Shikukai Wado Ryu Karate in Essex.

Martial Arts Movies.

Posted on 10/19/2022 Updated on 03/25/2024

I have avoided this one so far, but was recently tempted by a friend issuing me the challenge.

I was inclined to just supply a list of personal favourites, but I think there is more to say.

I have to start by mentioning that martial art movies, TV series, Box Sets have always been a massive let down for me. I think that why they are so much of a disappointment is because I genuinely believe that there are some amazing untold stories and narratives that have never been explored.

But, never mind the stories, what about the action? Is it actually possible to portray martial arts as it really is? Maybe with new technology and ever more adventurous camera angles it can be done, the problem is, could we wean ourselves off the overblown, exaggerated action? There is some evidence that the silly extremes have become a little passé, nobody has the appetite any more for the ‘Wire-Fu’ antics of the type seen in ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’, I think the public have called it out as too much of a stretch on their credulity.

What the public seem to want now is the crude, rough and violent approach of John Wick or Daniel Craig’s Bond in his opening salvo in ‘Casino Royale’ (that washroom scene, all those broken tiles and ceramics!) I am convinced that the fight choreographers took a huge cue from Jason Bourne, and later was to come ‘Atomic Blonde’ (Charlize Theron) with its famous ten-minute single take fight scene, that is about as rough as it can get.

By dialling it back could we perhaps reach something with more integrity without losing the drama?

I assume most people reading this have a Wado background; Wado is about as anti-drama as you could get, despite the efforts of some senior Sensei to play to the gallery; all for very good reasons I’m sure. I once asked a very senior Japanese Wado Sensei about one of the Tanto Dori he would perform as part of his regular demonstration techniques; he said he performed it in an exaggerated manner, not a ’true’ manner, so the people in the cheap seats could see what was going on. Well, in the movies there are no ‘cheap seats’, we are all up-close and personal, in fact some cinematography of fight scenes has even gone so far as to CGI rib-breaking, organ-busting x-ray images, to give the audience the closest of closest visualisation (seen in ‘Romeo must Die’ and other movies).

Audiences are much more sophisticated now. People used to think that the concentration span of the average audience member was continually shrinking, but really the trend seems to be going the opposite way; two examples; boxsets tell a story over ten episodes of an hour each and people enjoy the full depth of character and interwoven plot lines. Also, podcasts, like Joe Rogan’s, are sometimes three hours in length – they might not be consumed in one sitting but there is an appetite for it. This is where the recent Cobra Kai for me got it wrong. Clearly, they traded off the 80’s nostalgia thing (everybody is doing that now) but the plot line was basically the same that you could tell in a two hour movie, and then repeated; compare that with something like Breaking Bad and there’s a world of difference (BB is like Homer’s Iliad). Cobra Kai was like watching a loop of the typical High School teen movie – Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back, a bit of revenge etc. etc.… and repeat.

Who needs a plot anyway?

Two words… ‘The Raid’, for me a totally enjoyable kick-ass movie with the most minimal of plot. (okay so ‘The Raid’ and the ‘Judge Dredd’ movie were filmed almost at the same time, but who cares, both of them did a good job of working the same story).

There’s more than one type of Martial Arts movie.

Let me try to construct some categories here, with some suggestions:

1. Kung Fu movies, going way back. Initially for the Chinese audience and then westerners started to find them cool, with a big spike during the Kung Fu boom.
2. Art House style ‘wire-fu’ movies, like ‘House of Flying Daggers’ (interestingly ‘The Matrix’ is classified as ‘wire-fu’ because of its similar use of wires, pulleys and harnesses).
3. Samurai movies. Similar to the above but, for my mind, given a major Art House boost by Kurosawa. Do yourself a favour and binge on the Kurosawa classics. And his career did not end with the beginning of colour film. Later favourites, spectacular, amazing use of colour; ‘Kagemusha’ (Shadow Warrior) 1980 and ‘Ran’, King Lear in armour 1985.
4. Western-based martial arts movies – It is very easy for some good movies to slip under the radar here; example ‘Red Belt’ 2008, great cast, great director David Mamet, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, a modern and relevant movie.
5. Movies where clearly the stars have martial arts skills; Recent James Bond movies, John Wick, Jason Bourne etc. More like thrillers with a lot of choreographed moves. But for me, a special shout-out for the ‘Blade’ trilogy. ‘Blade 2’ particularly, martial arts with vampires a terrific director, Guillermo del Toro, what’s not to like?

Martial Arts Novels.

This will be very short because there is absolutely nothing I can recommend, despite my best efforts. There are numerous thrillers with a loose martial arts connection – usually about ‘assassins’ which don’t really float my boat. Decades ago, I read the Eric Van Lustbader stuff and found it really lightweight.

I recently read a novel that initially got me excited, ‘The Gift of Rain’ by Tan Twang Eng, there was an element about a Japanese Aikido master, but it was never really fleshed out and the story just tried to do too much. I stayed with it till the end, but it could have been so much better.

After writing all of this I realise that I am perhaps too demanding an audience. It’s like commenting on music; so easy to talk about what you don’t like, almost impossible to persuade someone of the merits of what you do like.

Tim Shaw

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Image credit: https://www.furiouscinema.com/ Still from ‘Invincible Armor’ 1977. Director, Dir: See Yuen Ng.