[QUOTE=Bullworker64;1286075]I have been watching South Korean films on Netflix for several months now. I have, so far, believed that The Divine Move and A Company Man have been the two that have stood out. (The Thieves was good, a much darker Oceans Eleven type film.) The Admiral was entertaining. Recently I have seen several that deal with serial killers, Monster and I Saw the Devil, again, standing out. Martial Arts are used in these films, but are not the main focus. Trends cycle, martial arts in film have faded, but will trend back in the future.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Jimbo;1286076]The Good, the Bad, the Weird is another excellent S. Korean film.
War of the Arrows is good, but both times I watched it, I fell asleep at certain points. IMO, it’s a bit too long and parts of it become repetitive.
I’ll have to check out Monster. I agree that I Saw the Devil really stands out.
A Dirty Carnival is a pretty good Korean gangster film, and The Man From Nowhere is outstanding.
Thirst is a pretty decent Korean vampire movie. Odd, because I usually do not equate vampires with Korean cinema.[/QUOTE]
Well you 2 have a good taste in Korean films. There’s a lot more Korean film out there. I managed to watch several Korean films for free on Hulu. So I agree they are kinda neat and attractive. There’s a lot of interesting Korean film coming out, I don’t know which Hong Kong film can hold candle against these Korean films. I mean you can’t find a HK film that can rival A Werewolf Boy or Ode to my father. Even the Korean film, The Suspect seem to outdo any recent HK films today (maybe except Wild City, that can probably hold candle against The Suspect).
But for now it seem like Kung fu/martial art film is on life support or not relevent anymore. I’m hoping South Korea could be the one to revive that if Memories of the Sword does well. As I said, we may not have martial art films coming out, but we already have TV dramas that take place in period time which does contain martial arts. I’ve already mention Grace Under Fire, and Palace in my previous post. I’m glad you brought up Korean because I know couple of K-dramas which has enough martial art fighting scene that might make Kung fu film fans happy:
Damo aka the legendary Police Woman (this is a 14 episode wuxia-style period Korean drama from 2003, it has a lot of martial art fighting in this drama which will remind you of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and some classic Kung fu films. Here’s a clip from the show if you are skeptical).
Warrior Baek Dong Soo (This is a 29 episode 2011 period Korean drama which should contain enough choreograph fighting scene. Here’s a clip from the show if you need a preview)
Hong Gil Dong (This amazing 24 episode Martial art K-drama from 2013 should blow you away, and IMO the production value seem to be on par with a 2 hour Kung fu film, checkout the clip below):
//youtu.be/iqSnlsJaQeg
Bridal Mask aka Gaksital (this is a 28 episode K-drama that take place during the Japanese occupation of South Korea. This is what I would call it the “Korean Fist of fury”. This drama does have enough fighting scenes like this one and this one to maybe excite you)
So yes, we may not have a lot of martial art film coming out of Mainland China or Hong Kong, and hoping that South Korea can revive it. But the period TV dramas that contain martial art should be enough to keep us going and probably addicted.