Movies involving some form of Asian martial arts are easily one of my favorite genres to watch. In fact, one thing I always appreciate, whether its on flat screen televisions at a trendy restaurant or on a old TV at a house party, is old school kung fu flicks in the background. These movies helped define a newer generation of martial arts films, and while many of the older films have earned classic status, the newer martial arts movies are often visually incredible.
Here is my list of the best of the best martial arts based movies that have hit theaters in the past 10 years.
I will start this list off by mentioning the incredible movie, Equilibrium. This movie stars Christian Bale, as well as Taye Diggs in futuristic setting when humans take drugs to suppress human emotion. This movie shows us the “Gun Kata,” a very cool form of martial arts involving guns, as the name would suggest.
Another film that must make any martial arts list, old school or not, is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. This movie showed audiences a new level of special effects in martial arts film. Ang Lee pulled out all the stops with this one and helped reinvent the film genre.
House of Flying Daggers is another movie that makes the cut for me. I received a PSP as a gift a few years back, and this was the only movie I owned on it. The visual quality of watching this movie on a PSP still is one of the most vibrant things I’ve ever seen on screen.
Who could make a list of martial arts from 2000 up until now and not mention Kill Bill? Sure it is not a traditional martial arts film per se, but it is a saga of revenge and clearly takes a lot of influence from the old Kurosawa films.
Another movie I’ll mention is Oldboy. This is a twisted movie and if you like psychological thrillers mixed with some awesome fighting sequences, this is a great one to watch.
This was not an easy list to create, and it is quite possible I will have to write a followup article with other great martial arts movies that didn’t make this cut.
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