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snowhazed
Trad climber
Oaksterdam, CA
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The GI Joe movie has the best martial arts fight between two kids EVER- those 10 year olds F#%k each other up!
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rick d
climber
ol pueblo, az
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dingus, i can no longer respect your opinion since you stated kill bill is the best.
there are 100's if not 1,000's of movies better than that....
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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May 10, 2011 - 02:56am PT
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I hope not to offend, but my own opinion is that
there has never been a very good martial arts movie.
They don't show what the martial arts are truly about.
The "Hollywood effect" involves power struggles and big
egoes, and ridiculous scenarios. The great martial artists,
the best ones, have rarely ever been represented in any
meaningful way. Bruce Lee, who has captured the imagination
of the general masses, while a wonderful, fit athlete,
and talented, was not the measure of the high-level masters,
whom turned down most Hollywood offers. Tsutomu Ohshima,
for example, was offered a million dollars to play the
part later accepted by Pat Morita (as Master Miagi), and
Mr. Ohshima graciously declined, in part because Hollywood
has no interest in telling the story as it truly is. The
best fighters don't get in fights every five minutes, with
a group of big, tall, stupid, bad fighters, which happens,
for example, in Walker Texas Ranger at every turn. The best
fighters are quiet and humble and avoid fights. They know where
to be and, generally, avoid trouble. Another great master,
Mr. Ono, used to go to the world championships and simply
stand still... Whomever tried to punch or kick him got their
arm or leg broken. They stopped inviting him to those world
championships. He is a quiet, humble man, but the movies want
action, fighting, blood and guts... not mastery of the self
through the perfection of the art... which is not exactly
a spectator sport... There are fighters who have taken
Steven Segal down in less than a minute. He used to seek
counsel, by the way, from that very Mr. Ohshima. The great
martial art movie will one day, somehow, be about love and
feeling, about some type of spiritual depth and breaking
through one's own mental blocks, rather than breaking blocks
and fighting others. I imagine it will be some extremely quiet
and artful, even a film where not a single punch was thrown...
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Elcapinyoazz
Social climber
Joshua Tree
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May 10, 2011 - 11:21am PT
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The best fighters are quiet and humble and avoid fights. They know where to be and, generally, avoid trouble.
Right. Because nothing makes a good action movie like some meek dude walking around not getting into any action. Reminds me of watching movies with my fellow students in engineering school..."that wouldn't happen because blah blah blah, that's not possible because the boiling point of blah blah" It's movie, it's supposed to entertain not bore to tears. If you want to watch a boring ass documentary, there are plenty of those out there too.
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ninjah
Big Wall climber
a van down by the river
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May 10, 2011 - 11:31am PT
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Fearless, By Jet lee! that move is the best. he is the best, in his last movie Fearless. based on a true story! patrick oliver this is for you! you want to see a move that captures ALL of your points. Watch Fearless!!
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August West
Trad climber
Where the wind blows strange
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May 10, 2011 - 01:45pm PT
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Yea, Fearless is a pretty good movie. But the martial arts are not what make it great.
Martial arts masters walking around never fighting each other is going to be on the slow side. That is another reason why I would just as soon have a fantasy flying through the air film as opposed to a "realist" film that is not realistic.
I can't think of the title but one of the old samurai films that I saw, in the final climatic fight scene the two masters stared at each for around thirty seconds and then both swung their swords once and one fell over and that was it. I imagine that might be a bit closer to reality than sword fights that go on for ten minutes with the main character beaten to a pulp before miraculously jumping up and saving the day.
7 samurai is a classic of the genre and important from a historical film perspective, but as a stand alone film I'm not sure it deserves its reputation. I thought Yojimbo was a lot better. More of a war movie than a martial arts, but I thought Ran, the King Lear intrepretation, is Kurosawa's best work.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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May 10, 2011 - 02:33pm PT
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That's why I said a true portrait of the martial arts might
not be a very good subject for an action-movie, although certainly
it could be shown what their skills look like (the lay eye would
not get it, but...). My very point, though, that a real study
of the martial arts would not please the lame, mediocre masses. It
might please those who are more subtle and artistic perhaps... But
also don't presume to know what I think a truly good martial arts
film would look like, or that I have said so anywhere above...
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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May 10, 2011 - 10:30pm PT
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You folk have our own idea of what I'm saying, and
I have, I think, another idea, but a good film about karate,
say, for example, is not
impossible, and I think some of the best and most suspenseful
filmwork, with some of the best quality tension, and those
elements that make for a good work of film art, do not involve
rough and tumble action. Take the first, oh, fifteen or twenty
minutes of Who's Afraid of Virgian Wolf, and there is nothing
much but conversation, yet the tension is tremendous, what is
said is more powerful than anything that could be done physically...
Maybe that's not a great example, but it occurred to me...
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jdchef
Boulder climber
bekeley ca
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May 10, 2011 - 11:27pm PT
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the 2 best:
Master Killer, Gordon Liu 70's(hard to find)
Fist of Legend, Jet Li 90's(his best by far and a tribute to bruce lee)
check em out!
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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May 11, 2011 - 12:13am PT
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One of the great martial artists is Sadaharu Honda,
three-time national champion of Japan, who has lived
and taught for many years in the U.S., a very quiet
gentleman. You can look up his name on Facebook and see
some pictures, and probably other places online might
feature him. He is one of my sensei/seniors.
There are some amazing stories of his
abilities...
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the Fet
climber
Tu-Tok-A-Nu-La
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May 13, 2011 - 04:07pm PT
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I just saw Ip Man and searched out this thread.
I studied Wing Chun a tiny bit and wish I had the time to learn more. My favorite martial art.
Definitely the best Martial Arts movie of all time. IMO.
Not perfect, the wire work was too obvious for a biopic. Some inaccuracies
It was just loosely based on his life, but that doesn't bother me. I'd rather it be an entertaining movie.
The quality of filmmaking, story, acting, and of course fight scenes was a notch above anything else I've seen.
I watched it with subtitles and still enjoyed the suspension of disbelief.
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