Legend... wait for it... -dary

Having inspired multiple remakes, remakes off of remakes, as well as other shows/movies inspired from it, it should come to no surprise for making this list. While Seven Samurai may be a bit long winded for the modern viewer(3 hours long) I still had a lot of fun watching, and it didn't really feel that long (though I did need to pause in the middle for irl stuff). 

At the base, Seven Samurai is an underdog movie. A poor village constantly attacked by bandits, have nothing but rice to offer samurai to protect them, making it difficult to find anyone. When they do, it's a fight of 5 samurai with varying ability and 2 who desire to be samurai against a large trope of bandits. Everyone will have to strategize, defend, and work together in order to beat the bandits.

Seven Samurai is definitely worth the watch, and definitely worth the continued love it gets.

Possibly one of my favorite Shaw Bros. films. One-Armed swordsman earned itself many more continuations and spin-offs. (It's lower rating is partially due to me enjoying later iterations of the films with the one-armed swords man... but I felt like the original deserved to be here instead as without it we wouldn't have the sequels.)

Our main lead is adopted by the man his father gives his life protecting. However, the other students and the adoptive father's biological daughter do not like him due to his poor origins. Later his arm is cut off by them. He is found by a peasant girl who is done with all the fighting and killing the martial artists are constantly doing. It's from her that he learns he can still fight, and learns a style for one-arm swordsmanship. It is also because of her that he only uses it for defense when entirely necessary. 

It's that dualism that I think it my favorite part about one-armed swordsman. Not only do you have over coming very difficult obstacles only to come back stronger... but you have in a show all about martial arts, a martial artist who is mindful of the other's distaste in violence and tries to keep it in mind. 

Absolute Gorgeous Cinematography each moment is Breathtaking, and ring with a ton of meaning behind each shot. Angles and Colors play huge roles in conveying reality vs storytelling and differing points of view. The shots and the fights are a pleasure to the eyes. The plot itself slowly unravels as it goes on and the true meanings come out.

Here's a link to an in-depth review about Hero. (Heavily Spoilerific)

I hesitate to put Hero and House of Flying Daggers on the same list as they are from the same director, but I feel like Hero is a hard movie to digest, while House of Flying Daggers is much easier... and thus easier to like. 

Again, absolutely gorgeous cinematography, and action sequences that are super fun to watch. It is candy for your eyes.

Although the plot may seem like just a romance martial arts movie with (did I mention) gorgeous cinematography, ultimately it challenges authority as it is because of them our couple have difficulties. I won't say too much though lol. 

(Honestly I enjoy more than Hero lol)

The 36th Chamber of Shaolin is probably the only title on this list that doesn't quite meet the 2nd prerequisite... even if I've watched it three times. However this is undoubtedly  a classic in martial arts films, and itself had many spin offs and continuations from it.

Our main lead of this movie needs to learn martial arts to take revenge, and thus joins... the... 36th Chamber of Shaolin... After a training sequence (which honestly feels like 75% of the film to me) which is both interesting but grueling, we get to some really well choreographed fight sequences.

Having earned itself a sequel, Yojimbo is a fun story about a Ronin samurai who wonders into a town being destroyed by two gangs at war with each other. It gained high critical acclaim. Yojimbo also inspired later adaptations of westerns and spin offs as well as lots of references in popular media.

It's always a fun story to watch one person take down 2 waring states, and Yojimbo is no exception. 

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has won so many awards and accolades. It also made way for more similar films to make their way to western audiences.

Probably my favorite scene from the movie. (Says clip 6/8... so slightly spoiler... maybe? idk It's really just one of the fights...) Our main leads battle it out with one showing off her prowess with many different kinds of weapons the line the edges of their arena. The sword is a special sword that I think is supposed to destroy others, forcing her to have to switch constantly and it's beautiful.

I mean how good do you have to be, that marketing for another movie, that has NOTHING to do with you except maybe an actor and different forms of fighting, gets called THE RETURN OF ______? Apparently five deadly venoms good. 

Five Deadly Venoms features 5 different forms of martial arts, with multiple fight scenes between different people. It's quite the ride.