I consider myself to be mildly obsessed with fights on film, and while I do get sketched out when people on different forums discuss them almost pornographically (I go to a forum where overtly enthusiastic stunt guys debate each other about punches and kicks like we do about water and vodka), I'd very much like to start a thread where people can share their favorite action sequences via youtube. nothing too obvious, I'm hoping, but whatever floats your boat, post them here. I'm sure one day when you're bored at work you'll appreciate the founding of this thread. maybe some good or weird discussions can even come out of it?
a scene from my young auntie. (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ktXnV53beKI)
Lau Kar-Leung is Gordon Liu's brother. He's quite a virtuoso, combining precise camera work with his unique choreography. His choreography has a lot of finesse, always focuses on the minute details in a fight. He also favors a good exchange over big theatrics, but his fights are really fun to watch nonetheless.
mark of zorro (http://youtube.com/watch?v=3VTyPWvyAF8)
don't know much about this one, but the fencing's spectacular.
This is actually a request. I don't know the title of the movie but it's a Taiwanese martial arts movie (or that's how it was described to me by one of the guys I was watching it with), and the story is that the lead's elephant was stolen so the whole movie he's trying to get his treasured elephant back. The fight I'm trying to find takes place in a several-story high hotel and it's a continuous tracking shot up a spiral ramp that scales the inside of the building, behind the lead as he kicks everyone's ass. It's a sweet fight but I can't find anything about the movie now. C'mon pete you hafta know this one, right?
That has to be The Protector with Tony Jaa, right pete?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K06wDn3XsZE
I didn't like The Protector as much as Ong-bak, but that sequence is nonetheless great. Tony Jaa is the man.
Maybe this thread could also have great parkour sequences, or is there already a thread about it?
Also, is it limited to film fights? There is one video of some teen jerk who hits not only guys but girls too out of the blue, as he leaves the place he is knocked out by some guy in what I call sweet fucking justice.
Hey Pete, nice idea.
One of my favourites is the fight scene in Grosse Point Bank. I think I read somewhere that the guy who plays Felix LaPoubelle (Cusacks assassin) is a well-thought-of martial arts expert/choreographer. For a film that played on Martin Blank's indifference to his career as a professional killer, it is a sudden jolt of violence that serves the film well. I liked how abruptly it begins and ends and how un-choreographed it feels. The blows are rough around the edges but each is executed with deadly intention.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jD1peY-aiZw
Quote from: Fernando on February 14, 2008, 12:11:04 PM
That has to be The Protector with Tony Jaa, right pete?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=K06wDn3XsZE
I didn't like The Protector as much as Ong-bak, but that sequence is nonetheless great. Tony Jaa is the man.
That's it! Goddamn is that a good fight.
shit I typed up stuff that got lost. here are the links:
benny the jet urquidez from gross pointe blank:
wheels on meals (http://youtube.com/watch?v=zhXwPQU1iNo)
intense shootout from French movie Dobermann (http://youtube.com/watch?v=zhXwPQU1iNo) starring Vincent Cassel and Monica Belluci as his deaf mute girlfriend.
an recent Korean film, city of violence (http://youtube.com/watch?v=AL1RfI5cmBk), featuring some beautiful moves and brutality. it's kinda like kill bill without the fetish.
jet li doing his thang from back in the days:
fist of legend, (http://youtube.com/watch?v=LpvuCbrJ_JI) badly dubbed.
Donnie Yen, the anti-Jet Li, doing mixed martial arts:
Flash Point. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urGKf6N7Tmc)
I only know obvious fight scenes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqKFadyJxwg
They Live. The longest, most outrageously quotidian fight scene I've ever seen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeRhAfxxcdU
These first two I don't think are what Pete means, but here also is The Black Knight fight in The Holy Grail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixcurXpt2GY
The first modern fight scene that made a signficant impression on me was that killer hallway fight in Oldboy. Still love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKrqHfSgfdI (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKrqHfSgfdI)
-Lady T
my parents are in town so I'm in relatives' house, alone and awake.
some best worst fights. profoundly and awesomely bad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tiBGOEoVM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jj1hBxyw2pw
seagal when he was badass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMu2xNBpyQc
kinda profoundly insane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrKLaUyrks0
and this, eastern condor, directed by and starring a slightly more slim sammo hung:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kHLKhpjDsZg
I thought Pete and maybe some others might appreciate this, if they haven't read it already:
http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/?p=3208
It's David Bordwell talking (characteristically) briefly but in quite some detail about ways of filming fight sequences. If there's a better thread to post it in, please feel free.
city of violence is a great movie. yuen kwai though, is the weakest of all of the choreographers. he was pretty young in Jackie Chan's troupe, and kept up with the big-timers through insane stunts in the 80s but mostly have fallen sideways until the late 90s when Jet Li brought him in for Lethal Weapon 4.
That felt like a few paragraphs that ended up simply stating "in Asia, the action is more coherent, for more info, buy my book." Fuck that, man. The filmmakers behind The City of Violence have talked about their films and influences much more comprehensively in the Dragon Dynasty DVD - there are quite a few featurettes that discuss the filmmaking aspect of the fights. One of the choreographers in the film, Gene (forgot his last name) came to train with my stunt troupe a few years ago, that dude is sharp.
but the tradition did not originate in hong kong - it was very similar to stuff by douglas fairbanks and errol flynn - and even Buster Keaton. Those old films showcased graceful and expressionistic fights that were akin to ballet and acrobatics. Hong Kong took their own theatrical roots and expanded on those. Bordwell's assertion that most of these choreographers were martial arts was a false one - most of them were acrobats in performance troupes. They borrowed the theatrical vocabulary and rhythm and expanded on it. The pause burst pause tradition really was more Japanese. Tarantino talked a bit about that - how older Hong Kong films borrowed heavily from Japanese movies, and Chang Cheh in the late 60s created his own style that had more Chinese roots.
but ultimately what it comes down to is talent amongst the stunt coordinators and second-unit directors - some of them will just understand what looks cool better than the others. the two guys who edited the last bond movie just had no idea - they were not well-versed in action, and thought they could make everything visceral through vertigo (and, as a victim of chornic vertigo, I can assure you that things aren't cooler in my world). frank miller and robert rodriguez did something way more minimal in sin city that was still more "impressionistic" or whatever Bordwell said, but they were much less hesitant to showcase the moves. a director unsure of how to capture the action will most likely freak out in post, and that's what's been happening. redbelt, despite the tight shots from long lenses, didn't freak out.
oh so while we are reviving threads
or are we?
fuck it.
I just saw a bunch of great fights in movies last night.
from korea mostly
south korea is really good at stylizing fight sequences where they still feel like fights - ie they're still clumsy and awkward, but also spectacular:
a high school brawl:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y06TSGZqGw
man from nowhere, Korea's "Taken" - some insanely imagined and well-choreographed knife fight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=736_SwUoomY&feature=related
bittersweet life - a guy fights his way out of a warehouse - I don't know how to describe the fight, but it's quite different from how it's usually done
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7J1VWf06EY
there should be some real fights in here, nothin like a good youtube fight.