Martial arts movies aren’t usually known for their gripping stories, but a rare few of them can break the mold of the genre with genuinely fantastic narratives alongside gripping action. For the most part, martial arts movies are given a lot of leeway when it comes to their stories, with gripping hand-to-hand fight scenes being the primary draw for audiences of the genre. That being said, some of the best fight scenes in martial arts movie history come from films with brilliant narratives that compliment the action.
Martial arts movies with earnestly great stories come in multiple varieties. Often, the period setting of martial arts films allows for some fascinating political and cultural drama sprouting from the relevant movements or historical events of the time they take place in. In other cases, lovingly choreographed action is used as an emotional vessel for two characters to hash out their relationship, mirroring the intimacy of other areas in life with the intimacy of combat.
- House of Flying Daggers
- Everything Everywhere All At Once
- Drunken Master II
- The Prodigal Son
- Come Drink With Me
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Dragon Inn
- Ip Man
- Five Deadly Venoms
- Last Hurrah For Chivalry2
Man, that’s some iffy ranking lol. As a random batch of amazing martial arts focused movies with good story, it’s pretty solid. But the order is dubious. I mean, nobody ever agrees with any movie ranking entirely, but Crouching Tiger not being top three is a bit crazy. And Ip Man not being in the top five is weird, though DM 2 would be the only one I would bump all the way down, so it would still end up at 6 if I rearranged things.
I do, however, wonder if the delineated between movies that are story focused and happened to include kung fu and kung fu movies with good story, because something like kung fu hustle would otherwise be a strong candidate. But, I’d also have to argue that some of these could be viewed that way. CTHD alone is definitely story first, but happens in a setting where kungfu is the only option for the martial arts side of things.
And the fact that it’s pretty much devoid of stuff like 7 Samurai is another thing. Or any of Kurosawa’s movies for that matter. He used martial arts as the reference point, but the number of times his movies have been retooled as the basis for movies without that reference shows exactly how story focused his work was.
Yeah, the article doesn’t really define “martial arts movies”… if you’re generous enough, you could include things like Raging Bull or Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai.