Comments on: Hiiiiiii-YA!

Question: Hiiiiiii-YA!

DisreputableDog — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:54:20 -0800

I've watched IP Man, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ong Bak, Chocolate, and am currently watching Kung Fu Dunk (this looks like a frighteningly bad-but-awesome movie). Please recommend me more?

Also trying to remember the name of the funny kung-fu movie where a guy gets punched into the sky and comes back to drive a guy into the ground. I think it also contains a girl who uses her white hair as a weapon?

Anyway, just really looking for all sorts of kung-fu movie recommendations. I'd also really like it if you told me why you enjoyed the movie.

Note! I hate dubbed movies (I'd much rather read the subtitles) and if possible, I'd love recommendations I might not otherwise get in the U.S. except by watching lots of pre-movie DVD trailers. I also don't care if they're Chinese, Japanese, Korean...as long as you think I'd enjoy them! And I'd prefer to be able to watch them on DVD, if possible.

Thank you so much!

By: annsunny

annsunny — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 14:56:32 -0800

Are you thinking of Kung Fu Hustle?

By: hermitosis

hermitosis — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:02:51 -0800

You didn't mention Shaolin Soccer. Watch it!

By: annsunny

annsunny — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:08:45 -0800

Previous thread that might be relevant.

I don't remember Kung Fu Hustle having a white-haired antagonist, but The Bride with White Hair comes to mind.

By: DisreputableDog

DisreputableDog — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:12:42 -0800

Not going to thread sit, but forgot to mention that the movie I'm trying to remember the title of is definitely more modern, rather Americanized (I think), and has some other strange characters. I think I remember some rather fat men and women, someone getting punched through several walls of a building, and some other really weird characters. Fairly bright colors and over the top people.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:29:02 -0800

Oh man, go watch the Baby Cart to Hades series posthaste.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:30:05 -0800

Er, sorry, the series is actually called Lone Wolf and Cub. derp derp.

By: ambulatorybird

ambulatorybird — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:30:05 -0800

Here are some:

* Shaolin Soccer
* Iron Monkey
* any of the Once Upon a Time in China series
* House of Flying Daggers
* Hero

By: cazoo

cazoo — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:30:17 -0800

Iron Monkey is a classic. It's directed by Woo-Ping Yuen who choreographed Crouching Tiger and The Matrix and stars Donnie Yen.

By: idb

idb — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:30:32 -0800

Yeah, you're definitely thinking of Kung Fu Hustle.

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:37:47 -0800

To add to the already great suggestions:

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
Battle Royale
Ichi the Killer

By: utsutsu

utsutsu — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:57:00 -0800

Legend of Drunken Master - old Jackie Chan.

Some old Jet Li movies:

The Shaolin Temple
Once Upon a Time in China and it's sequel
More recently: Hero

+1'ing the Lone Wolf and Cub suggestion, tho these are samurai flicks, not kung fu movies... not sure if you care about the distinction or not. If you like these, also check out Zatoichi flicks, I especially like the recent version made by Beat Takeshi, who is also in the above-mentioned Battle Royale. for more of him, check out Brother or Violent Cop.

If you like Crouching Tiger, definitely watch House of Flying Daggars as well as Hero, linked above.

If you want less serious and more ridiculous and funny, check out...

Robo-geisha
Samurai Fiction
Machine Girl

I may have strayed a bit there, but all solid movies I think.

By: fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit

fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:09:22 -0800

A woman using hair as a weapon reminds me more of one of the Chinese Ghost Story films, I think maybe the second or third one?

Some of my favorites:
The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk -- Includes one of my favorite setpieces ever, where a woman battles people on top of a wooden structure to see who can win the hand of her daughter in marriage

Tai Chi Master (aka Twin Warriors) -- Jet Li must to invent a whole new style of martial arts to defeat his childhood friend

Legend of the Drunken Master (aka Drunken Master II) -- Jackie Chan drinks to make his fighting more powerful!

Supercop (aka Police Story 3) -- Michelle Yeoh learned to ride a motorcycle about 30 minutes before they had her jump onto a train with one (and really, you can't go wrong with any of the Police Story movies)

Heroic Trio -- Anita Mui, Maggie Cheung, and Michelle Yeoh kick all kinds of ass in a weird dystopian future that's probably standing in for the 1997 handover

Finally, Mr. Vampire -- If Lam Ching-Ying says he needs some sticky rice to fight Chinese hopping vampires, bring him some sodding sticky rice, accept no substitutes

And as above, the Once Upon a Time in China series is good and now I have this urge to go back and rewatch Iron Monkey.

By: RustyBrooks

RustyBrooks — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:18:07 -0800

It's modern and not really kung fu (but neither is Ong Bak, which is Muy Thai), but I really liked District 13 and it's sequel (they're french, original title is Bienlieu 13 (sp?))

Also there's Ong Bak 2 and 3...

Most of the ones above are pretty great.

By: lilnemo

lilnemo — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:56:07 -0800

Nthing the Legend of Fong Sai Yuk and the Once Upon a Time in China series.
And raising you Sonny Chiba's Street Fighter series:
Street Fighter
Return of the Street Fighter
The Street Fighter's Last Revenge

the spin-off Sister Street Fighter series:
Sister Street Fighter
Sister Street Fighter: Hanging by a Thread
The Return of the Sister Street Fighter
Sister Street Fighter, Fifth Level Fist

the Executioner series:
The Executioner
Karate Inferno: The Executioner II

Chiba's Masutatsu Ōyama trilogy. Basically any 70's Chiba.

Ooh! And Master of the Flying Guillotine!

By: stef0knee

stef0knee — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:03:04 -0800

Ong Bak 2 and 3, although as I understand it, they are inferior to the original. There's also a sequel to Ip Man.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:42:03 -0800

utsutsu speaks an awful lot of truth for just one man - basically every movie off his list is worth a watch (though I have my issues with the politics of Hero).

Almost everything Jackie Chan did before coming to America (including some of his work in Canada) is worth checking out.

By: Chocolate Pickle

Chocolate Pickle — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:52:43 -0800

House of Flying Daggers is better than you might think. It's really depressing, but it seems that the Chinese like their serious romantic stories to have tragic endings.

The final sequence was filmed outdoors in Ukraine and the day they began filming, it started to snow. Having little choice in the matter, they kept filming, and so the whole thing is in the snow in the movie, and it really does work pretty well that way. It adds to the atmosphere.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:28:47 -0800

tho these are samurai flicks, not kung fu movies

where even is my brain today! wtf self.

By: Diagonalize

Diagonalize — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:48:58 -0800

I don't know that I would wholeheartedly recommend this movie, but I'm wondering if the one you're trying to remember with the girl with the white hair is The Forbidden Kingdom. Parts of it are in Chinese, but it's mostly an American (that is to say, in English) film that starred Jackie Chan and Jet Li a few years back.

By: mygothlaundry

mygothlaundry — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:51:16 -0800

A goofy independent parody, yes, but I quite liked Golden Blade III: Return of the Monkey's Uncle.

By: jng

jng — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 18:55:14 -0800

HAHAHHA, Kung Fu Dunk. What a glorious mess of movie. Unless you're only interested in period piece kung fu movies, dinging up the Jackie Chan recommendations. Why bother with anything else until you watch the classics: Project A, Operation Condor, Wheels on Meals (skateboarding), Drunken Master (!!!!), Police Story 1, 2, and Supercop (also !!!! don't bother with the new one unless you want to see Jackie GET SERIOUS), City Hunter (best theme song ever written*), Who Am I? (hahahaha, awesome camp), and The Tuxedo (just kidding!)

*by men named Jackie Chan

By: qxntpqbbbqxl

qxntpqbbbqxl — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:20:24 -0800

A Woman, a Gun, and a Noodle Shop is not strictly a kung fu movie, but it has a lot of the tropes and is hilarious and brilliant.

A World without Thieves. More caper than kung fu, but it has "fight" scenes between rival pickpocket gangs that reminiscent of kung fu films. A very clever movie.

Hero is my favorite Zhang Yimou film, but the others are good too. You've already seen Crouching Tiger, but also check out House of Flying Daggers and Curse of the Golden Flower.

The Emperor and the Assassin is similar to Hero but more serious.

Red Cliff is an epic period piece. I didn't think it was as much fun as Emperor and the Assassin or Hero, but if you like massive scale ancient Chinese army battles and legendary hero fighting scenes, this is your movie. Note that the Chinese release (available as a torrent) is two films and contains many hours that didn't make it into the single-film Western market release.

And if you liked Ip Man, there's always Ip Man 2.

By: porpoise

porpoise — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:21:29 -0800

Great suggestions all-around, esp. Fong Say Yuk, Once Upon a Time in China, and Drunken Master (there's some confusion regarding Drunken Master and the sequel; there's two of them).

Wing Chung with (young) Michelle Yeoh and (younger) Donny Yen. Under-rated. Like Ip Man (Ip Man 2 wasn't very good) it deals with the inception of the discipline of Wing Chung, but focusing on the female originator of the school. Silly HK comedy blended with some really good pre-overly-wires&cgi choreographed scenes.

Last Hero in China is a decent Jet Li film.

By: gudrun

gudrun — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:30:48 -0800

Not kung-fu because it is set in Japan, but you might like it anyway - Dororo. Also the two Onmyoji films are possibilities.

By: Lexica

Lexica — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:12:44 -0800

God of Cookery, from the director of Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, sounds like just what you're looking for. (Conveniently available for watching on YouTube.) I agree with one review of it that said,

In hindsight, the first half or so of the movie is silly and maybe a little hard to follow. It can't seem to find its pace. It goes from kind of funny, to reeeeally weird, to a bit creepy, to humorous, to "whoa, what the hell's going on"... But the last half is pure awesomeness.

And one I've recommended before, with mild trepidation since many people consider this Billy Zane's worst! movie! ever! but I really like Invincible.

Two things to be aware of, which might help keep it from sucking for you:

1) This is a Hong Kong movie; it just happens to be made in English.
2) The movie is an extended Buddhist allegory, based on Jet Li's Tibetan Buddhist beliefs.

Again, conveniently available on YouTube.

By: yeolcoatl

yeolcoatl — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:12:48 -0800

Fong Sai Yuk I and II are among my favorites. I like the sillier, happier stuff.

By: yeloson

yeloson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:19:28 -0800

Some general recommendations and categories of martial arts movies:
(these categories might be a bit off, I haven't seen some of these in over a decade)

Modern:
- Project A (1 & 2), Police Story, Dragons Forever
- The Myth (mixes modern with wuxia/period piece stuff)
- Anything with Sammo Hung is generally great (Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon is fun)
- The above mentioned Ong Bak
- So Close (wire fu)

Historical Serious: (very little wire fu, albeit, some)
- Bodyguards and Assassins
- The Emperor and the Assassin
- Fighter in the Wind
- The Warlords
- The Three Kingdoms
- Peace Hotel (mostly guns + drama, but some swords)
- The Good the Bad & the Weird (Korean Western in Manchuria, mostly guns, some fighting)

Light Wire-fu
- Once Upon A Time In China (1-3 are pretty good, not so much after that)
- Fong Sai Yuk
- Return of the Fist: The Legend of Chen Zhen (starts heavy wire fu, calms down pretty quickly after)
- Reign of Assassins

Heavy Wire-fu
- Green Snake
- Swordsman 1-2
- 14 Blades
- Heroic Trio
- Dragon Inn
- Seven Swords of Mount Tian/Heaven (has a movie, and a tv series. TV series is slower, and more dramariffic, and better IMO).
- Chinese Odyssey (Parts 1 & 2. Mostly comedy + supernatural stuff, Stephen Chow did Kung Fu Hustle)

By: yeloson

yeloson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:20:35 -0800

Oh, yeah, and for completely over the top supernatural kung fu: Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain involves lightning swords, telekinetic knife fights and demons galore. Fun times.

By: yeloson

yeloson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:22:02 -0800

Correction: Legend of Zu.

By: Chocolate Pickle

Chocolate Pickle — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 23:49:22 -0800

"The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" is one of the absolute classics of the field.

By: Gungho

Gungho — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 05:30:59 -0800

"Rumble in the Bronx". Jackie Chan comes to America. You know it is going to be good when on the way home from JFK International airport in NY you can see the mountains of Manhattan in the background...no seriously real rocky mountain mountains over Jackie's shoulder.

By: past

past — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 07:22:56 -0800

Seconding Riki Oh: The Story of Ricky and Wing Chung

actually I am praising and weeping at Ricky for the shower scene sneers, the fakebelly gargantua, the comedic audaciousness

By: bl1nk

bl1nk — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:11:37 -0800

If you wound up liking Kung Fu Dunk, what's even more BadButAwesome is Fireball (muay thai prison basketball ... and, yes, it does what it says on the tin).

Ong Bak 2 and 3 are not sequels to the first, they're just the next set of movies made by Tony Jaa. They are inferior if you're looking for the sort of wall-to-wall kinetic kickboxing action that made Ong Bak so great; there's a lot of indulgent arcs of Tony Jaa looking serious and tormented and trying to act. With that said, if you aren't familiar with 'old Siam' era Thai culture, the films are a novel depiction of that period, and some of neat set piece fights. The training montage in Ong Bak 2 is particularly awesome.

If you liked Chocolate, the star, Jeeja Yanin (who everyone was marketing as the female Tony Jaa), has another film called Raging Phoenix. That one wasn't quite as good both from an acting and fighting\stunts point of view.

Other martial arts film that fall outside of the Hong Kong canon:

Vietnam
The Rebel
Bay Rong

of the two, The Rebel is the superior film for straight martial arts. Bay Rong has a bigger budget and is more of a modern heist/crime movie so firefights and car chases get in the way of the hand-to-hand. For 21 Jump Street fans, The Rebel also thawed Dustin Nguyen's career out of cold storage briefly.

South Korea
City of Violence

Somewhat Tarantino-esque story of a couple of guys trying to clean up their crime ridden hometown. Great fight choreography, though more balletic than technically impressive.

By: mkb

mkb — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:03:07 -0800

I think that Fist of Legend is to Kung-Fu films what Die Hard or The Killer is to action movies in general.

By: Ghostride The Whip

Ghostride The Whip — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:28:42 -0800

I didn't see The Protector/Tom yum goong mentioned yet. It features a scene with a capoeira fighter and a baby elephant hammer throw. And I'm not joking about the second one.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 09:56:10 -0800

The Emperor and the Assassin is similar to Hero but more serious.

I'd say that The Emperor and the Assassin is not a Kung Fu movie, but it is a very good historical drama. Hero is not a historical drama, but it is a very pretty Kung Fu movie. If you had to choose, I'd say watch The Emperor and the Assassin; there are plenty of pretty Kung Fu movies, but this one is a much better film and is closer to the actual history.

A character based on Jing Ke also appears in Highlander: Endgame.

By: Lovecraft In Brooklyn

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:06:32 -0800

try reading Outlaw Vern.

13 Assassins is either out on DVD or in theatre, depending on where you are. awesome samauri flick by Takashi Miike

By: Lovecraft In Brooklyn

Lovecraft In Brooklyn — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 17:07:10 -0800

try some old Shaw Brothers stuff like 36 Chambers of Shaolin

By: TrinsicWS

TrinsicWS — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 04:43:09 -0800

Kung Pow: Enter the fist.

So bad, I bought the dvd twice.