Items20The creator’s order
  1. 1Avengement (2019)Avengement (2019) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased 24 May 2019Scott Adkins's battered ex-prisoner tells his story inside a pub that feels less safe with every revelation. Jesse V. Johnson gives the fights an ugly, desperate weight, very different from a tournament showcase. A worthwhile next stop after Adkins's better-known Boyka films, provided you want a…0
  2. 2Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) 5.1/10 on IMDbReleased 4 Oct 2012John Hyams turns an apparently exhausted franchise into a disorientating nightmare of manufactured identity. Long, brutal fights interrupt an atmosphere closer to horror than a cheerful military sequel. It is a distinctive discovery for experienced action viewers, but the opening family violence…0
  3. 3Drive (1997)Drive (1997) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased 6 Aug 1997This is Steve Wang's 1997 martial-arts chase with Mark Dacascos and Kadeem Hardison, not the Ryan Gosling film. The pair's comic friction gives the improvised fights an appealing looseness, while Dacascos supplies extraordinary speed. The director's cut is the useful version to seek, a lively…0
  4. 4Time and Tide (2000)Time and Tide (2000) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased 19 Oct 2000Tsui Hark makes an unstable friendship the centre of a Hong Kong thriller that seems to discover new routes through every building it enters. The dangling perspectives and crowded gun battles are exhilarating, but the plot can be bewildering. Pick it for spatial imagination and headlong energy…0
  5. 5Righting Wrongs (1986)Righting Wrongs (1986) 7.1/10 on IMDbReleased 27 Nov 1986Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock bring contrasting sharpness to a Hong Kong thriller about justice slipping into vengeance. The story's harsh turns give the athletic encounters a dangerous edge rather than a sporting rhythm. Also known as Above the Law, it is a strong discovery beyond the usual…0
  6. 6Breaking News (2004)Breaking News (2004) 6.7/10 on IMDbReleased 10 Jun 2004A public police humiliation becomes a battle to control the broadcast image. Johnnie To makes the siege's action and the authorities' media performance feed each other, starting with a bravura street encounter. A compact choice for viewers who like tactical tension with a satirical edge, rather…0
  7. 7The Villainess (2017)The Villainess (2017) 6.6/10 on IMDbReleased 8 Jun 2017An opening attack takes the assassin film into a fiercely subjective, almost game-like perspective, then a motorcycle confrontation finds a very different way to stage bodies in motion. Kim Ok-vin gives the South Korean film its emotional centre. Its flashbacks and melodrama are less controlled…0
  8. 8Headshot (2016)Headshot (2016) 6.3/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Sept 2016An injured man's lost memory provides a slim bridge between savage confrontations in this Indonesian thriller. Iko Uwais's vulnerability keeps the punishment from becoming weightless, and the fights have a cramped, scrambling urgency. It is a good follow-up to The Raid for committed genre viewers,…0
  9. 9RE:BORN (2016)RE:BORN (2016) 6.0/10 on IMDbReleased 24 Sept 2016Tak Sakaguchi's small, economical movements make the close-quarters fighting feel unnervingly different from broad martial-arts display. The Japanese film wraps that physical idea in an ex-soldier story that offers little novelty. Choose it as a concentrated performance showcase, where deflection,…0
  10. 10Baby Assassins (2021)Baby Assassins (2021) 6.4/10 on IMDbReleased 30 Jul 2021Two young contract killers find ordinary employment and flat-sharing more awkward than violence. The dry pauses and mismatched friendship give the eventual fighting a personality that pure stunt reels lack. This Japanese original is a good discovery for viewers happy to spend time with deadpan…0