Kung Fu/Ninja/Samurai movies

[RDClip]

So since we have threads for general discussion of sci-fi, anime, and other genres, I figure why not have a thread for martial arts movies?

Come talk about any good asian martial arts movies, from hong kong, japan, korea, thailand, etc.

Yesterday, i watched Azumi, a great samurai/assassin kinda movie set in japan in about the 1600's. Really cool sword fights, great choreography, good cinematography, and a super cute assassin girl. I would describe it as a live action anime. I've loved this movie since i first saw it a few years ago and developed a huge crush on Aya Ueto because of it. So, if you can find a copy of it i highly recommend it.

For anyone just getting into hong kong action movies, I really have to suggest my favourite kung fu star, Donnie Yen. He's a guy that never gained the recognition in the west that his peer Jet Li has, but I believe that he is as good, if not better, than Jet. He has the skill (just as Jet does) to make the fighting style of each one of his characters different. Watch Flash point to see MMA inspired fight scenes and Ip Man for Wing Chun. He is also one of the best fight choreographers in HK cinema, working on the action scenes in Blade 2, the Princess Blade, and Highlander Endgame.

Some good donnie yen movies:

Sha Po Lang

Ip Man

14 Blades

Iron Monkey

Flash Point

Legend of the Wolf

Hero (he has a great fight with Jet Li)

[EXO]

I liked Azumi and it's sequel.

My favorite samurai films are probably not the typical action slasher but the Yôji Yamada samurai trilogy films, starting with The Twilight Samurai. These films don't glorify the lifestyle of the samurai as in other movies but it shows their life as seen thru the bottom ranks of the hierchy. But that doesn't mean the characters can't be looked up to because it seems like these protagonists have a lot of integrity and courage. Just like Eastwood earlier films compare to the older samurai films these are more comparable to Eastwood's later films such as Unforgiven and Gran Torino.

The three films in this series are:

Twilight Samurai

The Hidden Blade

Love and Honor

I recommend spacing out your viewings because they are really similar to each other but special in their own ways. I'm waiting for them to be released in Bluray before I get them.

Of course not to mention all the good ol' standbys Kurosawa films.

[Vepariga]

This is my home ground this genre, seriously most of my DVD's are samurai/Ninja/kung fu films.

were to begin, on Azumi,love it,a personal favorite of mine really,action plenty,blood splutter and fun.

for realistic ninja film,look no futher then Fukuro no Shiro..excellent film, or and old series starring Sonny Chiba called 'Shadow Warriors' is great.

I really enjoyed the Twilight samurai,Hidden Blade,Love and Honor Trilogy as well,very well done, you should check out 'When The Last Sword Is Drawn' and 'Shinsengumi' both great movies.

Donnie Yen is a legend lol, Ipman is one of his best films ,cant wait for Ipman 2 even has a young bruce which will be mad.

um,what else..*looks over collection*..Samurai trilogy is pretty good,Toshiro Mifune playing the role of Musashi,probably one of the better films portraying Musashi's life.

oh,for good swordplay and crazy overthetop blood fountains cant go past the classic LoneWolf an Cub series. love it.

Ninja in the dragons den is also a good one,Hiroyuki Sanada in his prime.

..heaps man,heaps..

[Mog]

Masaki Kobayashi's Harakiri (aka Seppuku).

There's not exactly wall-to-wall samurai action in it, but the story more than makes up for that.

Big time.

[gerwalk25]

I have to put this on my list as the best Samurai Film ever.

[Golden Arms]

Good thread idea. I'm a huge fan of Hong Kong action and old shaw brothers films. Most of the movies I own are under these genres as well as anime. I just picked up red cliff last week and I hope

to watch it soon. My favorites are the Venoms, Gordon Liu, Ti Lung, Alexander Fu sheng, Chen Kuan tai, Tony Leung and Chow yun Fat.

Other notable Donnie Yen films:

Seven Swords and Kill Zone( Donnie vs Sammo Hung)

The Kung Fu master

Once upon a Time in China 2: Jet vs Donnie

[BeyondTheGrave]

Dragon Tiger gate is pretty cool. Five deadly Venoms and return of the Five deadly venoms aka crippled avengers cult classics. Serious plot holes but who cares.

[RD Blade]

Snake in Eagle's Shadow

Tai Chi Master (AKA Twin Warriors)

[RDClip]

Just saw the trailer for ip man 2, Sammo Hung moves super fast for a guy that's nearly 60!

[Vepariga]

Just saw the trailer for ip man 2, Sammo Hung moves super fast for a guy that's nearly 60!

pretty damn sweet hey, should check out kungfucinema.com they have two video diary's for Ipman 2 as well,has a few added bits of footage and such.

(Obligatory Kung fu film mention)

36th Chamber of Shaolin and Return to ""

8 Diagram pole fighter

hey,some other good ones i watched lately is Kuro Obi (Black Belt) and High Kick Girl! ,both pretty sweet films,the master in high kick girl is also in Kuro Obi.

Edited April 5, 2010 by Vepariga

[BeyondTheGrave]

The Tony Jaa movies.. On Bak 1&2 and the protector. Haven't seen two on the basis that one was sub par.

Cool fight scenes for the first 10 mins then you trnd to fast forward.

[RDClip]

The Tony Jaa movies.. On Bak 1&2 and the protector. Haven't seen two on the basis that one was sub par.

Cool fight scenes for the first 10 mins then you trnd to fast forward.

I just saw Ong Bak 2. So much better than the first one.

Sure, the plot was cliche and there was serious pacing problems with a bit of confusing random plot points, but the fight scenes were awesome. For a movie with such good action i can forgive a throwaway and confusing plot.

Tony Jaa did the action direction and choreography and it was really good for a young guy like him (unfortunately he did the story too) I think he'll have a good career in the future at the very least directing and planning action scene. I really liked the scene where hes fighting the guys while laying on the ground and i found the scene while he's fighting around the elephant to be really innovative.

Overall, a good movie only for the action scenes; dont watch it youre looking for a stable plot.

[dreamweaver13]

Off the top of my head...

Azumi -- same as the OP, major CRUSH on Aya Ueto to this day. Watched the series "Attention Please" just for her. So adorable.

Seven Samurai

Drunken Master

Shaolin Soccer

Kung Fu Hustle

Twilight Samurai

Yojimbo

Just made me think. While I was a kid, I always found ninjas to be the most intriguing of the bunch (as against samurais and kung fu warriors). So I find it surprising that I can't think of a good ninja movie right now.

[Gui]

Just saw the trailer for ip man 2, Sammo Hung moves super fast for a guy that's nearly 60!

I watched Ip Man very recently and I was hooked: may I ask for a link for this trailer? ^^

[Roy Focker]

Seven Samurai

Yojimbo

Samurai rebellion

When the Last Sword is Drawn

Twilight Samurai

[Dynaman]

I'm not a kung fu or samurai watcher these days, but I LOVED (I mean I thought it was GREAT!!!!) Kung Fu Hustle.

In my younger days I watched and enjoyed the Sho kusagu (I just butchered his name) Ninja movies "Enter the Ninja", etc...

One scene in one of the movies a big heavset guy walked in with Nunchunks, my friend said "I wonder if he knows how to use them", right after that the guy starts doing something stupid with them "Well that answers that question".

I forget which one of those movies had the two Ninjas getting ready to fight across the Tennis court - but that was a hoot too.

Finally, I saw the latest version of Zatoichi (spelling again) and I liked it, enough so that I'm going to rent the original Zatoichi movies.

[Ghost Train]

Harold & Kumar go to White Castle.

[RDClip]

I watched Ip Man very recently and I was hooked: may I ask for a link for this trailer? ^^

I found it on donnie yen's official website, www.donnieyen.com

[Gui]

Thanks

[RDClip]

Watched the Storm Warriors last night (AKA Stormriders 2) and i really liked it. The story wasn't as in depth as the first one, but the CG was way better (well, the first one was made in "98) and the action scenes were much more intense. Though you should know that some of the action scenes were derivative of 300, although it didn't really bother me. I'd rather see a movie rip off 300 than another movie rip off the Matrix.

They got the 2 stars from the first movie and after 10 years they still look just as young (40+ year old guys passing for 20 something!) I don't think the stars, Aaron Kwok or Ekin Chung, know kung fu, but they did a pretty good job at the fighting scenes. Unfortunately no Sonny Chiba this time, Simon Yam plays the bad guy this time. What can i say about Simon Yam? Good actor but sucks in fighting scenes.

So, i'd recommend this movie if you really like fantasy fung fu or over the top comic book-like action. I would recommend seeing the first movie first just to get acquainted with the characters and the world, though.

[Gubaba]

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Riki-Oh yet...because nothing says "f*ck you" like ripping out your own intestines and trying to strangle the other guy with them.

[Air-]

Tai Chi Master (AKA Twin Warriors)

I love that movie.

Along with Swordsman 2 my favourite Jet Li movie.

I´ve never heard it being compared so I don´t know if it´s something general public agrees on or not but...doesn´t Ninja Scroll borrow a bunch of stuff from Swordsman 2?

Snake charming, needle and thread, hand palm and some other things I can't remember right now.

I love the dark Wuxia of late 80's, early 90's. A Chinese Ghost Story, Swordsman, The Bride with White Hair.

I think it's cause of her outfit but Luminara Unduli reminds me of that era and those movies.

[Hoptimus]

Off the top of my head...

Azumi -- same as the OP, major CRUSH on Aya Ueto to this day. Watched the series "Attention Please" just for her. So adorable.

Seven Samurai

Drunken Master

Shaolin Soccer

Kung Fu Hustle

Twilight Samurai

Yojimbo

Just made me think. While I was a kid, I always found ninjas to be the most intriguing of the bunch (as against samurais and kung fu warriors). So I find it surprising that I can't think of a good ninja movie right now.

Shinobi No Mono 1 and 2 are excellent but it starts getting cheesy after that.

[areaseven]

What - no votes for Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky?

[RDClip]

What - no votes for Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky?

I listened to the Greatest Movie Ever podcast on Riki-Oh and it sounds interesting. Loads of violence to the point of funny, sounds good to me.

[CoryHolmes]

I really enjoyed Last Samurai. Good action scenes, great music, gorgeous scenery. Even Tom Cruise couldn't quite bring it down in my book.

That being said, the movie that most captured my imagination is one that I only saw a few years back, on late-night TV while at my parents' house for Christmas: The Samurai trilogy. Samurai I, II, and III were fabulous stories and quite an eye-opener for me, an 80s kid who refused to believe that cinema existed before Star Wars I learned my lesson in that late-night movie trawl that I just couldn't change the channel on. I even sat through the commercials because I didn't want to miss the next scene when it came on.

[Gubaba]

What - no votes for Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky?

*a-HEM!*

I'm surprised no one's mentioned Riki-Oh yet...because nothing says "f*ck you" like ripping out your own intestines and trying to strangle the other guy with them.

Do you have me on ignore or something? This is like the third or fourth time I've mentioned movie X, and then you've come in and said, "How come no one's mentioned movie X yet?"

[CoryHolmes]

Do you have me on ignore or something? This is like the third or fourth time I've mentioned movie X, and then you've come in and said, "How come no one's mentioned movie X yet?"

We all do. *shrug* It's a ticky box in the user settings that most people don't bother un-ticking

[BlueMax]

I'm kinda surprised that no one has mentioned this yet:

Once upon a time in China- Jet Li (shadowless kick)vs Yee Kwan Yan (Iron vest)

Yee Kwan Yan is the same guy who had a memorable fight eith Jet Li again in "Fearless" (Another great Kung fu show)

This is also probably the show that renewed the fad of HK martial arts movies of the early 90's.

[Gubaba]

We all do. *shrug* It's a ticky box in the user settings that most people don't bother un-ticking

I figured as much...

[dreamweaver13]

Why hasn't anyone even mentioned Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky yet?

[CoryHolmes]

Why hasn't anyone even mentioned Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky yet?

Areaseven did, up above. The only who did, though.

[Major Focker]

i liked the fight scenes in The Hunted, the one with christopher lambert, not the one with benicio del torro.

the reason being, the moves seemed very deliberate, calculated and the fights over very quickly. the 2 mini-boss fights amounted to just a couple, maybe three exchanges, and the big boss fights just a couple more. this made it more believable to me compared to other duels i've seen which were protracted swordflash affairs with a lot of parrying apparently just for the sake of parrying rather than as a means to move into a counter.

[Phyrox]

RAN.

period.

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

I just watched 'Story of Ricky' on Youtube!

What a blast!