What makes martial arts movies so appealing to Western audiences tends to be a number of factors. The usual ones are the speed, the agility and sometimes the bad dubbing. What most audiences, particularly in the early days, failed to realise was that these movies arent speeded up and very few use wire work (although becoming more and more popular, sadly in my view). What this means is that most moves in a martial film are devastating, be it a roundhouse to the face or a chop to the neck, personally I wouldnt like to be on the end of any of them! Here I attempt to round up the top 20, some may anger you and know doubt Ive missed some of your favourites but hopefully, just hopefully, some will surprise you as well.
20. Oldboy The Hammer Hallway Scene
Oldboy is one of those films you have to see, quickly, before the Americans remake it (too late, coming soon to a cinema near you). Its a fabulous film of betrayal, question marks and hard-hitting, realistic fight scenes. This isnt a move as such (hence why its at number 20) but there are some serious moves strung together in a confined space as Dae-su Oh, Min-sik Choi, escapes from a whole host of attackers down a hallway with nothing but a hammer to help him. Devastating and tiring.