Whether with bare fists, feet and elbows or with swords, nunchucks or other melee weapons, martial arts films have enjoyed great popularity with audiences almost since the dawn of cinema. In the 1970s and 1980s, the genre really took off with stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, eventually spilling over to Europe and Hollywood. But does the motto also apply here that the classics of the genre are considered the best martial arts films of all time? A look at the viewing figures of the FILMSTARTS community shows: No!
TOP 10 MARTIAL ARTS MOVIES BY MOVIE STARTS USERS
- “Kill Bill: Vol. 1” – 4,408 stars out of 5
- “Kill Bill: Vol. 2” – 4,240 out of 5 stars
- The Raid 2 – 4,218 stars out of 5
- “Hero” – 4,146 stars out of 5
- “The Raid” – 4,025 out of 5 stars
- “Ip Man” – 3,991 stars out of 5
- “Tiger & Dragon” – 3,946 out of 5 stars
- “The Karate Kid” – 3,931 stars out of 5
- Ip Man 2 – 3,918 stars out of 5
- “The Man with the Deathclaw” – 3,897 stars out of 5
At the top are “Kill Bill Volume 1” and “Kill Bill Volume 2” two films in which director and screenwriter Quentin Tarantino took a big bow to the classic martial arts cinema of the 1970s and 1980s – but the films were made in the 2000s. And otherwise the list is surprisingly modern:
It is not surprising that the Indonesian martial arts milestones “The Raid” and “The Raid 2” are at the top, as well as the first two installments of the “Ip Man” series with Donnie Yen as Bruce Lee’s teacher. With “Hero” and “Tiger & Dragon” the two most famous (and best) wuxia films are also represented.
Anyway with Bruce Lee’s “The Man with the Deathclaw” aka “Enter The Dragon” at number 10, it goes back to the beginning of the genre, and in a sense also with “The Karate Kid”. After all, the movie starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita was made in 1984 – but it’s clearly still very popular.
Finally, a few notes on the list: According to the official figures of IVW, FILMSTARTS is the German-language site with the largest reach for films and series for the whole of 2022. The above list is based on the viewing figures of our community, which includes countless die-hard film fans and occasional moviegoers, and can therefore be considered as representative of the German public.
All users can give ratings between 0.5 (bad) and 5 stars (masterpiece), just like the FILMSTARTS editors do with their reviews. The resulting average ratings are rounded up to the third decimal place.