Asian Action Film Thread

What are some of your favorite action flicks from Asia? My two favorites have to be Restless and Fist of Legend.





Volcano High gets an honorable mention:

Some other favorites:

Death Trance:



Dragon Tiger Gate



Storm Riders

I've kind of dropped out of the genre' for awhile , so my favorites are a little dated right now (so my pics can be a little boring because I haven't seen the really good ones yet, like Old Boy, which I'm sure will be one of my favs)...

John Woo's Hardboiled was my first Asian film I've seen, and still one of my favorites to date. (I think I saw it back when everything was still on VHS, no DVDs...shhh...)
It was graceful, violent, and ludicrous, which was a first for me.
American films tended to be compartmentalized back then. Action films were action and maybe comedy, dramas are dramas or dramadies, romantic junk as ladies flicks....although I think that's changed somewhat. I'd like to think we're taking notes off other countries by now.

I was blown away when I saw the first Asian films, which were like everything rolled into one. There's still a huge amount I haven't seen, so I have tons of space for future favorites.

Hardboiled


and a smaller film, not very grand or great, but for some reason I'm very fond of it, is Time and Tide. It's like half action, second half drama. Kinda neat. Directed by Hark Tsui (D-Project, The Missing, The Triangle, Zu Warriors, The Legend of Zu, The Seven Swords, Once Upon a Time in China) (half those I still haven't seen..)



Even though the reviews were mediocre, I really liked Another Heaven, because it was so weird and offbeat. It's like a cop film and a supernatural possession horror film. Kinda cute, but I've only seen it once, so I might change my mind. (ignore the music video on 2nd half)


I liked Ichi the Killer alot, although I wanted to see more of Ichi and less of the blonde guy, but I really liked Gozu because it was so offbeat, humorous, and strange (not really action though, but it it Asian).
Gool ol' Takashi Miike. Love him or hate him, he'll always make you say "WTF??@!#!" I've got a bunch of his fils to see yet too.


I'll make another post later with my fav Martial Arts Fantasy & period pieces, which I've seen more of...

And once I get my Netflix back up, I'll check in on the really good ones that everyone else has seen but not me...

Splitty wrote:I've kind of dropped out of the genre' for awhile , so my favorites are a little dated right now (so my pics can be a little boring because I haven't seen the really good ones yet, like Old Boy, which I'm sure will be one of my favs)...

Old Boy's really good, but brutal and a total mind fuck.

The Heroic Trio and The Executioners... oh Maggie Cheung *swoon*

All of my picks are pretty obvious and mainstream:

Legend of Drunken Master
Iron Monkey (possibly my favorite)
House of Flying Daggers
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero
Fearless
Once Upon a Time in China 2

I guess Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle don't count since they have more comedy than action.

Joshua wrote:All of my picks are pretty obvious and mainstream:

Legend of Drunken Master
Iron Monkey (possibly my favorite)
House of Flying Daggers
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Hero
Fearless
Once Upon a Time in China 2

I guess Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle don't count since they have more comedy than action.

Not only would I count Stephen Chow's films, they're some of my top choices. All good choices, BTW. I was never a fan of the Once Upon series, though. Have you seen some of Jet's other less-known films like Legend of the Red Dragon, Dr. Wai, or Evil Cult? Lot of good stuff. Speaking of Jet, saw a really good Kung-Fu yesterday from Tsui Hark called The Blade starring a guy who was trying to be the next Jet, if memory serves people even called him Jet Le. Anyway, the Blade is a remake of the Shaw Bros famous One-Armed Swordsman and it was quite good, especially the final battle.

alucardbarnivous wrote:I was never a fan of the Once Upon series, though.

What can I say? I love me some Donnie Yen. I really need to watch more of his stuff.

Have you seen some of Jet's other less-known films like Legend of the Red Dragon, Dr. Wai, or Evil Cult? Lot of good stuff. Speaking of Jet, saw a really good Kung-Fu yesterday from Tsui Hark called The Blade starring a guy who was trying to be the next Jet, if memory serves people even called him Jet Le. Anyway, the Blade is a remake of the Shaw Bros famous One-Armed Swordsman and it was quite good, especially the final battle.

To be honest, while I love most of the Chinese martial arts movies I've seen, I haven't seen a ton of them. I find a lot of it to be really hit or miss so I tend to wait for the ones that get a lot of critical accolades.

Kung fu hustle is awesome

shining knight wrote:Kung fu hustle is awesome

Have you seen Kung Fu Mahjong?

alucardbarnivous wrote:

shining knight wrote:Kung fu hustle is awesome

Have you seen Kung Fu Mahjong?

I saw Kung Fu Checkers!
Sadly, the board was flipped, and pieces went flying everywhere.