So, Aaron, we might need some guidelines for this list. Should we include Hollywood action films where someone like Scarlett Johansson or Jeremy Renner pretends they know what they are doing? (I'm THE BIGGEST Avengers fan going, but still...) Should it be any film that has martial arts sequences in it? Should we include samurai films, which mainly involve sword-fighting and little in the way of hand-to-hand combat? Or should we limit it to chopsocky "kung fu" films? Or should we, in the style of our film topic this week, Bloodsport, make it Hollywood-produced martial arts films created primarily for the American market
Aaron: I think listing our favorite martial arts films would be way too broad a topic, and I'm not looking forward to the headache of trying to figure out which titles to cut out of that list. Yet I think, in honor of the multiple styles on display in Bloodsport, we should avoid limiting ourselves to only one style of martial arts (though I think we can safely save swordplay for another film and another list). The opposite problem is that for as much as I love martial arts films, and as greedily as I devoured them in my teens and early twenties, my overall knowledge of the genre remains rather limited. I am far from being an expert, and if we narrow our scope too far, I may not be able to come up with a proper list.
I am also unopposed to allowing Hollywood action films on our lists. If someone were to tell me their favorite kung fu film was The Matrix, I'd first advise them to watch more kung fu films, but also appreciate that the choice is valid, as the fighting in that film was choreographed expertly by the great Yuen Woo Ping. And in fact maybe your final proposal is the one we should tackle; favorite Hollywood-produced martial arts films. There have been a few good ones over the years, as the style tends to make periodic surges in popularity in this country. The only thing holding me back from choosing that one at this moment is that I feel like highlighting some authentic martial arts films as further viewing for anybody who might be a newcomer to the genre. So perhaps, as one last suggestion from me, we could focus our list on tournaments. We could interpret that guideline as loosely or as strictly as we'd like, if we're having trouble putting together a list.
Rik: That sounds great. Tournament films, it is. So, without further ado, we have each picked five films from the massive catalogue of martial arts films that include a tournament as one its story elements. These are not necessarily the best films in this category, and opinion may be strongly divided as to the quality of some of these films. Flat out, they are merely films that we like for various reasons that happen to contain a tournament aspect. Aaron, you may go first...
Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)
Aaron: This is the movie I thought of when considering this topic. Master of the Flying Guillotine was like nothing I had ever seen, and it blew my mind when I first came across it. It had the hokiness I was used to in the martial arts films from the '70s that got imported to America: the sudden zooms, the rapid fire punch-block-punch fighting style, the heightened sound effects, and an English-speaking voice cast that veered wildly between overblown histrionics and deadpan monotone, but Master of the Flying Guillotine also has a ruthlessness that I was less familiar with. The effects for the titular weapon and the attendant gore weren't exactly realistic, but it was still a memorably gruesome manner in which to dispatch a foe. The film was written and directed by Jimmy Wang Yu, who also reprises his character from One Armed Boxer (1971). Its copyright infringing soundtrack features music (allegedly unlicensed at the time of its original release) from German bands Neu!, Kraftwerk, and Tangerine Dream. As for the fighting itself, I'd never seen a film that mixed as many styles as this one. Kung fu, karate, jujitsu, and Thai boxing. Most memorable of all was an Indian fighter with the ability to extend his limbs in a disorientingly wild manner, like Dhalsim in the Street Fighter games. All of this combines to create a film that should hit fans of old school chopsocky films right in the pleasure center, while also feeling fresh and unusual forty years later.
Enter the Dragon (1973)
Rik: Simply put, still my favorite martial arts film to this day. I didn't get to see it until many years later, but watched it endlessly on HBO as a teenager. Bruce Lee is worthy of his legend in this film, where he stars as a secret agent sent to infiltrate the island stronghold of a maniacal crime overlord, Mr. Han (Shih Kien), who is missing a hand but has a crazy assortment of special, sometimes deadly, attachments. Lee's passage onto the island is via invitation to a martial arts tournament Han is holding. John Saxon, Jim Kelly, and Robert Wall may be the American names in this film, but this spectacle is top loaded with a cavalcade of Hong Kong talent (most in tiny roles) who would go on to storied careers in the genre: Angela Mao, Bolo Yeung (we just discussed him at length regarding Bloodsport), Roy Chiao, Tony Liu, and four of the Seven Little Fortunes: Yuen Biao, Yuen Wah, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan. The film contains several of the most iconic scenes in the history of not just martial arts and action-adventure films, but film in general. If you haven't seen it and you consider yourself a martial arts fan, you must. (And if you haven't seen 1977's The Kentucky Fried Movie -- written and directed by the creators of Airplane! --which features a dead-on perfect spoof of Enter the Dragon titled A Fistful of Yen, do so with the greatest urgency!)
Man of Tai Chi (2013)
Aaron: Who would have thought, back in 1989, that Keanu Reeves would be the American filmmaker to most thoroughly understand the mechanics of Hong Kong-style kung fu films? Man of Tai Chi is probably the least narratively inventive film on my list, and yet it's such a solid piece of work that I recommend it to martial arts fans all the time. Reeves initially planned to incorporate a complex camera rig setup into the fight scenes, even going so far as to shoot a proof-of-concept video of how it would work. The results were pretty great, but due to budgetary or logistical reasons this setup was not used for much of the actual film, and handheld cameras were used instead. While it would have been great to see what Reeves had planned to do, with a camera that would have been able to glide in and out and over the action without disrupting the performers or requiring them to stop and reset, he was still able to achieve a nicely professional style. His cameras weave around the action, and he favors long takes in all of the fight scenes. This insistence on grabbing impressive shots while also not interrupting the flow of his actors results in a technically ambitious film with a pretty elementary plot. Tiger Chen, a stuntman Reeves met and befriended on the set of the Matrix sequels, lacks a certain screen presence, and has a pretty flat acting style. The plot, such as it is, is so threadbare and halfhearted that the film would be laughable if Keanu Reeves hadn't absolutely delivered on the kung fu goods.
Ip Man (2008)
Rik: I am not going to get into just how biographical this first entry in the now three-film Ip Man series is; I am no expert, and I cannot discern the fact from myth when so many sources argue about the basic facts of Ip Man's career. It is hard to trust any film that says "based on a true story" any more, since it is such an abused phrase now. One fact is clear: Ip Man (or Yip Man) was the martial arts master who taught Bruce Lee in his childhood. But this series starts out years earlier in 1937 in Foshan prefecture just as the Japanese have invaded China in advance of World War II. Truthfully, I first rented this film mainly to see the marvelous Donnie Yen in action as the title character, and this film delivers it. While this film is equal parts historical drama, espionage, and martial arts, the heart of the film -- and the real reason we are watching -- lies in a series of intense matches between the occupying Japanese general and his soldiers and Ip Man, pitting their separate styles against each other in a sort of racial grudge tournament. Ip Man 2, which takes place in the post-war '40s and has a large, brutish American fighter as the main villain, is not quite as good as this film, but still very worthwhile. I have yet to see the third installment released last year, where Ip Man starts to take Bruce Lee under his wing in the 1950s. Whether you plan to watch the trilogy or not, at least check out the first installment to see Yen in top form.
Throw Down (2004)
Aaron: This one is the closest I come to cheating on this list. There isn't really a tournament in this film, aside from some brief flashbacks and dialogue references. Instead the film focuses on Sze-To (Louis Koo), a former judo champion who, after professional humiliation, has become an embittered bar owner in Hong Kong. Tony (Aaron Kwok), a young martial artist looking to test his skill against a respected master, arrives one day. Disappointed in the man he finds, he begins to coax Sze-To back into the martial art. I like to call director Johnnie To the Chinese Howard Hawks, although I don't think he's quite at Hawks' skill level. What the two men do share, however, is a willingness to work in all genres (though Johnnie To is most well known for his gangster films, he's made musicals, romantic comedies, and family dramas as well), a directorial style that favors efficiency and technique over flashiness, and a fondness for the group dynamics of professional men. Throw Down is explicitly Johnnie To's ode to Akira Kurosawa (Sanshiro Sugata gets name-checked a couple times), which makes this a bit more warm and humanistic than the normal To film. The dynamic between the two men, master and prodigy, may be slightly antagonistic, but there is an affection and respect there. The fighters also avoid trying to maim or injure their opponents; they simply want to fight for the joy of it, to see whose skill is better. Of the films on my list, this has the least in-your-face action, but it's the most emotionally satisfying.
Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003)
Rik: When the ads for Ong-bak (subtitled The Thai Warrior here, not Muay Thai) first came to theatres and TV well over a decade ago, it was really hard to comprehend how cool the film looked. We had seen a huge rise in the quality of martial arts films over the past couple of decades, but this one seemed like it was trying to not just be a martial arts film -- with the requisite training montages, and tournament face-offs -- but a legitimate across the board action film. Not just fighting, but crazy chase scenes through busy city streets and markets, wild stuntwork ("No wires!" they proclaimed) that looked like an attempt at a more serious take on Jackie Chan's style, and stylized, rather artful cinematography not often seen in most martial arts films. Another detail I picked up on in the trailer were the exotic Thai location shots that promised this film was going to be more expansive than a lot of these films tend to be. And who was this Tony Jaa guy? Well, for me, Ong-Bak lived up to the serious hype that preceded it. Onscreen, Jaa didn't quite have the charisma of a Chan, Bruce Lee, or Jet Li, but he was still a contender with his serious fighting chops and acrobatic skills. The film and its action sequences were indeed intense and rather beautiful at times. I have not seen the film for a while, and like Ip Man, I have seen the immediate sequel but not the third installment. I suppose it is time to knock out both films at once.
Aaron: I was still living in Alaska when Ong-Bak came out, but I had a friend who flew to California every year for the San Diego Comic-Con. And every year he would come back with a huge box full of imported martial arts and horror films, many of them bought sight unseen on the recommendation of a few trusted vendors. Most of them, it should go without saying, on slightly less than legitimate DVDs. One year he came back with a VCD of Ong-Bak, and he handed it to me breathlessly when he got back, telling me I just had to see it immediately. And he was right, I watched in utter amazement as Tony Jaa performed jaw-dropping stunts and delivered bone-crunching blows. (Muay Thai is a remarkably painful looking martial art). For months, Ong-Bak became the film I pulled out whenever friends came over, and I cherry-picked scenes to show them to convince them of the movie's greatness. When the film finally got an American theatrical release, I told everybody I thought would care that they should go see it (while secretly enjoying the fact that I was already well aware of how cool Tony Jaa was). I haven't seen the sequel to this, but I have seen a few of Jaa's other films, and have enjoyed them all, yet aside from the brief flurry of Western attention he received for Ong-Bak and The Protector, he's mostly faded from the American consciousness. This is surprising to me, because with his penchant for intricately choreographed and hectic chase sequences, and his habit of performing his own stunts without wires or nets, I assumed him to be the heir apparent to Jackie Chan.
No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)
Rik: One of the first films that I watched after getting hooked on Van Damme with Bloodsport and Kickboxer, the earlier No Retreat, No Surrender was Jean-Claude's first major role in a film, as a leering, snarling Russian villain with slicked back hair named Ivan, clearly modeled after Dolph Lundgren in Rocky IV. Van Damme is not in very much of the film, but is in most of the fight scenes that count. The bulk of the story is built around the son of a dojo owner who moves from L.A. to Seattle, and after dealing with his cowardly father and a gang of bullies, gets his training from the spirit of none other than Bruce Lee himself (well, a rather unconvincing double). Directed by Corey Yuen, another of the Seven Little Fortunes, this film is amateurish and laughable at nearly every level. (There are gangsters who want to take over every dojo in the U.S., and Seattle is their latest target. That's right...) But it is a good representation of its place in time (it even has breakdancing), has training montage after training montage after training montage, and is a fun and silly watch regardless (including the most obnoxious bully character in the history of bully characters). Especially fun are the still riveting fight sequences, which in the last fifteen minutes are fairly brutal as Van Damme goes through opponent after opponent until he, of course, meets his match.
Fist of Legend (1994)
Aaron: Until Ip Man came along, which you talk about above, Fist of Legend was my gold standard for judging the pure ass-kicking brutality of a martial arts film. This one is a remake of the Bruce Lee film Fist of Fury (known as The Chinese Connection in America, to tap into the popularity of The French Connection), and I am not going to try and decide who is the better martial artist. I can't think of a less fruitful endeavor. But I will say that Fist of Legend is by far the tougher of the two films, with some incredibly ruthless fight scenes. Jet Li in this film doesn't mess around in his fights, he doesn't toy with his opponent or waste time figuring out their style, he just goes straight in for the knockout, and Li emulates Bruce Lee's demeanor in these fights, if not his fighting style. Bruce Lee's famous "come over here" wave makes a couple of appearances. There's one move in here that is still seared into my brain, where Li dispatches an approaching opponent by hooking two fingers into his mouth and dropping him to the floor. It's so quick, so painful looking, and done so matter of factly, that I think I actually winced in pain and shouted in surprise when I first saw it. The brutality on display is a tad surprising, coming from choreographer Yuen Woo Ping, who tends to operate more with graceful wirework. His martial arts tends towards beautiful, unrealistic movements with people gliding through the air as they trade kicks and punches, and it is completely absent here. The beauty in these fights comes from how efficiently Li is able to dispatch waves of opponents.. One of the first Jet Li films I ever saw, and still one of the best.
Shaolin Soccer (2001)
Rik: Well, we never said it had to be a martial arts tournament, just a tournament. The overabundance of joy that I felt upon seeing this film when it finally came to American theatres in 2004 may have been a portent of things to come for me over the next decade. Not long after seeing it, I would move to California and become enslaved to a youth soccer organization for ten years, which I loved at first but which ultimately ended in tragedy. My tragedy. Now I hate soccer to such a degree I can no longer watch it. Well, except in Shaolin Soccer, that is. Director, co-writer, and lead actor Stephen Chow doesn't just pull out all the stops in this tale of a horrid soccer team turned into gods of the grass by the healing knowledge of Shaolin kung fu; he delivers a screwball flying kick to each one of those stops until they are both begging for mercy and rolling on the floor with laughter. Some of the jokes are a tad un-P.C. to American audiences, but who the hell cares? Chow made such a great debut to mainstream American audiences that his next film, Kung Fu Hustle, couldn't help but disappoint a little bit, even if it was an almost equally charming merging of martial arts with dance musical. Strangely for me, as much as I love these two films, I haven't kept up with Chow since or checked out his back catalogue, and so I need to rectify this straight away.
