Best Martial Arts and Sword Movies

[Zyke]

As a big fan of martial arts and sword fighting movies, I'm just curious what you all consider the best samurai movies, and ones worth watching. I'm a big fan of The Last Samurai, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, and Hero. I've seen House of Flying Daggers...it was good, but not particulary great. What do you guys think?

[KazeKuroi]

I just saw Kung Fu Hustle yesterday... THAT WAS FUNNY!
The movie is all in chinese well except on point. This guy was dying and he says something in English... They got all mad at him and demanded he speak Chinese. The movie is like a looney toon cartoon, but chinese kung fu and real.

[SunWuKong]

Seven Samurai (all of Kurosawa's period pieces)
Crouching Tiger...



If you want odd-ball: Six String Samurai. (Low budget and just plain bad. But, that's what makes it enjoyable.)

[Kingsama]

come on no mention of Zatoichi? Katsu is great in the old movies. I would also recommend Seven Samurai and the other Kurosawa movies. And if you ever want to watch real martial arts ufc is always good, the new stuff not the old...

[Zyke]

Which Zatoichi? Aren't there like 3 or 4 of 'em? :)

[SunWuKong]

come on no mention of Zatoichi?
Didn't want to steal your thunder. :)

[Kingsama]

Didn't want to steal your thunder. :)

*tips hat*, why thank you sir... :cool:

Which Zatoichi? Aren't there like 3 or 4 of 'em? :)


there are two actors that played zatoichi,Shintarô Katsu(first 26 films, only 25 were released) and Takeshi Kitano (remake from 03 and possibly up coming sequel) I have seen 1-13 and the final katsu ('89) films, but not the new one. I really dont want to see the new one until i finish the originals due to wanting to have the entire frame of reference for the films. Personally i love the old ones they all are around an hour and a half long and have a very comic-esc feel. You have this man who is not only blind, but the lowest of the low, signified by his rank as a massuer and his outward appearence, who is one of greatest swordsman in the land. He is continually trying to leave his life as a gambler and wander but is always dragged back in. He has a good heart and cares for other, but also has a rather large mean streak. The films are laden with subtle themes and good humor as well as some nice sword play. To my limited understanding the films are beloved in japan that actually spawned a 100+ episode tv show, At any rate i would check it out, you may not like it as much as i, but they are at least worth one spin. I would recommend getting the first 2 and watching them...

here is the rotten tomatoe link http://www.rottentomatoes.com/search/movie.php?searchby=movies&search=zatoichi

and if you have ifc on your tele they have been showing them on saturdays

[Zyke]

Wow, that's a lot of movies. I'll check it out though.

[KazeKuroi]

I like the Last Samurai as well I can watch that over and over again... Gotta have all the Bruce Lee movies too. =)

[Zyke]

Bruce movies are good :) Last Samuai is my all time favorite...I've probably watched it dozens of time (no exaggeration), and still aren't tired of it.

[brokenwings]

well... "Azumi" is good too. It's based on jap manga about teenagers - assasins. Swords fighting in this one are definitly better than in "Kill Bill vol.1" /but it's too wasn't that bad.../

Some goodsword fighting are in "Ishii Sogo" and "Twilight samurai" /this one not a action-movie type, but i liked a good close range fights that they'd showed/.

:)

And forgive me for /maybe/ weird spelling - no one teached me english :(

[Redb@ck]

ah yes "Azumi", there is a great scene to which kill bill is mild by standards, whereby she kills over 200 people, very graphic, not recommended to under 18s. Beebe out. Twilight Samurai is a brilliant movie and has won about 9 japanese academy awards. Beebe out.

[Tekashi]

Oh come on the Karate kid rocked that old dude was awsome as akido. Well mybe im just a fan of the series :D

[Yoshimitsu]

seven samurai is definitly a classic. Also, theres a trilogy about musahi miyamoto by the same director, and those are great too. If you like the old dramatic ones, then RAN is an ok one(a bit weird but has an ok plot). O yeah, jackie chan has the best kung fu around, in my opinion, but you have to see his old movies to catch it.

[xi ryu]

well, my favorite is the Kill Bill series because they show just how hard it is to complete a task, (samurai found many roadblocks and curves in their path to complete the task)

but i have yet to see a movie that is realistic, which is understandable, if their was a realistic one their would be many self proclaimed martial artists that wouldn't know a thing.

some of the really old samurai movies are very close to realistic because they use actual moves. sadly, actual sword movements are not as cool as hollywood scripted ones, but i always get a good laugh at the movies moves because i can pick out the easiest ways to defeat them.

[Shinoku]

I really like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. Kill Bill series and Seven Samurai are very nice aswell.

[OdaNobunaga]

reply to Yoshimitsu
yeah the old film seven samurai was very nice indeed.some swordskill and how the samurai help the poor villagers to fight the banditsin return for some grains of rice. very nice movie.
Ran wasnt very nice but there was a old movie regarding Takeda Shingen of kai(cant remember the name got the show at home:P) it was all nice. The show was about his war with Uesugi kenshin(the tiger of echigo)
Takeda Shigen was another famous lord which his battles was well known to many people.

[Redb@ck]

Come on all, anyone else seen the brilliant "Twilight Samurai", truly japanese cinema at its best. Beebe out.

[Soil]

It's been a long time since i've been able to see anything from Japanese Cinema but will continue to keep my eye out for some good stuff.

But for now within the past few years the best that come to my mind happen to be for martial arts in the form of The Chinese Connection and Enter the Dragon with the legend himself :)

Then of course here recently i've enjoyed Iron Monkey: Unmask the legend by Quentin Tarantino. which has really nice swordplay.

But can't forget Jackie Chan, pretty much all of his are great. I have an old one that he did called Drunken Monkey, which i found interesting but less comical than his other stuff.

But I truly enjoy watching most of Jet Li's films, Kiss of the Dragon and Legend of the Red Dragon was great. Of course The One was nice also.

But of course Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero have been some of my recent favorites as well as The Last Samurai.

[OdaNobunaga]

oh Jacky chan is good i should say, he never use stunmen for your info for all his movies. compare to Jet Li :D Jacky believe that his fans like to see what he is and he has never use stunman to help him in all his movies. in result he always get injured during film taking..............
But Jet Li was no bad either, he was a tonarment champion in china :p
the only thing that make me didnt like him so much was....... after the company or the director of the film maker made him famous..... he left him and join his competitor.......... quiting all ties with him......... and i feel itz bad... and not long after he quit again and join Hollywood............
those directors were all well know in the asia country especially in hong kong they were the top ones..... i duno y he change company... those former ones also has movie into hollywood awards...(if that is what he wanted :p )

[hideyoshi]

any1 of u have watched "when the last sword is drawn"? in japanese it called "mibugishiden"

its about shinsengumi :). it also won some award, just like twilight samurai.

btw, any1 noticed my sign? hehe its a shinsengumi member

AKU ZOKU ZAN!

[Mano]

i really liked tiger and dragon, hero and flying cutlass thingy (translated from french :p) , but the best ever is...

Lung Paw :D a movie by the director of hot shot serie that makes a bruce lee like guy save the world ^_^ very funny,


also storm riders is really nice for effect and stuff (but game inspired by it could be way better)

[Kuroi|Samurai]

American movies with great actioN?
Jet Li' work isn't bad neither is jackie Chan though sometimes it sucks, depending on movie. The Last Samurai was also pretty good.

ANY of Kurosawa works owns, and of course Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi did the series good.

[connick]

Ong Bak! No one mentioned Ong Bak?! If you haven't seen this movie go and see it post haste! Simply put, Ong Bak is the bone-crushin'est movie of the year. Go see it right now because it rocks some serious socks!

[Kinjo]

If ur a fan of Ong Bak do a search for "Tom Yum Goong" (yes I know hot spicy prawns)

Its the second major movie starring Tony Jaa

I also just watched Twilight Samurai

oh wow what a wonderful film
brilliant

[Masamune]

I'd recommend the Samurai Trilogy with Toshiro Mifune about the life of Miyamoto Musashi.

As for Kurosawa works, I'd say Yojimbo is one of the best. Everyone says Seven Samurai, and yes it is a classic, but if you want something more than just a period piece then Yojimbo has got to be one of the greatest Kurosawa films of all time.

Also, the movies of Lone Wolf and Cub are quite spectacular, but I still prefer the original mangas. :P

[ninjaxmaster]

Yes, Lone Wolf and Cub are pretty good.

Ichi The Killer is pretty interesting, it's not really martial arts or sword-play, but it's a pretty good time, I think it belongs to the 'yakuza' category of films, which feature artificial yakuza stories? Anyone know of anything similar to it?

[Kinjo]

Takeshi Kitano has done heaps of Yakuza type movies I think
Sure there was one called Hanabe or something, strange I cant find it on imdb.com though, but I remember seeing it in the video store.

Masamune I haven't been able to track down samurai 2 and 3 only part one which is really the worst part of the Musashi story much to my dismay :(
I haven't actually searched much online, but I bought the video ages ago from a second hand video sale.

[Telsist]

Ong Bak indeed. Tony Jaa is an amazing man. The ability to perform the sort of stunts he does is an artform in itself.

Jackie Chan's one of my favorites, though. There's a certain amount of comedy in the sheer precision and creativity required to use terrain in the way he does.

[Masamune]

Takeshi Kitano has done heaps of Yakuza type movies I think
Sure there was one called Hanabe or something, strange I cant find it on imdb.com though, but I remember seeing it in the video store.

Masamune I haven't been able to track down samurai 2 and 3 only part one which is really the worst part of the Musashi story much to my dismay :(
I haven't actually searched much online, but I bought the video ages ago from a second hand video sale.

They have it on Amazon.com, in a box set. That's where I bought mine before it became part of the Critereon Collection (I like the box on mine more).

Samurai Trilogy Box Set (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001UZZT0/qid=1149059949/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-2961034-0846543?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130)

Also, I really like Sword of Doom.

[Storm]

I didnt like Azumi, the fights were filmed bad and fake imo. Liked kill bill better.
For the 'weird' movies, you should realy check out kung pow. It has even got good fights in it ;). The voices (english, but totaly NOT lip sync) are funny too, but get irritating after a while.

[Kinjo]

Sword of doom sounds great from what I read on amazon

Im always looking for Authentic looking Kenjutsu in movies and rarely see it.
The swordwork in Kill Bill was "kungfuized" like so much or everything we see in movies these days. Swordplay in The Last Samurai was nice
Also on of my old Favourites as you can see by my name :P is "The Hunted"(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113360/ (NOT the newish movie with Tommy Lee Jones in it) This starred Christopher Lambert which was a downside and subsequently had a crappy ending but The swordplay in it was quite nice, and gruesome.

Cant remember if anyone mentioned Kung Fu Hustle? thats a classy little movie thats funny as hell and cool at the same time.