The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as David Bordwell suggested they were films that favor spectacle to storytelling, others such as Goeff King stated they allow the scenes of spectacle to be attuned to story telling. Action films are often hybrid with other genres, mixing into various forms ranging to comedies, science fiction films, and horror films.
Stage combat, fight craft or fight choreography is a specialised technique in theatre designed to create the illusion of physical combat without causing harm to the performers. It is employed in live stage plays as well as operatic and ballet productions. With the advent of cinema and television the term has widened to also include the choreography of filmed fighting sequences, as opposed to the earlier live performances on stage. It is closely related to the practice of stunts and is a common field of study for actors. Actors famous for their stage fighting skills frequently have backgrounds in dance, gymnastics or martial arts training.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to martial arts:
Historical European martial arts (HEMA) are martial arts of European origin, particularly using arts formerly practised, but having since died out or evolved into very different forms.
Tatchakorn Yeerum, better known internationally as Tony Jaa and in Thailand as Jaa Phanom, is a Thai martial artist, actor, action choreographer, stuntman, director, and traceur. Best known for his martial arts films, he is credited with helping establish the Thai action genre worldwide.
Chang Cheh was a Chinese filmmaker, screenwriter, lyricist and producer active in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Chang Cheh directed more than 90 films in Greater China, the majority of them with the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong. Most of his films are action films, especially wuxia and kung fu films filled with violence.
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.
Robert James Gilbert Anderson was an English Olympic fencer and a renowned film fight choreographer, with a cinema career that spanned more than 50 years and included films such as Star Wars, Highlander, The Three Musketeers, The Princess Bride, The Mask of Zorro, The Lord of the Rings, and Die Another Day. He was regarded as the premier choreographer of Hollywood sword-fighting, and during his career he coached many actors in swordsmanship, including Errol Flynn, Sean Connery, Antonio Banderas, Mark Hamill, Viggo Mortensen, Adrian Paul, and Johnny Depp. He also appeared as a stunt double for Darth Vader's lightsaber battles in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Anthony Charles De Longis is an American actor, stuntman, and fight choreographer.
Rafael Kayanan is a Filipino-born naturalized American comics artist and Filipino martial arts master in the Sayoc Kali system.
Ron Balicki is an American actor, martial artist and stuntman for various films and television series. He is also a well known martial arts practitioner, teacher, and author. He is a student of and son-in-law to Dan Inosanto.
Patrick Crean was a British actor and theatrical fight director who was one of the most influential figures in the art of modern stage combat.
Philip Kwok is a Hong Kong-based Taiwanese actor, martial artist, and stuntman. He rose to fame as a member of the Venom Mob, an ensemble of highly-talented martial arts actors that starred in several films for Shaw Brothers Studio in the 1970s and 1980s.
Lau Kar-wing is a martial artist, Hong Kong film director, action choreographer and actor.
Reclaiming the Blade is a 2009 documentary written and directed by Daniel McNicoll and produced by Galatia Films on the topic of swords. Reclaiming the Blade was a number one movie rental on iTunes. The feature-length film was distributed by Starz and Anchor Bay Entertainment.
Roberta Brown is an American swordmaster and actress.
Arnis in popular culture reflects the impact that the Filipino martial arts of arnis/eskrima/kali have made outside of the martial arts community. The three terms are roughly interchangeable and for the purpose of convenience, the term arnis will be used throughout the article. These arts emphasize weapon-based fighting with sticks, blades, improvised weapons and hand-to-hand fighting which is formally known as Mano Mano or Pangamut. Because of this training with live weapons, elements of arnis have made an impact in film, video games, television, and comic books. Arnis is often used to train actors and stuntmen how to handle similar weapons for use in movies.
The Hunted is an American action comedy web series created by Robert Chapin. The show follows a group of people who have been bitten by vampires but have not yet been turned, and their attempts to prove the existence of vampires through the web series. The show has been described as a sword-slinging, vampire-slaying cross between the American TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Cops. Episodes have been filmed by amateur and professional filmmakers throughout the United States and overseas.
Christian Howard is a British actor, model, martial artist, and filmmaker. He is best known for his performance as Ken Masters in the short film Street Fighter: Legacy, the 2014 web series Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist and its follow-up Street Fighter: Resurrection.
The Hunted is a 2015 American film created and directed by Robert Chapin based on the action comedy web series The Hunted (2001). It stars Chapin and Monique Ganderton in lead roles and tells the story of a struggling actor who leads a group of misfit slayers against an army of vampires. The film is one of the first to be produced under SAG’s New Media contract and was distributed online through Vimeo VOD.
