Best Fight Choreography?

[Havoc Knight]

Hey all!

New to the forums, so I apologize if this has been discussed before (I already tried searching).

As the title says, I'm looking to see what series people think has the best fight choreography. This can be any toku series, live action or anime. Just name the series, and give a brief explanation as to why you believe its the best.

Looking forward to your responses!

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

While I have never seen the movie myself, I have seen a combat scene from a movie called "The Seven Grandmasters". It is an older Kung Fu movie that features an amazing combat scene between to martial arts masters utalizing different weapons. No strings, no special effects, just two guys beating the **** out of each other with amazing coreography and various weapon arts. If you look around you should be able to find the fight scene I speak of on youtube. If I remember to do so I will link it here later. Really good fight scene.

Edit: Looks like it has been remade a few times. The one you are looking for is probably the 1978 version.

 

[Keith Justice]

GARO. Hands down. No match. Unmatched. No contest.

Welcome to the club. :thumbs:

 

[Burkion]

Garo seconded. No question.

Metalder thrown in for just balls out fun.

 

[Glamador]

I haven't seen Garo, and am unsure what, in fact, it is. But from what I can tell Wizard has at least the most intricate and flashy of all the Kamen Rider series. Dunno if you consider that "good", but I do.

 

[Inui Takumi]

As far as Tokusatsu goes, I agree that GARO is way up there. But there are a lot of other shows/movies that have done an exceptional job with choreography. Gosei Sentai Dairanger has some of the most consistently awesome fight scenes in Sentai, IMO. The Kamen Rider W movies "A to Z Gaiamemories of Fate" and "Kamen Rider W Returns Accel" had some amazing fights and cinematography thanks to Koichi Sakamoto's directing. He also worked on the Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max movie and the Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends The Movie which you should check out for some great action and fight scenes. Honestly though, the two current shows are kicking ass in choreography as well. We all kind of **** on Gobusters, but the fights are quite intricate and fast-paced with great stunt work. And Kamen Rider Wizard almost has a Koichi Sakamoto feel to it despite it being directed by someone else.

If we're talking outside of Toku, man, that just has too many answers that could probably fill up a book and a half. I'd say for a classic movie, check out 36th Chambers of Shaolin with Gordon Liu and Drunken Master 2 with Jackie Chan. And for a more recent feel, check out The Raid: Redemption. It's an Indonesian film that came out here in the States recently starring Iko Uwais. It's has amazingly choreographed fight scenes using Silat, an Indonesian/Malaysian fight style and is bone-crushing as hell.

 

[Glamador]

All the praise inspired Glamador to check out Garo's first episode.

Yeah....Glam agrees. Garo's the best. Also he will now be watching the rest of it.

 

[shingamyeonblack]

This can be any toku series, live action or anime.

So live action or anime with tokusatsu included in live action? I don't think that I understand this part.

 

[Ziginz Zegell]

Garo did have good fight scenes, but I still have alot of it to watch. I still have half of Gokaiger to watch...

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

Most of the shows with Junji Yamaoka as action-director. (My favorite works of his are Dynaman, Bioman, Changeman, Flashman, Blue Swat and Ohranger.) Yamaoka's fights are quick and he always finds creative ways to film them, arranging the fights to where the Sentai team will all be off in their own separate fights and you can see the different members in the background in a shot focusing on one particular member. He sometimes takes a handheld and runs through a big brawl like the viewer is in the midst of it. And Yamaoka also pushed for actors to do as many of their own stunts as possible in out of suit fights (remember those)?

I don't like wire-fu, and Yamaoka worked in the days before all of that, when fights seemed brutal and not like Cirque du Soleil routines.

EDIT: I wanted to add that I also like how Yamaoka often puts thoughts into how shots look -- he doesn't just film a fight, but he'll go for kind of artsy shots depending on the location.