Daemon (Level 48)

Despite a blow up between fight choreographer (and all around best martial artist to ever exist) Lau Kar Leung and Jackie Chan this movie turned out absolutely brilliant with a decent story and some of the best martial arts fights you'll ever see. A good mix of skillfully grounded realistic fighting (Lau Kar Leung) and comically physics-defying stunts (Jackie Chan) that never quite goes too far over the top.

A great film with some truly great modern fights. Being a fan of MMA Donnie Yen decided to meld in typical MMA style moves with his own to create a truly compelling hybrid. There was also a lot of improved moves being done during the fights so they often changed them on the fly to make them feel a bit more realistic.

Lau Kar Leung films tend to have more technical fighting in them that despite their more realistic presentation is purely from the old school style of showcasing a particular technique. But despite his high level of ability he doesn't like to use martial arts in film merely as a means to showcase fighting skill. But rather uses them to develop and expand the characters while they are fighting as a way to gain knowledge. My Young Auntie is chock full of these examples but one of my favorites is close to the end when the students and the masters are using each other to gain great knowledge while avoiding a vicious beatdown.

Dragons Forever is that rarity in Chinese martial arts films in that it's actually quite funny while at the same time having some great kung fu. Although the end fight of "Wheels on Meals' is generally touted as the best Jackie fight ever, I've always enjoyed this reunion between Jackie and Benny Urquidez as it is prefaced by some truly excellent footwork by Yuen Biao. Let me tell you something...Yuen Biao is the supreme master of Flipology! There is none better!

The '80s Hong Kong "B" movie territory could be a pretty brutal place and two of the dirtiest fighters in the business were two women by the name of Moon Lee and Yukari Oshima. Their conflicts with each other tended to shed a lot of blood and generally was only resolved by one of them dying. Angel contains a personal favorite fight of mine which although all too brief, is amazing in its ability to ramp up the violence so quickly. Watch as Yukari Oshima totally ruins Moon Lee's friend with an horribly vicious choke flip.

A tragic film in which a superior fighter from the country tries to clean up the gangs and ends up corrupted himself. A truly stunning end fight that, although not technical or stylistic, is amazing just for its sheer unworldly brutality as the protagonist is mortally wounded and yet succeeds in killing an entire room full of people. It's a long clip that I had to attach two bloody videos just so you could watch it, but despite what you might think just keep telling yourself -- "he's going to kill everyone in the room". You might think he's going to die -- many times in fact -- but no he will keep going until everyone is DEAD!

An excellent film that's only hampered by being tonally uneven at times, it really delivers the goods by some truly great fight choreography from Sammo Hung and some great performances by Yuen Biao and the late Lam Ching Ying. Although the end fight is rather stellar, the short but sweet fight between Lam Ching Ying and Frankie Chan is my favorite gem from this film.

Ahhhh we're back to the dirty '80s with Michelle Yeoh's first leading role. Although fairly cheesy, this film is has those typical early Hong Kong action film moments in which you'll find yourself often wondering..."did that stuntman just die?". Yeoh is teamed up with Cynthia Rothrock and if you've only seen Rothrock's U.S. action films then you're in for something of a surprise as you'll get to see what she can do with a good choreographer. Watch her do the splits going backwards up against a wall!