Donnie Yen

A homicidal martial artist, a kung fu killer if you will, is on the loose challenging the best fighters in their discipline (boxing, kicking, weapons, etc.) to prove he alone is the greatest fighter on the planet. Hahou Mo, played by the phenomenal martial arts actor Donnie Yen (whose Yuen Wu Ping collaboration, Iron Monkey, is among the greatest in kung fu cinema), is serving a prison sentence for losing his control and killing a man, and just so happens to hold the title of the greatest fighter on the planet. Upon learning of the crimes, he offers his expertise to catch the madman before he kills again.

Considered the world’s largest genre film festival and running over three weeks long, Fantasia is celebrating it’s 19th edition this year and the lineup is pretty incredible. This year’s fest runs July 14 through August 4 and will see over 130 feature films including more than 20 world premieres. Legendary filmmaker Sion Sono is delivering …

Deadline reported Monday night that The Weinstein Company has sealed a deal to release Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, the sequel to Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated martial arts masterpiece, via Netflix, making it the popular streaming service’s first ever exclusive feature film. This is huge news for a company already in the midst of …

There’s absolutely nothing to complain about when Donnie Yen’s ‘Special ID’ takes up the kicking and the shooting, but this film is a tough slog in between.

Welcome to Fistful of Film Fury, Sound on Sight’s new regular column exploring the world of martial arts film (The term world is taken seriously in this case, as shall be demonstrated in the weeks and months to come.). Fighting movies have been one of the most sought-after genres since the 1970s. The expansion of its popularity came in the aforementioned decade and was in large part due to the jaw-dropping output from the Shaw Brothers Studios in its heyday.

  Ip Man Directed by Wilson Yip Written by Edmond Wong and Chan Tai-Li Hong Kong, 2008 In this biopic, Donnie Yen is Ip Man, one of the earliest Wing Chun martial arts exponents and the man credited to have elevated its popularity in the early parts of the 20th century. Best known for his …

One of the strengths of the film is that both men are right and both men are wrong. Lu’s vision of the law stripped of compassion is a law that is also vulnerable to corruption as judges use the letter of the law to line their pockets rather than represent justice. Liu’s belief that he can literally remake himself as a better man ignores the addictive nature of violence. (When Liu begins to fight the robbers, he can’t stop himself from killing them – instead of subduing them – any more than a drunk can have one shot from a bottle and stop there.)

Dragon aka Wu Xia aka The Swordsmen Written by Oi Wah Lam Directed by Peter Chan 2011 Hong Kong/China Fantasia imdb In a strange way, Dragon is a perfect companion film for the Shaw Brothers classic The Fists of the White Lotus that Fantasia presented this year. (Expect Edgar Chaput to review that film as part of his Shaw Brothers Saturday series soon.) Both films are about the never-ending cycle …

It is that time of year again. Mid-to-late July means two things if one is a film fan either living or visiting the city of Montréal. The blockbuster season is in full swing, although that can be applied to just about any city in the universe, and the Fantasia film festival is mere days away. …

Not long ago, Sound on Sight’s editor Ricky D emailed myself and fellow contributor Michael Ryan for the purpose of compiling some of our individual favourite martial arts pictures to celebrate The Raid‘s theatrical release across North American this Easter weekend. I would never consider myself to be a scholar of the genre, but it …

The release of The Raid: Redemption has made us revisit our favourite martial arts flicks and pick five favourite films to suggest for Sound on Sight readers. Before I give my five picks though, I would like to turn the floor over to a man who has been a friend of mine since grade seven at Oxford …