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The Best Martial Arts / Action Movies To Look Forward To In 2018

Updated: 10th September 2017. (Added ‘' )

Having missed our usual run down of top martial arts / action films for 2017. We thought we would start things off early by taking a look at the films coming out in 2018 which we think you should keep an eye out for.

Unlike previous years, we have not restricted our list to just pure martial arts films. This time we have branched out and included cross over action films that should provide plenty of fight scenes and moments of excitement to entertain fans of martial arts epics.

We will update this article with new movies and trailers so bookmark this page and feel free to leave a comment about any of the movies listed or even ones we may have missed.

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Remember when Donnie said he was done with Ip Man… thankfully he has decided to stay on as Grandmaster Ip Man, filming is scheduled to start March 2018. Given that the other films in the series were all released  around the December/January timeframe  we can expect Ip Man 4 to follow suit. It's going to be interesting to see where they take the Ip Man series now given that the the final film wrapped things up pretty well.

One of the few genuinely good American Jackie Chan films (Shanghai Knights ) is getting another sequel. The Chinese-American Western series featuring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson will this time see Jared Hess ( ‘Napoleon Dynamite' ) directing.

 – Ip Man Side Story

Whilst most of the focus will be on Ip Man 4, it's actually the side story film featuring Max Zhang (who was fantastic in Ip Man 3) which could be the surprise hit of 2018. Very little is known about the story, but Martial Arts legend choreographer / director is attached to direct.

Max Zhang / Jin Zhang  | – The Invincible Dragon

Yes, Max Zhang is definitely becoming a favourite of ours. In Invincible Dragon he teams up with Juju Chan (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon : Sword of Destiny ) and is also joined by UFC Legend Anderson Silva. A trailer was recently released.

/ – Untitled Project

Now this could be fun!! Sammo Hung and Takeshi Miike will be teaming up to work on a yet untitled action comedy. The combination of Sammo and Takeshi definitely has us excited. Sammo Hung's amazing fight choreography skills mixed with Takeshi Miike's violent craziness should guarantee that whatever this film will be, we are sure to be in for a wild ride.

Asura

With a reported budget of over $100 million , this action fantasy adventure is sure to at last look good!. It is reported that this could well be the most expensive Chinese film ever produced. Hong Kong Film veterans Tony Leung and Carina Lau join a cast full of rising stars.  The plan is that this film will be the first in a trilogy based on Buddhist mythology.

Detective Dee – The Four Heavenly Kings

Filming for the 3rd Detective Dee film recently wrapped up, with a release scheduled early 2018. Many of the cast members from the previous film “Rise of the Sea Dragon” are also returning.

Plot : Detective Dee is forced to defend himself against the accusations of Empress Wu while investigating a crime spree.

Director: Tsui Hark

Cast: Mark Chao, William Feng, Kenny Lin, Carina Lau

The Monkey King 3

Of course they are making another Monkey King film! The last film plus the animated film were both hits at the box office , far surpassing the first film which starred Donnie Yen.

Aaron Kwok once again returns in the lead role and Cheang Pou-Soi is again directing. The film is scheduled to be released in time for Chinese New Year 2018 (February).

Plot : As Tang Sanzang (Feng Shaofeng) and his three proteges head into the all-female territory in the Xi Liang nation known as Women's Country, they meet the ruler of the country (Zanilia Zhao). On Sun Wukong (Aaron Kwok)'s suggestion, Tang Sanzang pretends to marry the ruler and lies that his three students will go to fetch the scriptures in place of him. Later, he pretends to see his students off and escapes with Sun Wukong's help when the four of them are safely outside the city.  Source – Wikipedia


Wolf Warriors 3

Director: Jacky Wu Jing.

Who would have guessed that Wolf Warriors 2 would go on to be one of the biggest Chinese films ever. Yes, I know there had been a lot of politics involved which contributed to it's success but you have to be impressed with any film that can do the numbers this did (especially given how poor Wolf Warriors was ).

Wolf Warriors 3 was eluded to in the closing credits of Wolf Warriors 3 so we are probably reaching by hoping the 3rd film will be out in 2018 but you just never know. Apparently Wu Jing already had a story / script prepared for the Wolf Warrior trilogy of films over 10 years ago!

Kung Fu Big League

All we know so far is that will be reprising is role as Wong Fei Hung . A role he originally played in Once Upon A Time In China 4 and 5 (replacing Jet Li), as well as the TV Series.

Andy On will play Master Huo Yuan-jia ( The character played by Jet Li in ‘Fearless' ). Dennis To will apparently be reprising is role as Ip Man for this film.

All of this sounds like some surreal Martial Arts mashup movie / dream, and with Jeff Lau ( Fist of Fury, Kung Fu Cyborg, A Chinese Odyssey ) attached to direct / produce it could well end up being some crazy martial arts comedy.

The Hidden Sword

The Latest film of Xu Haofeng (Final Master ), screenwriter for Wong Kar-wai's The Grandmaster.


If you missed it you can also check out our 2016 list , many of the films mentioned in that list will now be available to watching via streaming services.

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