Before I started trying to do the immersion method, it hadn't dawned on me just how many martial arts movies out there were in Chinese, not Japanese. I mean, when most people think about karate, they think about Japanese, right?

Anyway, was wondering what some really good ones were.

[ファブリス]

You could look into the classics from Kurosawa : Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, etc.

Here's a Yojimbo trailer

ファブリス Wrote:You could look into the classics from Kurosawa : Yojimbo, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, etc.

Here's a Yojimbo trailer

I kinda assumed that 剣劇 didn't count for whatever reason. Yojimbo is great though, especially the part where he messes up the place after the attack.

Wow, this has made me suddenly aware of the fact that I don't think I've ever watched a Japanese Martial Arts film that wasn't 剣劇 or the like.

If you're looking for something modern and with a popcorn/B-movie feel to it, Azumi is perfect for you. Has a good story, the fight scenes and the acting are lacking somewhat though. They're not bad, but they're not gonna blow your mind, because the lead character is Ueto Aya, a 16 yo. model with no previous experience doing action scenes. Still, a good movie for what it is. Saw it three times.

On the other hand, Shinobi has decent fight scenes but a somewhat boring story. Worth a watch. A better one I've seen is The Princess Blade. As far as B movies go, that's gotta be top of the heap.

Then there's Rurouni Kenshin. Not a B movie, but a popcorn/blockbuster type flick, and very .... typical. So if you like typical summer blockbusters (Avengers, Captain America, Bond, the one with Matt Damon playing pseudo-Bond, the one with Tom Cruise playing fake Bond etc., etc. ), you'll probably like this one too.

Finally, if you're looking for something modern but also quality film-making, look no further than Zatoichi and 13 Assassins. Both brilliant films, both have plenty of martial arts in them.

movies mentioned so far are not martial arts, but chanbara, a subgenre of jidaigeki. in general, you won't find much japanese martial arts films outside sonny chiba's 'the street fighter trilogy'. it's a genre of filmmaking in wich hong-kong and taiwan excelled at, after all.
if you're into chanbara too, then some of the best are 'yojimbo', 'lady snowblood', 'goyokin', 'the sword of doom', 'harakiri(1962)', 'lone wolf and cub' and 'the twilight samurai'. also 'the blind woman's curse' if you're into surreal genre films.

Good movie. Not heavy in the hack and slash if that is your thing though. Good story with some of the choppy choppy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Samurai

umetani666 Wrote:movies mentioned so far are not martial arts, but chanbara, a subgenre of jidaigeki. in general, you won't find much japanese martial arts films outside sonny chiba's 'the street fighter trilogy'. it's a genre of filmmaking in wich hong-kong and taiwan excelled at, after all.
if you're into chanbara too, then some of the best are 'yojimbo', 'lady snowblood', 'goyokin', 'the sword of doom', 'harakiri(1962)', 'lone wolf and cub' and 'the twilight samurai'. also 'the blind woman's curse' if you're into surreal genre films.

Chanbara means sword fighting...Japanese sword fighting styles are martial arts. So chanbara is a subgenre of both martial arts movies and jidaigeki.

Dudeist Wrote:Good movie. Not heavy in the hack and slash if that is your thing though. Good story with some of the choppy choppy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twilight_Samurai

That's a beautiful movie.

Another one no one mentioned is Miike's Ichimei. Imho, it's even better than the original.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Chanbara means sword fighting...Japanese sword fighting styles are martial arts. So chanbara is a subgenre of both martial arts movies and jidaigeki.

'martial arts' in film usually refer to films that feature kung fu, karate and other unarmed combat techniques. it's kind of an umbrella term for all those fist-to-fist martial arts films, like bruce lee and early jackie chan. that's how snesgamer used the term, too. otherwise he would simply ask for some samurai films.
on the other hand, sword-fighting movies have their own terminology - in japan they're called chanbara and in china wuxia.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Imho, it's even better than the original.

i'm interested to hear why. surprisingly, i found it much tamer than the original.

umetani666 Wrote:'martial arts' in film usually refer to films that feature kung fu, karate and other unarmed combat techniques.

Ok, I understand that that's your position on this... but I have to warn you, it's going to be difficult for you to convince me that the term martial arts doesn't refer to martial arts.

umetani666 Wrote:i'm interested to hear why. surprisingly, i found it much tamer than the original.

It's just the beautifully crafted scenes in the modern version. I suppose Miike had the advantage of color, and probably a bigger budget, but in a straight up comparison, the modern version comes up more visually stunning. The soundtrack is better too.

Stansfield123 Wrote:Ok, I understand that that's your position on this... but I have to warn you, it's going to be difficult for you to convince me that the term martial arts doesn't refer to martial arts.

no, no, you got it wrong. what i'm saying is that chanbara films are not necessarily martial arts films. for example, 'the twilight samurai' is chanbara, but it's not martial arts. the difference is fundamental: martial arts are subgenre of action films, where story is pushed forward by action and fighting scenes. for a movie to be called 'martial arts', it has to be an action film first. chanbara is a subgenre of jidaigeki which in turn is a subgenre of drama. many chanbara are simply period dramas with some fighting thrown in, just like 'the twilight samurai'.

Stansfield123 Wrote:It's just the beautifully crafted scenes in the modern version. I suppose Miike had the advantage of color, and probably a bigger budget, but in a straight up comparison, the modern version comes up more visually stunning. The soundtrack is better too.

i was disappointed with the way they wrote the main character in remake. in original movie, he was a brooding and sinister presence that by the end of the movie turned into an unstoppable force of nature, causing spectacular bloodshed. he was so scary that guns had to be brought in to stop him. the ending in remake is especially meek and kinda anticlimactic.

Was searching for something else and found this thread. Weird that this movie wasn't mentioned:

黒帯 (Black Belt, 2007) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Belt_(film)

To be honest I don't remember much about the movie, but I remember that I enjoyed it. Think I gotta re-watch one of these days.