Martial arts films are a subgenre of action films that feature numerous martial arts combat between characters. These combats are usually the films' primary appeal and entertainment value, and often are a method of storytelling and character expression and development. Martial arts are frequently featured in training scenes and other sequences in addition to fights. Martial arts films commonly include hand-to-hand combat along with other types of action, such as stuntwork, chases, and gunfights. Sub-genres of martial arts films include kung fu films, wuxia, karate films, and martial arts action comedy films, while related genres include gun fu, jidaigeki and samurai films.
Wing Chun is a concept-based fighting art, form of Southern Chinese kung fu, and close-quarters system of self-defense.
Bruce Lee was a Hong Kong and American actor, director, martial artist, martial arts instructor and philosopher. He was the founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy drawing from different combat disciplines that is often credited with paving the way for modern mixed martial arts (MMA). Lee is considered by critics, media, and other martial artists to be the most influential martial artist of all time and a pop culture icon of the 20th century, who bridged the gap between East and West. He is credited with promoting Hong Kong action cinema and helping to change the way Asians were presented in American films.
Drunken Master is a 1978 Hong Kong martial arts comedy film directed by Yuen Woo-ping, and starring Jackie Chan, Yuen Siu-tien, and Hwang Jang-lee. It was a success at the Hong Kong box office, earning two and a half times the amount of Yuen's and Chan's previous film, Snake in the Eagle's Shadow, which was also considered a hit.
Chopsocky is a colloquial term for martial arts films and kung fu films made primarily by Hong Kong action cinema between the late 1960s and early 1980s. The term was coined by the American motion picture trade magazine Variety following the explosion of films in the genre released in 1973 in the U.S. after the success of Five Fingers of Death. The word is a play on chop suey, combining "chop" and "sock".
Cynthia Ann Christine Rothrock is an American martial artist and actress in martial arts films. Rothrock holds black belt rankings in seven styles of martial arts and was a high-level competitor in martial arts before becoming an actress.
Bruce Li is a Taiwanese actor and martial artist. He is a Bruce Lee imitator who starred in martial arts films from the Bruceploitation movement.
Bruceploitation is an exploitation film subgenre that emerged after the death of martial arts film star Bruce Lee in 1973, during which time filmmakers from Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea cast Bruce Lee look-alike actors ("Lee-alikes") to star in imitation martial arts films, in order to exploit Lee's sudden international popularity. Bruce Lee look-alike characters also commonly appear in other media, including anime, comic books, manga, and video games.
Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. Action films from Hong Kong have roots in Chinese and Hong Kong cultures including Chinese opera, storytelling and aesthetic traditions, which Hong Kong filmmakers combined with elements from Hollywood and Japanese cinema along with new action choreography and filmmaking techniques, to create a culturally distinctive form that went on to have wide transcultural appeal. In turn, Hollywood action films have been heavily influenced by Hong Kong genre conventions, from the 1970s onwards.
Shannon Emery Lee Keasler is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the only living child of martial artist Bruce Lee and retired martial arts teacher Linda Lee Cadwell, and is the younger sister of actor Brandon Lee. Through Bruce Lee she is a granddaughter of Cantonese opera singer Lee Hoi-chuen.
Lei Wulong is a fictional character from the Tekken fighting game franchise by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Added to the Tekken series as a tribute to Jackie Chan, Lei's role is that of a police officer who investigates the Mishima Zaibatsu corporation's illegal activities like hunting and trading of protected species. Lei has appeared in alternate Tekken media, as a playable character in Street Fighter X Tekken and many noncanonical Tekken games, and critics have received the character positively.
Michael Joseph Stephen Dudikoff Jr. is an American actor and martial artist. Born in New York City, his family later moved to Los Angeles. Dudikoff did different jobs to pay for his education, during this time he became a model. This led him to do acting auditions. He played supporting roles in films and television shows, until he got his break as the lead in the martial arts action film American Ninja (1985).
Wushu, or Kung fu, is a hard and soft and complete martial art, as well as a full-contact combat sport. It has a long history in reference to Chinese martial arts. It was developed in 1949 in an effort to standardize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts, yet attempts to structure the various decentralized martial arts traditions date back earlier, when the Central Guoshu Institute was established at Nanking in 1928.
Ironfist Chinmi is a Japanese manga series written by Takeshi Maekawa. It was published by Kodansha in Monthly Shōnen Magazine from 1983 to 1997 and collected in 35 tankōbon volumes. It is centered on the story of a boy called Chinmi who learns Kung Fu by fighting progressively more challenging foes.
Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, also known as The Dragon and the Cobra, is a 1980 martial arts film set at the "1979 World Karate Championships" at Madison Square Garden that will supposedly determine the "successor" to Bruce Lee. The film is hosted by Adolph Caesar. Bruce Lee was deceased before the film went into production, and any footage featuring Lee was taken from earlier films or television appearances. It is considered to be an exploitation film or Bruceploitation, exploiting Bruce Lee's popularity, and the mystique surrounding his death.
Olivier Gruner, is a French former naval commando, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and pilot. Born in Paris, France, he moved to the United States in 1988. His career in the film industry began in 1987 when he first appeared at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
Tekken is a 2009 American science fiction martial arts film directed by Dwight Little from a screenplay by Alan B. McElroy, based on the video game series of the same name published by Namco Bandai Games. The film stars Jon Foo, Kelly Overton, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa,Ian Anthony Dale, Cung Le, Darrin Dewitt Henson, Candice Hillebrand, and Luke Goss. The plot follows Jin Kazama in his attempts to enter the Iron Fist Tournament in order to avenge the loss of his mother, Jun Kazama, by confronting the forces of the city that are also holding the competition.
Héctor Echavarría is an Argentine actor, producer, filmmaker, martial artist, activist, businessman and screenwriter.
The combat sport of Muay Thai has been featured in media, including film, television, manga, anime and video games. It gained international attention when Yodtong Senanan led the Nak Muay Team against Osamu Noguchi's Kickboxer Team on October 16, 1972. It has heavily influenced the sport of kickboxing, and is used in mixed martial arts (MMA), where athletes train in its techniques.
There are several Chinese martial arts known as Snake Boxing or Fanged Snake Style which imitate the movements of snakes. It is a style of Shaolin Boxing. Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they would not expect in offense. Snake style is said to especially lend itself to applications with the Chinese straight sword. The snake is also one of the animals imitated in Yang family Taijiquan, Baguazhang and Xingyiquan. The sinuous, fluid motion of the snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies the "soft" martial arts.
Don "The Dragon" Wilson 
