Oriental action games are, first of all, movies with a demonstration of various martial arts. Most often, this is a successful combination of many martial arts - kung fu, taekwondo, karate and other others. The best oriental fighters are interesting not in the plot action, but in combat choreography. This publication contains a far from complete list of Asian action films that deserve audience attention. But the listed projects are recommended for viewing to fans of action movies without fail.
Remake as a challenge
A list of eastern militants opens with a remake of the cult film of the same name in 1963, the film "13 Assassins" by Takashi Miike, familiar to fans of Japanese cinema. The director was not afraid to incur the anger of the fans of the genre, opaque hinting in his work on the legendary "Seven Samurai" (1954). The director does not at all imitate Akira Kurosawa, does not ridicule the humanistic pathos of his unforgettable work, but provokes the eminent compatriot into a creative dispute. The value of the picture, like many other oriental action films, is not hidden in the plot, or even in the central characters. The “13 assassins” have other strong components - naturalism, first of all, in the bloody details of fights and honed movements of the sword, and secondly, in the realistically transmitted “face of time”.
Role model
The action "Oldboy" produced by South Korea was created by director Pak Chan Uk in 2003. In 2013, a Hollywood remake of the picture was released, which was significantly inferior to the original tape in many respects. The South Korean film was as if carved from a single monolith. Its advantages include an inspirational soundtrack, a dynamic, pulsating rhythm of narration, innovative, unexpected combat choreography and the ingenious Min Sik Tsoi as the lead actor. This is one of the toughest and bloodiest oriental fighters, because in the climax episode the central character goes against a crowd of enemies with one hammer and remains the only one who leaves the battlefield for his two.
The first of the trilogy
At the beginning of the 21st century, Thailand managed to get out of the shadow of other Asian film industries and set about producing world-class action films. The key person in this process was the director Prachia Pinkayu, who presented the film “Ong Bak” to the court of cinema community. The story of the tape is based on the story of a provincial martial artist who arrived in Bangkok with the aim of returning a shrine stolen from his native village - an ancient Buddha statue. The project captivated viewers around the world with exceptionally violent combat episodes that were shot without technical tricks and computer drawings. Asian fighters use martial arts in the vast majority, without resorting to all kinds of tricks and achievements of science and technology. This is what they differ from Hollywood. The picture brought fame to the leading actor Tony Ja, who performed all the tricks on his own, thanks to his skill and courage. Currently, the original picture of 2003 has two sequels.
From hong kong
The film “Police Story” is the favorite brainchild of the legendary Hong Kong Jackie Chan, who appeared on the project as a director, co-author of the script and leading actor. The Hollywood version of the picture is 88 minutes, the original Hong Kong version is 101 minutes, it exceeds the Japanese version 106, the British one, based on the American, is naturally shorter. The project was created after Chan's unsuccessful attempt to conquer Hollywood, so the dejected performer threw out all his stunt skills, courage and staged inventiveness in the tape. The plot of the film, in which the police inspector confronts numerous gangs, is not so important. For Jackie, battle scenes were in the foreground, a story developed around them.
Listing the eastern fighters, you can not forget about the cult Hong Kong film "Cool Cooked." Contrary to national cinematic traditions, film director John Wu dedicated his work not to demonstrating hand-to-hand fighting, but to spectacular explosions and dashing skirmishes. Thus, the director raised the bar of modern action, the tape became a model for the creators of genre films. The protagonists of the action movie are the brave cops confronting the gangs of Hong Kong. The star of the picture, Chow Yun-Fat, after several more times played with Wu in the films "Assassins" and "Bright Future". But he moved away from the image of a kung fu fighter after the epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." A new generation of viewers knows the actor as the baron of pirates Xiao Feng in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End".
Epic movie
Often, militants about martial arts rent movie studios in several countries, they receive the status of international projects of joint production. One of these films is the action game “Fearless”, created by the efforts of filmmakers from China and Hong Kong. Deservedly famous master of screen fights, Jet Lee initially suggested that “Fearless” would be his last work, so he tried to leave the genre on a high note. The epic martial arts film directed by Ronnie Yu is based on real events, tells the story of Ho Yuanjia, who defeated Western fighters with ease and advised the Chinese to believe in themselves even in the most difficult times. Naturally, the film mythologized Ho, turning him into an invincible super warrior that can defeat any opponent.
The fruit of co-production
In 2011, the world hire blew up a joint production tape of Indonesia, the USA and France under the name "Raid", by the way, the original name of the project translated from Malay means "Death Raid". This film does not fully fit into the category of "eastern fighters", but given the fact that the world community has recognized the best action of the decade, it cannot be ignored. The picture was directed by the Welsh director Gareth Evans, but the whole crew was Indonesian. At the center of the story is a special squad of police trying to storm a high-rise building in the slums of Jakarta. A gang of drug dealers literally turned a skyscraper into a fortress, it is extremely difficult to get into it, but it is even more difficult to get out of it. Special forces have to fight to the death with a superior enemy. The entire ensemble of actors possessed the necessary skills of hand-to-hand combat, for example, Yayan Rukhyan, who reincarnated as "Mad Dog", previously served in the secret service of Indonesia as a hand-to-hand instructor.
The listed films are an excellent selection for an exciting pastime. Depending on personal preferences, each fan of the genre can supplement or adjust the proposed list.