Martial arts cinema is one of the most-internationally-influential film traditions of the past sixty years. The Hong Kong action industry of the 1970s through the 1990s produced a tradition of fight choreography that has shaped almost every subsequent action film globally. See our martial arts genre page for the broader tradition; this list focuses on the canonical individual films.
Our picks of the form's strongest individual entries.
The Bruce Lee era
- Enter the Dragon (1973) — Robert Clouse. Lee's final completed film.
- Fist of Fury (1972) — Lo Wei. Lee's breakthrough lead.
- Way of the Dragon (1972) — Bruce Lee (directing). The Colosseum fight with Chuck Norris.
The Jackie Chan era
- Drunken Master (1978) — Yuen Woo-ping. Chan's breakthrough.
- Police Story (1985) — Chan (directing). The shopping-mall finale.
- Drunken Master II (1994) — Lau Kar-leung. Late-period Chan peak.
The wuxia tradition
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) — Ang Lee. The international commercial breakthrough.
- Hero (2002) — Zhang Yimou. Visually most-ambitious.
- House of Flying Daggers (2004) — Zhang Yimou again.
- The Grandmaster (2013) — Wong Kar-wai. The Ip Man biographical drama.
The contemporary martial-arts action
- Ip Man (2008) — Wilson Yip. Donnie Yen.
- The Raid: Redemption (2011) — Gareth Evans. Indonesian apartment-building extraction.
- The Raid 2 (2014) — Evans again. Extended scope.
- Ong-Bak (2003) — Prachya Pinkaew. Tony Jaa's breakthrough.
The American absorption