What is the best martial arts movie? Why?
What Movie - Enter The Dragon, Why - Bruce Lee.
Drunken Master: Jacky Chan at his best.
Fist of Legend- Not too much on the wire-work crap, and has the biggest variety of figting styles with no stupid mystical stuff. Plus there is a good plot.
(drunken master is damn good to as well as legend of drunken master)
What are you looking for in the movie?
According to many critics the best martial arts movie ever made is
“Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, nominated for ten academy awards, winner of 4, many reasons to watch it.
This may not be quite what you are looking for though. Maybe “Bloodsport” it’s more a bit more violent. I liked the old Lee flicks too but they’re…I don’t know…lack something, watched them too many times maybe.
Then again I still like Kung Fu…so what the hell do I know. 
What the counterfeiter said! 
Bruce Lee is the MASTER!
The only thing that comes close, IMO is the TV show “Kung Fu.”
Grasshopper: Master, How is it that you can do these things?
Master: Ah, Grasshopper, how is it that you cannot?"
GAHHHHHH!
Crouching Tiger… is one long peon to rape. The whole “I will only study with you if you can beat me in a fight” is a rape theme. I mentioned it to an ex cop friend of mine who agreed with me. Go see something with substance. Besides it was as boring as all get out…
Yeah, those monks/masters were always real a***oles, weren’t they?
Bolding mine, with all due respect to Rabid_Squirrel.
Enter the Dragon is the classic. Some of Bruce Lee’s stuff is dodgy (especially the films made after he died) but this is golden.
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Crouching Tiger… is one long peon to rape. The whole “I will only study with you if you can beat me in a fight” is a rape theme.
[QUOTE]
Interesting assertion. Interesting image too, Mexican peasants and/or those little green guys from Warcraft II being what springs to mind, but I guess that’s nitpicky.
Is it about rape? Isn’t it more about a woman trying to set herself free from a repressive society without becoming embittered, twisted or broken in the process? If the whole idea had been ‘rape is good’, wouldn’t we have seen Chow Yun-Fat’s character give Ziyi Zhang’s character a darn good spanking, and then have her settling down to become an obedient little pupil?
Instead he tries to demonstrate that violence isn’t the real measure of strength, as she believes because of the way Jade Fox has taught her. Jade Fox is her only role-model as an emancipated woman up to this point.
Hell, asking about the greatest martial arts movie is like asking “What’s the best movie?”
All depends on what you’re looking for.
“Enter The Dragon” is a classic in the field, and anyone interested in the genre should be familiar with Bruce Lee.
“Drunken Master” is an excellent film as well, and quite representative of Jackie Chan’s better work.
Lee’s stuff is very different from Jackie Chan’s stuff… but I’d be hard pressed to say which of them is “better;” it’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both brilliant, but in completely different ways.
Why not rent both? I mean, if you’re looking for an education in the genre?
I’d also recommend “Crippled Masters,” by the way, if you can find it.
With all due respect, “I will only study with you if you can beat me” is one of the most common themes in Chinese litterature. It shows up often in wuxia (martial arts novels) of course, but it’s also all over the place in Zen lore, etc.
I don’t dispute that this is how you interpreted this particular movie but it certainly wasn’t intentional. It’s more a reference to the stereotypical cocky novice.
I’m kind of looking forward to the new movie Hero. Reasons:
Zhang Yimou!
Jet Li!
Tony Leung!
Maggie Cheung!
Zhang Ziyi!
I’m a big fan of “Tai Chi Master”, though “Fist of Legend” is also very, very good in the genre. I’ll also second, or third, “Drunken Master II” as Chan’s very best.
Drunken Tai Chi… ridiculous, and yet hilarious.
Oh, and Mortal Kombat. (kidding, kidding)
None at all!
Iron Monkey.
Iron Monkey’s a lot of fun, especially the ending scene fighting on top of the bamboo poles, but I have to agree with wolfman on Fist of Legend. Good, solid plot, good variety of styles, good acting, plus it avoids the black/white, 100% good vs. 100% evil of a lot of other martial arts films.
The only downside is that unlike Bruce Lee’s earlier version of this film, Fist of Fury, Jet doesn’t identify anyone by their nipples, which is a real shame as it co-stars cutie Shinobu Nakayama.
Enter the Dragon bears repeating. Plus, you need to see it in order to then see the spoof of it that’s in Amazon Women on the Moon (or Kentucky Fried Movie, it’s one of those two).
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is as much about rape as Beethoven’s Ninth is. (Takes all sorts of critical modes, I suppose.) Beautiful dream-like choreography; only see it if you’ve an attention span longer than that of a hypercaffeinated ferret on meth, though.
Riki-Oh: Story of Ricky - [shifty-eyed]because it’s…classic. Yeah. That’s the ticket.[/shifty-eyed]
I would add Hero to the list of recent must-see’s.
It features some of the most breathtaking martials arts scenes ever - barring no other movie - not even Crouching Tiger… or Matrix:Reloaded.
And I have to second “Enter the Dragon” - truly a martial-arts classic.
Gotta mention “Way of the Dragon” too,although the movie is kinda crap except for one nice scene featuring the legends Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee fighting eachother.
best overall – Enter the Dragon
best wire-fu – Crouching Tiger
best stooge-fu – Drunken Master 2
also rans: Iron Monkey, Project A, Five Venoms, Heroic Trio, Most Jackie Chan, most Yuen Woo Ping choreographed films, Many Jet Li films with several different names
I’m partial to The Blade myself.