Kung Fu Movie Queue: Must-See Kick Ass Kung Fu Movies

A lot of you might hear the word "wushu" and immediately say "god bless you" or "gesundheit." the word wushu, translates literally into martial art, and is probably one of the main subject matters of Chinese cinema. These films are China's most well known cultural exports to the west, to the point where many a foreigner might assume there's a pair of nunchucks or a butterfly knife in every pocket in East Asia. Though most of the time if I see a fight here, it usually ends up with one drunk smashing a chair/bottle into another drunk's back. Maybe it could be considered drunken boxing, but definitely not white crane or praying mantis.

Master Of The Flying Guillotine (1976)
A definitive movie of the kung fu genre, and an inspiration for the Dhalsim character in the Street Fighter video game. This film features a one armed boxer against an evil blind man that specializes in removing peoples heads with a flying basket. Along with with being a can do statement for people with disabilities, there are also about half a dozen seminal Krautrock (Neu!, Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream) tracks used throughout this this movie for fight enhancing melodies, background sounds and electronic sound effects.
 

Dragon Lord (1982)
Though, in this self-directed martial arts marathon Jackie managed to severely damage his jaw, even preventing him from speaking and, um, acting. The real cinematic cream of this film is the intricately made shuttlecock football match. Requiring a record-breaking 2,900 takes to complete.
 

The Last Dragon (1985)
This movie taught many Americans of the 80s, that in order achieve true kung fu enlightenment one must watch lots of Bruce Lee flicks, that it's ok to eat popcorn with chopsticks, football gear can double as effective samurai armor, and in that hit men and murderers all had resumes. With the protagonist aptly named Bruce Leroy, this is the only American made movie on the list, and was added mainly for comedic relief. It was also the inspiration for that Busta Rhymes music video for Dangerous.
 

Enter The Fat Dragon (1978)
A rotund swine-handler, country bumpkin and Bruce Lee fanatic Lung (Sammo Hung) comes to Hong Kong to help out at his uncle’s street cafe, where he inadvertently causes more trouble than he’s worth. You’ve never seen a man of Sammo’s size move like such a deadly acrobatic ballerina. Throw in a counterfeiting gang, a disturbed Mr Big, and a trio of “international” fighter bodyguards and you have Enter the Fat Dragon. Sammo Hung studied with both Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao at the same Peking Opera school in Hong Kong when they were kids in the early 60s, and has very similar comedic chops as a result.
 

The Clan Of The White Lotus (1980)
Very influential to the Kill Bill films, with the presence of the thick white eyebrowed Pei Mei like character. This film also takes on a rare girl power motif that most kung fu movies forsake in favor of more masculine themes of brotherhood. The main character played by Gordon Liu must learn a very feminine but deadly form of kung fu, along with acupuncture in order to combat the evil Pei Mei twin who is able to glide through the air at any sign of attack. Even his testicles seem to have a dangerous qi gong defense mechanism. 
 

The Heroic Trio (1993)
The Heroic Trio is a superbly goofy action flick showcasing Michelle Yeoh, Maggie Cheung, and Anita Mui in the prime of their careers. It’s also directed by Johnny To, one of my favorite Hong Kong directors, famous for gritty crime thrillers like Mad Detective and the Triad Election series. The Heroic Trio is a mad departure from what he eventually became, with a very comic book feel and very outlandish special effects. It will probably test your tolerance for campiness, with the inappropriately bouncy synth driven score to people being shot through the sky on barrels propelled by dynamite, motorcycles becoming twirling projectile weapons, cavernous sewer spaces filled with babies in cages, and heads being severed left and right with throwable bladed chainmail helmets. These are all reasons why this is just a treasure for all of you weird kung fu film aficionados.
 

Project A (1983)
It doesn't really get much better than this. Awesome, kinda cheesy soundtrack, bumbling evil pirates, great fight scenes where even the most mundane objects are weaponized, and an ingenious bicycle scene that makes me want to fire up my old Nintendo for some Paperboy.
 

Tai-Chi Master (1993)
I don't know where this usually falls on other lists, but it was the first kung fu movie I watched after moving to Beijing. It proves that tai chi isn't just for old timers and Lou Reed (RIP). Just wholly entertaining, and any movie where Jet Li beats people up by pogo-ing on his head (among other things) gets 4 stars in my book.
 

The 36th Chamber Of Shaolin (1978)
It’s a film that truly has it all. An intricate, well paced story. Inventive training sequences (The 35 Chambers) and a wonderful performance by Gordon Liu. Famous for his role in Kill Bill, Gordon makes for a sympathetic and expressive lead while still showing plenty of restrained charisma. If you’re having trouble getting into the unique Shaw Brothers formula, this is one of the best starting points.
 

Drunken Master (1978)
Wong Fei-Hung, a legendary Chinese folk hero has been depicted in numerous boozy kung fu films before Jackie Chan offered an inebriated take on the character with 1978’s Drunken Master. Drunken boxing is a style of Kung Fu that imitates the groggy motions of a village drunk. This method of fighting is most powerful if the user first gets sloshed on baijiu or whatever consciousness blurring substance is available. I consider this the Withnail and I of kung fu films.
 

Fist Of Fury AKA The Chinese Connection (1972)
Bruce Lee isn’t just playing the fictional Chen Zhen, he’s playing a student of the real-life kung fu legend Huo Yuanjia and is based on Liu Zhensheng, Yuanjia’s actual student. In this film, he leaves entire rooms bloodied and broken with Japanese adversaries. This is a great place to start, in the kung fu genre if you are struggling to connect with questionable acting or production qualities. It's hard not to like the snap, crackles, and pops of Bruce Lee. 
 

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)
In the early 90s Tsui Hark could do no wrong. This film is very stylized both in terms of camera work and action sequences. One highlight is a scene in which Master Wong and Yim duel in a room full of ladders, leaping off of them as they fall and kicking the hell out of each other in ways that defy the laws of physics. There's some very careful editing at work here to make these impossible fight scenes flow and feel natural.
 

Rumble In The Bronx (1995)
This was probably the first Jackie Chan movie, many of us millennials experienced, and was Jackie Chan’s first leap into mainstream American filmmaking. The funniest bits in this are kind of unintentional. Having just fled Hong Kong for Canada with his filmmaking entourage, he began work on this 90s classic. I guess they thought American cities all look alike, for they thought nothing of having Vancouver, B.C., double for the Bronx, New York.

In the sequence that required him to jump across an alley onto a fire escape, he ended up breaking his foot. No further takes were possible, so when you see this leap in the film, you're seeing Jackie break his foot and pretending he didn't. That’s my definition of tough.
 

New Legend of Shaolin (1994)
Jet is a stoic and peaceful Shaolin master who after his entire clan is wiped out by a tyrannical baddie, manages to save his infant son and vanquish his foe (with aforementioned baby strapped to his back). Jet travels the countryside for years, much like Lone Wolf and Cub, training his son in the ways of Shaolin kung fu. At the beginning he actually gives the baby a choice between death or learning kung fu. In a typically twisting Hong Kong plot that swings wildly from comedy to action to tragedy and back again, Li and son join forces with a hilarious mother/daughter scam artist team to defeat a poison-spewing demon/man with ten times the strength of a mortal.
 

The Way Of The Dragon (1972)
This film is Bruce Lee’s first directorial effort, and sadly the only one he’d live to complete. However, it’s probably safe to assume that the continued popularity of Way of the Dragon can, for most people, can be summed up in just five words – Bruce Lee versus Chuck Norris.
 

Iron Monkey (1993)
Rongguang Yu and Donnie Yen execute some really outrageous choreography with ease and grace, especially the final fight scene where they take on the evil Hin-hung on wooden poles above a pit of fire. There’s also some great scenes with this little kung fu savvy boy, played by Sze-Man Tsang, that make this probably my favorite Yuen Woo-Ping movie.
 

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991)
This movie is probably the most screwed up of the bunch. In many ways a comment on the prison industrial complex, this was the first sex free film to be given a category three (18+) rating in Hong Kong. The story is set in 2001, where prisons are privatized and run by evil businessmen who use these correctional facilities as opium farms. This is loaded with gory manga-esque fight scenes, dudes playing leaves like flutes, lots of people crushing heads with fists, faces being ripped off, displays of super human strength, and one of the sexiest androgynous bad guys of all time (really, is that man or woman?!), yet presented in a way that's comedic and stylized. Seriously not to be missed, and for ultimate effect make sure to watch with English dubbing.
 

Enter The Dragon (1973) 
Enter the Dragon is the epitome of the genre, with all of those slow motion fight finishing moves, the constantly zooming camera, and awesome soundtrack. Most of all though, this film showcases Bruce Lee's superhuman bone crushing skills. For all of its cheesiness, I totally understand its place as genre classic.
 

Five Deadly Venoms (1978)
I love Five Deadly Venoms, it’s totally a Shaw Brothers classic with an interesting premise to boot. The dying sifu of the Poison Clan sends his disciple to go out and destroy any of his five disciples that are using his teachings for evil. The only problem is, all of their identities are a secret. Martial arts fans new and old owe it to themselves to visit or revisit this classic.
 

The Big Boss (1971)
The Big Boss isn’t that great a film by any means. The acting is wooden, the dialogue stilted and the direction predictable, but when Bruce finally kicks into action, the film becomes immeasurably better. His Jeet Kune Do philosophy of the intercepting fist utilizing the economy of movement to strike fast with no fixed stances and no particular style is quite extraordinary to see, and must have come as a real shock to the kung fu fans of the time. Upon its release in 1971, The Big Boss was the highest grossing film in Hong Kong of all time.

This article was originally posted in August 2014.

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