Kung fu movies remain a beloved favorite for genre fans who love everything from martial arts epics to action-adventure films and even comedies. However, it isn’t the easiest genre for mainstream fans to find interest in, as it is very niche and isn’t always open to general audiences. However, there are out-liners in the genre.
When it comes to bringing kung fu movies to non-genre fans, there are some great options available in other forms. There are some great action movies based in the world of sci-fi and even superhero movies that dabble in the kung fu style of filmmaking. There are also comedies and award-winning films to introduce fans to the love of kung fu fighting.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2021)
In 2022, Daniel Wwan and Daniel Scheinert directed the Oscar-winning absurdist comedy-drama Everything Everywhere All at Once, which remains one of the most successful A-24 movies ever released. The movie is a comedy-drama, but it has a strong mix of kung fu action along the way.
Michelle Yeoh is Evelyn, a laundromat owner who is dissatisfied with her life and believes she has missed out on a bigger, better life. When she gets the chance to travel the multiverse and see other Evelyn variants, she realizes her life was what she needed, but she realizes it might be too late as a great evil closes in on her.
It sounds like a superhero movie, and it kind of it, but set in the world of kung-fu fighting, and a little mysticism. However, this is a story about a mother and wife who needs to find herself before she loses everything. It won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director as well as for the incredible cast.
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
When thinking of kung fu movies, not many people consider a film with Kurt Russell in the lead role to fit that description. However, that is exactly what Big Trouble in Little China is. Directed by John Carpenter, the movie stars Russell as Jack Burton, a truck driver who goes to help his friend rescue his abducted fiancée.
As the title suggests, the story takes place in San Francisco’s Chinatown district. They work for an ancient sorcerer who needs a “green-eyed woman” to marry him to lift a centuries-old curse. Russell wasn’t involved with kung fu much, and mostly used weapons, but Dennis Dun delivers some great fighting action as Wang Chi.
The movie was a flop, as were most of John Carpenter’s releases in the 1980s, but like most of his films, it went on to become a massive cult favorite and remains a fun, comedic action movie to this day.
Monkey Man (2024)
Monkey Man is a more traditional kung fu action movie, but it has just enough of a quirky structure that it works well even for fans unfamiliar with the genre. This was Dec Patels’s (Slumdog Millionaire) directorial debut, and he also starred in the film as “Kid,” a young man seeking vengeance for his mother’s death.
The Kid’s mother was killed when he was a child, and he worked and trained at an underground fight club for years, waiting for the time to get his revenge against the corrupt police chief who murdered his mother and burned her after the fact. He then wears a monkey mask to hide his identity and sets a trap.
Having the revenge for his mother’s death made this a story that was easy to get behind, even for non-fans of kung fu movies. Monkey Man received critical acclaim and was a box office success, and remains a fun martial arts action thriller.
Kung Fu Hustle (2004)
Kung Fu Hustle is a movie that fans of absurdist satire would love, and it takes its kung fu inspirations seriously. Stephen Chow directed the movie, and he has become a master of kung fu comedy, also directing the sports movie Shaolin Soccer. However, with this film, he took it to the extreme.
The film focuses on people who live in a village that is tormented by a local murderous neighborhood gang. When the gang comes in to extort the people living in the slums, three people fight back, and all three are kung fu masters. However, when the Landlady evicts them for fighting, a new hero has to arrive.
The movie not only owes its existence to the kung fu genre, but it also owes a lot to Looney Tunes cartoons, and the mixture of the two makes for one of the most entertaining kung fu comedy movies that anyone can enjoy.
Hero (2002)
Hero was released in 2002 and offered up a brilliant kung fu movie during the height of the wuxia craze. The movie stars Jet Li as an unnamed warrior involved in a planned assassination attempt of Ying Zheng, who will become the first China emperor, Qin Shihuang.
The warrior explains the story of what led to this moment and the assassins involved in the plot. The film uses the wuxia techniques of taking incredibly choreographed fight scenes and combining them with impossible, almost mystical fighting techniques. What resulted was a colorful and engrossing tale.
Hero ended up taking the crown as the first Chinese-language movie to ever hit number one at the American box office. While Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon got all the publicity, Hero is a film that everyone can enjoy, kung fu movie fan or not.
Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings (2021)
While it is a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a wonderful kung fu movie as well. The film is a pure MCU movie, and it even has a post-credit scene that connects Shang-Chi to the overall Marvel Universe, but that shouldn’t take away from this film’s kung fu action.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and with a predominantly Asian film crew, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings delivers perfect kung fu action with an emphasis on its respect for Asian filmmaking, casting, and fight choreography. Simu Liu was also fantastic as the latest MCU hero.
While the MCU has received criticism for its post-Endgame movies, Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings delivers something that placed it above many of its contemporaries. This is one of the best latter-day MCU movies and a pitch-perfect kung fu epic.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The movie that really brought kung fu to the masses arrived in 2000 with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Ang Lee directed this epic, which popularized Wuxia martial arts choreography for American movie fans. This was fantasy-style fighting, as they fought across tree tops and over the water.
If it wasn’t for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, wuxia movies like Hero and House of Flying Daggers never would have gotten their American releases. Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen led the cast, and this allowed the fight choreography to remain great.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon picked up 10 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Its only wins came for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as for its art direction, cinematography, and score.
Kill Bill (2003-2004)
If there is one American filmmaker who has a great love for kung fu movies, it is Quentin Tarantino. He worked as a video store clerk, and spent all his time watching movies there, including kung fu movies, exploitation flicks, and low-budget action movies. He combined attributes from all those genres into Kill Bill.
Kill Bill stars Uma Thurman as The Bride, a woman who was attacked at her wedding, her entire wedding party murdered, and she, herself, shot and left for dead. However, she recovers and sets out for revenge against her former mafia boss, Bill, and the people he sent to massacre her wedding party.
This was one of Tarantino’s most popular movies after his breakout in Pulp Fiction, and Kill Bill remains a kung fu movie that everyone can love, as long as violence is not a drawback.
The Raid (2011)
In 2011, Gareth Evans directed the high-octane action movie The Raid, and it was a massive hit, and remains one of the best action films of the 21st century. What really makes this movie stand out as a kung fu movie for all fans is the fact that it is nothing but non-stop action, with escalating threats from start to finish.
The film has a simple story. A group of MBC officers are sent to a high-rise apartment block to arrest a crime lord who lives on the top floor. However, this crime lord runs the block and criminals who work for him live on the lower floors. The only way up is the stairs, and the officers face threats every story of the building.
It is almost like a video game, with each floor offering new threats and new bosses, and the choreography in the closed quarter hallways is some of the best in the genre.
The Matrix (1999)
If there is one kung fu movie that everyone can love, no matter what genre they prefer, it is the first Matrix movie. This is a sci-fi action movie about a world where computers are now running everything and humans live in a virtual reality world where their actual bodies serve as batteries for the machines.
However, there are two different areas where this plays out as a perfect kung fu action movie. There is the gun fu action scenes with the Wachowskis Bullet Time effects. However, there is also the basic kung fu action schemes, with Keanu Reeves masterful in his training and execution of the choreography.