If you're big into kung fu and martial arts movies, there aren’t going to be too many surprises ahead. Just to make that clear. These are heavy-hitters, approachable, and just all-around entertaining as action movies. You don’t have to be an expert in any kind of fighting style or particularly interested in a certain historical period to find entertainment in all of the following.
But that’s okay, because martial arts movies arguably should be immediate, punchy (ha), and straight-to-the-point. And, if you like all the approachable ones, then there are plenty of more underrated and obscure ones to hunt down and watch at a later date. As for the big ones that pretty much anyone will be able to enjoy, there are quite a few below, ranked from great to (arguably) greatest.
10 'The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter' (1984)
Directed by Lau Kar-Leung
At the beginning of The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, a whole bunch of characters are introduced, and most of them die instantly. Two brothers survive, with one being driven mad by all the loss that happened around him, and the other seeking refuge at a temple, which happens to be somewhere that can teach him further martial arts skills, thereby allowing him to eventually seek revenge.
It’s very simple stuff, even by martial arts movie standards, but that’s okay. It’s the quality of the action sequences that matters most in a movie like The 8 Diagram Pole Fighter, and such scenes do really go above and beyond here. There are moments during the fights here that are still wince-inducing and bombastic, even by modern-day standards, and it moves well on a pacing front for a film of its time.
9 'Hero' (2002)
Directed by Zhang Yimou
It’s far from the only great martial arts movie that Jet Li has starred in, but 2002’s Hero is probably the single best one he’s been in to date. He plays a mysterious character who recounts his journey to a king at a time of great conflict, explaining how he killed three assassins who’d all targeted said king before, and each of these confrontations is shown through flashbacks.
Then, Hero builds into something else, but saying anymore would undermine the straightforward yet impactful story being told here. Still, there’s an argument to be made that all that feels secondary to the way Hero looks and feels, being easily among the most visually stunning kung fu and/or martial arts movies of all time, being the kind of thing you could watch on mute, in 240p quality, and without any subtitles, and still be blown away by.
8 'The Raid' (2011)
Directed by Gareth Evans
If you want a modern-day martial arts movie that shows what the current generation of filmmakers are most capable of within this kind of genre, then look no further than The Raid films. There are only two so far, and it might well remain a duology, but that’s okay when the quality is so high. And The Raid is particularly striking for its directness, as far as the premise is concerned.
In The Raid, a bunch of elite police officers are trapped in an apartment block, and the criminal who effectively runs said block commands everyone living there to take out the police. And so it’s an oftentimes vicious battle for survival, feeling almost like a video game in terms of having its lead characters have to fight their way out, literally level by level, but it works and it’s awesome.
7 'The Raid 2' (2014)
Directed by Gareth Evans
And then three years later, The Raid 2 came out, and it was arguably even better. It’s different enough from The Raid that it feels worth mentioning both movies as modern-day action classics, instead of just highlighting one with an honorable mention to the other. The Raid 2 is mostly distinct from the first because of how expansive it gets in scope, with things no longer limited to a single building.
The Raid 2 has a great deal more variety in its action, as a result, and the quality of that action is just as good – or perhaps even a little better – than the first. The story here does get messy, but it’s admirably ambitious, and the shortcomings are forgivable when it does such a good job at setting up various action set pieces, with hand-to-hand fights, large-scale brawls, one-on-one showdowns, action scenes with all sorts of weapons involved, and even a car chase at one point. It’s non-stop stuff, and supremely entertaining, too.
6 'The 36th Chamber of Shaolin' (1978)
Directed by Lau Kar-Leung
This might sound like a bold claim, considering how many kung fu movies revolve around training to become a legendary fighter, but The 36th Chamber of Shaolin really might be the best kung fu/martial arts movie focused on training. It’s what the protagonist here spends pretty much the entire film doing, to the point where watching him become a warrior is even better than watching him unleash his full potential during the fights near the climax.
So, the journey is probably better than the destination, but that destination is also great, and a well-earned pay-off, too. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is one of the quintessential classic kung fu movies, and a perfect entry-level one for anyone who’s either not well-versed in martial arts films, or has only seen some of the newer ones out there (like those aforementioned The Raid movies).
5 'The Matrix' (1999)
Directed by Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski
There’s a lot of shooting that goes on in The Matrix, particularly slow-motion stuff, but it’s also a kung fu movie at the same time… kind of. “I know kung fu” is an iconic line here, after all, and there is a comparable amount of hand-to-hand fighting as there are battles with firearms, and sometimes, people kick, punch, and shoot things/other people within the same sequence.
It’s all very spectacular stuff as an action movie, but wait, there’s more! More in the sense that The Matrix is also a legendary science fiction movie, and one that continues to age incredibly well. There are so many moving parts here, and they're all in harmony; it’s a remarkably well-balanced movie, and it more than earns its status as a classic.
4 'Kill Bill: Vol. 1' (2003)
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
The whole of Kill Bill is masterful, and pretty heavy on martial arts/kung fu tropes, but since most of the fighting is done in Vol. 1, that’s the one being singled out here. The Bride begins her very bloody quest for revenge here, going after two of five targets and finding herself with dozens more targets, effectively, since one of the people she wants to take down has what’s pretty much a small army at her disposal.
It's not lacking in action outside the climax, but that big battle at the film’s end is what really cements Kill Bill: Vol. 1 as one of the best martial arts movies of the 21st century so far. Because Quentin Tarantino likes to play around with chronology, you end up getting most of the training shown in Vol. 2, which very much homages kung fu films of old (especially The 36th Chamber of Shaolin, made explicit with the Gordon Liu connection).
3 'Police Story' (1985)
Directed by Jackie Chan
Of course, you can’t talk about martial arts movies without shouting out at least one Jackie Chan film, and the one that’s probably the easiest to enjoy for newcomers would be Police Story. Well, newcomers to his non-Hollywood movies, at least, but the Hong Kong films are the ones most worth digging into, since a lot of them were made when he was younger and therefore capable of particularly wild stunts.
And you get a bunch of them in Police Story, as well as what might well be the best action climax of any of his films. It’s a relentless movie, balancing a crime story with tons of action and a good deal of reliable humor as the icing on a battered, bruised, yet still delicious cake. This film, perhaps more than any other, really showcases why there was so much hype around Jackie Chan as a martial arts legend during the first couple of decades of his acting career.
2 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000)
Directed by Ang Lee
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was a pretty huge international hit, and could well have been the first big martial arts movie some people saw around the year 2000 (well, aside from The Matrix). It’s one of many great films directed by Ang Lee, and has a story about a highly sought-after sword that various individuals fight to get hold of, with inevitably violent consequences.
That is oversimplifying it a bit, but the premise is admittedly simple; it’s what Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon does with such a set-up that makes it interesting. It’s phenomenally well-acted, beautiful to look at, and exciting when it does get around to staging some grand and expertly executed action sequences. It also works as a melodrama and a romance film, offering more than just action. It’s the whole package and stuff; it’s got a bit of everything.
1 'Enter the Dragon' (1973)
Directed by Robert Clouse
If you want to get a sense of what Bruce Lee was capable of, both as an actor and a martial artist, then there’s no better place to start than Enter the Dragon. It was the last film completed before his death, and ultimately ended up being his greatest work, though he does share the spotlight here with a couple of other actors – John Saxon and Jim Kelly – with all three playing characters who head to a martial arts tournament being hosted by a shady figure on a mysterious island.
In Enter the Dragon, you get a mix of competitive martial arts fights and some wilder action when things spiral out of control, and certain truths about the tournament are revealed. That all adds up to an older martial arts movie that still moves at a ruthless pace, having very little downtime and being all-around extremely entertaining, not to mention very approachable for something that’s now more than half a century old.
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