K-Wise

I just got finished seein Bullet Proof Monk. Ah Christ I hate how fake they're gettin these days. Everyone one jumps up in the air and does like 11 flips sideways, backwards, and then forwards, kick the guy and then land in perfect fighting stance. Jackie Chan, one of the few who I still respected for not doing all that stupid shit is doing it now. Why? I mean are people actually impressed by all this shit? I think they'd be more impressed by physical prowess then some fuckin black ropes and computer editing. I mean ya used to watch em and be like "BAD ASS HOW DID HE DO THAT?!" now it's like ya know exactly how they did it. I mean wheres the fuckin talent in that? I mean we all know Sean Paul William Scott Jeffrey Turner whatever the fuck his name is, is no fuckin Kung-Fu master but now all of a sudden he can weild a bow with finess and technique. I'd rather see a kung-fu movie with actual kung-fu masters and not the actors trained to do kung-fu. Then the real masters don't get any fuckin credit.

Asta!!

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Jesus Pimp

I wish Asians would stop being typecasted for roles in these lame american movies.

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K-Wise

Well it doesn't help that all the premier martial artists in the world have mainly been of Asian descent. But yeah I feel ya.

Asta!!

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fuzzix

Right on K-Wise, I couldn't agree more about the state of Kung Fu films. I've gone right of the genre because of the absolute shite that is being churned out. Guess I'll just have to keep rewatching the same ol' classics.

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K-Wise

Word Fuzz sadly if this trend continues soon there will be nothing but shitty kung-fu and all the classics will be outdated VHS films that get taken off the shelves and all will be crappy. I guess it's a bit of a double standard cause I love Anime but there is a difference right? I mean one is okay because it's a cartoon ya know? Gimme Bruce, Seagal, Brandon, etc. over Keanu, Jet Li, and all these other fakers out there. Especially Jet Li cause he's much better than that. Dude was ripping up competitions in Japan at the age of 6 where some of the best out there are. He doesn't need some ropes to pull him in a 10 foot radius and kick 11 guys in the face before "hitting" the ground.

Asta!!

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Nisses

Why is it that people are surprised that most actors in kung fu movies are asians? It's an asian martial art, it's supposed to be practised by asians.

The problem is Hollywood's fixation on eastern martial arts. There are alot of other as well. But I guess they're not as known and therefore won't sell as well.

Caipoera for instance is a lovely mixture of dance and fighting, at least as fun to look at as kung fu, and I haven't seen much movies with that.

You wanna know why Kung-Fu movies are turning into shit? Because the genre is spent. Finito, all dried up. There is nothing new they can introduce into it (apart from one or two exceptions maybe). Everybody's seen every move at least twice in a good movie and 3 lame rip-offs of it in just as many bad movies.
Time to get moving, time to find a new thing they can milk, and until they do, expect them to continually make stuff bigger, badder and ultimately more ridiculous.

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Cynthetiq

the genre's almost 30 years old... i'm trying to think when it jumped the shark... maybe when Segal and Van Damme aired their umpteenth movie

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yournamehere

Ummm . . actually - the "physics-defying" martial arts films started in Hong Kong. Hollywood is just doing what Hollywood does best: Taking a proven genre, casting it with A-list American actors, and beating it to death.

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twotimesadingo

Absolutely. Thanks for pointing it out, yournamehere.
Wasn't it some premier director who started the trend, too? Someone like Woo, who should have known better...?

Perhaps for Kung-Fu, or Gung-Fu (depending on your Wade-Gilles or Pinyin), but what about the multitude of martial arts practiced elsewhere? Nisses already mentioned Capoeira, which is amazing to behold. Ninjitsu, which is rarely portrayed even close to accurately, is sometimes beyond the comprehension of the untrained. It's more than simple armlocks that toss people around...
And Hapkido? Aikido? Seagal and the other losers who proclaim to practice such arts rarely show anything other than a simple arm bar or hip toss.
How 'bout Tae Kwon Do? Yeah, we all know the name, which perhaps detracts a bit from it's shock-value, but have you ever seen a grandmaster? I'm lucky in that I have, and the shit you see on tv or in the movies, even when they utilize black-ropes and computer editing, isn't even close. I remember holding my breath for an entire round of sparring because what was happening was so insane.

There's plenty that can be done; though many of the ignorant probably won't see the value, those of us who care and are knowledgable will, and will be astounded.

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bparker805

Im just waiting for somebody to do a remake of "The Flying Guillotine". Now that is some good ol' quality kung fu right there. But in todays Hollywood, it would probably star John Travolta and Rosie O'donnel as the guillotine. Nevermind, I dont want to see it anymore...

Giant Hamburger

Hail Kung Fuists!

What we need is the return of Saturday Afternoon Kung Fu Theater. Back in the day, almost every weekend found me enjoying an old classic like The Five Deadly Venoms, Shaolin Challenges Ninja or, as Bparker805 wisely mentions, Master of The Flying Guillotine. Why would this not be more appealing than infomercials?

I'd like to see Shaolin Challenges Infomercials.
-GH

Your commercial is good, but still...

it is no match for my iron gloves of death.

Xell101

It seems that all movie producers can do is take old ideas and add computers, or get a neat ending and build a shitty movie just to lead up to the glorious moment where the audience realizes it actually couldn't get any worse.

Kaos

You can blame Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon for this new crop of "Kung-Fu" movies.

Damn that was an awful movie...(I should add that to my post in the Movies Everybody likes but you hate Thread)

Moreland

I didnt find Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon that bad, watchable certainly and I have the English Dub as well. Bulletproof monk while entertaining was total tosh and I wish I hadnt been to see it. (Quite a while ago now)

water_boy1999

Ok, K-Wise hit a nerve because I was recently having an issue with it as well. I opted not to rent Bullet Proof Monk because I just watched From the Cradel to the Grave and it was by far one of the worst movies I have seen. EVER! And I am a huge Kung-Fu fan. Especially a Jet Li fan. I have been watching him since he did Shaolin Monks and other training movies where he showed his raw, unadulterated skills.

I have a broad collection of DVD's, mostly Jet Li, in masterpieces like The Enforcer, Once Upon a Time in China and America, among others. I am also a Chow Yung Fat fan...Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hard Boiled......these were awesome films. The art of kung fu comes with the creativity and artistic impression of the fight sequences. If you appreciate Kung Fu movies for what they are, you will realize they are over dramatizations to make the audience see awesome moves they wouldn't normally see. It is supposed to be slightly overexaggerated. When you get some jackass producer to come in and try to Hollywoodize the film, it will go down in flames.

Back to Crouching Tiger. It won all these awards for being best film of the year? I am sorry, I do love the movie, but there are FAR SUPERIOR films that have been made. I think the Academy Awards made a big hype out of it because it was decent, but one of the only standout foreign films in the lot. It could have been much worse and probably still would have won.

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Cobalt_60

Man, Giant Hamburger those where the days. I remember checking out those flicks. And I see the Five Deadly Venoms is available on dvd. Time pick that one up.

K-Wise

Yeah I'll agree with ya water boy. I enjoy a few of those movies cause they don't overdue it and make it completely ridiculous. For instance I really liked Storm Riders. I feel they did it right and didn't overdue it too much. I'm lead to believe they're going to make a movie of the popular Anime Dragonball Z. Most is probably just rumors but if they do make one I hope it's the same people that worked on Storm Riders. I also heard they wanna cast Jackie Chan as Goku...bleh I hope thats just a rumor. I LOVE the cartoon. Ya prolly also forgot the mention all the fighting styles based on Animals, Monkey, Praying Mantis, Crane, etc.

Asta!!

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noodles

okey time to add my 2 cents to this as both a long time martial artist and a fine martial arts movie connaisseur

there was wire fu loooong before CTHD. once upon a time in china series? iron monkey 1/2? just a few examples. wire fu lets people do stuff they can't normally, without CGI. it had a brief popularity boom in the states and its still deflating. as a (crappy) example, the one. it had wire fu and cgi. but imho, the best part of the movie was near the end with the bagua vs hsing-i, no need for wires. and the fact that it was jet li fighting himself impressed me (how he choreographed it to work like it did). so what if it was a plotless piece of crap otherwise? first soft-style based kung fu movie in the US. hooray! good kung fu movies come in all shapes and sizes. just because there's wires attatched to a person doesn't mean the kung fu they do is bad and vice versa.

anyway, i'd like to try and <font color="red">hijack</font> this thread and turn it into a "what is your fave martial arts movie" thread.

i have a tie for most favorite: fist of legend and hero. discuss.

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Fire

crouching tiger was the first time a huge western audience was exposed to the long popular chinese genre that translates roughly as "flying people movies"- apparently they've had those over there since the early 60's the "kung fu " movies we used to see back in the day were just the more low key of them- realy we arent killing the genre over here- theirs are just as overblown, rather, we are updating it- and holywood's over emphasis on FX is overriding any idea of a plot- something that any movie in any genre needs if its to stand the long haul....

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Lestat

Kill Bill is supposed to implement alot of the "old school" martial art stunts. No computer FX crap.

BTW "The Flying Guillotine" is my favorite.

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K-Wise

NOT ON MY WATCH YOU WON'T!!! You may ask permission to though. Well if ya wanna go for it. I woulda wanted to turn it into what is your favorite style of martial arts or which one do you think is the most effective but if you wanna ask peoples favourite martial arts movies I guess you can do that too. I guess mine would have to be the older Bruce Lee flicks and the Older Jackie Chan ones. Like Drunken Master (the original) the new one is pretty bad ass as well(I haven't seen very many cause I'm kinda young but when I can finally move out of the house and get my own place I'll probably try and rent them as often as I can) Drunken boxing would be my favorite fighting style probably but I hold a soft spot for a few others I've seen like Caipoera and Kick Boxing. I dunno how effective drunken boxing really is though I imagine it's pretty niffty with the right master performing it.

Asta!!
p.s.
Speakin a Kill Bill I actually wanna see that one and see how good it is.

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Pyrate

I will always love kung fu (martial arts) movies more than any other genre, simply because of the classics. You can spend tens of millions on special effects and employ the bigges stars in Hollywood, but no amount of resources, financial or technological, will supersede brillian movies like Shaolin And Wutang, Fist Of legend and Twin Warrior.

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Pyrate

Yeah, I hear you there. Man I love those Kung Fu movies where you lose track of the plot. Y'know, those deep ones where you gotta watch it a coupla times to geddit fully. A great plot beats great FX any day for me...

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