Years ago I saw an a page on TVTropes where some American who grew up watching martial arts movies as a child and he aspired to become a martial artist and stuntsman one day. The page said he eventually accomplished his dream and became so good at action scenes and stunts work that he was able to do a lot of the stuff he saw in the Kung Fu movies he loved watching from childhood....... And it was a gigantic surprise for him to learn so much of the action he saw on TV and films growing up were not really done by the actors themselves but were executed with the assistant of wires and other tricks. It was both a big disappointment and disbelief to learn that for him in the fact of being able to do a lot of the jumpy flipy stuff on his own just by his sheer athleticism and skill.

I wish I can find the exact article but I can't seem to get it no matter how many times I search on TVtropes so you'll just have to take my word for it, That said having finished half of Jet Li's movies and now starting on Jackie Chan, I'm inspired to ask this question just by the fact that while Jet Li used a lo of wires from his 90s stuff, he also did a crap ton of movies whee he was doing all the stunts and fight choreography on his own without any assistance be it from attached wires or stunt doubles or the plethora of other tricks in the movie industry.

Is it easy as 123 doing stunts and fight scenes with wire fu? Like no more difficult than drinking coffee on your comfy couch in the morning before reading the newspaper? Or does it have some challenges? That even movie stars known primarily for their beauty and thus have to use wirework because they aren't conditioned for Wushu such as Lin Qingxia will have to do sometimes preparing themselves physically and rehearsing scenes over and over before filming the actual footage? That Joey Wong couldn't just start filming right away swinging her swords and flying across the sky from building to building and over the sea to land on a nearby ship even though the wires attached to her would ease up the burden so much?

That even people with prior kung fu training such as Michelle Yeoh will have to practise before doing a Wuxia film and stunt professional veteran men will have to specifically learn how to use wires if they never used them before? Why so? I probably got a lot of details wrong but the second paragraph comes from the fact I remember watching videos with Yeo saying she has to get used to moving with the wires and footage of her drilling with wires with a bunch of repeating movements were shown in between the conversation with the person interviewing her. So I'm wondering if wire fu is a skill all by itself that deserves respect and isn't something any run-of-the-mill stuntsmanor martial artist can start using right away for filming?

I feel an extremely strong sense of relief and happiness whenver an armed guy gets defeated, like when Tony Jaa gets stabbed by a goon with a knife in the movie, Tony Jaa gets furious and kills the knife guy with extreme rage.

Whenever I see that, I go like "YES!!!!! TAKE THAT ARMED MAN!!!!!!!!!"

Saw this post.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ludology/comments/jgjey1/do_many_gamers_esp_in_the_west_in_particular/

So it inspired this question.

So I am curious is it the same with China? Not just with China's reputation of martial arts being synonymous with the country's culture and image as the "all Asians know martial arts stereotype" but also in regards to movies. Almost all movies the West gets from China are action movies, primarily martial arts heavy flicks where the good guys take out a horde of machine gun armed thugs with his arms. Or Wuxia flicks with lots of flying, jumping, and swordsmanship.

I am curious on the movie front, does this skewers view of the Chinese movie industry for outsiders especially in the West? I mean having just started exploring Hong Kong cinema, I am surprised at the big amount of soap operas, romance, dramas, and other genres that in total outnumber martial arts heavy flicks. Even many action movies feature far more shooting than unarmed combat in the style of Bruce Lee!

Now specifically in regards to Kung Fu, how common is it for the mainstream Chinese to practise fighting? Specifically the middle class and thugs or troublemakers? Anecdote but a Chinese immigrant I had as a classmate was a big bully However he was a large man (6'1) who primarily lifted weights rather than fighting and in addition he had almost no knowledge of kung fu except executing a hard hitting straight and using generic soccer kicks on people knocked down on the ground. In fact he showed no interest in martial arts at all despite bullying people and beating them up and preferred other activities to strengthen his bullying skills such as playing soccer.

I write this because many people (not just Westerners but I met French people, etc) assume your average mugger or gangbanger in China is a master of Wing Chun or some other style. However knowing a troublemaker irl who didn't give a crap about fighting sports but beat people easily because he was a six footer who became so freakishly strong from weight training is what made me so curious.

Do many Westerners mistakenly associate China too much with kung fu much like Japan is assumed to be an anime/manga and gaming paradise by Western otakus? How much more is there to China beyond martial arts? I mean some of the best Chinese movies and Hong Kong flicks I watched for the past few days were Romance movies and comedies, not Wuxia!

I'm 54, we had cable pretty early so I'm guessing early 80s. This movie seemed to play on repeat on Cinemax or HBO back in the day. The plot was pretty typical, special forces martial arts guy gathering up a team of different style fighters to take on the big bad guy. The one part I vividly remember was one of the characters called "The Fly" who was a badass and could basically levitate. Pleas help.

What martial arts film ends with a scene of a bar, where an asían girl is singing? i want to know the name of the singer amd the song, I knew the name because I used Shazam, but i think the name was in japanese font..the problem.is i don't remwmber the movie, singerartist or song.

Trying to find an old MA movie:
Hero's name: Little Tiger
He has to go through trials of stamina and pain, etc.,
At one point he gets his ass beat by two shirtless bald dudes with fake chest hair holding poles.
Everytim they hit him, they call out what number hit it is:
"The 12th strike!!!" "The 13th strike!" and so on.
Has a female protag that shouts his name a LOT

HELP??

AFAIK a lot of Sino A listers who have a diverse range such as Zhang Ziyi have the career tendency of acting in martial arts and other physically demanding action roles early in their career before focusing on drama, comedy, and other range as they get older into their 30s and beyond. Plenty practically abandoning not just Wuxia and general matial arts but even overall bodily demanding action genre stuff by the time they reach past 40 minus genre specialists and those who already were practising martial arts to a serious degree outside of acting suche as Michelle Yeoh in personal time.

So I find it peculiar that Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia, who was practically the beauty goddess of Sino cinema during her career, went into physically tiresome roles after her 30s (where her most famous internationally known stuff were from this period of her career), and not t just that but basically ended her career with s Wuxia stuff by the time she retired at the age of 40.

I'm curious about the circumstances that led to this trajectory in her career? Especially when she was known primarily for her lovely face first and foremost during her 20s (and in turn was obviously typecasted into romance and drama)? Her most beloved roles now even within the Sino world are her martial arts stuff esp collaborations with Jet Li and Jackie Chan and her final Wuxia roles unlike others like Ziyi who are are associated nowadays with less active genres.

Looking for a movie with this exact phrase:

“You advanced far with the 5 styles of the steel fingers. I want to see all of your force, you must practice constantly if you want to succeed”

I heard it from a lofi track someone mixed and wanted to find the movie associated with it. I have asked the creator of the video but he doesn’t remember what movie.

Taking aside from the setting taking place during the gunpowder era (19th century I think) and widely different chronology of events, teh basic premise feels so similar to Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I feel it can't be a simple coincidence.

Was the movie inspired by Romance of the three kingdoms? Even if it isn't explicitly based by the classic masterpiece, does anyone think its the closest thing we'll ever have to Jet Li starring in a 3 Kingdoms movie adaptation?

Hi guys I had just recently seen the trailers for the impressive catalog of movies that Tiger Style Media has announced. The lockdown in particular interests me because i had just recently seen kickin it and im interested what Leo Howard is up to in terms of actual martial arts stunts instead of soap dramas and mild Zombie shows. Anything ive seen so far has told me that its "coming to digital" near the end of August. Is there a specific website or service that I can look for it? Im curious. Thank you.

Which is the better film series? Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury or Jet Li's Fist of Legend? I just listed them all chronologically for better understanding:

Bruce Lee:

Legend of a Fighter (1982)

Hero Youngster (2004)

Young Heroes of Chaotic Time (2022)

Fist of Fury (1972)

New Fist of Fury (1976)

Fist of Fury 2 (1977)

Fist of Fury 3 (1978)

Fist of Fury 4 (1998)

Jet Li:

Fearless (2006)

Chen Zhen: Tokyo Fight (2019)

Fist of Legend (2019)

Fist of Legend (1994)

Fists of Legends 2: Iron Bodyguards (1996)

Legend of the Fist (2010)

There’s an older movie I remember watching when I was young. All I remember about it is that there’s children as the main characters and that some bad guys set fire to their village, they grow up and learn to train vigorously. There’s one scene where this kid who’s slightly bald is training on top a tall pole. I may be confusing two movies but any help is appreciated!!

Looking for movies that have the same feel as Berry Gordy's The Last Dragon and Ninja III The Domination. Any recommendations would be great, thanks!

Bloodsport’s OST is fucking incredible.

Paul Hertzog deserve a Grammy

I caught the end of this movie with a title so long I could not remember it. The end fight was in a forest with a group of people, I think they fought on a wood platform and I think this woman was tied to a tree. It was a pretty epic fight but I cannot for the life of me, remember the name. I've tried googling martial arts movies with really long titles but that did no good. Its such a vague memory I doubt I'll ever remember it. It was like something something, aka/or something something something something. I was like, I'll never remember that. Should have wrote it down. I think it was on a streaming site like Amazon years ago. Any help is appreciated. I know my description is probably no help. I do remember the main character having to go to some village before the end fight and he talked to someone, I think an older fellow....lol sorry again, and thanks in advance. Even if someone can point me in a direction I would be grateful!

Capoeira - if I spelled right - is probably one of the most spectacular martial art forms. Are there action movies that focuses on it, preferably the main character the one who uses it, and not the villain?

I need help remembering a movie possibly from the 80’s it was a martial arts movie the only scene I remember is a black and white flashback scene of a little boy holding and the ice cream falls an ice cream in front of a larger man possibly martial arts person could possibly be a van fame movie I know this isn’t much to go on hopefully someone can help?