Eastern Influenced/Inspired Western MA Movies Recommendations

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

So one of my favorite guilty pleasure kung fu movies is Superfights from 1995, which has all the cheesy charm of a direct-to-video 80s/90s American chopsocky flick, but with the crucial additional ingredient of being directed by a veteran Hong Kong stunt coordinator / action director (Tony Leung Siu-Hung, in this case). Other movies with a similar "best of both worlds" vibe that I enjoy include the No Retreat, No Surrender films, Bloodmoon, Drive, and Broken Path. It goes without saying that I also dig a lot of the PM Entertainment movies, with their HK-inspired stuntwork, and the "everything I need to know about action filmmaking I learned from working on Power Rangers" style of directors like Isaac Florentine, even if those movies have less of a direct involvement with Eastern behind-the-scenes talent.

Anyhoo, all that rambling preamble is to set up the question: For those of you that are into those sorts of movies, what are some of your favorites that I haven't mentioned here? Hoping to discover a few new must-watches as quarantine continues to make me cut a wide swath through the dwindling field that is quality kung fu movies I haven't ever seen before.

[ShaOW!linDude]

Check out American Shaolin. You'll love it.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

6 minutes ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

Check out American Shaolin. You'll love it.

Way ahead of you! Good pick (and pic).

[DrNgor]

I consider the two Mortal Kombat films to be that, with Robin Shou doing his own choreography in the first one, and joining forces with Ridley Tsui in the second one.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

22 minutes ago, DrNgor said:

I consider the two Mortal Kombat films to be that, with Robin Shou doing his own choreography in the first one, and joining forces with Ridley Tsui in the second one.

Love the first MK. I just recently learned that the best fights in it (the second half of the Johnny Cage vs. Scorpion fight and the Liu Kang vs. Reptile fight) were reshoots choreographed by Shou because test audiences (rightly) thought the movie needed "more fight scenes", and original choreographer Pat Johnson was already working on another project.

Edited August 16, 2020 by ShaolinMasterKiller

[kingofkungfu2002]

Cold Harvest, starring Gary Daniels.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

20 minutes ago, kingofkungfu2002 said:

Cold Harvest, starring Gary Daniels.

Oh nice, Daniels *and* Isaac Florentine? No sure how I missed this one, but I have! Thanks!

[One Armed Boxer]

Don’t forget the 3 movies that Godfrey Ho made in the States during the 90’s - ‘Honour & Glory’, ‘Undefeatable’, & ‘Manhattan Chase’.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

3 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

Don’t forget the 3 movies that Godfrey Ho made in the States during the 90’s - ‘Honour & Glory’, ‘Undefeatable’, & ‘Manhattan Chase’.

Nice! Another three I haven't seen yet, although Undefeatable is obviously infamous for containing the "best fight scene of all time" (11.5 million views on YouTube and counting), and I was just looking at Manhattan Chase on IMDB the other day because of the Avedon + Rothrock factor and wondering if it was worth checking out. Thanks

Edited August 16, 2020 by ShaolinMasterKiller

[sym8]

Breathing Fire

 

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

4 hours ago, sym8 said:

Breathing Fire

 

So I just watched this since it was streaming free on Prime, and I have to say: Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I started this thread! Great mix of cheese, acting that ranged from wooden to scenery-chewing with nothing in between, legit impressive kickboxing at times, a grab bag of familiar faces (Bolo! Shortround! The guy that was in the Lord Zedd suit on Power Rangers!), and a plot that was equal parts hilariously convoluted / underdeveloped and surprisingly effective at times. The last 15 or so minutes where Jonathan Quan learns the truth about his past, has to fight his "dad", and then go up against his embittered brother in the big martial arts tournament that they set up at the beginning of the movie... I gotta be honest, I was pretty into it! Great recommendation

[sym8]

54 minutes ago, ShaolinMasterKiller said:

So I just watched this since it was streaming free on Prime, and I have to say: Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I started this thread! Great mix of cheese, acting that ranged from wooden to scenery-chewing with nothing in between, legit impressive kickboxing at times, a grab bag of familiar faces (Bolo! Shortround! The guy that was in the Lord Zedd suit on Power Rangers!), and a plot that was equal parts hilariously convoluted / underdeveloped and surprisingly effective at times. The last 15 or so minutes where Jonathan Quan learns the truth about his past, has to fight his "dad", and then go up against his embittered brother in the big martial arts tournament that they set up at the beginning of the movie... I gotta be honest, I was pretty into it! Great recommendation

I have to say I haven’t seen this in about ten years,I can only remember the choreography,but after your write up I’m gonna have to dig it out and give it another look👍👍

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

22 hours ago, kingofkungfu2002 said:

Cold Harvest, starring Gary Daniels.

Found this streaming free on Filmrise and just finished it. Good stuff! Could've maybe done with some more action, but the movie is short enough that you're never too far from a fight or a shootout, and what action there is is classic Florentine hyperkinetic goodness. Lots of great kicks, flips, falls, squib hits, etc. - all filmed and edited with impeccable skill. This fight in particular I thought was great: 

 

Edited August 16, 2020 by ShaolinMasterKiller

[ShaOW!linDude]

Try US Seals 2 directed by Florentine and starring Michael Worth. You might dig that.

[DrNgor]

Lam Maang-Cheung, who worked on the Kung Fu Kids films and a lot of Taiwanese classics, apparently was the choreographer for The 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up, which I haven't seen yet.

[AlbertV]

Here's another one. College Kickboxers (aka Trained to Fight). It was produced by the team who produced the Iron Angels trilogy and co-stars Tang Tak-Wing, who plays the hero's mentor and was also the fight choreographer on the film. I know it's on Tubi TV for Free.

If you liked Superfights, chances are you may or may not have seen Bloodmoon, which was also directed/choreographed by Tony Leung Siu-Hung. The late Darren Shahlavi is an amazing villain in the form of a serial killer who uses his martial arts skills to target various champions (yes, a precursor to Donnie Yen's Kung Fu Jungle) and Gary Daniels and Chuck Jeffreys must hunt him down.

 

Edited August 17, 2020 by AlbertV

[AlbertV]

19 hours ago, ShaolinMasterKiller said:

So I just watched this since it was streaming free on Prime, and I have to say: Exactly the sort of thing I was looking for when I started this thread! Great mix of cheese, acting that ranged from wooden to scenery-chewing with nothing in between, legit impressive kickboxing at times, a grab bag of familiar faces (Bolo! Shortround! The guy that was in the Lord Zedd suit on Power Rangers!), and a plot that was equal parts hilariously convoluted / underdeveloped and surprisingly effective at times. The last 15 or so minutes where Jonathan Quan learns the truth about his past, has to fight his "dad", and then go up against his embittered brother in the big martial arts tournament that they set up at the beginning of the movie... I gotta be honest, I was pretty into it! Great recommendation

Love this film. Thanks to @Mike Leeder I had learned that "Delon Tanners" who executive produced and came up with the story is actually none other than Tan Tao-Liang and it was also the 1st film role for a future martial arts action star and current mo-cap Godzilla actor named T.J. Storm, who is credited under his real name, Juan Ojeda.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

15 hours ago, ShaOW!linDude said:

Try US Seals 2 directed by Florentine and starring Michael Worth. You might dig that.

Oh yeah, got the DVD sitting on my shelf, right next to Special Forces. First Issac Florentine movie I ever watched.

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

1 hour ago, AlbertV said:

Here's another one. College Kickboxers (aka Trained to Fight). It was produced by the team who produced the Iron Angels trilogy and co-stars Tang Tak-Wing, who plays the hero's mentor and was also the fight choreographer on the film. I know it's on Tubi TV for Free.

If you liked Superfights, chances are you may or may not have seen Bloodmoon, which was also directed/choreographed by Tony Leung Siu-Hung. The late Darren Shahlavi is an amazing villain in the form of a serial killer who uses his martial arts skills to target various champions (yes, a precursor to Donnie Yen's Kung Fu Jungle) and Gary Daniels and Chuck Jeffreys must hunt him down.

Yup, I already love and own Bloodmoon. Haven't seen College Kickboxers yet, but it's been on my radar... I know it's streaming on Prime, so I'll try and check it out in the next day or two.

Edited August 17, 2020 by ShaolinMasterKiller

[AbeRudder]

Have you seen The Musketman from 2001? It's kind of a generic Hollywood adventure period film except it has a bunch of legit Once Upon A Time in China style wire-fu fight scenes choreographed by Xin Xin Xong. The other movie that came to mind was Death Cage from 1989 that was directed by Robert Tai, I haven't actually seen the movie myself and the reviews for it don't seem great but it seems to be exactly what you're looking for. It has Joe Lewis and Robin Shou in it. 

https://youtu.be/_2AyymMuJpY

Edited August 18, 2020 by AbeRudder

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

2 hours ago, AbeRudder said:

Have you seen The Musketman from 2001?

You mean The Musketeer? It's been a while since I've seen it, but I remember liking the action, even if the final fight scene is literally Xin Xin Xiong copying his own ladder fight from OUATIC. Didn't realize it was a Peter Hyams joint until I looked it up just now on IMDB. Death Cage sounds like it could be fun, I'll try and track it down. Thanks!

[DragonClaws]

On 8/16/2020 at 4:44 PM, sym8 said:

Breathing Fire

 

Anyone know who did the fight choreography for this one?, was it Tan Tao Liang?.

 

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

On 8/16/2020 at 8:44 AM, sym8 said:

Breathing Fire

 

 

Found an issue of Black Belt magazine from 1993 that has an article by Craig Reid listing Breathing Fire as one of the "10 Best Choreographed Martial Arts Films" (amongst "American-produced films featuring American actors in primary roles")... I, uh, wouldn't have gone that far, even in '93, but still funny to see.

College Kickboxers is also on the list (under the title Trained to Fight), along with all 3 of the No Retreat, No Surrender movies and King of the Kickboxers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=FtIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA38#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

[sym8]

3 minutes ago, ShaolinMasterKiller said:

 

Found an issue of Black Belt magazine from 1993 that has an article by Craig Reid listing Breathing Fire as one of the "10 Best Choreographed Martial Arts Films" (amongst "American-produced films featuring American actors in primary roles")... I, uh, wouldn't have gone that far, even in '93, but still funny to see.

College Kickboxers is also on the list (under the title Trained to Fight), along with all 3 of the No Retreat, No Surrender movies and King of the Kickboxers.

https://books.google.com/books?id=FtIDAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA1&pg=PA38#v=onepage&q&f=false

 

I think I would have it up there with the others mentioned in the article,but what I don’t agree with is in the worst section where it has Lionheart as number ten.Yes it has multiple takes of the same kick or punch but I thought it was a good movie with decent action.Its just a pity that every film he has done since which contains fight scenes still has the same techniques but without the multiple takes👍

[ShaolinMasterKiller]

2 minutes ago, sym8 said:

I think I would have it up there with the others mentioned in the article,but what I don’t agree with is in the worst section where it has Lionheart as number ten.Yes it has multiple takes of the same kick or punch but I thought it was a good movie with decent action.Its just a pity that every film he has done since which contains fight scenes still has the same techniques but without the multiple takes👍

Agreed, Lionheart was def. my biggest "What, I love that movie!?" reaction out of everything on that "10 Worst" list.