Learn Martial Arts | Top 10 Martial Arts DVD List

Top 10 Martial Arts DVD List

When people search for martial arts dvd there are two things they could be looking for: martial arts instructional dvd or martial arts movies dvd. This post is about the latter, and I’ll cover the instructional ones in a later post.

This top 10 list of martial art dvds is not necessarily intended to be my choice of the best martial arts movies of all time. Instead I thought I’d give a list of influential movies that demonstrate different martial arts, or which brought any particular one to the public eye, or which was a “coming of age” for an individual martial artist. I’m sure you’ll have your own ideas about which are the best martial arts dvds to get your hands on, so feel free to leave a comment so other readers can benefit. Here’s my list, and they are in no other particular order than alphabetical.

1. Bulletproof Monk

This is a fantasy-type martial arts movie starring Chow Yun Fat, Seann William Scott and Jaime King. A shallow but entertaining flick held together by Bulletproof Monk Chow Yun Fat, who hopes to prevent a sacred scroll from falling into the wrong hands.

2. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon

A martial arts epic from director Ang Lee, and starring Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is full of depth with breathtaking martial arts scenes mixed with romance and tragedy. Certainly a more powerful and engaging storyline than the usual ‘slap n chop’ kung fu B-movies.

3. Enter the Dragon

The film that saw Bruce Lee enter mainstream Hollywood and also regrettably his last completed movie before his untimely death. In Enter the Dragon, Lee plays a British agent sent to infiltrate a violent Asian crime gang by entering a martial arts tournament; and where Lee seeks to avenge his sister’s murder.

4. Kickboxer

The first of a series of Kickboxer movies stars Jean-Claude van Damme, and showcases his martial arts skills and his ability to do the splits. The storyline is somewhat corny, Kurt (van Damme) and brother Eric (Dennis Alexio) going to Thailand for Eric to fight in a Muay Thai tournament. He gets paralysed by his opponent, and van Damme seeks out a Muay Thai master to teach him, so he can exact revenge.

5. Kill Bill

Starring Uma Thurman, Kill Bill – Volume One is an action-packed and humorous story of brutal betrayal of a bride (Thurman) on her wedding day, and her quest for vengeance after recovering from her near-assassination.

6. Ong Bak

Ong-Bak – The Thai Warrior stars Tony Jaa as the hero, a country boy who, after a sacred statue is stolen from his village, is sent to Bangkok to retrieve it. A classic Muay Thai fight frenzy of a flick.

7. Rocky

The first of the Rocky series starring Sylvester Stallone as the Italian Stallion. Of course, western boxing is the “martial art” here, and each of the series follows Rocky’s rollercoaster of defeats and setbacks and his subsequent triumphs over adversity. Great in their day – perhaps a little corny now.

8. The Karate Kid

Another kind of corny set of movies, the Karate Kid series features Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio as the karate master and his disciple. These movies explore the master-student relationship and more spiritual aspects of the martial arts, rather than simply connecting fight scenes to fight scenes with meaningless dialog. The first of the series is the best one, with the karate competition as the ending climax.

9. When Taekwondo Strikes

When invading Japanese authorities take control of Korea, a Korean patriot (Carter Huang) refuses to bow to them and is attacked by a gang of Japanese fighters. A priest helps him and then they discover the priests gardener is a famed taekwondo fighter and patriot Lee Chung Tung (Jhoon Rhee). When Taekwondo Strikes is a great showcase for the fighting abilities of Jhoon Rhee and Angela Mao.

10. Zatoichi

The 2003 remake of the 1960′s series Zatoichi: the blind swordsman stars Beat Takeshi. This is a must watch Samurai story and is on the scale of Kill Bill in terms of the blood squirt count!

So there is my top 10 martial arts dvd list, something to get you in the mood before thinking about your favorite martial arts movies of all time!

Related posts:

  1. Instructional Martial Arts DVDs

Filed Under General | 3 Comments

Tagged With , , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

3 Responses to “Top 10 Martial Arts DVD List”

  1. Polprav on October 22nd, 2009 2:14 am

    Hello from Russia!
    Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?

  2. bestmartialartsdvd.com on October 27th, 2009 10:52 pm

    I loved Zatoichi… GREAT movie!

    Crouching Tiger was another good one… good story line, great fight scenes.

  3. NeilE on November 7th, 2009 5:50 pm

    @Polprav – hi, and yes, that’s fine!

Leave a Reply