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12 old-school martial-arts movies you really should see

Think you’re besties with Bruce Lee? Make sure you’ve got these martial-arts classics under your black belt before challenging anyone with your unorthodox style

By Grady Hendrix Posted: Sunday November 2 2014

1/12

Intimate Confessions of a Chinese Courtesan (1972)

Decadent, delirious and dripping with sin, it’s more of a swordplay thriller than a kung fu killer, but it’ll still claw your eyes out. Lily Ho is kidnapped and sold to a brothel, where the lesbian madam teaches her the martial arts of revenge…and love!

2/12

The Tournament (1974)

Angela Mao (Bruce Lee’s sister in Enter the Dragon) is the Queen of Kung Fu, a whirlwind of unstoppable ferocity who first mops the floor with the Thai fighters who defeated her brother, then buffs it with any old Chinese dudes who happen to get on her nerves.

3/12

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1977)

A nihilistic grindhouse trip, Jimmy Wang Yu’s one-armed boxer is so badass that a blind, psychotic monk (equipped with the titular weapon) comes gunning for his head. Cue a kung fu competition featuring arm-stretching yogis, spring-loaded, gut-seeking axes and a final battle inside a coffin shop.

4/12

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978)

The movie that cracked the genre in half, The 36th Chamber is directed by the master himself, Lau Kar-leung, and it distills martial arts down to their purest essence. Here, the mandatory training sequence expands into an hour-long, cinematic tone poem on how discipline and commitment can save your soul.

5/12

Heroes of the East (1978)

Lau Kar-leung delivers a classic screwball comedy with “mantis fists” and “skirt kicks” replacing quips as a Chinese groom and his Japanese bride duke it out over whose martial arts are better. Combat becomes couples counseling, and lethal strikes are love bites in this ode to the sweet mayhem of marriage.

6/12

Crippled Avengers (1978)

The Five Venoms Mob are the Led Zeppelin of kung fu, so when a rich dude cripples them (blind, deaf, legs chopped off, brain damage), that doesn’t keep these handi-capable heavy-metal heroes from exacting gut-crunching revenge on him and his armless son. Good taste doesn’t even enter into it.

7/12

Seven Grandmasters (1978)

Shot in Taiwan for $1.95, this by-the-numbers scenario allows two of cinema’s best action choreographers, Corey Yuen Kwai (Fong Sai Yuk) and Yuen Chuan-yan (Once Upon a Time in China), to unleash seven shades of hell, ending with the most epic kick in the nuts ever put on film.

8/12

Knockabout (1979)

Acrobatic “little brother” Yuen Biao gets his due from “big brother” and director, Sammo Hung. Bending in half, making impossible leaps, walking on air, turning himself into a human Möbius strip, transforming his spine into spaghetti, Yuen defies physics and common sense in this con-artist comedy. Gravity is hereby canceled!

9/12

Young Master (1980)

Jackie Chan’s first big movie had two conditions: no budget and no schedule. With unlimited resources, he turned out an old-school epic, sometimes burning 500 takes to get things right. The climax is an 18-minute barnburner with tae kwon do tiger Hwang In-Shik, one that took three grueling months to film.

10/12

Encounter of the Spooky Kind (1980)

Sammo Hung turned to the occult for inspiration in this horror hoedown about a cuckolded husband whose wife hires a wizard to rub him out. Battling hopping vampires and tying things up with a massive, magical martial-arts melee, Sammo shows that the best way to bust a ghost is to kick it in the face.

11/12

Dreadnaught (1981)

The Yuen clan united with 76-year-old Kwan Tak-hing (famous for playing folk hero Wong Fei-hung in more than 70 films) for this dark gothic film about an unhinged serial killer hiding in a traveling theater troupe who becomes obsessed with ripping out the throat of a meek laundry boy.

12/12

Five Element Ninjas (1982)

Chang Cheh’s second to last film for Shaw Brothers is like Lau Kar-leung’s Heroes of the East gone to the bad side of town. Ninjas wrapped in gold foil challenge buff, shirtless Chinese martial artists in a giddy blood fiesta. Guts are torn out, arms are chopped off and crotches are spiked with spears.

Stand in front of the mirror and fake all the Bruce Lee kicks you like, but until you educate yourself in these 12 martial-arts classics, your fighting style is weak. Naturally, we've scoured the entire history of martial-arts cinema, a bounty of goodness from Hong Kong and elsewhere. Break out any of these high-flying essentials at your next party, and you're going to need a bigger couch.

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Edmond V
Edmond V

Heroes of the East was one of my favorite martial arts movies while growing up. Not only does it have great action, but it is so funny. I really need to see more of these movies on this list.  I've heard that Young Master is a good one.