What Ever Happened to Good Martial Arts Movies?

There is a problem with martial arts movies today: they suck. The solution is simpler than one might think. Sometimes it’s tough to find out exactly what makes a Kung Fu movie great, especially when one is subject to so many poor ones over the past, but the key to success is to avoid what makes them bad. Too many of these movies are filled with long drawn out plots that are far from gripping. The stars are not trained actors, making their characters less convincing. So what could be the solution to all of this? Simple. Don’t try to make a storyline designed to draw audiences in. Instead, make the plot so basic, so simple, that it takes minimal time away from the actual meat and potatoes of the movie: the fighting, the stunts, and the action. Get rid of the story.

The three most recent great martial arts movies are as follows (in no particular order):

The Legend of Drunken Master (1994) feat. Jackie Chan

Fist of Legend (1994) feat. Jet Li

Ong Bak (2003) feat. Tony Jaa

Notice how this list goes back to the early 1990’s. I didn’t want to add anything from before I was born. This list is not just a list of personal favorites, but rather these are the three movies that made Jackie Chan, Jet Li, and Tony Jaa household names. One should take note that none of these films are Hollywood films either; instead, all were shot and produced in Asia.

The Legend of Drunken Master’s plot was simple enough: Jackie Chan is the only man who has mastered the art of drunken boxing. His father fears this style will lead to alcohol dependency, but Chan must persist to save the family from… something. The unpredictable fighting style from intoxication made the movie both funny and action-filled at the same time. Jackie Chan soon afterward became a star in Hollywood, releasing Rumble in the Bronx (2005).

Fist of Legend: Jet Li returns to Shanghai only to find his teacher dead and school disgraced. Under the suspicion that his master was poisoned, Li fights through schools of fighters and their teachers until he finds the man responsible. The longer the search, the more fighting the audience is privy too. There’s no need for plot twists or surprise endings. Just fighting.

I remember watching Ong Bak for the first time. The theatre was packed. The buzz around this new Muay Thai fighter was circling quickly. It’s a rarity for a movie theatre to be packed weeks after the release of a martial arts movie, let alone any movie. The opening fight scene started: dozens of young Thai men fighting each other while climbing up a tree in order to get the flag on top. People were thrown from branches, hitting lower branches on their continuous fall amongst the battle royale. Why were they going after the flag? No one knew. No one cared, either. Once our hero, Tony Jaa, emerged as the victor, the plot began. Unbeknownst to the reel worker, who had likely left after starting up the film, the subtitles at the bottom were cut off due to poor placement of the projector. Typically, someone would walk out and mention something to the staff to fix the issue, but not that day. The reason people couldn’t go to complain was that the action had started up again as quickly as it had ended. All of a sudden, we were immersed in an underground fighting club, with onlookers betting on the local favorites. The action never stopped. After the movie ended, everyone recommended it to their friends. They had no idea what it was about; they just knew the fighting was amazing. And that was enough.

The follow up movies for these stars started out promising, but they are losing the interest of their original audience. Jackie Chan is now performing typically in comedy roles with a diluted amount of his fighting potential. Jet Li is still an action star technically, but has recently been relegated to sharing movie posters with 8 other action stars.

Tony Jaa is still learning English and has therefore yet to come to America. In the meantime, he has released Ong Bak II, a non-sequel as the plot has new characters and takes place hundreds of years in the past. There are undeniably some very cool moments, like the backflip off an elephant to a knee to the head, but too much time is spent trying to tell a grand story of history and honour, when most fans just want more of the chase scenes and bone breaking. More story equates to less action. These fans are not hard to please, but patience must be a virtue for the martial arts fan.

In the famous comedy movie Office Space (1999), a pleasant conversation takes place over lunch between Peter Gibbons (Ron Livingston) and Joanna (Jennifer Aniston) when they realize they might be a perfect fit for each other:

Peter Gibbons: I don't think I'd like another job.
Joanna: Well, what are you going to do about money and bills and...
Peter Gibbons: You know, I've never really liked paying bills. I don't think I'm gonna do that, either.
Joanna: Well, so what do you wanna do?
Peter Gibbons: I wanna take you out to dinner, and then I wanna go back to my apartment and watch 'Kung Fu'. Do you ever watch 'Kung Fu'?
Joanna: I love 'Kung Fu'.
Peter Gibbons: Channel 39.
Joanna: Totally.
Peter Gibbons: You should come over and watch 'Kung Fu' tonight.
Joanna: Ok.

I wish I had Channel 39.

aa.