i was just thinking about martial arts movies I used to watch. Ones starring Jet Li or Jackie Chan spring to mind. With beautifully choreographed and visually impressive fight scenes. With the notable exception of the John Wick franchise, which I do throughly enjoy, I feel like you don’t see much of that anymore. But maybe they do, and it’s just not on my radar. And I’m thinking less gun fu more kung fu.
I did do a low effort search (skimmed an IMDB new martial arts movie list) and there’s a few on there I hadn’t heard of but looked like they might be the flavor I’m looking for. But I also thought to ask the lemmyverse.
I would prefer ones that don’t use any CGI. In am cool with practical effects, even if a bit absurd. In English would be nice too (not dubbed), but I’m not adverse to subtitles.
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I really enjoyed Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. Good martial arts choreography (Jackie Chan style physical humor) intermixed with an amazing story.
I’d add Love Hurts to that, also with Ke Huy Kwan.
Bullet Train is more fun than it has any right being, but not really kung fu, just similar energy. Ditto for The Nice Guys.
The Nobody movies were fun and Normal LOOKS good but I somehow missed that…
Oh yeah, older Korean flick:
The Good, the Bad, and the Weird! Great watch!
Seconded!
Jackie Chan never did a fight with a dildo up his backside, either
Great movie
Today’s Baader–Meinhof phenomenon is this topic, apparently.
Haven’t seen it yet but suddenly seeing everywhere the recommendation for The Furious. By the same studio that did John Wick. 80s style flick where the martial arts action is the point of the movie and everything else is a vehicle to highlight the fighting.
It recently won a decent award at a Chinese film fest so that’s probably why it is suddenly popping up on my radar. I hope this movie is as good as all the hype.
There are other 2025/2026 movies with the same name, so look for the one from Lionsgate studio and with Xie Miao in the lead role.
2011 is perhaps not really ‘newer’, but The Raid would fit this description nicely.
I guess Kung Fu Hustle is now an old movie :-/
The new movie The Furious looks great for that.
John Wick is probably the most popular for sure, continues from the John Woo 90s Hong Kong style origins
Ip Man 1-4 are really good with Donnie Yen in the lead role, #2 is probably my favorite but they are all really good imo
The Night Comes For Us was a big recent release from the last few years & around the same time Triple Threat that would probably be a good double feature, feels like The Raid or Ong Bak earlier Tony Jaa movies in the Indonesian/Thai style that they’ve been developing over the past couple decades
The Ip Man series is really good but a few years old now. For older ones my favorite is The 36th Chamber of Shaolin.
Going the other direction, there are now TWELVE collections of the old Shaw Brothers movies. Arrow has done 4 “ShawScope” box sets, and Shout! Factory has done EIGHT “Shaw Brothers Classics”.
Between the 12 there is ZERO overlap, I checked!
147 MOVIES!
The Gangster The Cop The Devil is a good Korean film. It’s a little more brawly than flashy, but it’s still got several fight scenes that are enjoyable.
Not quite what you are asking for, but The VelociPastor is funnier than it has any right to be, and is a pastiche of 70s martial arts films.
