7 Heaviest Martial Arts Movies of All Time

As is the case for many genres, it can be nice to watch a martial arts movie that offers some kind of escapist value, or otherwise just focuses on entertainment above doing much that’s emotionally or thematically challenging. You’ve got something like Police Story, for example, which is pretty clear-cut over who the good and bad guys are, and then you can probably say the same for Kill Bill: Vol. 1. There is a bit more complexity added to that whole saga of revenge in Vol. 2, but not to the extent that it starts feeling heavy or actually depressing; nothing like that.

There are martial arts movies that do push things a bit more in that kind of direction, though. Below are some of the heaviest martial arts movies ever made, so it’s safe to say that they all fit into such a category. Some of the ones below are still entertaining in parts, or perhaps not 100% depressing from start to finish, but they all have at least some heavy-going moments. Also, samurai movies will be counted as martial arts films below, as opposed to just kung fu movies (with kung fu and samurai being sub-genres within the broader category of martial arts cinema).

7

‘The Night Comes for Us’ (2018)

If The Night Comes for Us wasn’t quite so extravagantly violent, it probably wouldn’t feel too out of the ordinary, in terms of darkness and overall heaviness. Like, there is still a downbeat streak throughout the movie, and a sense of cynicism or maybe even outright nihilism, but the violence here – which feels straight out of a particularly vicious slasher film – is staggering. Anything bad that could happen to a human body in a hand-to-hand fight scene probably does happen here, at some point, throughout The Night Comes for Us.

But so long as you’re okay with intense violence, it’s very much worth watching, and also stands out for being the closest thing the world will likely ever get to another movie in The Raid series (call it The Raid 2.5, if you want, since a handful of recognizable faces from those films show up in prominent roles here). There are comparatively good and evil characters that populate this world, and the narrative is handled a little messily, which does reduce how much you’re actually likely to feel despair at the whole thing, but still, it’s pretty dark. And the decent level of darkness does get added to considerably by that over-the-top bloodshed.

6

‘Pedicab Driver’ (1989)

Image via Bojon Films

This is a bold and maybe even foolish pick to put here, because Pedicab Driver is pretty comedic and even kind of goofy at points, as far as martial arts movies go. Calling the tone chaotic feels fair, though, because when it wants to, Pedicab Driver does dip into tragedy. There are highs with the silliness and action scenes, and then emotional lows when bad things happen more or less out of nowhere.

Here, the contrast is what has allowed Pedicab Driver to sneak onto this ranking, with the silly stuff making it so you’re particularly disarmed and surprised when the tone decides to shift. It works to a greater extent than it doesn’t, and even if you find all that tonal chaos too messy, there are, at the very least, some absolutely phenomenal fight sequences placed throughout the film, with the particularly great scenes here being an amazing showcase for Sammo Hung, who’s pretty much at his very best, as far as his starring roles are concerned.

5

‘Lady Snowblood’ (1973)

Image via Toho

In Lady Snowblood, you get the story of a woman who exists as an instrument of revenge, and that’s about it. Most of those people who would’ve loved and cared for her are dead before she’s even born, and her mother only hangs on to life so she can give birth, and then prepare for her child to avenge the dead members of the family that child will never know. She learns how to slice people up with a samurai sword, becomes permanently emotionally distant, and then goes about seeking vengeance once she’s old enough.

That’s basically the movie, and it is pretty action-packed, but that sense of despair and emotional emptiness does also prove pervasive throughout, keeping Lady Snowblood, very intentionally, from being “just” an action movie. Revenge is something that can be carried out with some style here, but it’s also not really fulfilling or a good thing beyond that style. Lady Snowblood balances these two sides without feeling too tonally chaotic, which does set it aside from something like (the still overall quite good) Pedicab Driver.

4

‘Fist of Fury’ (1972)

Image via Golden Harvest

The best Bruce Lee movie remains Enter the Dragon, if you want something that’s well-balanced, approachable, and pretty much always entertaining, but you really can’t go wrong with any of the four movies he starred in and completed during his lifetime. You also can’t go wrong with the scenes toward the end of Game of Death that he was actually featured in, though you can very much go wrong with the scenes they shot after his passing, trying to stitch the whole sloppy thing together without Lee there as the glue to hold it all in place.

As for the darkest of all the Bruce Lee movies, it’s probably Fist of Fury, which sees Lee playing perhaps his most ferocious character, and the one placed in the most intense situation overall. The villains here feel particularly vicious, and Lee’s character just snaps at a point, and feels more like an anti-hero overall, rather than an outright heroic character. He’s still more in the right than his opponents, but he is part of a whole cycle of violence and vengeance that feels quite downbeat, in the end, when you step back and look at the whole thing. Seeing Bruce Lee (eventually) doing his thing in some fight scenes is still entertaining, albeit it’s a little grimmer here than what you might be used to seeing, if you’re more familiar with his other three starring roles.

3

‘The Sword of Doom’ (1966)

Image via Toho

Like Lady Snowblood, The Sword of Doom is a samurai movie that’s great, and also greatly miserable. Honestly, to an even stronger extent, regarding the misery, than Lady Snowblood. There is indeed plenty of doom and despair here, with The Sword of Doom being about a man with no morals undertaking a series of violent tasks, with his sanity slipping with each new act of violence he commits. Actually, that’s assuming there was any sanity in the first place.

It’s probably more accurate to say that he starts evil, and then just gets more evil the longer things go on. There’s no sense of him being any kind of anti-hero, at any point, since he’d have to have at least one redeeming quality to be labeled as such. The Sword of Doom still manages to be compelling and rather interesting, even with such a straightforward monster of a character at its center, or maybe it’s compelling and interesting because there’s a monster at its center. Either way, it’s bold and honestly pretty hard to shake/forget.

2

‘Vengeance!’ (1970)

Image via Shaw Brothers

You know what you’re in for, with a movie called Vengeance! It could well be one of the best-titled movies ever, and it earns the right to have an exclamation point right there, at the end, more than just about any other movie title out there, from cinema history. A young man is killed, and then that young man’s brother wants vengeance. No, sorry. He wants vengeance! And he gets vengeance(!) in some exceptionally bloody ways, making a whole big mess of things to a greater extent than was probably necessary, ultimately doing a lot to ruin his life, and the lives of those he comes into contact with.

It doesn’t take long to get going, and then it scarcely seems interested in ever slowing down once it is off and running. The result is a movie that, potentially, should’ve had more exclamation marks added to the end of its title, because it feels like a movie about Vengeance!!!!! by the time the final act rolls around, and things are just getting bloodier and messier. If you’re a fan of old-school martial arts movies and have not seen this one yet, for any reason, that should be remedied as soon as possible.

1

‘Harakiri’ (1962)

Image via Shochiku

Harakiri only just squeaks by as a martial arts movie, since it does revolve around samurai, and there is at least one duel sequence and a larger-scale fight scene found near the movie’s end. Outlining the context of either would be a spoiler, since most of Harakiri is focused on being a drama, with a series of flashbacks outlining a man’s tragic life, and all of those sequences explain why he’s chosen to commit the titular act.

That does get outlined pretty early on, so you’re aware you’re in for something heavy and probably not too action-packed, with the misery of Harakiri intensifying the more the man speaks, and the more you learn about his past. It’s a very compelling film, if you’re okay with not being entertained so much in the traditional (or escapist) sense, and if you are willing to classify it as a martial arts or samurai movie of sorts, then it’s probably about as heavy-going as either sort of film could possibly get.

Harakiri

Release Date

September 15, 1962

Runtime

133 Minutes

• 

  Tatsuya Nakadai

  Hanshiro Tsugumo

• 

  Akira Ishihama

  Motome Chijiiwa

• 

  Shima Iwashita

  Miho Tsugumo

• 

  Tetsurô Tanba

  Hikokuro Omodaka