I started watching Chinese martial arts films about eight years ago when I was dating Badger. The pickings for Hong Kong films in Ottawa for two reasonably inexperienced white kids were pretty slim, but we persevered. Badger had the advantage of being from Toronto, and having watched Asian films late at night on TV, so he started leading me through. The first movie that I remember seeing in its entirety was Dreadnaught, with Yuen Biao. Very Shaw Brothers, it's a little cheesy around the edges but the martial arts are fun. I also recall seeing Shaolin vs Ninja, which has some really neat fight scenes as well, but is a little jingoistic plotwise.
Hanging around with some of Badger's kung fu students helped us both to discover the New Wave of Hong Kong movies, such as Once Upon a Time in China, The Master, Shaolin Temple, and others. We got what we could taped from Taiwanese TV by friends of friends. When I moved to Toronto, armed with a copy of Asian Eye that Badger and I had found by some miracle of chance on a previous visit to Toronto, I discovered Suspect Video and a whole subculture of Chinese film afficionados and included the rest of the Once Upon a Time in China videos, Fong Sai Yuk, and others. Since then, I have found and enjoyed films with Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Brigitte Lin, Anita Mui, and others, along with the films of Tsui Hark, John Woo, and Ronnie Yu.
Asian martial arts movies are some of the wildest and best films around. Far from being the 'chop socky' films that Westerners used to make fun of, they have style, fun, and a complete disregard for reality that can be absolutely addictive. I'll be including lists of my favourites, as well as links to other pages dedicated to the martial arts and martial arts movies. Perhaps, if I can find them, I'll even link to some English online translations of Chinese martial arts novels, which are also a load of fun.
In the meantime, here are some links to some web pages. The worst part of trying to get into watching these films is knowing where to start, and how to find the damn things. I'll be including some links to video stores and such that will help you find what you need.
Here is all sorts of information on actors, filmographies, funky images, and other assorted links.
Because they manage to be cool, completely competent, beautiful and intelligent as they beat the hell out of the bad guys. Hollywood has a hard time letting women do now what these women did on film twenty years ago. More filmographies, funky images, and other assorted links.
As you might have guessed, films organized by director.
What I've managed to view for myself, and some thoughts on what I saw.
It can be quite daunting to start looking for this stuff yourself, especially if you're a girl. Here are some places in Toronto to get started: once you get going, you can meet a lot of really neat people, and learn a lot about the world.