Good wuxia movies?

[barsoomcore]

Okay, here you go:

Yes to Zu: Warriors of the Magic Mountain -- the original on which the new Zu is based. It's an oldie, but a goodie. But the crown jewels of wuxia are:

Swordsman II: Seriously twisted, six-thousand-strokes-per-minute swordplay, beautiful women and cheerily insane men, weird monsters, lesbian kinks, and dead horses. AWESOME movie. Jet Li, Michelle Reis and the unconquerable Brigitte Lin as the baddest bad guy in cinema history. This is it, folks.

Dragon Inn: Possibly my favourite movie in the universe where King Kong doesn't exist. Brigitte Lin again, this time with Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung and Donnie Yen (of Iron Monkey fame. SPECTACULAR. Look, there's a fight scene that starts with Brigitte naked and Maggie dressed and ends with Maggie naked and Brigitte dressed. If you need more than that, I can't help you.

The Bride With White Hair: AGAIN Brigitte Lin rocks the house. This is the film that inspired Xena: Warrior Princess. Sexy, violent, beautiful. Killer film in every detail.

You get through those three, you're on your way. There is nothing like the Hong Kong films of the late 80's and early 90's. I guess for some people the slicker presentation of Ang Lee's pictures are more platable, but honestly I find his films (and now Zhang Yimou's) slow and hollow compared to Tsui Hark, Ringo Lam and the other great HK directors.

Enjoy!

 

[sniffles]

I vote for all of the above. But just to clarify, there are numerous different versions of Iron Monkey. I'd suggest (and I think this is what everyone else was referring to) the 1993 version starring Donnie Yen that was released in the US in 2003.

I haven't seen Zu Warriors, but the original version, Zu - Warriors of the Magic Mountain (1983?) is good.

Others I'd recommend:
Hero (stars Jet Li)
Storm Riders (1998)
The Duel (2001, starring Andy Lau, Ekin Cheng and Nicky Cheung) - there are several different movies titled The Duel, and not just the old Spielberg tv movie.
A Chinese Ghost Story (directed by Tsui Hark) - older movie with cheesier effects, but still a lot of fun.
New Legend of Shaolin (aka Legend of the Red Dragon) - another Jet Li film.

Depending on what you like, there are tons of other films I could also recommend.

 

[JimAde]

Another vote for the Donnie Yen Iron Monkey. Fun, well-acted movie with great effects and excellent action. Also had me laughing out loud several times:

"Hey, my kung-fu's pretty good!"

 

[takyris]

Swordsman II: Seriously twisted, six-thousand-strokes-per-minute swordplay, beautiful women and cheerily insane men, weird monsters, lesbian kinks, and dead horses. AWESOME movie. Jet Li, Michelle Reis and the unconquerable Brigitte Lin as the baddest bad guy in cinema history. This is it, folks.

Have to respectfully disagree. I know that I was watching the badly subtitled version, and that didn't help, but I have trouble enjoying a wuxia film in which there's so little actual fighting. Sure, people were blowing up the scenery and zooming around on wires, and parts of that were fun, and parts of that looked like 1970's-level effects, and parts of that were poorly edited... but there was so little actual fighting, sword-to-sword, hand-to-hand, anything like that... that I found it disappointing.

Perhaps this is The Tacky not getting wuxia, but after Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, my assumption is that a wuxia movie can have people swinging a sword to cut a horse in half from a hundred yards away, but they're also going to actually mix it up with fight choreography a good chunk of the time. I'll grant that it has ambition, likely on a miniscule budget, but I'm sorta past the point in my life where I judge a movie based on what it tried unsuccessfully to do.

Mileage may vary, of course. And I'm watching a lot of these things for work.

 

[barsoomcore]

Ooh, I completely forgot A Chinese Ghost Story. Another classic.

taky, if there's a well-subtitled version of Swordsman II I'm not aware of it. But you're right, it's NOT a full-blown fight movie, but then to me, wuxia isn't about wall-to-wall fight scenes. That's why God gave us Jackie Chan. Wuxia is about flying through the air with swords. I guess I'm just saying that if you don't EXPECT massive stand-up fights, you won't be disappointed that you didn't get many. But there's just way too much to love in here -- Asia killing a moth with a grain of sand, Hattori juggling a lit candle on his sword, and the final battle is total spectacle.

Well, not for everyone, I guess.

But then I thought very specifically that the fight scenes in CTHD weren't very well-done (except for Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Zi-Yi at Yeoh's training hall. THAT one rocked).

 

[Desdichado]

Look, there's a fight scene that starts with Brigitte naked and Maggie dressed and ends with Maggie naked and Brigitte dressed. If you need more than that, I can't help you.

Well, you certainly convinced me!

 

[Joshua Randall]

Just echo'ing some of what was already said:

* Hero shows us what Whirldwind Attack, when used by an Epic-level fighter, looks like. As well as Deflect Arrows.
* House of Flying Daggers illustrates both Rapid Shot and Multishot.
* Chinese Ghost Story... well, not too many D&D-isms in there, but the main actress is definitely easy on the eyes.

There's some random Jet Li movie I saw where, at the end, he has a duel with the bad guy that involves extensive wire work and copious bloodshed. I believe they are in the internal courtyard of the bad guy's house, if that helps at all.

www.stomptokyo.com is a good gateway to genre films, including the kung fu genre