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Greatest martial arts fight scenes. My top Ten!

When doing my research for this subject I started to notice that the greatest fighters in modern day martial arts movies were split down the middle between two guys, Jet Li and Jackie Chan! They are hands down the greatest ever, no argument can be made so don’t even try. Bruce Lee, Sonny Chiba, Gordon Liu helped to pave the way. I’m also keeping most of these current, in the last 20 years or so. I could easily see how great the oldies are and the great battles in movies like Seven Samurai, Street fighter, Game of death, Master killer, Shogan Assassin and the 36th chamber of Shaolin All of those are Classics with classic fight scenes. With that being said how can I make a top ten list without those greats? I decided once again to go with “My favorite” theme. This time I judged all the scenes on these criteria. Length and difficulty of the scenes. Cool movies, how it was shot and of course the dramatic elements of the fight! I would also like to mention the new stars on the block or at least to American audiences that will help pave the way for more great Martial arts movies for years to come. Michelle Yeoh, Donnie Yen and Tony Ja. Bow to your master! Now, let’s begin.

(Starting from the bottom this time)

Honorable mention for American movies. This list will be dominated by the Asia cinema, but I had to mention these two American films that have some great fights that made me take notice.

The Best of the Best- One of the best American martial artist movies about the sport of Tae Kwon Do. Great action and drama with a nice ending. the sequel is a bit cheesy but is worth watching too. Phillip Rhee is high underrated and underused martial artist.
The Rundown- Highly underrated film and action sequences and of course one of the coolest fights between the Rock and the little Brazilians!



10. Bloodsport/The Kiss of the Dragon. (Tie) Kiss of…Not a great movie, but any movie with Jet Li in it is worth the money spent to see it! The fight scene with the “twins” at the end of the movie is awesome and brutal. Nice mix of east meets west action with this scene. Bloodsport is one of my favorite movies when I was a teen. I’ve watched this movie at least 50 times! This movie made Van Dammit a star, watch the last few fight scenes and especially the one with the great Bolo Yen and see why.

9. Matrix Reloaded (Neo vs. Agent Smiths or the Burly Brawl) this is one of the greatest scenes in martial artist movies in some time. It would have rated higher if it didn’t have so much CGI and slowmo “bullet time” FX and just got down to the nitty gritty. I love this scene, who the hell doesn’t? How great would this movie have been if Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh didn’t both turn down roles in it!

8. Zataichi, the Blind Swordsmen (fight in the rain) this was a great battle with great action and direction. Everything about this scene speaks of cool!

7. Kill Bill vol. 1 ( the Bride vs. the crazy 88 & Go Go Yabari) You have Choreographed fights by Yuen Wo Ping, with Tarentino Direction and old school Shaw Brothers blood splatters SFX and music Montage by RZA!! Are you kidding me, this one is great, graphic and action packed. Directed beautifully, and a nice bonus cameo by none other than the great Gordon Liu!!

6. First Strike (Jackie Chan and the ladder fight) This Scene has great action and thrilling stunt work, this is the stuff that made Jackie a household name and one of the biggest stars in the entire world!

5. Ong Bak, the Thai Warrior ( Tony Ja in the final fight scene) When I first saw this flick last year I knew I was looking at true greatness and the successor to Jackie and Jet right before my eyes! This movie is packed with great, brutal Muy Thai fight scenes that will make you cringe to watch. Tony has what Bruce and Jet have, raw fighting ability that looks real on scene and the stunt and acrobatic work of Jackie Chan. Bruce Lee would love Tony Ja, why? Tony really kicks ass and never uses wires!


4. Fist of Legend (Jet Li vs. the entire Japanese school) this is a remake of the Bruce Lee Classic Fist of Fury. Great fight scene that I believe the Wachaski brothers modeled the “burly brawl” after. This one is fantastic to see Jet Li and his intense style brought to its peak in this scene

3. Hero ( the chess house fight with Jet Li and Donnie Yen or the fight between Broken Sword, Tony Leung, and the King of Chen ,Chen Dao Ming.) The entire movie is packed with great visuals and fantastically gorgeous fight scenes. This movie has one great shot after another and has a powerful message wrapped into all this great action. Seeing two masters like Jet Li and Donnie Yen once again clash swords is a treat for any hard core fan!


2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi with all the weapons) this is one of the best movies of any kind and helped break down the “kung fu” movie stereotype for western audiences. It’s cool to know one of the best character conscious, plot driven period peace movies of my lifetime is also one of the best action movies as well!! Every fight in this is perfect and is executed with precision mastery; it’s almost incomprehensible to witness such a master that got such great critical and popular kudos by an American audience. Thank god the public and critics came together on this gem!

1. Legend of the Drunken Master (Jackie Chan vs. everyone in the final fight scene) this scene is long, with stunts great action, drama, lots of fighting styles and great martial arts! This fight is amazing and in typical Hong Kong movie making magic took about 6 weeks to shoot the finial scene (after about three months of rehearsal) this fight will have you exhausted by the end. Jackie out did himself on this one!

The Directors...

I've shown my favorite films and what great films they are. What makes a great film you might ask? Acting can make a good film, yes as well as a good story... but without a great director your film will never reach it's full potential. As a film buff and fellow story teller I have great admiration for the job that today's directors do. There have been many great directors from Orsen Wells to Stanley Kubrick to Alfred Hitchcock and Akira Kurasawa. It's hard for me, with my limited film knowledge that really only spans the last thirty years, to compares today's directors to the greats of old. So once again this is my list of Favorites. This list is MY top 10. I'll even go deeper and tell you why I like each director to give you more insight to what I look for in a great director. Enjoy...or not.

1. Martin Scorsese. ( Raging bull, Goodfellas, Kundun, Gangs of New York.) This man is movie gold in my opinion. The greatest film maker I've ever seen. This man should have a dozen Academy Awards by now. There is no other film maker that can tell a character driven movie like Marty. It almost make me want to vomit when his movies never make the money they should at the box office. Anyone that doesn't go out and support these kind of film makers should have their house fire bombed. God please let Marty do one of his movies and it make some money!

2. Quentin Tarantino ( Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) Quentin is without a doubt our generations Francis ford Coppola or Martin Scorsese. A true icon of my generations film makers and had one of the most influential movie on the industry of the last 20 years, Pulp Fiction.

3. Steven Spielberg ( Saving Private Ryan, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Minority Report.) My generations Steven Spielberg, LOL. His films really push the creative boundaries. Every time you think he's going in one direction he does something like Ryan, or Munich that makes everyone turn there head and know he can truly do it all! The Michael Jordan of Film Directing.

4. David Fincher ( Fight Club, Seven) David is one director that if you could give him a blank check and a good concept the man can deliver the most provocative video masterpiece...Everything. Very few directors working today can match his visual style and unique story telling ability.

5. Michael Mann ( Insider, Heat, Collateral) Big time director that can handle big time stars and get the best out of them, everything. Few directors carry the respect of the finest in the biz like this mann ( pun intended) He has directed the biggest stars on the planet and can tell compelling character driven storylines and dynamic action sequences seamlessly. This man is a master at letting the characters come to life and draw us into the film.

6. Brain DePalma ( Scarface, Carlitos Way, Untouchables, and the up coming The Black Dahlia ) visual style that has been teaching young film makers for years how to open a scene with tention and style that has DePalma written all over it. Overhead shots that slowly pan the scene to stunning close ups from unique angles always tell the viewer your watching dePalma.

7. Chistopher Nolan ( batman Begins, Insomnia, memento, the Following) few directors can boast a 1.000 batting average in the bigs...This one can. Everything he touches is a master piece. With only a few films under his belt Mr. Nolan is quickly showing people that not only is he a master storyteller but he can do a big budget Hollywood movie like Batman and do it better than it's ever been done before.

8. Sergio Leone ( Once upon a time in America, Good the Bad and the Ugly, Fistfull of Dollars) The king of the intense close-up and the man who made Clint Eastwood and the spaghetti western a star is still looked at and revered by pears young and old as a true craftsman of the art of film making.

9. Guy Ritchie ( Lock Stock and two smoking barrels, Snatch) A lot of people like to hate on him now a days, but don't make the mistake of writing this limy off just yet. His first two major film releases were as exciting to watch visual as anything I've seen in recent memory. His directing style is purely defended as his unique eye for off beat outrageous characters. His pacing is strong and keeps you glued to the edge of your seat. I defy anyone reading this to watch those two films and not see the budding greatness that is Guy!

10. Terry Gilliam ( Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Time Bandits) Quirky, odd, witty and visual brutal. All this coming from a Montey Python! Terry is a truly gifted film maker that has imagination with scenes and characters like no other. Dark, quirky films that have so much depth and layers that he guarantees he will never be truly embraced by American audiences the way he should. If you like Tim Burton and his films, you'll love Terry Gilliam. He's had a few mis steps as of late, but I see and big cult hit just around the corner.

Coming soon, my top screen writers! (oh boy) One of these days I'll write something about my comics I'm working on. : )

The pick at the top is from the movie "Snatch"...put that in a google search ( as i did to find that pic) and see all the goodness that pops up. How stupid am I........don't answer that!