realistic Kung Fu movies or TV series

[rezaf]

I'm trying to find something good to watch but most of them are just very superficial dance moves and lots of flying or shooting energy balls. Is there any modern Kung Fu movie or TV series that you would recommend which has more realistic martial arts or storyline? When I was a kid I used to watch lots of old Kung Fu movies which were in my view much better than the modern ones.

P.S. I think 葉問2 was good， 蘇乞兒 was also not bad.

[jbradfor]

Anything wrong with sticking to the movies from the 70's (and some early Jet Li movies)? Or have you just seen them all and want something new?

[i'm not familiar with any recent "old-school" Kung Fu movies. Seems everything has moved over to wire-fu. I remember seeing my first wire-fu movie in '89 in Taiwan, and being totally blown away. Now I long for the old-school ones ]

[character]

http://kungfucinema.com/forums/ is the place to ask.

If you're OK with wire-fu, there have been some good recent ones. Reign of Assassins has two of my favorite fights in the last several years, for ex. The fights in the drama The Sacrifice were top-notch. Shaolin (2011) isn't bad.

[abcdefg]

Is there any modern Kung Fu movie or TV series that you would recommend which has more realistic martial arts or storyline?

You might enjoy the first of the 叶问 films, starring Donnie Yen 甄子丹 in late 2008/early 2009.

Hint: Avoid the sequel, 叶问2。

[imron]

Hint: Avoid the sequel, 叶问2。

Too late

P.S. I think 葉問2 was good，

[rezaf]

Thanks, I just watched 葉問. It was better than the second one and pretty much what I was looking for but I'm getting tired of the whole kicking foreigner's ass thing as it's getting old.

[renzhe]

This will depend on what you mean by "realistic". Realistic fighting usually does not look cool, and cool things tend to be very choreographed and not particularly plausible.

If you simply want something cool looking, but without wires and energy balls, then most older HK flicks will do. You should check out any of the Shaw Brothers movies with the Venom Mob for some amazing acrobatics. Most Jackie Chan stuff is all real, and his earlier stuff is way cooler than the recent stuff (he is old now ). Some of early Jet Li's stuff is mostly without wires, since he's so amazing. Among more recent stuff, the first few Wong Fei Hung movies had wires, but most of it was just great choreography, and there are no energy balls. Fist of Legend is brilliant.

Unfortunately, it seems like you're specifically looking for more modern stuff. I don't think that anybody does that anymore. It's cheaper to do CGI and close-ups that make the action impossible to follow.

[rezaf]

Thanks, by realistic I mean something like 葉問 which doesn't have exaggerations and the actors look like they are doing Kung Fu not dancing and flying. Because these movies are very few I think as you said I should go back to the old movies. How do you write the Shaw Brothers and the Venom Mob in Chinese?

[renzhe]

Shaw Brothers are 邵氏, "Five Deadly Venoms" is 五毒, and "Venom Mob" is the unofficial name for the five main actors. Some of their movies I've enjoyed were "Five Deadly Venoms", "Crippled Avengers" and "Magnificent Ruffians". There is much sillyness in these old kung fu flicks, but some stunning acrobatic performances too. You might also like Crazy Shaolin Disciples (弟子也疯狂), a remarkably silly movie with excellent stuntwork.

Many of these can be found on internetional torrent sites, not only Chinese ones, since they were marketed internationally (having been filmed in Hong Kong). We covered some of them here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/20799-shaw-brothers-festival/

[skylee]

Not sure if this is realistic by rezaf's standard. I find the scene exciting, and they are not flying as in the other scenes of the same movie ->

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTc1NDE2NDY4.html

[jbradfor]

rezaf, so which ones have you seen? We could post a couple more suggestions of older ones, but if you've already seen a lot that's pretty pointless.

[rezaf]

Probably it wasn't right to say I had seen a lot of old Kung Fu movies. Because it was 15 years ago I can't remember the exact names but I remember watching Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan movies(and some other movies that I don't exactly remember) over and over. So probably whatever you say will be helpful. Especially I am not very familiar with the old Jet Lee movies. Anyway I just watched the one Renzhe recommended (Fist of Legend), the story wasn't very good but the Kung Fu scenes were AMAZING .

[jbradfor]

OK, so, FWIW, here's my first suggestions: Iron Monkey, the Drunken Master series, and Tai Chi Master. I've also heard Come Drink with Me is kick-ass, but I haven't had a chance yet to watch it.

Once you find some you like, you can probably search those titles and find lists of similar movies.

[rezaf]

thanks, B) I'm gonna be pretty busy with these movies for a while.

[roddy]

Start a Grand Kung-Fu Movie Watching Project!

[renzhe]

For old Jet Li, you have to check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaolin_Temple_(1982_film).

Jackie Chan's "Supercop" (with Michelle Yeoh) has the best stunts ever recorded in the history of cinema. That is a fact, and you can quote me on this. It's not a classic kung-fu film, but it has some cool fighting scenes.

You might also like "Wing Chun" (1994), a classic Michelle Yeoh performance, also featuring Donnie Yen.

Of course, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_China remains one of my favourite kung fu movies of all time. Just brilliant. Quite a bit of wire-fu, but also many remarkable, wireless scenes, owing to the amazing concentration of talent (Jet Li and Yuen Biao, among others). The second part was also good, and then it slowly went downhill from there.

[rezaf]

Start a Grand Kung-Fu Movie Watching Project!

I can't because I am not very familiar with Kung Fu movies but it's good that people are giving good suggestions about their favorite old school Kung Fu movies here. :rolleyes:

[renzhe]

Start a Grand Kung-Fu Movie Watching Project!

I'd join!

[rezaf]

So is Renzhe starting the Grand Kung-Fu Movie Watching Project?

[renzhe]

No, I'm running two projects already, and following at least one more.

But you're welcome to start it.