POLL: Best Martial Arts movies by Year (1976-1978)

[SmokingFistOfDoom]

I tried to include every relevant movie that could conceivably be chosen as a favorite, but avoided the truly crappy ones (unless it's one that some consider a guilty pleasure) or the really obscure ones. Apologies in advance if I missed your favorite, and I could possibly modify the poll if you let me know (it's the first time I do polls on this site).  I'm also thinking of doing a top 3 per year, as some years were simply overflowing with classics.  But I believe that would have to be manually calculated.  

Not sure if this will work well or not, but any suggestions welcome!

 

 

 

 

[KenHashibe]

1978 is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make. It was five-way tie between 36th Chamber, Five Venoms, Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, and Avenging Eagle. I think I gotta go with Avenging Eagle though, but if you ask me tomorrow, I might say something else.

[SmokingFistOfDoom]

Quote

1978 is one of the most difficult decisions I've ever had to make. It was five-way tie between 36th Chamber, Five Venoms, Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, and Avenging Eagle. I think I gotta go with Avenging Eagle though, but if you ask me tomorrow, I might say something else.

Agreed, all classics.  I would probably consider 1978 to be THE greatest year for old school martial arts cinema.  Haven't voted yet myself....won't be easy, that's for sure.  

[TibetanWhiteCrane]

Dirty Ho is 1979 and so is Five Super Fighters.

[DrNgor]

I voted for:

Secret Rivals

Heroes of Shaolin (Invincible Iron Armour is probably a better movie all around, but Heroes of Shaolin had a better performance from Legendary Superkicker Hwang Jang Lee)

Heroes of the East - While Drunken Master and Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin occupy higher places due to sentimental reasons, to me HotE has more groundbreaking action, both philosophically and practically. The story is also better and well-drawn. Plus, you know, Yuko Mizuno's cleavage.

[LuFengLover]

There were too many choices in each year.  

1976 Shaolin Temple was one of the first Martial Arts films I saw so I had to go with that one.

1977 Iron Monkey stars Chen Kuan Tai and Chi Kuan Chun.  I also love Chinatown Kid and Death Duel.  Hard choice.

1978 Invincible Shaolin has Lu Feng as a hero.  Even though Crippled Avengers and Five Venoms were a choice, I had to pick Invincible Shaolin as the other two are favorited by many.

[panku]

These are impossible choices!

[SmokingFistOfDoom]

3 hours ago, TibetanWhiteCrane said:

Dirty Ho is 1979 and so is Five Super Fighters.

Oh, my bad.  To not spend too much time  researching every year, I used Google, and would type e.g. "martial arts movies in 1976" and just assumed the list of movies it gave me were for sure from that year.  I'll try to switch them, but someone already voted for Five Superfighters, so I hope that doesn't screw anything up.  It's confusing because IMDb said 1979 for for Five Superfighters, but 1976 for Dirty Ho, and Wikipedia said 1979 for Dirty Ho, but 1978 for Five Superfighters.  I guess Google would just "choose" one of the two years.

 

Edit: I couldn't add more than 20 choices in 1979 so I put Five Superfighters back in 1978.  

[thekfc]

Difficult choices:

1976: Came down to HC&V, Shaolin Temple & Secret Rivals - I went with Secret Rivals

!977: Down to Chinatown Kid, Secret Rival 2, Death Dual & Irom Monkey - Chinatown Kid for me.

1978: Most difficult (some movies in that year can easily be in a top 20 all times - even a top 10)- went with Avenging Eagles by a whisker of a hair over Warrior Two.

 

[OpiumKungFuCracker]

The 70s are pretty easy, Shaolin Temple, Chinatown Kid,36th Chamber Of Opium Cracker's Shaolin and don't you forget

[ShawAngela]

I stupidly mistook Deadly mantis with Shaolin mantis, so, my vote shouldn't be counted for this one !!

[KenHashibe]

1976:

Tough choice, but I decided to go with Master of the Flying Guillotine. Great grindhouse movie. Fun as hell from beginning to end.

1977:

I chose The Brave Archer which I feel is a bit underrated though I can understand why some people don't like it as much. Surprised there are no votes for Invincible Armour.

1978:

Definitely the toughest choice. I already mentioned above that I was torn between 36th Chamber, Five Venoms, Drunken Master, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, and Avenging Eagle. But I think I'm still gonna go with Avenging Eagle.

[DragonClaws]

To be honest, theres a lot of movies listed here I've yet to see. My votes may have been different had I watched every film.

[SmokingFistOfDoom]

On 2017-5-27 at 1:20 PM, ShawAngela said:

I stupidly mistook Deadly mantis with Shaolin mantis, so, my vote shouldn't be counted for this one !!

I'm pretty sure they're the same movie?  The only other Deadly Mantis I can find is the monster movie from 1957.  Otherwise they all say Deadly Mantis aka Shaolin Mantis.

[Writ]

1976 and 1977 were easy choices for me from the poll - Master of the Flying Guillotine and Invincible Armor. Both are also coincidentally the first two films I watched when I started getting back into martial arts films a couple years back. One that I might actually have voted over Invincible Armor though is The Sentimental Swordsman.

1978 though... wow... that's a tough year. It's between Shaolin Mantis, Heroes of the East, Five Deadly Venoms or Drunken Master. I voted Heroes of the East because I think it's the most "perfect" of the lot, but they're all amongst the best martial arts films ever made really. But speaking speaking of which, I'm so surprised there are no votes for Drunken Master!

[ShawAngela]

12 hours ago, SmokingFistOfDoom said:

I'm pretty sure they're the same movie?  

Oh, yes, you're right, I wans't aware of this aka, and as there is also a movie called Thundering mantis, I was a little bit confused !!

So, I definitely vote for Shaolin deadly mantis, of course !!

[DragonClaws]

11 hours ago, Writ said:

But speaking speaking of which, I'm so surprised there are no votes for Drunken Master!

Even Snake In The Eagles Shadow and Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin have failed to pick up votes.

[SmokingFistOfDoom]

4 hours ago, DragonClaws said:

Even Snake In The Eagles Shadow and Snake & Crane Arts Of Shaolin have failed to pick up votes.

Yeah, also thought Crippled Avengers would get some love, but hey, this is what the poll's for...to determine everyone's favorite when push comes to shove.  I still intend to do a top 3 of each of the golden years (1978-1982-ish), to know the runners up to the #1 favorites.

[massa_yoda]

1978 Hong Kong cinema is like Michael Jackson's Thriller.  They're pretty much all number 1s.  

It's the only year that I can't vote for Drunken Master, SITES, etc. because Avenging Eagle is there too...which is a freaking perfect movie.  Sorry Jackie. 

[Omni Dragon]

I went with Executioners from Shaolin, Invincible Armour and Crippled Avengers.

Executioners from Shaolin the definition of a white haired master movie for me.

Invincible Armour another white haired master movie I have fond memories of.

IIRC in the past I made a thread asking what was the best year for shapes. IIRC I thought it was 1978 or 79 or at least somewhere between 1976-1982.

In 2006 I think Drunken Master was my favourite movie of all, in 2009 it was probably Fist of Fury or Heroes of the East or The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, and between 2010-13 it was probably Fist of Fury or Crippled Avengers.
In the end I went with Crippled Avengers because it has a low vote count and when I was most obsessed with kung fu movies, I slightly preferred it to 36 Chamber.
Though in my less obsessed state I might prefer 36 Chamber.

[lungfei]

no dual flying kicks?

only joking.

[ukrevrend]

Yes 1978 was so difficult to choose, all of them are worthy of being picked (except 'Enter The Game Of Death & The Game Of Death'), all the rest I would probably have in my top kung fu films of all time... What a Year!....Shapes Galore!

Warriors Two!!

 

[Lizardlady]

I just realized that the "Best" and my favorite are not necessarily the same thing!  Shaolin Wooden Men is listed twice in 76.  Just in case you missed it the first time? Lol

 

[TheFlyingPanda]

1978 was hardest to chose from, a few great classics.