
Beat Takeshi’s Zatoichi is pretty ill, too.
Enter the Ninja (Sho Kosugi as Hasegawa, the super ill Black Ninja)
Revenge of the Ninja (Sho Kosugi)
9 Deaths of the Ninja (Sho Kosugi)
Rage of Honor (Sho Kosugi)
Pray for Death (Sho Kosugi)
“Ichii the Killer” is just fucking nuts.
as you guys can see I like this stuff a little too much!
Kung Fu Hustle is very good, although since I don’t speak or read Chinese, the translations hampered the movie a bit.
Kung Pow: Enter The Fist is #1, because what he essetially did was take a VERY old Kung Fu movie, and make it his bitch. I actually remember an instance like that in Flash on NewGrounds. Not to mention, he at least had SOME kind of martial arts-training
most of these films starred the awesome Gordon Liu (Johnny Mo (the Kato looking dude) in Kill Bill One and Pei-Mei in Kill Bill 2)
Eight Diagram Pole Fighters
Shaolin v. Lama
Animal Arts of Shaolin
Killer Priest
Shaolin v. Wu-Tang
Duel of the Iron Fist
Fist of the White Lotus (Pei-Mei from Kill Bill is based on the White Lotus, leader of the evil Lotus clan, who makes his first appearance in this film)
The Kid with the Golden Arms
Jet Li’s “Fist of Legend”
Shaolin v. Ninja
[/quote]
I am with ya. The Liu brothers are still actively acting and choreographing in Hong Kong television and movies. Their recent performance makes me wonder whether they really are 70+ and 50+ years old respectively.
OARSMAN, or anyone…
Have you seen 5 Element Ninjas aka Chinese Super Ninjas?
I haven’t seen it for a lond time and I am trying to remember the ending. Is this the one where the school’s leader is killed by being stabbed through the palms with a needle?
Revenge of the Ninja was awsome. I liked it more than Enter the Ninja.
[quote]Dorso wrote:
OARSMAN, or anyone…
Have you seen 5 Element Ninjas aka Chinese Super Ninjas?
I haven’t seen it for a lond time and I am trying to remember the ending. Is this the one where the school’s leader is killed by being stabbed through the palms with a needle?
Revenge of the Ninja was awsome. I liked it more than Enter the Ninja. [/quote]
man…
Chinese Super Ninjas… I’ve only heard shit about how dope this movie is… alas, I’ve never seen it. Maybe I’ll get it on ebay or something…
I hear it’s especially violent and gory. Cool.
Yeah, Revenge of the Ninja was the totally superior movie… not as much plot and much more ninja shit, which is kinda the whole point. However, “Enter the Ninja” was a cool flick - a lot more character development and the thought of having Italian 70’s super pimp Franco Nero play a ninja AND PULL IT OFF is a brilliant masterstroke. Mad props in my book. The opening sequence where the white ninja graduates from the “Ninja Academy” is off the hook. That final duel scene in that movie is pretty insane too.
[quote]heimdall wrote:
Hands down it has to be ‘Five Deadly Venoms’ by the Shaw Brothers, followed closely by ‘The Crippled Avengers’, also from the Brothers.[/quote]
word.
Crippled Avengers is fucking hilarious - it’s all about the retard.
The scene where the blind Avenger got his eyes poked out is pretty cool, too.
[quote]Professor X wrote:
swivel wrote:
i’m down w/ everything said above and nice call on the first drunken master !
enter the dragon #1 all the way though personally i’ve prolly watched chinese connection and fists of fury twice as many times.
i’d like to see “the octogon” mentiuoned and,stretching the genre a bit, i’d like to add ghost dog and kill bill 1&2 -which is really one story and i don’t see the point of likeing one half better than the other…
I liked Kill Bill…a lot. I think people who don’t like that movie have some type of mental disorder and should have it fixed…quickly.
I haven’t seen Ghost Dog, but you are the second person I know to hype that movie so I will check it out as soon as possible.[/quote]
Ghost dog is seriously one of the best movies I have ever seen. I thought I was the only person in the whole world that loved it.