Third Rail Releasing
This weekend saw the release of two solid action films from performers many fans had already written off, Donnie Yen and Tony Jaa — my review of Kung Fu Killer and Skin Trade can be found here — and inspired by this happy surprise we’re doing two things. I’m listing the twelve best movie fight scenes *and* we’re giving away five of Yen’s best movies on Blu-ray (well, technically four of his best plus Iceman)!
It’s worth noting that compiling a list of the best fight scenes is a daunting goddamn task.
I’m focusing on hand-to-hand fights, with or without weapons, and avoiding gun fights, war movies and the likes of Godzilla vs King Kong. For me the best fights rely mostly on a combination of skill and choreography — while fights accomplished strictly through editing or with a heavy dose of wire-fu/CG can be entertaining and a lot of fun they’re ultimately less impressive than ones featuring truly talented fighters showing real skill. I love the bathroom free-for-all in The World’s End and the church fracas in Kingsman: The Secret Service for example, but both owe as much to post-production efforts as they do anything else.
I’m also ignoring dramatically powerful bouts like the ones in Rocky, The Karate Kid or Warrior and the awesome spectacles that are They Live‘s six-minute back alley brawl and Oldboy‘s hallway hammer skirmish in favor of martial arts-style fights featuring real artists and visible impact. Even then though there are dozens of truly great contenders to choose from. Hell, the list could easily consist of just Jackie Chan. Or Donnie Yen. Or Iko Uwais.
But there can only be twelve — because that’s the arbitrary number I’ve chosen — and here they are, the twelve best, most impressive and most compulsively re-watchable movie fight scenes.
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#12 – Jackie Chan vs glass in Police Story (1984)
There are a fair amount of stunts in this sequence, but they don’t distract from the ferocious fights between an uncharacteristically angry Chan and a mall filled with bad guys. He uses a variety of props, but unlike most of his films there’s no sense of playfulness here. That darker edge faded as the Police Story franchise went on (although it returned for the last two installments, New Police Story and Police Story 2013), and the scene serves as a reminder of the brutality he’s capable of. It’s also just incredibly entertaining.
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#11 – Donnie Yen vs ten black belts in Ip Man (2008)
This one is short, sweet and brutal — just like Yen! — and it earns a spot for precisely those reasons. Most fight scenes that pit one character against many drag it out, and while more fighting is rarely a bad thing Yen’s surgical efficiency here shows fantastic precision and skill in addition to some machine gun-style pummeling. The film features several stand-out fights including an end battle with a Japanese general and a test of skills with fellow masters, but this one remains my favorite.
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#10 – Bruce Lee vs a Japanese dojo in Fist of Fury (1972)
I love watching Lee in action, but I’m not really a big fan of his film fights. My preference is for more modern films that benefit from tighter choreography, but I return to Lee again and again for his grace and speed. This scene is an iconic one, and while it’s been recreated by Jet Li (Fist of Legend) and Donnie Yen (Legend of the Fist) there’s a power to seeing Lee dispatch his country’s occupiers with lightning-quick ferocity.
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#9 – Michelle Yeoh vs Zhang Ziyi in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
There are plenty of female fighters who could kick our collective asses — Maggie Q, Gina Carano, Jija Yanin, Veronica Ngo — but Yeoh remains one of the most consistently impressive. Her work in Jackie Chan’s Supercop (aka Police Story 3), The Heroic Trio and others reveal a talent that belongs on any list of martial artists in film. This fight pits her against Zhang, herself no slouch at fighting, in a mesmerizing battle highlighting Yeoh’s mastery of handheld weapons, and it’s just one of the film’s many gorgeous displays.
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#8 – Donnie Yen vs Wu Jing in SPL aka Kill Zone (2005)
This is a simple fight between two guys at the top of their game. Yen choreographed the fight’s framework, but reportedly he and Wu improvised as they went along. They basically competed to see who could make contact with the other, and the result is a blistering display of coordination and speed. The fight that follows, between Yen and Sammo Hung, is also fantastic.
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#7 – Iko Uwais and Donny Alamsyah vs Yayan ‘Mad Dog’ Ruhian in The Raid (2011)
It’s incredibly rare to find a movie where a villain is double-teamed by the good guys because it looks far from heroic, but that’s part of the brilliance at play here. It’s two against one, but we’re cheering for the heroes because they’re still the underdogs against the incredibly scrappy Mad Dog. He has an earlier fight with Joe Taslim that also delivers a strong balance of skill and intensity.
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