Kung Fu recomendations. (1 Viewer)

[BlakeN]

I want to start watching some movies of this genre but I have no idea where to start. Please suggest some must see kung foo films.

Thanks

 

[Brook K]

Enter The Dragon
Drunken Master II
Fist Of Legend
36th Chamber Of The Shaolin
Police Story I-III
Once Upon A Time In China I & II
A Touch Of Zen
Swordsman II

 

[JonZ]

Chinese Connection
Fists Of Fury
Return Of The Dragon
Avenging Eagle
Eight Diagram Pole Fighter
Shaolin Temple
36th Chamber Of The Shaolin (Master Killer)
The Destroyers
Enter The Dragon (actually my least fav Bruce Lee film)
Invincible Shaolin
Five(Deadly)Venoms
Shaolin Martial Arts
The Invincible One
Chinatown Kid
Anonymous Heroes
All Men Are Brothers
Blood Brothers
Duel of Fists
The Magic Blade
The Savage Five

 

[ChrisMatson]

Kung Fu info here:
http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/hk.jsp

I think Enter The Dragon or Chinese Conection would be a good place to start.

 

[BlakeN]

I think im going to start with Seven Samurai because Im kind of ashamed ive never seen it. Then Ill probably put all the suggestions in craniological order and start with the oldest.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

 

[Richard Kim]

Seven Samurai isn't a kung fu film.

 

[BlakeN]

From what Ive read its the root of all martial arts/action movies. I thought it would be a good place to start. Correct me if Im wrong, I have very limited knowledge on this subject.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Seven Samurai has little to no "empty hand martial arts" that are commonly lumped together under the 'Kung-Fu' banner.

And I can't believe no one has mentioned Iron Monkey yet. My favorite KF movie.

 

[JonZ]

Seven Samurai is one of the greatest films ever made, but it definitely isnt a martial arts film.

 

[Brook K]

Kurosawa's first film Sugata Sanshiro would be closer to what you're looking for as a "root of martial arts films" though I'm sure they go back much farther. It's a loose biopic/action film about the inventor of judo.

It was successful enough that he directed a sequel as well as a remake 20 years later.

 

[Max Knight]

One of the first "martial arts" films might be "The Story of Wong Fei Hung, part 1" which was filmed in 1946 in China. It spawned one of the longest running episodic film series ever.

I'd also recommend:

The Prodigal Son
The Magnificent Butcher
Master of the Flying Guillotine

 

[Holadem]

Seven Samurai is definitely not a kung-fu movie, if only because there is no Kung-fu in it . Seriously, it is NOT a martial arts movie, any more than the Matrix for instance. Seven Samurai did heavily influence action movie. It is hard to believe such fluidity could be achieved 50 years ago.

Kung Fu movies are whole genre of their own complete with technical and even plot conventions that bears no resemblance to Seven Samurai.

--
H

 

[Brian Thibodeau]

There's some good info in this thread over in the software forum:

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...hreadid=185362

It's up to about 11 pages at the moment, but nearly all of them have recommendations and several mini reviews of various Hong Kong pictures, including many great kung-fu and swordplay films, as well as a few lists of films to avoid. Shaw Brothers movies pop up around page 10 or 11, as well as a link to www.kfccinema.com which is a good place for reviews and photos froma variety of Asian cinema (although the reveiws aren't always the most literate).

And if nobody's here's mentioned it yet, check out the weekly cheap sale at Hong Kong based retailer www.DDDHouse.com for supercheap deals on legit DVDs, all around HK$25, which is about $4US or less! Most of them are all-region, though some are region 3 coded, so you might want to invest in region-free DVD player (cheap all over the place these days) if you want to seriously tackle the genre.

By the way, the Shaw brothers DVDs checked above are Region 3 encoded, so the player's a must; otherwise you're stuck with the middling-to-poor Tai Seng/Xenon titles that litter the U.S. stores.

Oh yeah, and Japan, the country of origin for Seven samurai, hasn't got a big history of Kung-Fu movies as the form is Chinese, thus the prevalence of it in so many wonderful Hong Kong pictures. Moments of martial arts fighting turn up here and there in Japanese films over the years, but rarely so stylised (yet formalized) as it appears in Hong Kong film. In recent years, Japanese filmmakers have introduced more blatant kung-fu battles into their work, although I think swordfighting as a method of combat is still more prevalent (see films like PRINCESS BLADE). Hong Kong filmmakers and choreographers do BOTH in equal measure, thus a much larger back catalogue of cool films is readily available for the picking.

Here's a few more contemporary movies with heavy martial arts content:

TOKYO RAIDERS - Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Ekin Cheng

2002 (with Nicholas Tse and Steven Fung)

HIGH RISK (aka MELTDOWN with Jet Li)

HITMAN (aka CONTRACT KILLER, also with Jet Li)

SHE SHOOTS STRAIGHT (awesome girls-n-guns-kung-fu flick directed by Corey Yuen)

SO CLOSE (ditto, only newer)

POLICE STORY 1-3 (Classic Jackie Chan trilogy, recommended earlier in this thread). Part 1 is must-see material for contemporary HK cinema.

The list goes on...

 

[Jim_K]

Kung-Fu films are a subgenre of Martial Arts & are primarily out of Hong Kong/Taiwan/China.

Japanese Martial Arts films are known as Chambara (slang for swordplay/swashbuckler) more commonly referred to as Samurai films. However not all Samurai films fit into the category of Chambara. They would be referred to as Jidai-Geki which are basically period Dramas.

Typical Chambara films include:
The Samurai Trilogy
Lone Wolf & Cub series
Zatoichi series
Sword of Doom
Samurai Assassin
Yojimbo
Sanjuro
Hidden Fortress
Seven Samurai - fits into either category
& many more

Typical popular Jidai-Geki films
Rashomon
Ran
Sansho the Baliff
Gates of Hell
Throne of Blood
Seppuku
Onibaba
& many more

In the broadest sense, films that feature any type of ancient warfare either hand-to-hand or with weapons can be considered to be a Martial Arts film.

Films like Spartacus, Adventures of Robin Hood, Mark of Zorro, The Vikings, etc.

 

[Ted Lee]

would shaolin soccer count?

 

[BlakeN]

Wow this is great guys thanks for setting me straight. I had no idea I think I might have to subscribe to netflix my local video stores seem to be lacking a lot of the suggested titles.

 

[Joe Szott]

You need only watch one film to become kung-fu masta, grasshoppa'

Master of the Flying Guillotine

It's like the Genghis Khan of Kung Fu flicks it has so many offspring...