What are your top 5 martial arts movies? Here’s my list in no specific order:
- Drunken Tai Chi
- Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors)
- The Karate Kid
- 5 Masters of Death
- Best of the Best
I have the fondest childhood memories of Drunken Tai Chi. This one stars Donnie Yen and is a comedy to boot! One of my cousins would often turn down the volume and make up his own dialogue in the movie, which was quite funny. I really love the taiji training sequence, even demonstrating the illusive ‘bird in hand’ technique in which one is so skilled and sensitive that a bird cannot take flight!
Ahh.. Tai Chi Master with Jet Li. This one is awesome how it shows some pretty cool taiji fighting techniques of really using your opponent’s force against them. It shows Jet Li doing some of the Yang 24 form in addition to what appears to be a very stylized wushu version of the Chen 56 competition set.
The Karate Kid.. what can I say about this? I’ve actually written about this movie before. This is one of those movies that I will always watch whenever it’s on TV even though my wife really hates it! Fond memories of watching Daniel-San doing the crane and overcoming all challenges! Definitely one of those inspirational films.
5 Masters of Death was one of those movies that was always on ‘USA’s Kung Fu Theatre” when I was growing up. The basic plot is about a group of 5 students looking for the traitor of shaolin after the temple gets burned down. All the secret hand shakes, tea ceremony sequences and bad-a$$ style call-outs make this a classic. “Ahh.. I see you’re doing the tiger style. Well, your tiger style is no match for my dragon style!” This is one of those movies that is often sampled in the Wu-Tang Clan albums if you listen closely 
Best of the Best just rocks! Sure, it contains the cheesy b-actor, Eric Roberts, but he was the bomb in this movie. This is one of those inspirational dramas that just makes one feel happy. The fight sequences are awesome, the storyline is awesome and definitely a must see!
What are your top 5 Martial Arts movies? Feel free to either comment here or on your own blog with a link back to this original post!
[tags]taiji, random, top5, movies, martialarts[/tags]
13 comments
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August 26, 2006 at 8:23 pm
cindy
I didn’t get chance to see any of the movies but I am sure they are really good.
August 26, 2006 at 11:24 pm
wujimon
Hi Cindy.
You should definitely check them out as they are generally widely available.
August 27, 2006 at 1:13 am
Chris @ Martial Development
It’s hard to choose only 5! I’ll have to leave out the samurai movies, and the kung fu comedies. In no particular order:
1) Fearless (already out on DVD, if you order from Asia)
2) Drunken Master 2
3) Ong-Bak
4) Iron Monkey
5) Hero
August 27, 2006 at 9:25 am
wujimon
Doh!!! I totally forgot about Ong Bak! That movie rocks! Also, drunken master with Jackie Chan versus those japanese guy rocks too!!! Good picks, Chris.
August 29, 2006 at 6:59 am
zenmindsword
my choice :-
a) prodigal son
b) heroes of the east
c) ong bak
d) enter the dragon
e) shaolin mantis
August 29, 2006 at 8:15 pm
wujimon
Good picks, ZMS. I’ve added Prodigal Son to my netflix queue! I often recall my cousin mentioning that as one of his favorite picks
August 30, 2006 at 9:55 pm
internalartsia
Have you seen The One Armed Swordsman, Iron Monkey, The Lone Wolf and Cub Series, The Blade (1967 classic, not Wesley Snipe Vampire stuff), and the Samurai Trilogy? (How can such a list not include any Kirosawa classics?)
A list without any Jet Li movies? Check out the Swordsmen trilogy, along with the Once Upon a Time in China Series, also standard classics. (2 other pretty good Jet Li oldies: The Kid from Shaolin, and The Shaolin Temple.)
August 31, 2006 at 2:15 am
zenmindsword
Why I like Prodigal Son? Few years back we had dinner with Sammo Hung and asked him which was his favorite movie. Guess? Some nuggets of info. The late Lam Cheng Ying who played Leung Yee Tai was a real life Wing Chun practitioner. Sammo also learned WC for the movie but jazzed it up to make it looked more dramatic. He demo the bong sau and and he is still fast!!! He also mentioned that during the filming of LA Law he had a wooden dummy installed downstairs so that he could play with it each time he came down. He said someone wanted to test him out and he gave the guy pain with the dummy techniques. If you had been following LA Law you might have noticed that he was showing off WC in the series. Sammo was working on showing taiji in the new season when LA Law was cancelled
August 31, 2006 at 4:12 am
wujimon
@IA:
I’ve seen the samurai movies you mentioned, but for some reason, I”m not too fond of samurai movies. A lot of them tend to move too slow for my liking.
My #2 pick is a Jet Li movie. It’s the one where he learns taiji
I never followed the series but it’s interesting none-the-less. I’m just awaiting for the movie to arrive 
@ZMS:
Thanks for the background on Sammo Hung
October 10, 2006 at 12:15 am
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[...] I was recently reading wujimon’s Taijiquan blog, and was a little surprised to find Top 5 Martial Arts Movies in his list of most popular posts. [...]
November 4, 2006 at 4:10 pm
craigy
1, ong bak
2, fearless
3, fist of legend
4, enter the dragon
5, blood sport , based on the true story
November 4, 2006 at 4:28 pm
wujimon
Hey Craig. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen Fearless, but will definitely do so when it comes out on video. Good picks, Blood Sport is also one of my favs. I swear, I could probably recite every line in that movie..
“Tanaka.. you don’t look like Tanaka.”
March 25, 2008 at 4:52 pm
G. Michael Reynolds
Good ol’ Bloodsport. Yanno, I actually attended a small seminar (like 15 people) put on by Mr. Dux himself when I was a kid.
“That would make you Frank Ducks!”