Japan started producing samurai movies in the 50s and 60s. Akira Kurosawa directed quite a few early classics, each one considered not only a great samurai movie, but great movies period.
In the late 60s and 70s, samurai movies took kicked it up a notch to compete with Chinese kung-fu movies. (More about them later...)
This plus Godzilla, somehow, lead to this...
Anyhoo, back to reality.
Chinese and Japanese relations have, historically, been strained. Bruce Lee's film The Chinese Connection is about a Chinese martial arts school that must defend its honor against its Japanese rivals.
Recently, a film entitled Ip Man explored the same teritory. It is the 'real life' story of Bruce Lee's real life instructor.
Here are some of the Chinese 'kung fu' classics:
Maybe one of the most ground breaking kung fu movies was Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.
Of course, over the years there have been some pretty terrible martial arts movies that have diminished the grandeur of the genre:
One more thing... Thailand has martial arts movies, too. This next fight scene is one take. It's from a movie entitled The Protector.
Also - here's one more scene from Crouching Tiger...
And also also, martial arts films have influenced nearly every aspect of Western action film making...
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