It truly is an art all of its own. Often we talk about dramatic actors and how hard their task is but surely the art of screen fighting is the most impressive form of acting? timing, skill, stunts and the danger – this is what many 21st century audiences want to see.

But with so many martial arts movies how do you pick the best ones? How does the martial arts actor find a way to showcase new skills to an ever evolving audience? What about those new to martial arts movies?

The Official AMP Top 100 onscreen Martial Arts fights should help answer your questions. Over the next few days we will be counting down from 100, the best fights ever put to film. Stick with us over the next few weeks and find out which fight scenes make it into our top 10, and of course use the comments box to the right to discuss any of our choices.

70.The Young Master – Jackie Chan vs Whang In Sik
Maybe this would be in someones top 20 and maybe it deserves to but although i like the fight its to much like a street fight than anything else. This fight scene lasts about 20 minutes on a mountain top and Chan gets put through a world of pain against someone with excellent kicking techniques and grappling. Jackie needs the help once again and turns to alcohol which gives him super human strength and manages to come back performing anything he can weather its a jumping head butt to flipping to the ground about 5 times in a row. Crazy fight but also very enjoyable.

69.The Mystery of Chess Boxing – Jack Long + Li Yi Min vs Mark Long
Get ready for atleast 15 minutes of non stop action. It starts with Jack Long and Mark Long performing great techniques with grace and poise whilst the pace of the action increases by the minute, then we see Li Yi Min enter the fight to save his teachers life. Li starts to lose and gets countered all the time by Long this is when his teacher thinks back and remembers certain ways to defend against these strikes and try to win. One of the funniest parts is when Mark Long gets his arms broken right at the end and they dangle which is clearly so false but its a great watch.

68.Two On The Road – Leung Kar Yan and Philip Ko vs Wang Lung Wei
fantastic fight scene here from Leung Kar Yan, Its fast and powerful with a small amount of wirework, and some mad sound effects for Phillip Ko’s horse boxing technique. Ive always liked watching Leung Kar Yan when he’s performing hand to hand techniques but he also throws in some good kicking skills and timing and when Philllip Ko joins in they show us how good 2 on 1 fights can really be. To me Leung Kar Yan is very under-rated.

67.Two Toothless Tigers – (Samo Hung and Yuen Hsin Yi vs Johnny Wang)
Sammo Hung displays a dodgy tash but the fight certainly makes up for it with fast paced action. The fight starts in a teahouse where we see Villian Johnny Wang showcase some excellent kicking skills with speed and power with the other two trying to gang up on him. This shows great combat with Sammo and Johnny going toe to toe in parts with brilliant hand to hand combat, timing and movement. Sammo ends the fight with a kick to the groin(The same as Bruce Lee did to Bob Wall in Enter The Dragon).Sammo truely is one of the best choreographers ever showing us time and time again how its really done. Legend.

66.Dirty Tiger,Crazy Frog – End Fight
It took me a while to get hold of this film and although its not as good as Odd Couple or Warriors Two, it still has great fight scenes involving Masters Sammo Hung and Lau Kar Wing. Here they take on Lee Hoi San who cannot be hurt due to his metal armour, so they have to team up and take him down anyway they can. At the start Hoi San is in control and the other two dont know how to deal with him until Sammo sees some of his Armour starting to come loose so he starts pulling at it as Lau Kar Wing delievers lots of punches and kicks until he can no longer stand anymore. Very enjoyable film and another note is that all the flips and high kicks from Lau Kar Wing are actually Yuen Biao.

65.Fearless – Teahouse Fight
Jet li challenges a rival kung fu master to a fight but it all gets out of hand and nearly costs his characters life. The setting for the fight is my favorite part bringing back the old school feel with Yuen Woo Ping choreographing the fights. It starts with them both using swords and the place gets trashed (tables flying everywhere), also some great slow motion shots showing the power of both fighters. It then turns to hand to hand combat and this is when we see Jet taking control, a good fight scene.

64.Fist Of Fury – End Fight
Every moment of this is choreographed & shot perfectly with great pacing & suspense showing Bruce Lee deliever some incredible kicks and punches with power. He fights a guy with a dodgy tash and you can see the difference in skill between the two, with Bruce hitting him with a perfect high kick to the face followed by a chop to the kneck. He then fights the Japanese master who is using a samurai sword by this doesn’t bother Bruce as he intercepts and kicks him like 10 yards through a wall (The guy who gets kicked is actually Jackie Chan, at that time was the longest throw using a wire). Good stuff.

63.Hitman In The Hand Of Buddah – Hwang Jang Lee vs Eddie Ko
When the fight begins we get to see Hwang Jang Lee using alot more hand techniques showing us he has other skills than just amazing kicks. Hwang also shows us the Eagle Claw technique and the camera really focuses on the movement but then Hwang turns to his kicking skills and delievers some great blows, one where Hwang repeatedly crescent kicks his opponent in the face, A great fight with Corey Yuen choreographing the scenes.

62.Killer Army – Kuo Chui vs 4 spearmen
Ok you will know this guy from the five venom movies and in this film he doesn’t dissapoint as he takes on 4 spearmen showing us fantastic timing and skill, something we’d see in maybe a Sammo Hung movie.
The final scene is about 20+ minutes long and its worth every second as the fight gets better and better and also with alot more blood and violence. In the end he gets a little help and they overcome the badguys, good film from Shaw Brothers.

61.Fatal Move – Wu Jing vs 3
This was supposed to be 3 on 3 fight but as Wu Jings clan cannot defeat the first fighter Wu Jing himself has to step in and show what he’s made off. The first guy he faces is the muscle behind the 3 and uses oil so that Jings kicks and punches slide off, this doesn’t last long as he delievers some excellent kicks and an arm lock to defeat him. The next guy uses nails in his boots and gloves to cut Wu Jing and the fight turns alittle bloody with him looking like Bruce Lee at the end of “Enter The Dragon”. After defeating him the next guy appears showing us some close combat and some wire work, Jing uses elbows to get in close then delievers an incredible kick with a high jump kick followed by a jump spin kick to the chest. Excellent viewing.

Peter Lam of Media Asia Films and Wang Chang Tian of Enlight Pictures were also there as this film was their joint venture together with Shanghai Film Media and Lau’s production company Basic Pictures. By the way, Gordon Chan joined Enlight Pictures as chief consultant and has 8 movies in line, including this film.

“The Legend of Chen Zhen” is a martial arts film set to continue the television series “Fist of Fury” first done by Donnie Yen in 1995. The character role was originally made famous by our beloved actor Bruce Lee in the 1972 film “Fist of Fury” seconded by Jet Li in 1994 “Fist of Legend”.

Chen Zhen is a legendary Chinese martial artist who struggled against the Japanese during their occupation in China. He was actually a fictional creation of writer-director Lo Wei who based the character on the infamous real-life student of martial arts master Huo Yuan-jia, the same master portrayed by Jet Li in “Fearless”.

The story of Chen Zhen in the “Fist of Fury” and “Fist of Legend” ends in him faking his own death after he was showered with bullets when he discovered and took avenge of those behind his mentor’s death. He goes away and lives his life in hiding for the people to have peace. In this upcoming movie, the story continues as Chen Zhen returns to Shanghai after 7 years and disguises himself as a mysterious wealthy businessman from abroad.

He befriended a notorious mafia boss and the Japanese to penetrate the criminal underworld.  At night, he disguises as caped crusader to find the Japanese’s assassination list and fight the evil connivance that is pestering the country.

Filming is currently being done in Shanghai and is projected to wrap up by March 2010.  It will be theatrically released on October 1, 2010, Hongkong.

Sources: kungfucinema.com, wu-jing.org, asianpopcorn.com, twitchfilm.net, en.wikipedia.org