In the martial arts movie genre, there are fight scenes, and then there are fight scenes - sequences of awesome choreographed physical prowess that sear themselves into viewers’ brains. Every fight scene serves a purpose, of course, but the best fights go beyond mere punches and kicks; they push the boundaries and limitations of even the most seasoned performers. A good fight scene captures your imagination. A truly epic fight scene, however, leaves you slack-jawed.

So what makes a fight epic? Is it the length of the scene? Does it feature heaps of crazy, over the top stunt work? Is it the calibre of the actors involved, or the backdrop used? Should the total liquid volume of blood drawn be taken into account? The answer to all of these is “yes,” though not every fight need contain all of them to qualify as “epic.”

We’ve talked about our favorite fight scenes a few times in the past, so you’ll see some recurring hits on the list below. But we had to retread some ground to put together a list that lives up to its name. Read on for our picks for the 10 Most Epic Martial Arts Movie Fight Scenes.

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The Matrix - Reeves

The Matrix: Neo vs Agent Smith

No matter what anyone has to say about The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, it’s hard to touch the Wachowskis'original as a major influence on modern action flicks and high-concept blockbusters. For pure martial arts know-how, look elsewhere; there are stronger examples of technical mastery throughout the martial arts canon. But if we’re going to talk about epic dust-ups, then touching on the subway confrontation between Neo and the nefarious Agent Smith is a must.

These two combatants incur substantial damage to public property all on their own; concrete cracks and crumbles at the impact of their onslaught. Entire chunks are knocked out of weight bearing pillars. But their contest isn’t just a great display of wirework vandalism - it’s one of the most pivotal moments in the entire film, the point at which Neo begins to live up to his own mythos.

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Legend of Drunken Master

The Legend of Drunken Master: Wong Fei-hung vs John and Henry

Lau Kar-Leung’s The Legend of Drunken Master has its fair share of fights that fit the bill for this list (that midday tea house melee involving Jackie Chan, Lau himself as a renowned Manchurian officer, and the extensive coterie of the Axe Gang), but seeing Chinese revolutionary Wong Fei-hung go toe-to-toe with turncoats John (Ken Lo) and Henry (Pak Ho-Sung) takes all.

We know that Fei-hung’s drunken boxing style is dangerous. Imbibe too much and you risk becoming a career boozerino; too little, and the benefits of drunken boxing are lost on you. So, backed into a corner against a pair of very gifted opponents, Fei-hung remembers his dear old dad’s advice and gets just soused enough on grain alcohol to become a the kung-fu equivalent of the Tasmanian Devil, an unstoppable whirlwind of merciless beatdowns. At one point Fei-hung sets Henry on fire, but as much as that’s got to sting, there’s a sense that he gets the better end of the deal compared to the thoroughly trounced John.

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Bruce Lee surrounded by opponents in Fist of Fury

Fist of Fury: Bruce Lee vs Evil Japanese Dojo

Bruce Lee may have left this world far too soon, but he attained immortality through his incredible, storied career as a big screen star and an inspiration to fellow martial artists from all over the world. This isn’t a Bruce Lee list, but any list dedicated to his film catalogue is going to be hard-pressed to identify either his “best” movies or his “best” fight scenes - there are so many of both, choosing seems like a Herculean task.

Fortunately, the parameters for this list are narrow, and Lee taking down an entire dojo is the definition of epic. Pound for pound, the sheer quantity of cannon fodder here is overwhelming, but it’s Lee who makes this scene what it is. He’s a tiger let out of his pen, ferocious and precise in every movement he makes as he takes down his myriad opponents one by one.

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Kitchen scene in Raid 2

The Raid 2: Berandal: Rama vs The Assassin

Another movie so chock-full of action sequences that can be characterized as “epic” that it’s hard to know where to start. Take that insane car chase through Jakarta, for instance; how nobody on set wound up dying while filming that little ditty remains a happy mystery. Elsewhere, Yayan “Mad Dog Forever” Ruhian proves his badassery in one of the great bar ruckuses of all time.

But Rama’s (Iko Uwais) head to head with the nameless Assassin (Cecep Arif Rahman) is a knock-down, drag-out slobberknocker for the ages. Neither man shows any quarter; the moment that Rama squares off with the Assassin, we know that it’s about to get gritty, and gritty it gets. How much of The Raid 2’s budget did Gareth Evans dedicate toward purchase of red dye and corn syrup? A third? Half? By the time Rama wins the upper hand and cuts his enemy to ribbons, they’ve spilled enough of each other’s blood on the kitchen floor to give any health inspector fits.

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The Protector

The Protector: Unedited Restaurant Brawl

As Tony Jaa movies go, you can’t do much better than The Protector without going straight to the original Ong Bak. But even Ong Bak doesn’t have a four minute unbroken sequence where Jaa fights non-stop without breaking a sweat. As a general rule, fight scenes require careful planning and perfect timing to function; they demand great blocking and attentive editing, too, because most are composites of beats shot non-consecutively.

Not so with The Protector. Life lesson: don’t steal Tony Jaa’s elephants. He’ll storm your restaurant in a heartbeat and start wrecking the place. The actual fighting we see is arguably less impressive than what apppears in more traditionally constructed dust-ups, but that’s an allowance we have to make in exchange for what's going on behind the camera.

NEXT PAGE: Crouching TigerWay of the Dragon and More...

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Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Shu Lien vs Jen

It takes a lot to end a friendship, like deep-rooted resentment and shocking betrayal. In Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the governor’s daughter Jen (Zhang Ziyi) longs to live the life led by warrior Shu Lien (Michelle Yeoh). To do so, she teams with a traitor to the Wudang martial arts sect and steals the Green Destiny - the sword of Shu Lien’s friend, Mu Bai (Chow Yun-Fat).

Eventually, Shu Lien and Jen try to hash out their feelings, but the whole thing goes belly-up and they cross blades. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is full of fantastical, high-flying skirmishes, but Jen’s match with Shu Lien shows a more subtler dimension; Shu Lien is the better fighter, and they both know it. The only edge Jen has is her weapon of choice, which shatters each armament Shu Lien picks up as they fight. Skill prevails, though, and the look on Jen’s face when Shu Lien gets one up on her is priceless.

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Iron Monkey

Iron Monkey: Wong Kei-Ying and Iron Monkey vs Hin-hung

Any hero worth his salt can stand up to an evil tyrannical dictator and send him packing after a few minutes of trading blows back and forth. But what if that dictator also happens to be a traitor to Shaolin who favors the poisonous Buddha’s Palm technique? And what if he chooses a series of precarious wooden poles as the battlefield for your final showdown?... and what if they’re on fire?

Then you’d better go by the buddy system, which is exactly what Wong Kei-Ying (Donnie Yen) and the Iron Monkey (Yu Rongguang) do when they team up to defeat the treacherous Hin-hung (Yen Shi-Kwan). It’s not enough, of course, that the three combatants are duking it out over a burgeoning inferno: Hin-hung is almost an equal match to both Wong and the Iron Monkey. But cooperation wins the day, and sends Hin-hung to his flaming demise.

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Way of the Dragon - Lee and Norris

Way of the Dragon: Tang vs Colt

Ready your Chuck Norris jokes, everybody. In fairness to Chuck, there was a time when he wasn’t simply a meme on the Internet, and if you want to go back to that time, just watch Way of the Dragon. As Bruce Lee movies go, this one trips over the line of silliness; it’s goofy and scruffy in ways that Lee’s best films aren’t. But it does end with Lee taking on Norris, and as much as that sounds like the formulation of a punchline, it isn’t.

Sure, there’s a kitten watching Lee and Norris as they trade hits in the Colosseum. And yes, the fact that they’re fighting at the Colosseum of all places is a little ridiculous. But it’s the location and the names that help make this entry epic, because let’s be honest: it’s hard to get more epic than Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee going head-to-head in the greatest gladiatorial arena on the planet.

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Once Upon a Time in China 2

Once Upon a Time in China II: Wong Fei-hung vs General Nap-lan

Let’s face facts: Jet Li and Donnie Yen are, and forever will be, two of the true greats of martial arts cinema. Bruce Lee gets all the glory, but Li and Yen are gods who belong to the same pantheon as the Little Dragon. For best proof, watch their titanic duel at the end of Tsui Hark’s Once Upon a Time in China II. The whole movie is epic. It’s not a surprise, then, that Li’s final bout with Yen is equally so.

Their fight lasts roughly seven minutes, which is respectable in its own right. But duration isn’t the only detail that makes this a stand-out sequence. Li and Yen are on point with every movement they make. At times, their combat looks downright balletic. Plus, Wong and Nap-lan refuse to scuffle in just one place, moving from one stage to another without missing a beat. Most of all, their clash tells a story through action instead of existing just for action’s sake. It’s a scene that’s dynamic in so many ways, we’d be remiss to exclude it.

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Flashpoint - Yen and Chou

Flash Point: Ma Jun vs Tony

You might have noticed that we really, really like Donnie Yen here at Screen Rant. His name shows up three times on our list, and for good reason: the man is legend made flesh. What may be more amazing than Yen himself, though, is that each of the scenes he’s credited with on this list not only make the grade, but manage to distinguish themselves from one another.

Take Flash Point, for example: a short, lean, meat-and-potatoes Wilson Yip crime yarn that exists solely to get Yen and Colin Chou to throw down. Pardon the expression, but there’s nothing flashy about this fight: just Yen, Chou, and plenty of room to rumble. Sometimes, epic means breaking set pieces. Sometimes, it means gore galore. In Flash Point, it just means two guys pummeling each other within an inch of their lives.

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Best Martial Arts Movie Fights List

Conclusion

Epic may lie in the eye of the beholder, though, so you could easily write up a dozen different lists in this vein without any overlap. Jimmy Wang's Master of the Flying Guillotine contains its fair share of epic fights; you could probably occupy half of a top ten using scenes just from that movie. Wilson Yip's Ip Man, meanwhile, does a pretty impressive job aping Fist of Fury's dojo scene, and if the second and third Matrix movies spectacularly fail to live up to the original, they both swing for the fences in terms of the scale of their fights.

So what are you favorite epic martial arts fights? Open up with your own barrage of movies in the comments section!