Good "Martial-arts" movies?

[ironduke88]

Chocolate (another thai martial arts film) was pretty awesome.

The back catalogue of Jackie Chan's films tend to be great, pretty much everything he has done up to Rush hour II is Golden.

 

[HuntrRose]

I'd go older and say the Shichinin no samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro and most of the other films Akira Kurosawa made with Toshiro Mifune.

But can they be classified as "martial arts" movies?

Oh yeah, if you don't mind silly amounts of blood, then the Lone Wolf & Cub/Daigoro/Shogun Assassin thing isn't half bad. And while we're in Japan, Takeshi Kitano's take on the Zatoichi story was pretty decent, as well.

Other than that, the good ones have mostly been mentioned. Ip Man, Drunken Master 1 & 2, Enter the Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Snake in Eagle's Shadow, Once upon a Time in China...

And while they're technically more historical war epics than martial arts flicks, I'd recommend Musa and Red Cliff, as well.

Well, seeing as the sword instructor for those movies was the Sensei of Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, Yoshio Sugino, the oldest remaining japanese swordsschool I think we can define them as martial arts movies. They may have more depth and more focus on the characters and the story than most, but the last fight scene in Sanyoru is one of the best I've seen ever, even if it's over inabout a second...

Spoiler: Don't click if you plan to see the movie!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYbi7gKKvOo