I was watching The Protector last night and it seems like there aren't many martial arts movies these days, movies where the martial arts are the primary reason for he movie. While martial arts are in movies more than ever in most of these the martial arts is secondary for instance Fearless is more about character while The house of Flying Daggers the sets and the visuals take precedence over the martial arts. At the same time there seem to be fewer stars who are primarily just about martial arts. Jet Li and Jackie Chan are looking for roles that while still relying on martial arts are doing more character and story oriented roles. The exception to this seems to be Tony Jaa and his movies seem to be mostly about martial arts with plot and character development secondary. He seems to be a throwback to the 70's Hong Kong movies where martial arts was the whole point of the movie and the only point of the plot, if there was one, was a way to get as many fights as possible. Anyone else notice this?
yes I noticed. I think it is a cycle. Tony Jaa is amazing. I think he will still do plenty more movies in this line, with perhaps a little change here and there. In many years he too will start looking for more character driven stories. Even a movie like Kung-Fu Hustle which would seem to be primarily about martial arts, was more about visuals, the stylistic direction of the film. I believe the evolution has entered this phase. There will always be some throw-backs, but by and large the genre is moving forward, and evolving. I think it will continue to do so.
And if they made american made movies that just kickass with no storyline people would just complain that it sucked because it had no plot.
Tarantino is great at building characters, but he also recognized the need to kick ass when he made Kill Bill. Best old-school martial arts film was Five Deadly Venoms.
I think the problem is a lot of American directors don't know how to make great fight sequences. For instance if you took out the fight scenes from The Protector the movie would be terrible, you would also have about 5 minutes of footage, but you don't care so much about the rest because the fight scenes are visually interesting. Compare that to a lot of US movies where the fight scenes lack grace and seem more about guys pounding on each other than trying to be artistic.
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That's a Kung Fu classic! I love watching the old Kung Fu movies that were more about the martial arts choreography. I like the old school settings, too. I'm not a big fan of movies that are set in modern times. Somebody told me to watch Ong Bak. I can't believe how stupid that movie was. I mean just dumb. Just because you want to show of martial arts doesn't mean you have to make the movie flat out dumb!
Good fighting . .. Check good Story . . . .check Good Ending. . . Check Yeppers. . . KUNG FU GOLD!! I would not be too mad if they tried to do a ReMake [surprised no American Company has not tried it] Rocket River
I guess this ias good a place as any to Ask WHERE CAN ONE . . . order these movies. I saw a 5 Deadly Vemons somewhere but it was all blurry Rocket River
Here's a site that I found: http://www.shawstudios.com/yesasia.html I've got a local video store that often orders the old Kung Fu movies but warning you ahead of time the quality is usually not very good even if it is on DVD. They were shot cheaply and they never bothered digitally remastering them transfering them to DVD.
There is a site called ehit.com. It is a service like netflix, but specializes in Asian cinema. It is a great deal, and they have most of the classics, including a ton of old Shaw brothers.
Five Deadly Venoms is available at Deepdiscountdvd for $15. From what I've read, it wasn't a good transfer to DVD, though. link: http://www.deepdiscount.com/viewproduct.htm?productId=5784055
These days American movies seem to either go for HK imitation and usually fail miserably (having the camera be too close, for example) or ultra-realism in having fights just be grapples on the floor and such. The Protector was a horrible movie but anytime you have a Tony Jaa to show off, things are interesting and Panna's choreography is solid. The fight sequence up the stairs, though, - all in one continuous take - was something to behold.
The Protector was one of the best martial arts movies I've seen in a while. I'm looking forward to more Tony Jaa movies.
my favorite old school martial arts movie is Master of the Flying Guillotine. he 0wnz. Him and King Leonidas from 300 should have a showdown.
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