Recommend Kung Fu Films from 2000 onwards

[Trainwreck]

Hey guys,

As the title of post suggests, I am in need of recommendations of good kung fu films from this century as I have no clue what to watch. Aside from Ong Bak 1 & 2, SPL, Ip Man and some of the more arty films such as Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Curse of the Golden Flower etc, I have seen little to nothing of what has been released in the past decade or so. What do you guys recommend?

[HyperDrive]

Flashpoint

[kaleyboy]

If you liked Ip Man, you'll like Jet Li's Fearless.

[DeathShrike]

In roughly descending order of quality (IMO), here a some ones I like:

Kung Fu Hustle.

Tsui Hark's Time and Tide

Cory Yuen's So Close

Chocolate

New Police Story

Danny the Dog aka Unleashed

Black Belt (does Karate film count?)

Invisible Target

City of Violence

District B13

[kaleyboy]

Time and Tide kung fu???

[DeathShrike]

Time and Tide kung fu???

Well, there's fighting in it. Sue me.

[Trainwreck]

I should not have limited myself to "kung fu". Please recommend anything.

[Asmo]

Fatal Move. More of a crime drama, but the end fight is awesome.

[The Dragon]

Fighter in The Wind, a remake of Sonny Chiba's Champion of Death.

An awesome MA film, with great acting as well. You'll literally feel the bones breaking in this one!

[hkpyanfar]

In no particular order, here's a baker's dozen:

1)PTU is a great police story

2)Election is pretty good for a triad film

3)Bullets Over Summer is good, but it's a 1999 film.

4)Martial Angels I liked, but many did not.

5)Musa the Warrior

6)Naked Weapon is another that I liked, but many did not

7)Bichunmoo is a fine Korean swordplay movie

8)Jiang Hu: the Triad Zone spoofs triad films. Moves between action, comedy and drama.

9)Midnight Fly is an excellent drama with some action. Anita Mui is the lead.

10)Infernal Affairs, a cop and triad movie

11)Men Suddenly in Black is hilarious

12)Tae Guk Gi, a Korean war film

13)War and Beauty, a tv drama series focused on imperial court scheming by royal concubines.

Hope you enjoy your movies!

[Milkyway]

Watch the filmographies of John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, Wilson Yip, Andrew Lau, Edmond Pang, the Pang bros, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan.

[kaleyboy]

Personally, I'd avoid almost everything done by the Pang brothers. All style over substance.

[AbeRudder]

Contour - TONS of fights in this one, done in the style of the 80s kickboxing movies. I think it holds up to the works of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung.

The Rebel - Great vietnamese flick with Johnny Nguyen

Kiss of the Dragon - The best Jet Li movie done in English along with Unleashed

Dragon Tiger Gate - This one got a lot of mixed reviews but i enjoyed it (mostly for the fight scenes, everything else was mediocre).

[Trainwreck]

Watch the filmographies of John Woo, Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam, Johnnie To, Wilson Yip, Andrew Lau, Edmond Pang, the Pang bros, Sammo Hung, and Jackie Chan.

Woo and To are two of my all time favorite directors and I am mostly familiar with the back catalog of Sammo and Jackie. Thank you though.

[Yang Wu Liang]

I'd recommend 'Chinese Heroes' (2001). Here's a review I wrote a while back -

Not a bad little film this one and unlike the rest of the post ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’ period martial arts films it’s got no pretensions of being in the least bit ‘arty’ and there’s not a wire in sight (well, maybe one or two briefly). Whilst it might not have the budget of CTHD or Hero the production values are ok and it delivers in terms of action.

The plot is fairly reminiscent of old school kung fu movies of the late 70's and it revolves around an innocent and upstanding youth (John Zang Chun) who moves to town to make something of himself. Unfortunately he gets involved in some sort of Chinese Vs Japanese plot and learns a few lessons about friendship (and kung fu) off a scruffy martial arts master / beggar (Chin Kar Lok) and his group of kiddy mates.

I’m sure any fan of kung fu films will enjoy the plentiful fighting in Chinese Heroes which to me looked like a combination of new wave and old school styles. The editing is fairly quick at times but there are still some relatively lengthy exchanges during which the cast all demonstrate excellent screen fighting skills, both with swords and hand to hand. As I mentioned before there’s only a few brief stunts that use wires but for the most part the action is entirely grounded and relies purely on the talent of the actors. There are one or two moments where cgi comes into play but they are almost exclusively during dream sequences, as part of his training Chin Kar Lok teaches John Zang Chun a technique of training in his imagination where he’s transported to the Shaolin Temple to train with the monks and spar with a load of ninjas, who with the help of some nifty editing can disappear at will (Don’t let this put you off the film though because it’s done well and is one of my favourite bits despite it’s improbability). Basically what I’m saying is that there’s loads of fighting and it’s all done fairly well, the finale in particular against the powerful head ninja (who’s name escapes me) is very well executed and looks especially painful with some real bone crunching stunts on display.

‘Chinese Heroes’ is something of a throwback to the heyday of old school kung fu movies both in terms of the action and the story. Although I haven’t got anything against ‘wire fu’ as such it’s good to see a period martial arts film that can reject the use of wires and still deliver loads of quality kung fu. If I’ve got a criticism of the film it’s the silly new wave style comedy that occasionally crops up between the fight scenes, it’s fairly innocuous though and barely worth mentioning, apart from that it’s all good - especially if you like ninja's.

[Yang Wu Liang]

Another one -

Valiant Ones New

The original valiant ones is probably my favourite King Hu film - the main reason for this is because it has loads more fighting and less of the art house pretension than his other films, and pirates of course.

I’m happy to report that you could say similar things about this remake when you compare it to other wuxia films of recent years. While I like films like House of Flying Daggers and the Banquet they aren’t straight up action movies whereas I’d say The valiant ones New is. In fact I've rarely seen a ‘martial arts’ film made in the last decade where there wasn’t at least one moment when I was bored stiff waiting for the next action scene or sitting through a dull ‘emotional’ scene - not the case with The New valiant ones which moves along quite briskly with plenty of swordfights, there is a romantic subplot of sorts but it very much takes a back seat to the story and the action.

I think that it’s quite a faithful remake of the original for the most part (although on the copy I’ve got only 50% of the burnt in subtitles are legible so I’m not too sure about that!). Certainly a lot of the main scenes are still there - although they don’t quite seem to capture the tension and drama of the original. Most of the film takes place on location in the forests and coastlines and was shot very nicely - I don’t think you can have a better setting for a swordfight than a bamboo forest and you get plenty of that here, like in the original.

As for the martial arts on display they are fairly typical new wave swordfights, I don’t know if it was because of the budget or because the director was trying to get away from the kind of action we usually see in recent wuxia films but the fighting was mostly grounded with very little wirework and slow motion. Of course the quick takes and super fast choppy editing is still there (as well as a lot of trampoline action!) but it reminded me more of films from the 90’s which maybe wouldn’t please to many old school fans but I liked it. I’m also glad to report that there is very little cgi on display, in the fighting it only really involved a few projectile weapons and I’m sure some of them were done with the old ‘knife on a wire’ routine. There were some unfortunate looking cgi ships at the end but they were very much in the background and in no way detracted from the large scale battle scenes at the end. I remember reading someone criticising the action for being a bit like what you’d see in a TV series which is a bit harsh, I must be watching the wrong series’.

I can’t remember King Hu’s original being quite so depressing and downbeat at the end (I’m going to watch it tonight) but this update is a welcome addition to my dvd collection. It’s not trying to be a historical epic or an overblown romantic tale - just a solid old fashioned action film and all the better for it.