Let's kick some ass...

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!