There are some martial arts movies that are so good, you can recommend them to pretty much anyone, even those who might not ordinarily like martial arts cinema. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is one such film, and is honestly so good that it’s probably a gateway film into the whole martial arts genre. In other words, it’s one that could convert you to the church of martial arts. It’s a wuxia film, which is a kind of martial arts movie that has something of a fantastical feel, even if things don’t necessarily go all-out into fantasy movie territory. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon might be better described as mystical or heightened, because the characters in this film who are capable fighters possess abilities beyond what trained fighters in real life do. Maybe the only risk in trying to convert someone to the martial arts genre with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon would be the possibility of convincing someone that all martial arts movies are at least a little fantastical, but that’s not really the case. And there’s nothing wrong with those that are, but the three movies below that are arguably even better as martial arts films than Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are all pretty far from the wuxia sub-genre.
In any event, this is a risky and tricky thing to talk about, and maybe a little incendiary. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a masterpiece, and one of the most important non-English language movies of all time if you’re looking at non-English language movies that broke through to – and found success with – English-speaking audiences. It’s an easy pick if you’re looking for selections for, like, the top 5 martial arts films of all time, let’s say, and so the ones below are able to compete with, and maybe even surpass, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, in terms of quality. Two came out earlier than 2000 (the year Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was released), and the other one is a bit more recent. There’s a somewhat comedic action/crime movie, a gangster epic with martial arts, and a legendary samurai movie (because samurai movies are a kind of martial arts film). They should all be watched alongside – and considered within the same league as – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
3
‘Police Story’ (1985)
The limiting of things to the very best of the very best is hard here, because it involves only really having room for one Jackie Chan movie. Sorry to all the ones that might still have been worthy, but it’s got to be Police Story (1985), as in the first one of what was once a trilogy, but then kept going, because why not? The original does endure the most, even if it might not sound like anything super exciting narratively. Then again, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon does a lot with a premise that involves a stolen sword, so the story isn’t usually of huge significance with martial arts movies. It’s not often what the people are there for. It’s obviously the action that matters, and Police Story delivers so much of it, and ensures the quality is high throughout, too. There’s a massive action set piece that kick-starts the plot, and sees Jackie Chan’s character make a big arrest of a powerful gangster, but then there’s a need to protect a key witness who’ll testify against that gangster in court, with her life being in danger because of what she knows.
The climax of Police Story ends up being even more impressive on an action front than the big sequence that opens the movie.
It’s a reliable plot for an action movie, and only comes close to feeling novel by martial arts standards because, admittedly, so many martial arts movies are more focused on revenge and/or a protagonist undergoing a great amount of training. Jackie Chan’s very capable of all sorts of physical acts right from the start of Police Story, and the stakes get raised more because the criminal characters get more desperate. Amazingly, the climax of Police Story ends up being even more impressive on an action front than the big sequence that opens the movie, with the showdown in the shopping mall having some of the greatest stunts and most energetic hand-to-hand fight scenes you’ll probably ever see in any movie. There’s just a ton of fun to be had with this movie for its entire runtime, and it also feels right to highlight it as Jackie Chan’s most significant film because of how involved he was in its making (beyond being the star, he also directed and co-wrote Police Story).
2
‘The Raid 2’ (2014)
If you tried to picture what The Departed might look like if it were set in Jakarta, had tons of martial arts action, and only focused on a police officer going undercover (instead of also tackling the idea of a criminal doing the same, but to the police force), then maybe you’d get something a little like The Raid 2. And that might sound a little unusual, if you’re only familiar with The Raid (2011), for whatever reason, since that first movie didn’t have a sprawling story, and really only had a premise, if that. It was about SWAT officers having to fight their way out of an apartment building after an operation goes wrong, and various criminals are instructed to kill them no matter what. The Raid is claustrophobic, while The Raid 2 becomes something quite a bit more epic in scope, and there’s also a big difference in runtime, too, with The Raid 2 being almost an hour longer. There are more ways for The Raid 2 to stumble compared to the first, sure, but it’s an instance of the positive far outweighing any negatives here.
Like, you could argue that The Raid is a more perfect movie, because everything it aims to do, it does. But there’s something to be said for the ambition of The Raid 2, and also, the range of action helps quite a lot. There are many hand-to-hand fights in The Raid that are stunningly choreographed, albeit a bit limited because they exclusively take place in a series of fairly dim rooms, with The Raid 2 making use of a whole city, with a car chase, a huge prison brawl, a fight inside a train, and then a pretty impressive sequence inside a nightclub, too. The non-martial arts parts of The Raid 2 don’t make quite the same impression, yet they’re there as an excuse for there to be so many martial arts parts, and that ends up being excusable when the quality of the action is so strong. Also, it might be obvious to say, but this is an entirely different kind of martial arts film from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and it could even be silly to compare them… but it is what it is. The Raid 2 might well be even better, really just for how staggering and convincingly brutal all the action scenes are.
1
‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)
Not expecting the Spanish Inquisition is one thing, but you should always expect Seven Samurai, if there is any kind of article or ranking where it could conceivably show up. If the discussion were around kung fu movies, maybe it wouldn’t be appropriate to highlight Seven Samurai, but the term “martial arts movie” is broader, and samurai films are a kind of martial arts film, so here it is. No complaining, please. It’s also just a perfect movie in pretty much all the ways a movie can be perfect, so giving it some more praise all these years later… why not, you know? Seven Samurai is about the people of a small village panicking because they overhear bandits planning to raid them at some point in the future. There’s a lack of agreement over what to do about it, but a few townspeople set off in search of warriors to defend their town, and those warriors are the titular seven. Then, the film becomes about preparing for an attack and training the townspeople with the basics of what to do in a big battle, and then the final act of the movie is mostly focused on said big battle.
Great structure and all, to put it mildly. Seven Samurai does things, as an epic and an action movie, that might feel a bit by-the-numbers nowadays, but it was really quite ahead of the curve for 1954. There are other Akira Kurosawa films that have proved influential and remake-worthy too, of course, though none to quite the same extent as Seven Samurai, since there are nothing but useful lessons to gain from watching and analyzing a movie like this. Whatever a movie needs to be broadly appealing and have that feel of being effortlessly made, this one’s got it in spades. It’s a quintessential epic, it has one of the best screenplays ever written, it moves so well, pacing-wise, for a film of its age, and much of it’s still genuinely exciting if you’re after spectacle and solidly executed action. Seven Samurai is where it’s at, in a figurative sense, and also, the #1 spot here is where it’s at, literally and stuff.
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