Top 10 Best Martial Art Films
As perhaps one of the most underrated genres, martial arts displayed on screen do not receive the praise they deserve. Besides requiring basic acting skills, they demand physical finesse and expertise in their fight sequences and innovative stunt work. Just look at what Bruce Lee did with the genre back in the 70’s in the cult classic Enter the Dragon (1973), Jackie Chan who introduced a more fluid style of fighting that emphasized life threatening stunts in Project A (1983) and Police Story (1985) and Jet Li’s take on the famous folk hero Wong Fei-hung in Once Upon a Time in China (1991-1997) quadrilogy.
Sharing the same principals with musicals that require actors to train, act and occasionally perform their own ‘sequences’ in a convincing fashion, the genre might usually offer simple plots that are merely an excuse for a variety of skirmishes but the heyday of Hong Kong 80’s action films saw plots that extend beyond a final confrontation with a powerful master or assassin taken elements from other cinematic fields such as gangster, period and even comedy. Jackie Chan popularized that weird mix of action-comedy with his manic energy and showstopping stunts that remain to this day unmatched, is more a Charlie Chaplin/Buster Keaton version on steroids providing inspiring and jaw-dropping moments.
In Hollywood, the reluctance to use martial arts in a commercial motion picture emphasized form and gorgeous bodies in the presence of an early 90’s Jean Claude Van Damme or in more light-hearted karate approaches with the appropriately titled The Karate Kid (1984). Even Steven Seagal’s introduction of Aikido with the brutal Above the Law (1988) lost quickly momentum as these films were just a vehicle for their stars and their ego rather than a display of stuntwork and well-crafted fight sequences. It was until Mortal Kombat (1995) and Chan’s smaller than usual effort with Rumble in the Bronx (1995) that audiences saw what the Hong Kong action style is all about until the inevitable explosion of wire fu antics with The Matrix (1999) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Now, the dominance of MMA around the world has brought a wider acceptance of sophisticated sequences that if used effectively, can give a movie a whole new momentum (e.g., The Raid (2011), John Wick (2014)) and sometimes change the history of cinema.
10. Mortal Kombat (1995)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
The first adaptation of Mortal Kombat has an extravagant production design, exotic locations and luscious cinematography that do the game’s mythology and atmosphere justice. Being the first western film to display Hong Kong style choreography, Mortal Kombat put a lot of effort to create a series of brutal fights that still feel fresh today supported by Anderson’s frenetic direction, aggressive stuntwork and career high performances, particular by Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa who IS Shang Tsung and Christopher Lambert who brings European flair to the proceedings. The iconic metal/techno soundtrack and the mesmerizing ethnic score of George S. Clinton are the icing on a deliciously cinematic cake that cares about having fun without insulting the audience’s intelligence.
Best fight: Liu Kang vs Shang Tsung is superb but Liu Kang vs Reptile is top notch.
9. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
While technically the hotly anticipated sequel of The Matrix (1999) belongs to the realm of science fiction, its extensive usage of martial art sequences make it a superb contender. Raising the dramatic stakes with more creative and complex action sequences that to this day remain unmatched, The Matrix Reloaded contains copious amounts of ambitious skirmishes that although they might be a poor excuse for a lavish display of movements, are nonetheless impressive. The infamous Burly Brawl (despite its pretty obvious CGI), is a masterclass in action design and the chateau melee fight is a testament of the Wachowski’s skill to craft unique and single take Hong Kong fights that benefit from an oversized budget. Despite bearing a hollow feeling occasionally with its pseudo-quasi existentialism and endless philosophical debates, it remains an achievement in action filmmaking.
Best fight: The chateau fight has seamless wire work and complexity under a wonderful track by Rob Dougan.
8. Enter the Dragon (1973)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
The reason why Mortal Kombat exists, Enter the Dragon features novel for the time fight sequences. Despite having a straightforward story in its core but it is really an excuse if you will, for Bruce Lee to display incredible martial art prowess in several one-on-one matches in a forbidden tournament, surrounding himself by memorable characters and a groovy 70’s soundtrack. Made at a time when films did not rely on world building or complex scripts for their action plots, Enter the Dragon boasts awesome one liners and wicked face offs exploring a more refined and sophisticated approach in this genre and focusing athletic form and skill rather than cheap thrills. Lee’s climactic showdown with Han is one for the ages but his clash with countless goons is the stuff that cinematic legends are made off.
Best fight: Bruce vs O’Hara - simple, effective, and on point.
7. Police Story (1985)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Moving away from his Beijing opera routes (although his transition started slowly with Project A (1983)), Police Story is perhaps what put Jackie Chan on the map demonstrating a more convincing and street style fighting approach. While Sammo Hung introduced something similar way earlier (and with Jackie), Chan directs extensive action sequences and stunts on a larger scale placing himself front and center of excessively dangerous set pieces and simultaneously making the most of environments that come handy for several fist and kick skirmishes as a warrior version of Charlie Chaplin. By the time Police Story culminates to a full out brawl in a shopping mall, you will be witnessing a timeless and one of the best (and dangerous) action sequences ever filmed.
Best fight: Shopping mall fight, hands down.
6. John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum (2019)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
The John Wick franchise (2014-2023) is not a pure addition to the genre. Yet each entry saw incorporating more and lengthier brawls that featured increasing martial arts complexity. Now in its third outing, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum came out swinging and offered plenty of varied and exquisitely choreographed set pieces that pushed its lead icon to his limits: a fight in a weapon antique corridor is to die for while a motorcycle chase (a homage to the Korean motion picture The Villainess (2016)) sees Wick effortlessly dispatching foes by any means necessary. Despite its potential lack of irony towards an overloaded finale, it is a far out action extravaganza with John Wick being a lethal version of Jackie Chan: he uses anything he can get his hands on to plow his way through a variety of colorful opponents with the grace and stoicism of an introvert poet.
Best fight: The fight in the weapon antique corridor is funny and brutal at the same time.
5. Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Kung Fu Hustle is one of these rare gems that come once in a decade. In a combination of inventive Looney Tunes style of gags and Kill Bill (2003-2004) esque violence, director-writer-producer-main-lead Stephen Chow created a martial arts comedy for the ages. Paying smartly homage to several classics of the genre, each skirmish between the axe gang and the pigsty alley is unique, each segment more outrageous than the previous one. Yet Chow’s best and most hilarious film has a hefty heart at its center supported by an excellent cast of legendary martial artists (old and new) under the supervised choreography of the titan that Yuen Woo Ping is. Yuen Qiu and Yuen Wah in particular, steal the show as Landlady and Landlord, their appearances remaining the same no matter what circumstances they might find themselves into.
Best fight: The face off with the Beast is thrilling and hilarious.
4. Hero (2002)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Zhang Yimou’s extravagant epic is a dazzling spectacle; thousands of extras, unique, previously unseen and sweeping Chinese landscapes, a veteran cast and dynamic fights in poetically conceived settings under Christopher Doyle’s magnificent cinematography. Yimou’s first attempt to grapple with the Wuxia genre, sees him exploring fascinating individuals that fight for their beliefs instead of chasing glory, power and status employing Doyle’s lenses in clashes that resemble an ethereal ballet coming to life. Complemented by a grandiose production design and costumes which reflect the ambiguous emotions of the on-screen events, Hero does not only rely only on pure spectacle to seduce our minds but offers heavy and complex political and philosophical ideas that populate the movie with substance.
Best fight: The fight on the top of a still lake is an exercise in cinematic meditation.
3. Drunken Master II (1994)
Fight setting:
🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
The sequel to Drunken Master (1978) has a nothing -to-write-home-about-plot just like its predecessor. However, what it lacks in story finesse, it makes up for it by delivering some of Chan’s best fights in his excessively long career. Its several funny and extensive sequences of drunken boxing style that see Chan taking seemingly impossible poses to dispatch his opponents, are literally a masterclass in action staging culminating in a final nine minute fight that remains matchless to this day. Packed with superb stunts and a complimenting performance by the late Anita Mui (who appeared as well in Chan’s Miracles (1989) and Rumble in the Bronx, The Legend of Drunken Master is pure popcorn cinema. Its action was so good that the British Film Institute selected this as one of the top ten action films of all time!
Best fight: Final fight with Ken Lo.
2. The Raid (2011)
Fight setting:
🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙
Film Mining 101 has given a lot of praise for Gareth Evans’ The Raid since it is one of the best action films of all time that put on the map the cinematically effective (and brutal) style of Silat. Light on plot but remarkably heavy on suspense, Evans’ direction favors a Carpeteresque approach similar to Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) where the story progresses from a simple bust to total chaos. Yet, the movie does not shine away from incorporating graphic violence and finisher moves in out-of-this-world fight sequences that would make Mortal Kombat envious. Amidst all this carnage, Evans finds ways for minimalistic world building and intriguing (although simplistic) characters that have more than meets the eye. While Iko Uwais became a star, it is Yayan Ruhian who steals the show as Mad Dog, a smaller in stature bodyguard who can chew way more than he can bark!
Best fight: The final two-on-one fight is simple phenomenal.
1. Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 (2003-2004)
Fight setting:
🤙🤙🤙
Choreography:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Stunts:
🤙🤙🤙
Staging:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Realism:
🤙🤙🤙Craftmanship:
🤙🤙🤙🤙🤙
Quentin Tarantino’s martial arts epic homage script employs the traditional tropes of revenge but is not as straightforward as you might think. And being Tarantino, he drenches his story with style, twists, and nuanced layers for everyone involved smartly building a fantasy world of assassins. The Bride is a force to be reckoned with but the more time we spend with her, the more human she becomes while the deadly viper assassination squad is oozing equally grace and menace. With career high performances (Thurman, Carradine, Liu and Hannah have never been better), a spectacular soundtrack and brilliant orchestrated action from Yuen Woo-ping, Kill Bill might start as style over substance but quickly evolves to a personal conflict between two wounded individuals. It is a triumph of action.
Best fight: The Bride’s clash with the Crazy 88 is a showstopper moment in direction, finesse and visual panache but the clashes with Vernita Green and Elle Driver are so nasty and hardcore.