14 great martial arts films of the last decade

[One Armed Boxer]

Taken from the feature on the main page by Gaz Ogden -

1. Volcano High

2. Fatal Contact

3. Kiltro

4. Undisputed II: Last Man Standing

5. The One

6. The Matrix Reloaded

7. Ip Man

8. Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Ong Bak 2

9. District 13

10. Brotherhood Of The Wolf

11. Equilibrium

12. DOA: Dead Or Alive

13. Unleashed

14. Versus

Wow, when I first started reading this list....at least until I got to Undisputed II: Last Man Standing, I thought it must be April 1st. Does anyone agree with this list? For me at least 8 of these movies shouldn`t even be in a top 20 martial arts films of the last 10 years, let alone a top 10 (sorry, 14, I forgot the rebel part).

Please, instead of movies like Chocolate, Sha Po Lang (which as a main page contributor I`m shocked the writer of this article hasn`t seen), Fearless, Contour, The Rebel, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, and Flash Point....

....we have Volcano High!? Fatal Contact!? Kiltro!? The One!? The Matrix Reloaded!? & DOA: Dead Or Alive!? Even wading through the endless schoolyard toilet humor of the article, I`m finding it difficult to understand why these movies are there.

I personally am more in agreement with what people posted on this thread...

http://www.kungfucinema.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9728

What do others think, as these movies are being represented as the best that the decade has to offer, to anyone that comes to the site and is new to the kung-fu cinema genre?

[tdb]

Some of those are good movies or good, yet flawed movies, but I wouldn't call them martial arts movies. Could the real problem be that there was a dearth of martial arts made in the last decade (at least compared to previous decades)? Still as you listed there are better/other choices out there. It is a nice sampling of action (some with martial arts) movies, though.

[Blood Sword]

Nice to see Undisputed 2 on list though.It`s among my fav western MA movies with Perfect Weapon and king of the kickboxers.

[blue_skies]

I am in complete agreement with you regarding that ridiculous top 14 list. I was in actual disbelief that it could even be an article on this site and had to see it with my own eyes.

Admittedly I like Fatal Contact and Kiltro but they probably wouldn't even break my top 20 of the last decade.

Volcano High was alright as a sci-fi/fantasy movie but was nothing special. As a martial-arts film it was absolute crap.

The One - come on the only way I can see this possibly entering a top 14 list is doing one from that year, when there probably wasn't 14 better movies to choose.

DOA Dead or alive - I'll give it top marks for TNA (tits 'n' arse) and that would be the only reason I would re watch this film. This is a poor martial-arts film.

Equilibrium - I remember a lot of positive feedback about this film. Hearing about the films "martial-art" gunkata (or something. But upon watching it I thought what a pile of crap. It's an action film not an martial-arts film.

Matrix reloaded - again not a martial-arts film. It's a sci-fi action movie and a mediocre one at that. The fight sequences that were there were hardly impressive unless you compare them to DOA Dead or alive, Charlie's Angels or some other Hollywood pap.

Brotherhood of the wolf - I'm not really sure what I think this film. It does have one fantastic fight sequence which is more than a lot of these other films I've commented on. Again with so few martial-arts scenes I wouldn't really call it a martial-arts film, action horror maybe.

Like the original poster on this thread I agree anyone new to martial-arts movies clicking on this "article" is going to be sorely misled. They would definitely do better reading the forum's top 10 of the last decade thread.

Also I must remember to take a pinch of salt to any reviews Mr Ogden writes in future.

[daisho2004]

Yeah I have to agree with you Guys on this list, again just because a movie has some Kung-Fu of Karate in it doesn't make it a Martial Arts movie!!!!

[Drunken Monk]

To true fans of the "martial arts genre" this list will be rather laughable. I agree. I'm not saying most of the films on the list are bad but I am saying that there are far superior films that were released within the last ten years.

This seems like a list by someone who is only just getting into the genre and is semi-indulging in kung fu action. I have friends who, for example, loved Jet Li in "Romeo Must Die" and then went on to track down more of his films but only got as far as "The Enforcer." They have yet to sink their teeth in the "Shaolin Temple" trilogy or even the "Once Upon a Time in China" films.

This list feels like that. Someone who wants to get his dose of great martial arts action but doesn't know how to get beyond the mainstream pants we all know to be vastly inferior.

[GoldenPigsy]

Even wading through the endless schoolyard toilet humor of the article, I`m finding it difficult to understand why these movies are there.

^This.

Really, it was kind of distressing to read this on the front page of KFC.There's lots of sophmoric humor and even a few simple grammatical errors that I'd not expect from a lead feature on a professional site. But the juvenile tone is something that an editor can't fix. I'd really rather not see this site turn into a sort of hyperbolic fanboy circlejerk like AICN.

That and The One? DOA? Really?

[lillippa328]

The One was one huge piece of shit movie....no Fearless but the One....no Forbidden Kingdom either....but DOA....this list is awful imo sorry

[Guest WuxiaFan]

Also agree with everyone's comments on this joke of list! I like Mark Pollard a lot and I've been reading KFC.com almost since its inception and I'm just shocked that Mark would allow this to be posted on his website. He has personnally reviewed just about every film on that list and completely ripped half of them! Then he lets "Gazz Ogden" post this list? WTF!

Gazz Ogden Top 14

[Guest Markgway]

2. Fatal Contact = Pants.

5. The One = Pants.

6. The Matrix Reloaded = Pants and not a "martial arts movie".

8. Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, Ong Bak 2 = 3 Films. Making it 16 "great" martial arts movies.

11. Equilibrium = Semi-pants and not martial arts

12. DOA: Dead Or Alive = Pants.

[Skepparkrans]

Oh my.. i stopepd reading after Volcano High, one of the worst movie ever.

[lillippa328]

I reread after I saw Volcano High i thought it was the worst 14 of the decade....

seriously....so many better MA films...New Police Story, Fearless, Chocolate, Killzone, Flashpoint, Dragon Tiger Gate, Drunken Monkey, Musa, Shadowless Sword, Banquet ect ect ect ect!

[GazzO]

Hi guys,

It seems I've really riled some people up on here. It seems like I've caused offense and I didn't mean any of that. What I did was to devise a list of 14 martial arts films (or films with martial arts in them) that I thought were great.

I totally agree with some of the films that people have mentioned that should be on a list like this. I understand what people may have thought about me putting a few Hollywood films on there but I wanted to show a bit of variety, if i had chosen just Asian films my list would be very different. I'm certainly not someone who is just getting into the genre and have watched martial arts films since I was young.

I agree that films like CHOCOLATE, DRAGON TIGER GATE, NEW POLICE STORY, FEARLESS, KUNG FU HUSTLE, CONTOUR, REDBELT etc etc should be on a list of the best martial arts films of the decade but that wasn't what I was writing.

So sorry for getting everyone so angry but I was just voicing my opinion and I'm never going to be able to please everyone! I hope at least someone agreed with some of my choices.

Probably better stop talking about poo too...

Gazz O

[Guest WuxiaFan]

Hi guys,

It seems I've really riled some people up on here. It seems like I've caused offense and I didn't mean any of that. What I did was to devise a list of 14 martial arts films (or films with martial arts in them) that I thought were great.

I totally agree with some of the films that people have mentioned that should be on a list like this. I understand what people may have thought about me putting a few Hollywood films on there but I wanted to show a bit of variety, if i had chosen just Asian films my list would be very different. I'm certainly not someone who is just getting into the genre and have watched martial arts films since I was young.

I agree that films like CHOCOLATE, DRAGON TIGER GATE, NEW POLICE STORY, FEARLESS, KUNG FU HUSTLE, CONTOUR, REDBELT etc etc should be on a list of the best martial arts films of the decade but that wasn't what I was writing.

So sorry for getting everyone so angry but I was just voicing my opinion and I'm never going to be able to please everyone! I hope at least someone agreed with some of my choices.

Probably better stop talking about poo too...

Gazz O

Your list would have been better served as a new thread here on the Forums which would have then allowed everyone to comment on it. But when its posted on kungfucinema.com, that becomes a represenation of the owner (Mark Pollard) of the website, and that's what I have a problem with. If you read Mark's reviews of the films on your list, you'll see that he accurately ripps half of them, and its contradictory to KFC.com to have your list posted, IMO. I view KFC.com as the most credible and professional website for our genre and NOT a site where people can just post "Top 10" lists willy nilly. So, I can't speak for other Forum members, but that's what's pissing me off.

[blue_skies]

Hi guys,

It seems I've really riled some people up on here. It seems like I've caused offense and I didn't mean any of that. What I did was to devise a list of 14 martial arts films (or films with martial arts in them) that I thought were great.

I totally agree with some of the films that people have mentioned that should be on a list like this. I understand what people may have thought about me putting a few Hollywood films on there but I wanted to show a bit of variety, if i had chosen just Asian films my list would be very different. I'm certainly not someone who is just getting into the genre and have watched martial arts films since I was young.

I agree that films like CHOCOLATE, DRAGON TIGER GATE, NEW POLICE STORY, FEARLESS, KUNG FU HUSTLE, CONTOUR, REDBELT etc etc should be on a list of the best martial arts films of the decade but that wasn't what I was writing.

So sorry for getting everyone so angry but I was just voicing my opinion and I'm never going to be able to please everyone! I hope at least someone agreed with some of my choices.

Probably better stop talking about poo too...

Gazz O

Hi Gazz, I honestly don't care where a film is made as long as if it's being classed as a martial-arts movie it has quality martial-arts, or lots of martial-arts and a really quality story.

That is my problem with your list is that you claim that the list is the cream of the last decade, not films that you love that just happen to have some martial-arts.

OK for better or for worse one of my choices didn't have the best martial-arts and to be fear I'm not a fan of wirework. However I included Bichunmoo more for the story. Yet I feel it's justified because at least it did have large amounts of martial-arts.

Regardless as Wuxiafan stated your list reflects the website and martial-arts films in general.

Lots of the film's you have listed don't really represent a bit of variety, if you're including quality. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but imagine the new fans finding this site spending their hard earned money to watch some of the films you listed, especially when there were so many better movies out there. I'm all for diversity if there's wonderful examples of martial-arts mixed with other genres (I love sci-fi myself) , I would be the first to include something that mixes two of my biggest big and small screen loves if there were superb examples of this.

Honestly, I look forward to reading more of your posts on the forum, perhaps being more active.

[One Armed Boxer]

Hi Gazz, I also have no personal problem with you and what you consider to be a 'great martial arts film', however like WuxiaFan stated this list would have been better posted on the forums, and not on the main page were it acts as a representation of kungfucinema.com.

Another problem I think is we know nothing about you, when Albert joined as a main contributor he was given an introdcution on the main page and is an active member of the forums. However your list appeared out of nowhere and your post on the forums to defend it is your first one. Perhaps you could tell us a little about yourself and how you got into martial arts movies?

What also worries me is that you're contradicting yourself on what you say in the comments section of the article and what you've said on here. In the comments on the article you say that the reason you didn't include Fearless is that

I completely forgot about Fearless, my mistake!

and likewise for Contour you said that

CONTOUR is amazing and I just completely forgot about it.

But then here on the forums you said

I agree that films like CHOCOLATE, DRAGON TIGER GATE, NEW POLICE STORY, FEARLESS, KUNG FU HUSTLE, CONTOUR, REDBELT etc etc should be on a list of the best martial arts films of the decade but that wasn't what I was writing.

So I'm not clear as to weather you didn't include them because you simply forgot about them, in which case you probably should have spent a little bit more time and thought into writing the list, or that you don't class them as 'great martial arts films of the last decade', in which case it makes the movies you have decided to include even more distressing.

One thing I do agree with you on...yeah please stop talking about 'poo'. I might be alone on this, but I don't really think articles on the main page are the best place to be talking about how "you'll tent your pants at this film", or how "I've just shat my entire brain out of my dick", let alone talking about people "rimming each other"...and that's just a select few.

Despite this, I do look forward to reading more of your contributions in the future....but until then, to quote your own words -

I haven’t seen SPL yet, so I guess my opinion isn’t worth squat

[GazzO]

Cheers for replying,

I've been a fan of this site for a long time and when I joined I just figured that what everyone would want was a bit of humour in some of the articles - I can totally understand why people haven't taken to my crude style though and I've spoken to Mark and I'm going to tone it down.

With regards to the list I think I got carried away with the fact that my first feature on here - "10 Great American Martial Arts Films You Probably Haven't Seen Yet" - had lots of positive feedback from the readers of the site. I therefore perhaps stupidly assumed that my opinion was in line with everyone else's! I'll admit I'm a fan of inauthentic wire-heavy kung-fu and although i did stress that DOA was rubbish, it's just something of a guilty pleasure for me - something i realise now I shouldn't have put on a list like this.

I tried to stress that it wasn't "THE BEST" martial arts films of the last decade, just ones that I really liked, but I obviously hadn't taken into account the readership of the site and their dislike of mainstream Hollywood.

As for me, I've been a fan of martial arts films since I was young, and although the list may seem like it, I do actually know and respect true martial arts films. Also, being from England it's harder to get a hold of some of the newest releases (SPL - but that's released next month over here) and so in all honesty - I probably shouldn't have done a feature about the last decade when I haven't seen many of the films made in the last few years.

Still, I hope my rubbish list won't stop people reading my stuff in the future.

[Mark Pollard]

I feel the unfortunate need to step in here and deflect some of the heat that Gazz is getting for expressing his opinions as a contributor to the site.

This is actually Gazz's sixth post on Kung Fu Cinema since October of '09 when I did introduce him on the main site. In that time he has adequately displayed a solid grasp of the genre, at least to my satisfaction.

http://www.kungfucinema.com/author/gazz-ogden

His opinions do not have to represent me, the site or whatever anyone believes to be the collective consensus of martial arts movie fans. If there is any fault here it resides with my failure to make that clear. In hindsight, I should have altered the article title and perhaps added an editorial introduction to better frame its content but I wouldn't change the fact that I published it.

I appreciate the desire by many here to see that a certain standard is maintained on the main site. Gazz and I have already had a brief discussion about that.

[Guest Markgway]

I still think we should consider flogging.........

Kidding...

[AlbertV]

I feel the unfortunate need to step in here and deflect some of the heat that Gazz is getting for expressing his opinions as a contributor to the site.

This is actually Gazz's sixth post on Kung Fu Cinema since October of '09 when I did introduce him on the main site. In that time he has adequately displayed a solid grasp of the genre, at least to my satisfaction.

http://www.kungfucinema.com/author/gazz-ogden

His opinions do not have to represent me, the site or whatever anyone believes to be the collective consensus of martial arts movie fans. If there is any fault here it resides with my failure to make that clear. In hindsight, I should have altered the article title and perhaps added an editorial introduction to better frame its content but I wouldn't change the fact that I published it.

I appreciate the desire by many here to see that a certain standard is maintained on the main site. Gazz and I have already had a brief discussion about that.

I have to admit, I enjoyed Gazz's work on the site. I mean, I can understand how he feels. On my feature "The Art of Kicking", I've had numerous comments on superkickers who should have been on the list and while I agree, because I am a fan of the superkickers, I felt compelled to give the ones who 1) showed the most impact on film, appearing in more than three or four films for one, and 2) ones that everyone seem to talk about more than anyone. That's practically how I complied my list for the 4-part feature.

Gazz, I think you're doing a great job and keep it up.

[blue_skies]

Also, being from England it's harder to get a hold of some of the newest releases (SPL - but that's released next month over here) and so in all honesty - I probably shouldn't have done a feature about the last decade when I haven't seen many of the films made in the last few years.

.

I hear you it's a bitch being a martial-arts fan in England. So many titles just don't get released here (old films and new) forcing you to import which is especially tricky if you're practically broke. And it certainly doesn't help when very little martial-arts actually makes it to TV screens.

[One Armed Boxer]

Also, being from England it's harder to get a hold of some of the newest releases (SPL - but that's released next month over here)

I'm also from England and I agree you can't just go onto the high street and purchase these titles...however even when the likes of Hong Kong Legends and Tartan Asia Extreme were still in business, I would still normally buy online because it's cheaper.

If you have a multi-region DVD player (practically a must-have if you're a martial arts movie fan) it's easy and reasonable enough to buy the titles online...I always use yesasia.com, they ship fast (sometimes faster than businesses that ship from inside the UK!), and have free postage on any order over $39, which normally amounts to 3 DVD's.

Thanks to them I watched Sha Po Lang as soon as it hit DVD in 2005....nobody should have to wait 5 years to see this movie!

[Guest WuxiaFan]

I still think we should consider flogging

I'd like to be his Second...

Gazz, I think you're doing a great job and keep it up.

Not so fast...Gazz has dissed us and I for one believe he owes us (or me) restitution! For his blasphemus comments on 2 of my favorite movies of all time, CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON and HERO, I think he should watch them again with his mind clear...so he can fully appreciate the "light-foot" kung fu!

Here's what Gazz said:

"CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON is horrendously overrated."

"HERO was way too airy-fairy for me."

C'mon! "airy-fairy"? I guess that could be likened to "artsy-fartsy" from Guido from RISKY BUSINESS.

[Skepparkrans]

Ok, first off.

I will continue read and i truly appreciate that you and all other writers putting your blood sweat and tears in making the site alive..

Without you people there would be no website or forum....

I dont however agree with this list, but one cant agree with everything...

Also, being from England it's harder to get a hold of some of the newest releases (SPL - but that's released next month over here) and so in all honesty - I probably shouldn't have done a feature about the last decade when I haven't seen many of the films made in the last few years.

Now to that quote..

oh my, I live in sweden and over here they only releases the biggest movies, like Hero and so on, but to get hold of the newer releases have honestly not been that hard since a little thing called the internet got big.

I have a very small collection but that more depends on a shortage of money than because its hard to get hold of movies.

Ordering from HK is very simple and cheap, sites like DDDhouse have always shipped in under a week to me in sweden....

Everyone i know with the slightest interest in foreign movies own a region free DVD player and order movies from HK, US, UK, Korea, Singapore.. you name it..

I mean, who want to wait several years for a movie, or even months..

Also i have notised that often is the HK, US and korea discs superior in quality over the UK or Swedish discs.

anyway.. start import and keep on writing!

And make sure to watch SPL, great movie, man I havent seen it since 2005, now i got inspired to re-watch it.. but i got to order it firsts.. maybe from HK

[blue_skies]

If you have a multi-region DVD player (practically a must-have if you're a martial arts movie fan) it's easy and reasonable enough to buy the titles online...I always use yesasia.com, they ship fast (sometimes faster than businesses that ship from inside the UK!), and have free postage on any order over $39, which normally amounts to 3 DVD's.

no customs charges either if you use standard delivery!