by Chloe Jones

Created on: May 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

The best martial arts movie directors are those who brought something new to the genre and had a far-reaching and lasting impact on cinema.

Akira Kurosawa is one of the most respected martial arts film directors. A trained artist, Kurosawa paid tremendous attention to the visual details of costume and set design. His films were epic stories, often with Western literary influences, such as "Throne of Blood", which is a retelling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth". He was a huge fan of the legendary American director of westerns, John Ford.

Kurosawa in turn had an influence on Hollywood. His most famous film, "The Seven Samurai", was remade in America as "The Magnificent Seven" and its plot was borrowed for several other films. Director George Lucas is an admirer of Kurosawa. Lucas drew inspiration for his Star Wars films from the works of Kurosawa, and even borrowed the wipe effect Kurosawa was so fond of to transition between scenes.

Another important martial arts film director is Yuen Woo Ping. His breakout hit was the 1978 classic, "Drunken Master". The film made a star out of a young Jackie Chan, who broke the mold of the martial arts film superstar that was set by Bruce Lee. It was the first film to feature drunken fist kung fu, a comedic style of kung fu fighting that Jackie Chan still practices in his popular movies today. Yuen Woo Ping is very much in demand these days as an action choreographer, having staged the memorable fight scenes in movies such as "Kill Bill", "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".

Speaking of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", that movie's director deserves a special mention. Ang Lee is not per se a martial arts director. He first achieved critical acclaim as the director of films such as "The Wedding Banquet", "The Ice Storm" and "Sense and Sensibility" before directing "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" to a host of Oscar wins and nominations. The movie featured stunning visuals. The wirework stunts, which make the characters appear to be flying, have been copied, and parodied, in several movies since. Perhaps the most notable achievement of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" was to attract a large American audience for a foreign language movie with subtitles. This film helped usher in a new interest in foreign language films in America.

Akira Kurosawa, Yuen Woo Ping and Ang Lee all brought something unique to the martial arts film genre. They are among the best martial arts movie directors because they had an impact not only on martial arts movies, but also on filmmaking in general.

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