Favorite movie fight scenes

[James Y]

The 7 Grand Masters (1978, Taiwan). Director: Joseph Kuo. Action directors: Corey Yuen & Yuen Cheung-Yan.

Weapons duel: Jack Long (AKA Lung Shih-Chia) vs Corey Yuen. Note: this particular clip has so-so picture quality but is acceptable:

https://youtu.be/N8kiCuMt4vM

Final fight: Li Yi-Min vs Jack Long; Li Yi-Min vs Alan Chui:

https://youtu.be/R8rg5RT178A

Jim

[James Y]

Legendary Weapons of China (1982, Hong Kong). Director: Lau Kar-Leung. Action directors: Lau Kar-Leung, Hsiang Hou, & Lee King-Chu.

This is the longest and most complex onscreen fight scene between the Lau Brothers. This alternating weapons scene was an inspiration for the one involving Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; but this one in Legendary Weapons of China puts that other one to shame. The two brothers’ masterful handling of these implements, along with the unique body movement styles associated with each one, is obvious.

Final fight: Lau Kar-Leung vs Lau Kar-Wing. This is the entire weapons finale, but the last two minutes, involving some empty-hand fighting, was cut off.

https://youtu.be/obnTAj8PFWQ

Jim

[James Y]

Mad Monkey Kung Fu (1979, Hong Kong). Director & action director: Lau Kar-Leung.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu was the first leading role for Hsiao Hou (AKA, Hsiao Ho), whom director Lau Kar-Leung once described as “the greatest action performer in his class.” Hsiao Hou was a Hong Kong Peking Opera-trained athlete, and was among the best acrobatic performers in cinematic history. Lau liked him so much that from 1979 on, he cast Hsiao Hou in several leading or co-starring roles in his films. After Shaw Brothers Studios ceased film production around 1986 to 1987 to concentrate on TV production and real estate, Hsiao Hou never again had a starring role in a film, nor was he ever again allowed to display his considerable physical gifts. Amazingly, after he joined Sammo Hung’s stunt group, Hsiao Hou became relegated to minor, non-fighting supporting roles, and then as a stunt extra.

Lau Kar-Leung (1934-2013) was considered the “king” of kung fu cinema. He was a 2nd-generation screen actor/performer, a legitimate real-life master of the Hung Gar kung fu system, and the senior-most of the Lau Brothers. The Lau Brothers’ father was kung fu master Lau Cham, who also acted onscreen in the 1950s to early 1960s.

As was already mentioned in a previous entry, Lo Lieh, who played the arch-villain, was an actor who was never a formally-trained martial artist. That fact showed in some of his movies, but under the right direction, especially Lau Kar-Leung’s direction, Lo Lieh could appear not only passable, but sometimes excellent in fight sequences. Lau cast Lo Lieh as arch-villains in several of his films, which says a lot, considering that Lau was notoriously demanding and a perfectionist. That Lau would make it so that both he and Hsiao Hou would have to team up against Lo Lieh, and make it look convincing, was remarkable.

All training sequences: Hsiao Hou & Lau Kar-Leung:

https://youtu.be/b6AW7jA5g1c

Final fight: Hsiao Hou & Lau Kar-Leung vs Lo Lieh:

https://youtu.be/nZw0Mgd7Dps

Jim

[VooDooChild]

You know what.
Literally every fight scene in the movie Serenity. The scifi one from 2005 based on Firefly. Not whatever just came out this year with the same name.
I forgot how good that movie was until I rewatched it the other night. Also every fight scene in it is pretty **** good.

[James Y]

You know what.
Literally every fight scene in the movie Serenity. The scifi one from 2005 based on Firefly. Not whatever just came out this year with the same name.
I forgot how good that movie was until I rewatched it the other night. Also every fight scene in it is pretty **** good.

Thanks for your contribution, VooDooChild! I agree that 2005’s Serenity had some good fight scenes.

Jim

[James Y]

Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003, Thailand). Director: Prachya Pinkaew. Action director: Panna Rittikrai.

Final fight, featuring Tony Jaa:

https://youtu.be/fuxGjyC59mc

Jim

[James Y]

Wong Fei-Hung, King of Lion Dance (1957, Hong Kong). Director: Wu Pang.

Kwan Tak-Hing portrayed historical figure Wong Fei-Hung in a long series of movies from approximately 1949 to 1970, as well as reprising the character in the ‘70s and into the early ‘80s. AFAIK, he portrayed WFH more than any other actor has portrayed a single character.

Shek Kin (also written as Shih Kien) is familiar as Bruce Lee’s arch-nemesis Mr. Han in Enter the Dragon, but he had a long resume before that of always playing WFH’s arch-nemesis. He and Kwan Tak-Hing probably set a world record for number of onscreen battles between two actors. Bruce Lee was certainly familiar with this film series, thus his choosing Shek Kin to play Mr. Han.

Lau Cham, father of Lau Kar-Leung and Lau Kar-Wing, is the heavyset actor first seen in this clip at 0:29, holding the lion head.

Yam Yin was the older sister of future screen villain Yen Shi-Kwan (seen in earlier entries in this thread).

The fights are clearly heavily Peking Opera-influenced. But it’s clear these movies influenced kung fu films that came later in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Lau Kar-Leung would be inspired by, and vastly improve upon, this style of choreography.

Fight scene: Kwan Tak-Hing (long staff) vs Shek Kin (3-section staff); also featuring Lau Cham, Yam Yin, and Tso Tat-Wah:

https://youtu.be/nC7m-4vXfTM

Jim

[James Y]

Dreadnaught (1981, Hong Kong). Director: Yuen Woo-Ping. Action choreography: Yuen Woo-Ping & The Yuen Clan.

AFAIK, this was the final movie in which Kwan Tak-Hing portrayed Wong Fei-Hung (WFH). He had portrayed WFH in about 77 films in total, more than any other actor has portrayed a single character onscreen. Kwan was about 76 years old in this movie. He was still very flexible and agile, but was obviously stunt-doubled for the difficult kicking movements.

Kwan Tak-Hing staff training and healing obnoxious patient (Shan Kuai); WFH vs The Demon Tailor (Kwan Tak-Hing vs Fung Hak-On); scenes also feature Leung Kar-Yan & Philip Ko Fei:

https://youtu.be/m8c7-1o2xZA

Yuen Biao laundry and training scene; also featuring Lily Li & Leung Kar-Yan:

https://youtu.be/fg4IORYEfl4

Final fight: Yuen Biao vs Yuen Shun-Yee; (also featuring Kwan Tak-Hing & Philip Ko Fei):

https://youtu.be/yUB2ZfWcHi8

Jim

[James Y]

In the Line of Duty IV: Witness (1989, Hong Kong). Director: Yuen Woo-Ping. Action directors: Cho Wing, Paul Wong Kwan, Donnie Yen, & The Yuen Clan.

This movie has long been one of my favorite Donnie Yen movies. In particular, the entire multi-tiered final fight scene, and especially Donnie Yen’s rooftop fight with the deceptively fast and agile Michael Woods.

Donnie Yen vs John Salvitti:

https://youtu.be/FVBxXsRLSxM

Final fights: Donnie Yen, Cynthia Khan (AKA Yang Li-Ching), & Yuen Yat-Chor vs Michael Wong, Cho Wing, Stephan Berwick, & Michael Woods:

https://youtu.be/rFeiX1aLtjw

Jim

[James Y]

The King of the Kickboxers (1990, USA). Director: Lucas Lo. Action choreographer: Tony Leung Siu-Hung.

Another foray into American films from Hong Kong’s Seasonal Films Corporation. See also: No Retreat No Surrender; No Retreat No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers; and American Shaolin in earlier posts. Part of the mid-1980s to late-1990s trend of American martial arts action movies with good-to-excellent martial artists who, with only a few exceptions, were not good actors (to put it mildly). The bad acting alone can make these old American martial arts movies fun to watch, if you can see the (unintentional) humor in it.

The arch-villain is played by none other than Billy Blanks, the founder of Tae Bo cardio-kickboxing (remember that?).

The most impressive martial artist in the whole movie is Keith Cooke. When he was a tournament national grand champion, he went by the name Keith Hirabayashi. He was only in a few movies, and sadly, he never got the opportunity to show off all of his abilities. His brief fight scenes always left you wanting to see more. IMO, he should have been the star of the film.

Fight scene: Loren Avedon & Keith Cooke (AKA Keith Hirabayashi) vs thugs:

https://youtu.be/XJz6EbwiSHg

Final fight: Loren Avedon vs Billy Blanks:

https://youtu.be/jna8FblC3dA

Jim

[James Y]

Drunken Dragon (original title: Exciting Dragon; 1985, Taiwan). Director: Chao Chung-Hsing. Action directors: Chao Chung-Hsing, Chin Lung, An Chin-Tien, Sam Ching-Wai.

This was the first movie I went to see in a theater by myself after I moved to Taiwan. Of course, it was in original language (Mandarin), but the English dubbing in this version is excellent and fits the characters perfectly. One of the action directors, An Chin-Tien, was a senior classmate at the first kung fu school I trained at in Taipei.

This movie was part of a trend in Hong Kong, and especially Taiwanese cinema, that blended cartoonish comedy, clever gadgets, and often bone-crunching stuntwork that started with The Miracle Fighters (1982) and continued into the late ‘80s. IMO, this is one of the genuinely funniest of the ‘kung fu comedies’. Even the tragic scenes are comedic. Leung Kar-Yan, in a non-fighting role as the main character’s (Sun Kuo-Ming) ‘grand uncle’, also had a true knack for physical comedy that almost steals the scenes away from the fighters (Sun Kuo-Ming and Philip Ko Fei). Chiang Sheng (Five Deadly Venoms) was a male performer but played Sun Kuo-Ming’s grandma.

The training sequences and final fight scenes run together. They were only available on YouTube in the full movie.

Beat down fight: Sun Kuo-Ming & Leung Kar-Yan vs Philip Ko Fei (from 1:08:00):

Training sequences and final fight scene: Sun Kuo-Ming & Leung Kar-Yan vs Philip Ko Fei, Yang Hsiung, & Sam Ching-Wai (1:15:06 to 1:33:41):

https://youtu.be/2k5ESy3Otuw

Jim

[shunsui]

Shoot them in the head. First rule of accounting.

https://youtu.be/NSiLlQn9ct8

[James Y]

So Close (2002, Hong Kong). Director and action choreographer: Corey Yuen.

Neither Vicky Zhao Wei nor Karen Mok were actual martial artists, but their acting ability and charisma helped make them convincing enough in the action sequences. Director Corey Yuen has made a specialty of directing women, whether trained martial artists or not, in complex fight sequences. There is some obvious gravity-defying wire work, but not so much that it ruins the fights.

Veteran Japanese actor/martial artist Yasuaki Kurata, playing the main fighting villain, was 56 or 57 years old when this movie was filmed.

So Close, just as a movie, was one of the all-time best post-2K films to come out of Hong Kong.

Final fight scene, part 1: Vicky Zhao Wei vs Yasuaki Kurata; Karen Mok vs Ben Lam:

https://youtu.be/vTt6YqIaQbo

Final fight scene, part 2: Karen Mok & Vicky Zhao Wei vs Yasuaki Kurata:

https://youtu.be/oWvSTNxTO1s

Jim

[James Y]

Boxer from the Temple (1979, Hong Kong). Director: John Lo Mar. Action directors: Hsu Hsia, Yuen Tak & Chui Fat.

Kuan Feng, who played the arch-villain, was probably the most underrated performer in old-school kung fu films. He was only allowed to really show his physical skills in a few of the 38 films he was in. Mostly he was relegated to bit roles where he was quickly decimated by a villain or hero, or limited to speaking roles. John Lo Mar was the only director who allowed Kuan Feng to ‘show off’, in three of his films: The Five Super Fighters, Monkey Kung Fu (AKA Stroke of Death; see the second post in this thread) and Boxer from the Temple. Of those three films, this was the least impressive of his roles, but Kuan Feng was still able to show off some of his perfect form and technique. That Kuan Feng’s talents could have been mostly overlooked or wasted shows just how deep the talent pool was back in the golden age of kung fu cinema. He and leading man Wu Yuan-Chun also fought each other in The Five Super Fighters.

Training scene; featuring Wu Yuan-Chun:

https://youtu.be/klOSzfTef6g

Final fight; Wu Yuan-Chun vs Kuan Feng:

https://youtu.be/YSfjsHUJwwM

Jim

[James Y]

The Lady Assassin (1983, Hong Kong). Director: Lu Chin-Ku. Action directors: Yuen Tak, Tony Poon & Chung Wing.

Anthony Lau Wing (Mandarin: Tony Liu Yung), wearing the maroon top and cap, was the only actor to appear in all four of Bruce Lee's *completed* martial arts films: The Big Boss, Fist of Fury (AKA The Chinese Connection), Way of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragon. But he had a pretty extensive career afterwards as well, playing both heroes and villains.

Of course, the title of the movie being The Lady Assassin, it starred actress Liu Hsueh-Hua, but AFAIK this is the only fight scene from the movie with its own separate clip on youtube, and IMO it's the movie's best fight. The acrobatic stunts were stunt-doubled; neither Jason Pai Piao nor Anthony Lau Wing were acrobats.

Fight scene: Jason Pai Piao vs Anthony Lau Wing:

https://youtu.be/KvsT3WJq1T0

Jim

[James Y]

The Prodigal Son (1981, Hong Kong). Director: Sammo Hung. Action directors: Sammo Hung, Yuen Biao, Lam Ching-Ying, & Chan Wui-Ngai.

I already posted the final fight on page 7 of this thread. But there are other parts of this film that I like even more, especially the training sequences. The Prodigal Son is a fictionalized story of historical Wing Chun master Leung Jan (Yuen Biao) as a young man; historical Wing Chun master Leung Yee-Tai (Lam Ching-Ying), who is portrayed here as having asthma; and featuring Sammo Hung as historical Wing Chun master Wong Wah-Bo. IMO, as Wing Chun movies go, The Prodigal Son is superior to, and far more entertaining than, the Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen; I’ve probably seen it more than 50 times.

Some Enter the Dragon trivia: Lam Ching-Ying (1951 - 1997) toiled for years as an extra and a stuntman before getting acting parts. He appeared as one of Bruce Lee’s friends in The Big Boss, and as a stunt extra in Enter the Dragon who got decimated by both Jim Kelly and Bruce Lee. Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao also had brief appearances in Enter the Dragon; Sammo as Bruce’s chubby opponent in the opening temple match, and Yuen Biao, who is seen very briefly as a stuntman who took a short side kick from Bruce during the final battle (if you blinked you missed it).

This thread has many entries featuring Sammo Hung and his movies. IMO, the portly Sammo was one of the genre’s top 3 directors, as well as one of its best actors/performers.

“Ninja” massacre scene. These “ninjas” are not Japanese ninja, but Manchurian fighters dressed as ninja infiltrating a boatload of Cantonese Opera performers in order to assassinate Leung Yee-Tai (Lam Ching-Ying) to protect their lord, who wants to challenge Leung to a match. Nevertheless, IMO it is one of THE best ninja sequences ever filmed.

Fight: Lam Ching-Ying & Yuen Biao vs Dick Wei, Chung Fat & “ninjas”:

https://youtu.be/Kf8wNbAkYJs

Training sequences: Yuen Biao learning from Lam Ching-Ying & Sammo Hung:

https://youtu.be/pD0nS6abtEE

Jim

[James Y]

Crippled Avengers (1978, Hong Kong). Director: Chang Cheh. Action directors: Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Robert Tai.

This “Venoms Mob” movie is about four men who are crippled in different ways by a man (Lu Feng) who had his arms chopped off as a boy, was given weaponized metal arms/hands, and grows up to become deranged, enjoying crippling others in creative ways. This man’s father (Chen Kuan-Tai) is a former hero who also goes insane and becomes a villain, who along with his son terrorizes the town.

The man with the staff (Kuo Chui) was blinded; the blacksmith (Lo Meng) was turned deaf; a heroic swordsman (Chiang Sheng) is turned into an “idiot”; and the fourth (Sun Chien) had his legs chopped off, and the blacksmith made him iron feet.

Final fight, part 1: Kuo Chui, Lo Meng & Chiang Sheng vs Wang Lung-Wei, Yu Tai-Ping, Chen Kuan-Tai, Lu Feng, & henchman:

https://youtu.be/NbZ0CYZeY5w

Final fight, part 2: Kuo Chui & Chiang Sheng vs Lu Feng; Lo Meng, Kuo Chui & Sun Chien vs Chen Kuan-Tai:

https://youtu.be/h2nmwSUMP20

Jim

[Bloke]

[James Y]

Lol! Good one, Bloke! :D

I’m betting you’ve seen this one:

https://youtu.be/FIRT7lf8byw

Jim

[Bloke]

Ah, hahaha! Yes, that actually made the six o’clock news a couple of years ago now. :)

Big buck Roos (Boomers) are best left alone, Jim. They’re not scared of too much and as you can see they stand their ground. If chased by dogs, they’ll lead them to water and drown them if they can. :cool: