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Serious Question.....where are the modern kung fu movies?

RavageX

RavageX

Member
I was talking with the wife about this as we were watching some old Jackie Chan films, I can't remember the last time I saw a good kung fu flick. There's no one else quite like Chan. The closest interesting watch is Donnie Yen. Tony Jaa was great in a few films, but not sure what happened.

So...am I missing something? Anyone have good recommendations? I don't mean people flying around on wires either.
 
KyoZz

KyoZz

Tag, you're it.
Grildon Tundy said:
The Raid and The Raid 2 are incredible. That's modern-day kung fu to me
Click to expand...
Excited Lets Go GIF


First post nailed it. The Raid 1 & 2 are just incredible
 
T

TaylorSwiftFan

Member
KyoZz said:
Oh and I'll add the series "Warrior". It's just so good. The fights are amazing but the story is also very very well done, it's based on a idea by Bruce Lee.
It's honestly better than many movies.




www.imdb.com

Warrior (TV Series 2019–2023) ⭐ 8.4 | Action, Crime, Drama

1h | TV-MA
www.imdb.com www.imdb.com

For real, watch this too.
Click to expand...

I thought the show was only ok and never finished the first season but I never understood why the main character never became a bigger star.
 
J

jason10mm

Gold Member
Certainly as a staple of filmmaking the wu-shu kung-fu stuff seems to have faded a bit, for a while there it seemed like they were making a dozen a year but maybe that was just how TNT/WGN kung-fu theater made it seem back in the day.
 
Mistake

Mistake

Member
Here ya go


Stupid thing is age restricted. Put nsfw after youtube in the url or use a mirror site like invidious
 
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J

jason10mm

Gold Member
On the American (western) side it doesn't seem like there are very many skilled martial art actors at the moment. No van Damms, Segall, speak man's, rothrocks, Lee's, Wilson's, decasco, dudikoff, etc to carry the torch. The most prolific one I see today is Scott Adkins. Andrew Koji from warrior absolutely could carry a film, that show us about the best we got these days.

Seems like gun-fu John wick stuff and more jui-jitsu focused stuff that older, less skilled actors can pull off is the rage these days.

Damn, totally forgot about Michael Jai-white, he is still delivering though he is aging out a bit.
 
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BlackTron

BlackTron

Member
Not exactly recent but I really liked Ong Bak. I forget which numbered entry had my favorite scenes but I'd just watch them all anyway. Once of them has a long lull with little action but it didn't really take away from how insane the whole package is.
 
Red Crayon Aristocrat

Red Crayon Aristocrat

Member
I noticed a LOT of martial arts films coming from Asia in the 00s, early 2010s, it seems like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon lead to a huge boom for it for over a decade.

But yeah, you don't really see that many any more do you? Outside of a few Hollywood ones like the Mortal Kombat movie reboot, if it counts.

Seems like maybe Chan retiring from it put a big wet blanket over the genre.
 
D

DragoonWalker

Member
Bonafide Kung fu movies come from Hong Kong. Thanks to the retirement of a class of stuntmen and martial artists who were uniquely trained in an era that can't exist today, mainland Chinese censorship and its filthy rich but creatively bankrupt film industry stealing all the city's talent, kung fu movies as you know them are no more. Mainstream audiences right now also doesn't really have any interest in kung fu movies... so they are niche.

But that's not to say martial arts movies are totally dead. Indonesia has come and gone. Other Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, some from the west too, are still making 'em. Here are some from this year or the last couple:

















Some of these are not strictly "kung fu" movies, but action movies with some martial arts in them. Then again, that was also Rumble in the Bronx.

EDIT: Added Sanak, a Jackie Chan/ Die Hard homage from India of all places.
 
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RavageX

RavageX

Member
Red Crayon Aristocrat said:
I noticed a LOT of martial arts films coming from Asia in the 00s, early 2010s, it seems like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon lead to a huge boom for it for over a decade.

But yeah, you don't really see that many any more do you? Outside of a few Hollywood ones like the Mortal Kombat movie reboot, if it counts.

Seems like maybe Chan retiring from it put a big wet blanket over the genre.
Click to expand...
It seems like this to me as well. I can't really remember the last good kung fu movie I watched in the past few years. I am going to check out the ones recommended so far. There will never be another Chan, at least not on the same level as film volume I think.

I don't count that Mortal Kombat film, I only liked the Subzero/Scorpion stuff. Cole was about as weak of character as you can get.
I think I still like the original movie better, lol.

I'm not really sure what I would expect out of a good kung fu movie these days, I don't want to be "stuck" and always compare things to when I was growing up. This is kind of a problem I have now. Everything just seems so....less with more. You get pretty CGI, but less substance(?). Not just with movies, clearly games too. Music as well from what I hear.

Maybe I'm just old, lol.
 
MrMephistoX

MrMephistoX

Member
DragoonWalker said:
Bonafide Kung fu movies come from Hong Kong. Thanks to the retirement of a class of stuntmen and martial artists who were uniquely trained in an era that can't exist today, mainland Chinese censorship and its filthy rich but creatively bankrupt film industry stealing all the city's talent, kung fu movies as you know them are no more. Mainstream audiences right now also doesn't really have any interest in kung fu movies... so they are niche.

But that's not to say martial arts movies are totally dead. Indonesia has come and gone. Other Asian countries like Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, some from the west too, are still making 'em. Here are some from this year or the last couple:















Some of these are not strictly "kung fu" movies, but action movies with some martial arts in them. Then again, that was also Rumble in the Bronx.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this…I had a suspicion.
 
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thefool

thefool

Member
RavageX said:
I was talking with the wife about this as we were watching some old Jackie Chan films, I can't remember the last time I saw a good kung fu flick. There's no one else quite like Chan. The closest interesting watch is Donnie Yen. Tony Jaa was great in a few films, but not sure what happened.

So...am I missing something? Anyone have good recommendations? I don't mean people flying around on wires either.
Click to expand...

HK cinema started to slowly die post China annexation in 97. And after 10 years or so when mainland started to finance (and censorship) their industry, it was the final blow.
 
The Cockatrice

The Cockatrice

Member
Modern chinese movies have gone severely downhill. It's a lot of propaganda, filled with scenes that cut a million times, mixed in with russians and french speaking actors that move their lips but no words come out and a lot of shitty CGI. Stick to the classics, or move to Korean cinema.

RavageX said:
On my list to check out, thanks.
Click to expand...

Also gonna second the raid movies. They are not only amazing fighting movies but prolly one of THE best ever made. I'm gonna give you a clip, if you wanna get spoiled a bit, if this shit doesnt sell you on the movies nothing will. Both movies are literally boss rush games.

ill spoiler tag it just in case but doubt anyone watched it for the story.

 
MrMephistoX

MrMephistoX

Member
Coconutt said:
kung fu GIF
kung fu hustle formative influences GIF
Click to expand...
This came out when I was working in China so I actually got to see it on a big screen: shitty mandarin dub but it was amazing. I liked it so much I bought a shitty cam version DVD and then eventually the home video version: made up for it buying legit on Blu-ray eventually though when I got back home and could afford it :)

Looking back it’s almost like the director saw the writing on the wall and made a love letter to Kung Fu movies while the talent was still able to work their magic. Still some CGI but it’s mostly practical.
 
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thefool

thefool

Member
CGNoire said:
what was censored?
Click to expand...

The more financially dependent they were from mainland market, films had to be submitted to SAPPRFT for approval. They could censor pretty much anything they were against (themes, characterizations, scenes, etc.). Here's a good interview of Johnnie To talking about the subject and how he conceptualized his film to pass censors (and still had to accommodate their bizarre decisions, like too much action).

So, they went from a very expressionist industry (always very nationalistic tho), exporting their culture and releasing it on a very favorable hk economy to being heavily dependent of mainland and having to walk on egg-shells when making their movies.
 
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AmuroChan

AmuroChan

Member
RavageX said:
I was talking with the wife about this as we were watching some old Jackie Chan films, I can't remember the last time I saw a good kung fu flick. There's no one else quite like Chan.
Click to expand...

Totally agree with you OP. While there are kung fu movies still being made, the Jackie Chan-style action humor movies are pretty much extinct. The 80s and 90s were the golden age IMO. Police Story, Project A, My Lucky Stars, Armor of God, Drunken Master, etc were some of the finest practical kung-fu movies I've ever seen. Any movie with Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen Biao all it in were a must watch for me.
 
D

DragoonWalker

Member
AmuroChan said:
Totally agree with you OP. While there are kung fu movies still being made, the Jackie Chan-style action humor movies are pretty much extinct. The 80s and 90s were the golden age IMO. Police Story, Project A, My Lucky Stars, Armor of God, Drunken Master, etc were some of the finest practical kung-fu movies I've ever seen. Any movie with Jackie, Sammo, and Yuen Biao all it in were a must watch for me.
Click to expand...
Ah yes, reminds me, everyone interested in kung fu and action movies from the golden era should check out this recent documentary as all the prominent stuntmen and martial artists talk about how and why they were able to achieve that crazy shit:



It's on Hi-Yah the streaming service, and the high seas. Subs are better than what's in the trailer.
 
RavageX

RavageX

Member
DragoonWalker said:
Ah yes, reminds me, everyone interested in kung fu and action movies from the golden era should check out this recent documentary as all the prominent stuntmen and martial artists talk about how and why they were able to achieve that crazy shit:



It's on Hi-Yah the streaming service, and the high seas. Subs are better than what's in the trailer.
Click to expand...

I'll be checking this out as well, plus I've never heard of that streaming service. Looks interesting!
 
BearNecessity

BearNecessity

Member
Everything Everywhere All at Once has ridiculously good fight choreagraphy. I was surprised cause Shang Chi, Ip man etc. fight scenes bored me to heck.
 
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LordOfChaos

LordOfChaos

Member
Not sure if exactly Kung Fu, but watch this and then watch all of the movies in chronological order, don't even really watch the trailer just do it


 
N

NahaNago

Member
China isn't really making them anymore you have to look to southeast Asia or South Korea for good martial arts movies. Which is a shame since kung fu/martial arts foreign movie section used to be my favorite rental movie section back in the day.
 
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