Back in the day before kung-fu films had their resurgence in the 90's, coming across those fun Hong Kong martial arts movies wasn't easy for me. So whenever I needed a dose of instant smack-ya-in-the-face excitement, I used to put on the pseudo-documentary The Deadliest Art: The Best Of The Martial Arts Films. Made in 1990 and accompanied by sporadic narration from John Saxon (Enter The Dragon, Battle Beyond The Stars), it showcases gobs of clips from a number of famous and not-so-famous spools of celluloid. There's also a few insubstantial bits of interviews with some of the featured stars and a simplistic look at the nature of martial arts itself. But mostly, it's full of @$$-kicking. Rounding up the usual suspects...

The Three Brothers: Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, & Yuen Biao
My personal theory is that the universal appeal of these guys can be explained by the fact that they each embody one of William H. Sheldon's somatypes. Jackie Chan is the mesomorph (muscular guy), Sammo Hung is the endomorph (hefty guy), and Yuen Biao is the ectomorph (skinny guy). There's one of them for each bodytype out there to identify with.

A good smattering of scenes from films like Project A 1 & 2, Operation Condor 2 (aka Armor Of The Gods), Dragons Forever, Millionaire's Express (referred to here as Shanghai Express), My Lucky Stars, Eastern Condors and Zu: Warriors From The Magic Mountain are spread throughout The Deadliest Art. Watching them, one can't help but to notice that Sammo Hung, in particular, is impressive. Terrifying, even. It almost defies modern physics when you have a guy that size leap around all over the place like a monkey who had crack-laced jalapenos for lunch (watch the early Yuen Woo-Ping film Magnificent Butcher for an excellent demonstration of his skills). Also presented is the fight between Jackie Chan and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez in Wheels On Meals uncut...two guys kicking the crap out of each other at its best.

Bruce Lee
He's the man but he doesn't get much on air time here. Most notably, they have the nunchaku scene from Enter The Dragon and the fight between him and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar from Game Of Death.

Cynthia Rothrock
Seeing as how prominent female martial arts stars are hard to come by I guess it isn't surprising that Rothrock gets a fair amount of screentime here. It also helps when one considers that The Deadliest Art's director, Sandra Weintraub, is also the writer/producer of the limp China O'Brien films. We get a couple obligatory clips from those plus a few words from Rothrock's rather egotistical co-star Keith Cooke.

But also shown are some great scenes from Rothrock's Hong Kong-made films like Corey Yuen's Righting Wrongs (aka Above The Law, not the Steven Seagal film of the same name) which, unlike her more widely distributed American productions, features some jaw-dropping fights. If you've only seen her awful USA films, you'll be in for a shock. This woman can fight. It's such a shame that, much like Mark Dacascos, she rarely gets a vehicle worthy of really showcasing her talents.

Lesser-known but deserving of attention
Kwan Tak-Hing, the man who played Wong Fei Hung in 70+ films from 1949 on up, is shown reprising the role in a few clips from Yuen Woo-Ping's Dreadnaught. Even in his old age, the man has a fantastic presence onscreen. His short appearance in Magnificent Butcher was one of the highlights of the movie. I'd love to see more of his work. This guy rocks.

Another brief but silly scene is presented from one of the Mr. Boo movies, starring Michael Hui (who's said to be an influence on present-day HK comedian Stephen Chow). This one involves sausage-fu. The first Mr. Boo flick, 1976's The Private Eyes, was considered a landmark of Chinese comedy.

The 1982 wuxia film Duel To The Death makes a few notable appearances in The Deadliest Art. I haven't yet seen it but it's got flying swordsman, ninjas with kites and some nice scenery. On top of that, it has a reputation for being fairly bloody so it's got all the elements of a must-see movie.

Glaring omissions
This film was made in 1990 so neither Jet Li nor Michelle Yeoh are featured because even though they had both appeared in films at the time, The Deadliest Art was made before their star-making turns in Once Upon A Time In China and Police Story III: Supercop, respectively. As there's a focus on 80's flicks, old school kung-fu folks like Gordon Liu (36th Chamber Of Shaolin), Hwang Jang Lee (Invincible Armor, Drunken Master 1), Jimmy Wang Yu (One-Armed Swordsman, Master Of The Flying Guillotine), the Shaw Brothers (way too many films to count), and King Hu (director of A Touch Of Zen & the original Dragon Inn) are completely ignored. They did manage to slip in a little of Angela Mao, the Michelle Yeoh of the 70's. Probably to up the chick quotient of the film.

Not so glaring omissions
Kudos to the filmmakers for not including Don "The Dragon" Wilson and Steven "Please go see Exit Wounds" Seagal. They annoy me. Jean-Claude Van Damme, however, does show up in an early apperance as the baddie from No Retreat, No Surrender.

Glaring inclusions
What the hell is Master Ninja doing here? Lee Van Cleef may have been a good gunslinger, but the man is an awful ninja. If you have to insert footage of Shô Kosugi battling an over-the-hill star, show Kosugi (yes, that's a pun) taking on Rutger Hauer in Blind Fury!

Wrappin' it up, y'all
You can't call The Deadliest Art: The Best Of The Martial Arts Films comprehensive or up-to-date but it's jam-packed with lots of brawling and swordplay. If you want 90 minutes of fisticuffs with absolutely none of that boring plot development stuff, you could hardly do better than this. I especially recommend it to those who are mostly unfamiliar with martial arts flicks but are looking to get into them.

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12