The Popularity of Martial Arts Movies

Martial arts originated in East Asia more than 2,000 years ago. Since that time, an estimated 200 different martial arts methods have been created and are now being practiced by an estimated one hundred million all over the world. The popularity of martial arts drastically increased when martial arts movies emerged in the mainstream movie industry. The public’s perception of martial arts has been shaped by martial arts movies starring such legends as Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chuck Norris Steven Seagal, and Jean Claude Van Damme.

Jackie Chan is another martial arts movie legend. He is best known for such movies as ‘Drunken Master,’ and many martial arts movie buffs say it is one of his best films. Released in 1978, the film ‘Drunken Master,’ brought Jackie into the mainstream in Hong Kong. Combining comedy with his martial arts skills, this film’s story is about a man who goes on a journey to learn the drunken master martial arts form to help save his teacher and his school. All of the martial arts movie legends made the art of martial arts exciting to watch and it has influenced people to take up the craft.

When you watch a martial arts movie, you get caught up in the action, martial arts techniques, and exciting story line. About 30 years ago, martial arts movie became popular in the West. Hollywood producers tapped into this genre and began making movies that focused on one character taking on a whole lot of bad guys. As well, in the 1980’s the interest in martial arts increased when Hollywood released the movie, ‘The Karate Kid.’ which earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.

Martial arts movies are a now a genre unto themselves. They can be serious, very violent, packed with action, emphasize justice and morals, and they can even be comical. The fighting scenes are a main attraction of these movies and movie producers tend to focus on making the fight scenes impressive and memorable which is why the genre has such a loyal following.

Bruce Lee, a legend of his time, delivered some of the best martial arts performances such as in the martial arts film “Enter the Dragon,” Bruce Lee’s performance is astounding with captivating fighting scenes. Today, Bruce Lee is considered the most influential martial arts artist considered ahead of his time. Jet Li is another inspiring martial arts movie actor. His movies, Kiss of the Dragon, Fearless, and The Fist of Legend are legendary with incredible fight scenes. As well, Steven Seagal’s martial arts movies made Aikido very popular. His Aikido skills are amazing and exciting to watch. Aikido, a Japanese martial art, is one of the most popular martial arts forms and considered to be effective for self-defense.

Today, the Martial Arts Movie genre has influenced millions of Movie fans to attend martial arts schools. Students soon realize that it takes years to master the skill of martial arts. Whether you take up martial arts or choose to watch exciting martial arts movies, it is always an exhilarating time.

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Must-Have Movies For Every Martial Arts Movie Collection

The Martial Arts movie genre is a very popular movie genre throughout the world. There are many martial arts movies that give you a real sense of the world of martial arts. Many of these movies are legendary films that should be included in every martial arts movie collection.

Below is a list of movies that have had an exceptional impact on the martial arts movie genre:

Enter The Dragon: This movie shows every martial movie buff why Bruce Lee is such a legend. The movie had a tremendous impact on the martial arts movie genre. Bruce Lee travels to a remote island to kick some butt.

Seven Samurai: Not a new movie, however, its impact makes it an essential movie for a martial arts collection. In this movie, bandits are terrorizing a town and a samurai is enlisted to help the town. The samurai and six of his friends teach the people how to defend themselves against the bandits. In return, the townspeople provide them with shelter and food. It is one of the greatest movies of all time and inspired “The Magnificent Seven.”

Fist of Legend: This martial arts film stars Jet Li. It is a retelling of the story ‘The Chinese Connection.’ The plot of the story involves a martial arts student avenging his master’s death. It is an action packed movie.

The Legend of Drunken Master: Both a comedy and martial arts film, it stars Jackie Chan stars as a fighter who must learn the art of Drunken Fist Kung Fu.

Ong Bok: This action packed movie is in the top 10 martial arts epics. It is a very exciting film that will keep you captivated from start to end.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The combat, landscape, and action made this movie popular throughout the world. It is an epic tale of a stolen sword, a mysterious ninja, and love. It is a compelling story with romance, martial arts action, and has fantastic cinematography.

Hero: Jet Li stars in this epic. It tells the story of the powerful ruler of the six feudal kingdoms, Qin, and the convoluted plan to assassinate him.

Billy Jack: Billy Jack is a half-white and half-Native American martial artist who promotes a message of peace by kicking the butts of nasty rednecks persecuting the local pacifists. This movie spreads the message of peace in martial arts.

Master Killer: In this movie, the anti Ching pariots set up their base in Canton under disguise being school masters. Lui, The Master Killer, escapes a brutal Manchu attack and devotes himself to the rigorous martial arts training to get his revenge. This film is one of the few films that follow the Martial Arts training process from start to end.

As well as the above martial arts movies, other movies you may want to add to you collection include: Snake in the Eagle’s Shadow, The Karate Kid, Good Guys Wear Black, Five Fingers of Death, Five Deadly Venoms, Rumble in the Bronx, and The Kid with the Golden Arm. Every martial arts film buff will have these fantastic martial arts movies in their collection.

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Kung Fu Movies, Where They Came From And Where They Are Going

Kung Fu movies or martial arts films are a type of action film in which highly choreographed fight scenes are the central attraction. Stories are in the heroic line, with the lead character usually overcoming insurmountable odds through superior fighting skills. This genre sometimes incorporates humor, often of the slapstick variety.

These days, the most authentic element in the martial arts is the training sequences common to the genre. For fans, the knowledge that human beings were actually performing the stunts on screen gave these low budget features an edge. That edge began to be blunted in the last decade of the 20th century.

Two developments, wire work and digital film making, have fundamentally changed the martial arts movie over the past fifteen years. In wire work, a harness is hidden under an actors costume. Thin, strong wires run from the harness to a pulley system overhead. Wire work fight sequences create the spectacular illusion of fighters unencumbered by gravity. Typically these feats are attributed to the fighting skills of the characters rather than to super powers.

Adding digital film making technology allows filmmakers to digitally erase all trace of the riggings. Wire work was appropriate by Hollywood toward the end of the decade. In the west, the mass market received its first exposure to the wonders of wire work combined with digital technology in 1999s The Matrix. Hong Kong martial arts choreographer Yuen Woo-ping was the genius behind the movies wire sequences.

The earliest known example of the martial arts movie was the 1928 Chinese silent film, The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple. Twenty-seven hours in length, it is said to be the longest movie ever released. The film was cut into 18 segments and released as a serial between 1928 until 1931.

The loss of the edge that traditional martial arts movies have because the audience knows a real person is truly risking their life is lost in the digital age. We can expect to see more attention paid to what was nominally expendable up to now. These would be things like character development and plot development. We saw the start of this with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2000. Tarantino further degraded the genre with his largely failed attempts to create Kung-Fu kitsch in his Kill Bill films.

Kung Fu is a centuries-old Chinese school of marital arts. It includes many, many styles of fighting. For this reason, Kung Fu fighters are particularly suited to action films. They can use whatever fighting style most suits the directors vision. Even today, over eighty years after the genre first appeared, the fighting styles most used in martial arts cinema are those of the Kung Fu discipline.

A principle part of the attraction of traditional martial arts movies made in the Far East is, because they are low budget, real martial artists are used as actors. The gives the action sequences a credibility they could not achieve otherwise. With the development of computer generated effects and digital filming, there is a danger that this authenticity will soon be lost forever. Kung Fu Movies, in the traditional since of the word, may soon only exist in the same dusty bin as Hopalong Cassidy, Roy Rodgers and the Lone Ranger.

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The Superhuman Nature Of Kung Fu Movies

For those with an underdog complex, kung fu movies are the perfect prescription. They offer something for every one, drama, comedy, romance, action, and always end with the good guy on top, because who among us does not like a happy ending?

For some, the highly stylized action sequences are the main draw. Martial artists and actors unite in a beautiful show of choreographed fighting that pit the dramatically different against one another as Tiger vs. Crane or Monkey vs. Drunkenness. Each actor brings with him or her a unique interpretation of kung fu, ensuring that everyone will find something they can identify with.

People are drawn to characters in the kung fu because of what they represent. Both the good and the bad guys remain true to the virtues of honor and loyalty, even if from slightly different perspectives. They understand the importance of sticking up for the little guy and are not unwilling to lose their own lives in the struggle against oppression.

According to Confucius, kung fu is a way of life. It is an important philosophy that seeks to find a balance of mind and body and to remain disciplined in all action. More than anything, it is about avoiding conflict except when absolutely necessary.

More modern interpretations seem to rely on more complex story lines. New directors rely on more deeply developed characters and plot. Of course, this is not true for all new kung fu movies nor is it true that all older versions lacked this perspective. Thanks to more recent improvements in technology, even better special effects are possible. Also now possible, is the casting of non-martial artists, because almost anything is possible with just a trampoline and a computer screen.

More modern interpretation rely more heavily on special effects that have only gotten more sophisticated with recent technological advancements in the movie making industry. Characters and plot development have also taken a turn for the more complex. New versions of kung fu movies are free to concentrate more on camera angles and in depth story lines. This of course, is not to say that all do or that in the past, all did not. Which is one of the many draws to the genre; the availability of varying sub-sub-genres throughout.

Not sure where to get started? A few of the more notable figures in kung fu movies are Bruce Lee, Gordon Liu, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and more recently Tony Jaa and Scott Adkins. Each artist brings with him a new way to interpret kung fu and provides their own unique style to the movie. More recently, women have made a more notable appearance in movies as well. Though, if you look into kung fu history, their impact is anything but new. Women have and will continue to play a large role in spreading the genre and philosophy around the world.

Nothing is quite so disheartening as watching the little guy getting repeatedly stomped or feeling that you are the one underfoot. Kung Fu movies can help you see the importance of sticking up for what you believe in no matter the personal consequences, because in the end, good will always triumph over evil.

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Please Consider These The Top 10 Recommended Martial Arts Movies

In this piece we will be taking a closer look at what this writer considers to be the Top 10 Recommended Martial Arts Movies of all time. Keep in mind that this is a very large genre and any type of top 10 list will typically carry very heavy debates. There is nothing on this planet like enjoying a great martial arts films, and this is why we are paying homage by offering this list. Many things were considered while developing this list however, in the end it seems like storyline was sometimes able to beat out the actual form and physical performance of the stunt men that helped make these films so great.

Most people who are very passionate about this genre will find it quite hard to argue with the fact that we have chose “Enter the Dragon”, as the number one martial arts picture of all time. Bruce Lee was around before this picture, however it was this film that made him wildly popular with all major audiences of the mid seventies.

While this next entry has been recently remade, it is important to note that the first one played a very important role in the culture of nineteen eighties cinema. We are naturally speaking about the American film, “The Karate Kid”. This is one of the most touching American martial arts films ever made.

Our next choice is a very enjoyable film. It is the Asian film: “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”. This film is often considered to be a major attempt by the modern Asian market to recapture the genre that they have given to the world.

Right out of the decade known as the nineteen nineties, it’s the picture that introduced a wider audience to the work of Jackie Chan. We are of course talking about “Rumble in the Bronx”. Chan received some pretty heavy injuries making this film so great.

Jet Li now comes into the middle of the list with two really great entries. Please note that his film “Hero” is quite hard to ignore because of it’s poetic and ballet like nature. Some critics say that it could be Li’s greatest film ever.

The next Li entry would naturally have to be the film “Fearless” from 2002. Please note that this film is considered to be a viable entry by American horror genre regular, Ronny Yu.

This next picture is the American studio comedy that made Jackie Chan, as well as comedian Chris Tucker, important house hold names in America. We are naturally speaking of the really great comedy from the nineties, “Rush Hour”.

This next film has a soft spot in most people’s heart because it is based off the first very popular martial arts video game. We are of course talking about “Mortal Kombat”.

Quentin Tarentino really earned these last two slots with his wildly successful Kill Bill films. Volume I is really great for people who love the idea of paying homage to seventies exploitation films based around the genre of kung fu.

“Kill Bill: Volume II”, made our list as well because this film finishes the highly entertaining story that the first picture was very effectively telling.

It is now hoped that our little guide on Top 10 Recommended Martial Arts Movies, will help the martial arts junkies out there find a great film to enjoy. If you’ve seen most of these films, consider watching them again. These results may be debated, however it is of a high level of importance to consider that much research and consideration, went into making this little list.

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