Daxtreme

#35 Tony Jaa vs Jing Wu vs The Prison | feat. Jin Zhang SPL: Kill Zone 2 (2015) Hong Kong (Cantonese & Thai) Directed by: Pou-Soi Cheang Fight Choreography: Chung Chi Li, Ken Lo, Jack Wai-Leung Wong Starring: Tony Jaa, Jing Wu, Simon Yam, Jin Zhang Worldwide Box office - $90,270,000M ($11,998 domestic!) Synopsis: While undercover officer Kit is taken prisoner by the syndicate, he befriends his keeper and discovers an organ trafficking ring. My rating for this movie: ★★½ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★½ SPL 2 is a mostly forgettable action movie except for one great sequence. Its main stars (Jing Wu and Tony Jaa) both have better roles in other movies. You might know Jing Wu from his huge box office hit in China Wolf Warrior 2 (2016), which he directed and starred in. It's also Tony Jaa's first appearance in this top, following fellow female Thai martial artist JeeJa Yanin, who basically learned martial arts because of him. Can you guess which other movies of his will make it? What this fight's all about Filmed in mostly long, sweeping takes, the prison sequence is incredibly well-choreographed and features a cameo appearance by rising martial arts star Jin Zhang. Sadly, that's about as good as the movie gets on the fighting front as the other sequences aren't nearly up to the standards set by this sequence early on in the movie. Still, this one involves Tony Jaa's character running after Wu Jing's character looking for his phone as a riot begins in the prison. All hell breaks loose, and the camera follows our characters trying to fend off each other and the crowd as well in an incredibly well-filmed action sequence. The logistics behind this fight must have been headache-inducing, to say the least. It is definitely worth it to watch this sequence on YouTube, as it's really something. The rest of the movie doesn't amount to much, however, although the ending fight is quite entertaining to watch. Scene:

#36 Michelle Yeoh vs Ying Bai | Final fight Royal Warriors (1986) Alternative title: In the Line of Duty Hong Kong (Cantonese) Directed by: David Chung Fight Choreography: Hoi Mang Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Michael Wong, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ying Bai Box office - N/A (it was a hit in Hong Kong -- the In the Line of Duty franchise has 7 installments) Synopsis: A Hong Kong police officer (Michelle Yeoh) and a flight security agent (Michael Wong) form an alliance to foil a hijacking. My rating for this movie: ★★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Fresh out of her first Hong Kong box office success Yes, Madam! one year before, Michelle Yeoh continued her ascension as the "female Jackie Chan" in action movies such as this one. At the height of her career (circa 1993), she was known as the "Queen of Martial Arts" in Asia. Also in this movie is the incredibly talented Japanese martial artist and actor Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine, Rush Hour 3, The Last Samurai) who has a few great sequences as well, and Michael Wong playing a character named... Michael Wong, who basically fills the gender-reversed 'dude in distress' role whom Michelle has to rescue. Yup! That's what's so great about Michelle Yeoh in general: she always plays those badass roles that are also simultaneously very feminine like when she accepts flowers from a guy while smiling shyly then, soon after, runs after a thug by shredding her dress and drop-kicking his ass. It's a strange dissonance that just... works! Here's a review from Tao A on letterboxd that summarizes why you should watch this: And in typical 80's Hong Kong fashion, the action never disappoints. What this fight sequence's all about Not drawn out at all (compared to some entries in this top), this fight shines because of just how brutal and raw it is, which is quite unusual coming from Michelle, who typically goes for Jackie Chan's Action/Comedy style whenever possible. She will later star alongside Jackie in Police Story 3 - Supercop (1992) and match him stunt-for-stunt and fight-for-fight. Overall though, this movie and sequence kick all sorts of ass. It's pure kinetic, bone-crunching, over the top action that just 100% goes with it, complete with exaggerated music and epic stunts. There are so many amazing action sequences in this movie. They are choreographed by long-time friend of Jackie Chan and member of his stunt team, Hoi Mang, who generally stuck to 'Girls with Guns' movies. I mean, seriously, how awesome is it to watch people beat the crap out of each other while this plays in the background? Answer: it's freakin amazing. I remember thinking "I can't wait to watch this one again" as soon as it finished, which is quite something for a movie like that. And look at that poster! Damn. Definitely a winner. Sadly, the scene is not on YouTube. The movie is on Amazon Prime though! Here's an excerpt:

#37 Scott Adkins vs Marko Zaror | Final fight Undisputed 3: Redemption (2010) USA Directed by: Isaac Florentine Fight Choreography: Larnell Stovall, Isaac Florentine Starring: Scott Adkins, Mykel Shannon Jenkins, Mark Ivanir Box office: Direct-to-video title Synopsis: Boyka is back. This time he is fighting in the first ever inter-prison tournament with one knee. My rating for this movie: ★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Isaac Florentine, and especially Scott Adkins, are names to watch in the martial arts movie scene. Expect more from them still. Undisputed 3 is quite heavy-handed at times, and sadly, although Isaac Florentine is a great action director who really knows how to frame a fight, that's where his talents end in my opinion. At least the rest of the movie isn't cheesy, as opposed to some of his other work. It's just... not that good. Fortunately though, about 50% of the movie is just people fighting each other, and since it's the director's strongest suit, it kinda works! Oh and the fight choreography is great, as you may have guessed. What this fight's all about Up until now, none of the fights in the movie had any real gravitas. It was just random people... fighting. But this fight has a lot more on the line -- we know now that if Scott Adkins loses, he dies (while the other fighter doesn't, even if he loses), along with a few more problems on the side. Also, everyone's betting against him. And he has to overcome his knee problem. The 3rd act of this movie kinda salvages the movie, which is why I gave it a positive rating overall. I was really enjoying myself! They managed to successfully bring in effective drama and throwbacks and weave them into the final parts in a way that didn't feel cheap. It was basically like watching a live MMA match but with more on the line, which was kinda interesting. If that's your sort of thing, I recommend this movie, although you should watch Undisputed 2 first, which also has some great fights (and the great Michael Jai White). If you're a fan of what you see, check out other movies starring Scott Adkins by the same director too, all of them featuring questionable writing and acting but great fights, as expected. And lastly, a shout-out to Lateef Crowder who puts on display some awesome capoeira here! Both his fights are awesome. sequence:

#38 Bruce Lee vs a whole dojo Fist of Fury (1972) Alternative title: The Chinese Connection Hong Kong (Cantonese) Directed by: Wei Lo Fight Choreography: Bruce Lee, Ying-Chieh Han Starring: Bruce Lee Box office - Hong Kong: HK$4,431,423 North America: US$3,400,000 Synopsis: A young man seeks vengeance for the death of his teacher. My rating for this movie: ★★★½ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ A movie which has about as many different names as it has countries of release, it even so much as has 2 different English names: The Chinese Connection, and Fist of Fury (not to be confused with Fists of Fury / The Big Boss, a different movie!) So this is about Bruce Lee showing who's boss in here. As all Bruce Lee movies were, it was quite popular in North America, especially for a martial arts flick at the time. What this sequence's all about This is as classic as it gets, Bruce Lee playing a legendary martial artist from the past (as if he wasn't a legend enough) kicking the asses of a whole Japanese dojo, coupled with his almost-trademarked screams. This is an excellent vintage fight. BONUS: Someone edited Bruce Lee's nunchucks by transforming them into lightsabers. See for yourself how amazing that is.

Doing a last round of tags (mostly people I haven't tagged yet) -- remember, guess correctly the #1 fight sequence in this top and be awarded a free 1-month BOT gold account! @Lucas @ThomasNicole @Taylor @langer @Jonwo @George Parr @miketheavenger @MrGlass2 @Elessar @Mojoguy @Thanos Legion @pepsa @Boxofficerules @Orestes @DMan7 @AJG @Ithil @LOGAN'sLuckyRun @Alli @Biggestgeekever @JB33 @Kraken @Impact @eXtacy @eXtacy2 @SpiritComix @iHeartJames @FantasticBeasts @TMP @YourMother the Edgelord @MyMovieCanBeatUpYourMovie @Moviefanatic @Blaze Heatnix @Fake @#ED @TheMovieman @sdeezy @wildphantom @Mr Impossible @Bishop54 @cookie @MrFanaticGuy34 @Frozen @zackzack @sfran43 @ZeeSoh You have until I start the top 25 (a quick estimate would be not too long after this week-end) New entries coming today, spanning over 40 years!

anyone knows the likely total for AIW now? Is it still around $350M?

$10M OW still possible?

#39 Joyce Godenzi vs Agnes Aurelio She Shoots Straight (1990) Alternative title: Lethal Lady Hong Kong (Cantonese) Directed by: Corey Yuen Fight Choreography: Corey Yuen, Hoi Mang Starring: Joyce Godenzi, Sammo Hung, Carina Lau Box office: HK $9,962,865 Synopsis: Straight after her marriage, Hong Kong officer Mina Kao faces dangerous case of vietnamese criminal refugees. My rating for this movie: ★★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ So it begins. This is the first Golden Age Hong Kong movie in this top, and it won't be the last. The modern 'Golden Age' period of action movies from Hong Kong started with Sammo Hung's Winners and Sinners (1983), starring Jackie Chan, and is widely considered to have ended with Legend of the Drunken Master (1994), also starring Jackie Chan. Fist of Legend (1994), an earlier entry into this top, is one of the first movies that started to indicate a decline for the Hong Kong movie market, and thus, isn't part of that period. This decline happened because of several factors, none of which have anything to do Hong Kong's handover from the UK to China in 1997. 1. Many talented Hong Kong filmmakers moved to Hollywood as a lot more money could be made there. 2. Neighboring markets, which were a big source of income for Hong Kong movies both for theatrical releases and video releases, started embracing Hollywood movies a lot more beginning around 1994. 3. Hong Kong moviegoers also started favoring Hollywood releases more. 4. Rampant video piracy in the mid 90's in Asia pretty much sealed the deal for Hong Kong productions. That being said, you might notice that this movie grossed less than Fist of Legend (1994), which supposedly marked the beginning of Hong Kong's decline. Well, for one, She Shoots Straight was a box office success because the expectations for it were much smaller (we all know expectations for box office are everything... Age of Ultron 1.4B disappointment anyone? ) Jet Li was immensely popular back then, his previous movie series The Legend having grossed over HK$ 30,000,000 each, and so the expectations for Fist of Legend were higher than this one. But also, back in 1990, movies would then turn to mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, etc, and make a lot of money there -- numbers which are sadly completely unavailable to the public for every single Hong Kong release. We only know it was profitable, a lot, from Jackie Chan's autobiography, who became rich overnight when his first releases were ultra-popular in Hong Kong and other markets at the beginning of the 80's. By the mid 90's, grosses from those countries were starting to seriously dwindle. So yeah, I could fill this whole top with just movies from that era (Jackie Chan alone made 2-3 movies a year during that time), but for variety's sake, I tried to limit their amount somewhat so that I could cover more ground. Expect a bunch of them still. Anyway, on to She Shoots Straight, yes it's a bit melodramatic, yes there's a weird, heavy-handed tonal shift that's not executed so well... But hot damn what marvelous action! And not only that, but the director invests in his characters so what follows is an interesting mesh of epic action scenes, rich character moments, and great fights. Always a wonder to watch a movie made by someone who's got a real eye for action filmmaking. More on Corey Yuen -- one of my favorite Hong Kong directors -- later in this top. I don't wanna repeat myself too much. Here's a review by Sean Gilman that summarizes what I think of this movie quite well: What this fight's all about Although this is only the fight between the 2 ladies I'm talking about here, the whole sequence that precedes it (on the boat with Carina Lau chain-slicing with a machete) is almost equally as awesome and kinetic. Who is this Carina Lau and why haven't I seen her kick more ass in other movies? A frequent question when watching Hong Kong movies like this one, I would say. Anyway, all the action sequences in this movie are A-grade stuff. Such a shame that Joyce Godenzi married Sammo Hung and retired from acting early on, because she had it all! The acting chops, the screen presence and gravitas, the looks, the physicality (she performed impressive stunts)... a real star in the making! She also stars in License to Steal, a movie on my watchlist and Eastern Condors, an excellent Vietnam war movie. Final note: this movie is part of the 'Girls with Guns' genre that was quite popular during the 80's and 90's in Hong Kong, and it certainly lives up to the name. sequence:

The theme of our next entry is this:

#40 Keanu Reeves vs Hugo Weaving The Matrix (1999) USA Directed by: The Wachowskis Fight Choreography: Yuen Woo-Ping Starring: Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss, Hugo Weaving Worldwide Box office - $463,517,383 ($171,479,930 domestic) Synopsis: A computer hacker learns from mysterious rebels about the true nature of his reality and his role in the war against its controllers. My rating for this movie: ★★★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Finally, some real box office! Pretty much all martial arts movies have ridiculously low box office numbers. The Matrix was a box office and word-of-mouth phenomenon as the movie was a purely original script from the Wachowskis, who also directed it. When it came out, it quite simply blew everyone's minds and became an instant classic that revolutionized action filmmaking. Parodies and copycats abounded. Audiences worldwide could apparently never get enough of this movie, and it went on to have a 6.17 multiplier at the domestic box office after a $27.8M opening. Different times in 1999, sure, but that's still amazing! It spawned 2 highly-anticipated and successful sequels. It is also one of my favorite movies ever, sitting squarely in my top 5. There are many reasons why I love this film, and the fight sequences are only a small fragment of that. It's just bonkers Sci-Fi action in its purest distilled form, complete with flawless pacing, an excellent script, and unforgettable characters. It also recently landed at #11 on BOT's all-time list, so I'd say I'm not alone here in thinking this is an amazing movie. Short and sweet review by @vc2002 in here: An incredible movie. What this sequence's all about You might have noticed that we're only 8 movies in so far in this top and Hong Kong fight choreographer and director Yuen Woo-Ping has already shown up 3 times (Fearless, Fist of Legend, and now The Matrix). That's because he's a legend. He was called upon to do the fight choreography for a select few Hollywood movies in the late 90's and early 2000's, and his presence is a big reason why these movies have such memorable fight sequences, The Matrix included. This fight's importance in action filmmaking history cannot be understated enough, especially on the side of Hollywood. Sadly, it would seem that while a lot of filmmakers tried to replicate the formula, pretty much none of them actually managed to keep the essence of why and how it worked while doing so. It also doesn't help that aside from The Matrix movies, Kill Bill, and Unleashed, Yuen Woo-Ping never worked with Hollywood again. The emerging popularity at that time of nauseating shaky cam and frenetic cuts made popular by the Bourne movies really didn't help either. All of the above is why I think this fight sequence is one of the best to come out of Hollywood, ever. Has Hollywood ever topped this? Keep following this top to find out! Here's a link to the sequence, which I highly doubt even 1 person hasn't seen in here, but whatever: The pinned comment in there kinda nails it too (oh gosh, a decent YouTube comment?) Also, any excuse is good enough to rewatch The Matrix

Next up, the first blockbuster in this list edit: oh and, one of my top 5 favorite movies of all-time

good comp right now (memorial day opening) X-Men: Days of Future Past Opening Day: $35,511,974 Opening Weekend: $90,823,660 4-day opening: $110,576,604 And that's kinda optimistic

#41 Jet Li vs Siu-Ho Chin Fist of Legend (1994) Hong Kong (Cantonese) Directed by: Gordon Chan Fight Choreography: Yuen Woo-Ping Starring: Jet Li, Siu-Ho Chin Box office - HK$14,785,382 Synopsis: In 1937, a Chinese martial artist returns to Shanghai to find his teacher dead and his school harassed by the Japanese. My rating for this movie: ★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Fist of Legend is a classic Jet Li movie with a surprising amount of dramatic heft. It is also a loose remake of Bruce Lee's Fist of Fury from 1972, which you might see appear later in this top. So since this is the first movie in which the gross is only available in HK$, I will expand a bit on conversion rates for this currency and what they mean. Basically, during the 80's and 90's in Hong Kong, their dollar was valued at about 8 for 1 USD, which means this movie grossed just under US $2M. It's not a lot of course, which is why this movie was seen as a disappointment in terms of gross at the time. However, be aware that production costs were a fraction of what they were in America, the cost of living in Hong Kong during those years was several times inferior to the cost of living in America, and that movies often made a lot of money in neighboring markets: Mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea, and Japan. In fact, it was one of the main sources of income for them. More on that later as those other markets turned their backs on them eventually, which apparently started with this movie. A short and sweet review by Derenzo on this movie: What this fight sequence's all about It's quite a dramatic sequence since the main character and his brother are fighting. The cause of their duel is that the main character is in love with a Japanese Girl, and the movie being set during Japanese occupation of China (during world war 2), his entourage doesn't take this very well, including his brother. It's an interesting fight because Jet Li kind of dominates his opponent, but decides to switch to boxing style mid-way through! For fun, or something. It's quite jarring and a welcome change of pace! A great showcase of Jet Li's amazing versatility. The fight: Overall this is a good martial arts flick rooted in history, so if that's your thing, I recommend it.

Spectre crawl to 200M Never forget

There's only so much you can do with always the same setting Which is why they have to switch it up big time if they want to steer the ship

#42 Jean-Claude Van Damme vs Bolo Yeung Bloodsport (1988) USA Directed by: Newt Arnold Fight Choreography: Frank Dux Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres Box office: $11,806,119 domestic Synopsis: Follows Frank Dux, an American martial artist serving in the military, who decides to leave the army to compete in a martial arts tournament in Hong Kong where fights to the death can occur. My rating for this movie: ★★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Pretty much one of the most famous martial artists in the world, Jean-Claude Van Damme simply cannot be ignored when making a list such as this. This movie shouldn't work, but it did for me. I mean, the first 10 minutes are atrocious, the choreography isn't anything too spectacular either, but once they get to Hong Kong the movie is so... homely. I wanted to stay and snug myself in the movie, unseen among the spectators, and just watch... Watch Jean-Claude split his way to higher consciousness... Watch the awesome villain cleave into people's faces for no real reason... Watch every movie cliché being projected in front of my eyes and yet, not caring! But above all, listen to the groovy soundtrack during the tournament which gives this movie its unique vibe and atmosphere. JCVD's form is pretty much perfect in this. What this fight sequence's all about This sequence isn't known for the flashiness of its choreography (mainly because of the over-use of slow-mo), but it's a legendary fight that's beautifully edited and put together. It's the culmination of everything that came before in the movie, and puts the focus, rightfully so, on Jean-Claude Van Damme's kicks, which are godly. Also based on true events, which makes it all the more impactful. Jean-Claude Van Damme is amazing has been a source of inspiration for martial artists worldwide for decades, and this movie and sequence are part of the reason why. Sequence:

I must say, even though I kinda suspected a lot of people would be turned off by a Solo movie, this is still quite a surprise. I didn't expect that much rejection, especially on the overseas front. We'll see how it plays out, it may yet have decent legs even if the opening is deflated.

Updated 2nd post with the list so far and honorable mentions! More entries to come later today!

It's in times like these that you realize how good Kevin Feige actually is. He really knows what people want, before they do. He's been playing the long game since the beginning. Seems to me like Lucasfilm is just throwing stuff at the wall right now.

#43 Bruce Lee vs Chuck Norris The Way of the Dragon (1972) Hong Kong (Cantonese & Mandarin) Directed by: Bruce Lee Fight Choreography: Bruce Lee Starring: Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris Worldwide Box office - $10,500,000 ($5,200,000 domestic) Synopsis: A man visits his relatives at their restaurant in Italy and has to help them defend against brutal gangsters harassing them. My rating for this movie: ★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ The Way of the Dragon is the second to last movie starring Bruce Lee, and is mostly remembered because of the final fight. It's also Bruce Lee's last Chinese-language film. It was quite popular worldwide as $10.5M in 1972 for a martial arts movie is pretty good! What this fight's all about I mean, this is a fight between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. Direction is fairly standard (Bruce Lee wasn't a great director in my opinion) but this fight will always be remembered for what it is: a duel between legends, hence why it's showing up in this list. Chuck Norris knew Bruce Lee since the 60's, and allegedly sparred with him from midnight to 7 in the morning when he first met him, almost missing his flight. From that sparring session spawned this movie as Bruce Lee was so impressed he wanted to fight Chuck Norris in a later Hong Kong movie, which he did. The rest is history. Sequence:

So with our last entry tonight we're gonna have our first person with a missed prediction at the #1 placement. Who's gonna have that privilege?

Disney created a Christmas tradition of going to see a Star Wars movie during Christmas and pretty much had the holiday to themselves until Avatar sequels arrived... and then just went on and switched that up for no good reason? People embraced that new tradition, don't ruin it! They struck gold and then decided it wasn't meant to be?

#44 Robert De Niro vs Johnny Barnes Raging Bull (1980) USA Directed by: Martin Scorsese Fight Choreography: Al Silvani, Martin Scorsese, Jimmy Nickerson Starring: Robert De Niro, Cathy Moriarty, Joe Pesci Box office: $23,383,987 domestic Synopsis: Emotionally self-destructive boxer, Jake La Motta's journey through life, as the violence and temper that leads him to the top in the ring destroys his life outside it. My rating for this movie: ★★★★ My rating for this specific fight sequence: ★★★★ Apparently Robert De Niro was so good at boxing he could have made a career out of it! Watching this, I can see why. This is Martin Scorsese's classic and Robert De Niro in yet again another haunting performance. The movie was nominated for 8 oscars including Best Picture and won 2, acting for Robert De Niro and Best Film Editing (fully deserved). However, upon release Martin Scorsese allegedly feared for his career as the box office was a disappointing $23.3M on an $18M budget. Luckily, the numerous awards the movie gained didn't hurt his career one bit. Here's a lovely review of this movie by @Sam in here: What this fight's all about "You never got me down, Ray!" This sequence is just so brutal. The cinematic technique and finesse employed by Martin Scorsese elevate this fight to another level. It's one of the prime examples in this top of how much the framing, directing, cinematography, editing, and sound mixing matter to a fight! It helps that you can easily follow what's happening on screen. The end product is what ultimately matters the most, and this fight delivers on that front. Beautiful direct, raw choreography.