Have you seen any good martial arts films in the last few years?

Hey gang,

So like many of you, I'm into action cinema. And the pinnacle of that is often martial arts cinema. I grew up watching Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao and loved all of them.

I haven't seen much modern stuff. I've been a big fan of Jet Li and Donnie Yen, and a BIG fan of the Ip Man films and the modern Indonesian films like the Raid and The Night Comes and stuff.

Have any of you seen any great modern Kung Fu/Martial Arts films that you'd like to recommend? One of my favourite fights is Killzone SPL, between Donnie and Sammo

Pretty much all the John Wick movies, if you haven't already seen them. I've got an admittedly untrained eye for hand-to-hand stuff, but I think it looks realistic enough. They pull the camera back far enough that you can actually see what's going on, and they stay on shots long enough that you can see the actors really doing things as opposed to the shaky-game shenanigans of something like Jason Bourne.

If you want something slightly older, try Le Pacte des loupes/Brotherhood of the Wolf. It might be hard to find. It doesn't seem to be on any of the U.S. streaming services and I don't know that they ever made a Blu-Ray of it (I can only find it on DVD), but I think it's one of the best "surprise - kung-fu!" kung-fu movies ever.

EDIT: I should probably also warn you that Brotherhood of the Wolf might be considered . . . culturally insensitive . . . in today's environment. Apparently, it's a little known fact that Native Americans are all really, really good at kung-fu.

Shadow is some quality wuxia, especially if you're into Sekiro's umbrella shields.

It's not really a martial-arts movie, but the encounter at the end of Donnie Yen's Flashpoint is a pretty good fight scene.

Movie came out in 2008, though. Does that qualify as modern?

Idk if it'd be to your taste and I guess it'd be considered old at this point but Wong Kar-Wai's The Grandmaster is a stunningly photographed kungfu drama. Do seek out the original cut tho as the US released Weinstein cut apparently completely gutted the film.

I thought The Villainess was pretty good even if the plot was fairly predictable. It's on Netflix I believe. I've added tons of martial arts movies to my list but havent gotten around to watching them.

Headshot and The Night Comes For Us are so good. Those and The Raid films are the only martial arts films I've seen in recent years, but man...great stuff.

I found The Night Comes For Us to be wildly overrated. The fights were so drawn out and over the top that I actually found myself getting bored.

I did like Triple Threat though, and in general, I find that Scott Adkins makes a pretty good B-tier martial arts movie. I also liked Brawl in Cell Block 99, which, if memory serves was a recommendation that came up on the forums here. I'm not sure if it's "martial arts" in the classic sense, but I enjoyed the (extremely violent) fight scenes.

@shiftygism: This man speaks the truth.

Raid: Redemption and Raid 2 are masterclass action films with fantastic martial arts.

The Night Comes for Us is just fucking bananas in all the best ways.

Headshot is rock solid. Merantau is a slow burn, but it’s worthwhile, too.

Less martial arts, but The Man from Nowhere is a great action thriller. The 2010 version of 13 Assassins ends with an insane action sequence, as well.

@baconhound: Weird. I adore The Night Comes for Us, but I thought Triple Threat was just bad.

Those are opinions, for ya!

@nutter: I may have to give The Night Come For Us another shot. On paper, it should be right up my alley. It's possible that I just wasn't in the right mood for it on the day that I watched it.

@baconhound: I think if your complaints on Night Comes For Us were due to the over the top nature of the fights then you just won't like it. Of all the "Raid-likes" it veers the most into the over the top insanity direction with a lot of fights that would be lethal even for Officer Rama being no sold minutes later.

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As for me, put me down as another "Night Comes for Us good, Triple Threat bad" as I just felt most of the setups for Triple Threat to be contrived as all hell.

I agree with most picks above and will throw in a couple more semi-recents:

• BKO: Bangkok Knockout - Pretty much non-stop action
• Chocolate - Slow start, but once it gets going features some brutal fights
• True Legend - Yuen Woo-Ping can do no wrong
• Bushido Man: Seven Deadly Battles - Low budget but fun

Every time I scroll past one of those Undisputed movies on Netflix I'm briefly mesmerized by the over-the-shoulder camera work in the fight sequences. Haven't made the commitment to watch one yet.

@gundato: I cannot lie. By the end of every fight scene, I just want all the poor bastards to be able to lay down and die. It’s amazing, but any one character’s wounds should have killed them14 times over.

White Boy Bobby has more will to fight than MGS4 Solid Snake.

It's not new, but you should still watch Kung Fu Hustle :)

I feel like i was spoiled by the legendary martial arts films of my childhood as i can't muster enough excitement to watch the newer lesser known stuff, some of it gets highlighted by youtubers but otherwise i miss it all, so my suggestions are going to be a little old.
I've followed Scott Adkins a bit, Undisputed 2 and 3 was good, Ninja is corny and good while it's sequel Shadow of a Tear is actually very good, and more recently Accident Man which feels like a nice little passion project and was enjoyable.
If you haven't seen them Ong Bak is a classic and Ong Bak 2 is possibly my favourite martial arts film of all time, 3rd one's not as good.
Special shout out for another movie, if you haven't seen it Chocolate is pretty darn good, 2008 doesn't feel like that long ago for me, but i'll recommend this movie wherever i can.

@cikame: Spill the beans, what are these classics? We talking Bruce Lee, Police Story, other stuff?

Always happy to get a recommendation!

@sombre: I see most of mine already here. I also dislike the bourne movie like fights where people don't know much about what's going on cause the camera's so zoomed in. Honestly im surprised people dont add in Marvel movies. Yeah yeah i know but they get really good when showing the fight these days. Most have people who do the fights also working on movies like john wick and raid. The captain america 2 fight vs bucky comes to mind. I also know it was so liked that animated movies copied it. Ie NARUTO.

Ill add if it counts animated fights which are so strictly filmed and well done that these days their hand to hand sequences are great. See same Naruto vs Sasuke final hand to hand fight. The youtube channel fx react has a great episode that goes down why animated work is some of the best inspiration for martial arts fight movies due to camera work and timing, they also run through how each scene is done.

Thailand movies and Jackie chan stuff seem the most rugged and take time to do fights. American actors are very pampered or insured ie you can afford to get will smith hurt so they film up close and americans are so use to it they walk home thinking they saw something cool. Its just lack of time. Takes months for one cool fight in a good action movie, hollywood use to focus on story and fx so they skip that for post work. (note not as common anymore since they caught on to people's interest in good fights along with story.) just my two cents.