The 40 Best Action/Martial Arts Movies of the Decade (2011-2020)

Although continuously snubbed by critics and festivals, action movies still retain their popularity among mainstream audiences in particular, while a number of them frequently cross towards the cult category. The golden age of these movies, which parallels the pick of Hong Kong cinema and particularly of companies like Shaw Brothers, Golden Harvest and Milkyway Image, is long since gone. However, excellent productions continue to be released every year, with the scepters having been passed on to the ASEAN countries, particularly after the immense success of “The Raid”, which essentially kick-started a whole trend. At the same time, China/Hong Kong and S. Korea continue to release blockbusters of the category, while Japan always has the anime/manga adaptations, which frequently prove quite successful. 

In an effort to select some of the best action/martial arts movies of the decade (2011-2020), we came up with 40 we felt were the ones that truly stand out in terms of quality, impact and sheer entertainment they offered. The order of this list could be different of course and the number much bigger, but our effort was towards presenting great films and not cataloguing all of them, always with a focus on diversity in style, themes, origin, and filmmaker

*by clicking on the titles you can check the full reviews

40. The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil (Lee Won-tae, 2019, South Korea)

In the end, “The Gangster, The Cop, The Devil” is a tense, entertaining thriller. Fans of the genre, of suspenseful chases and the serial killer-films will find a lot to like in Lee Won-tae's film. (Rouven Lin)

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39. Monstrum (Huh Jong-ho, 2018, South Korea)

the execution of the film is truly magnificent. The action scenes (both hand-to-hand and those against the monster) are impressive, with the combination of choreography, SFX, cinematography and sound resulting in an astonishing audiovisual experience. The fact that these scenes appear in abundance in the film is the greatest asset of the production, and in conjunction with the relatively small duration (105 minutes), retain the interest from beginning to end. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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38. Rampant (Kim Sung-hoon, 2018, South Korea)

There was quite a lot to like with ‘Rampant.' Among its finest qualities is the manner in which the zombie outbreak is being loosened upon the populace, infecting the outer regions of their control and slowly working towards the capital. With a special rename into Demons which is appropriate enough for the time period of the film, the action on display takes on nearly a wuxia form of interplay, courtesy of Action Choreographer Kim Tae-kang. As this includes some fascinating jumping and wirework stunts with the infected shown to be quite athletic in addition to more traditional shambling hordes style zombies, there's plenty to like with the rampaging hordes loosened upon the city, creating all sorts of havoc. (Don Anelli)

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37. Maria (Pedring Lopez, 2019, Philippines)

“Maria” is violent, sexy, and a more than worthy entry to the female vigilante subgenre that all fans of action films will enjoy. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

36. Furie (Le Van Kiet, 2019, Vietnam)

“Furie” doesn't break barriers, nor does it attempt to, but what it does well is tell a familiar story through the female perspective and give the audience a tirade of thrilling, almost non-stop action sequences skilfully planned and executed, while also introducing a much wider audience to the hidden Vietnamese treasure that is action star Veronica Ngo. More of this, please! (Rhythm Zaveri)

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35. Call Of Heroes (Benny Chan, 2016, Hong Kong)

Featuring Sammo Hung as the action director, Benny Chan as the director, Ching Wan Lau, Wu Jing and Louis Koo as the protagonists and with a budget of $32 million, “Call of Heroes” was bound to be an action blockbuster. To my surprise, however, it managed to be even more. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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34. Time to Hunt (Yoon Sung-hyun, 2020, South Korea)

“Time to Hunt” is a film that lives to its title. In this adrenaline laden genre film with a wild body count, the tempo accelerates mercilessly in a never-ending hunt. Yoon Sung-hyun might be influenced by many directors, both from Asia and the US (most notably by James Cameron's “Terminator”, and according to his own words by Spielberg's “Jaws” in terms of building the suspense), but his third feature production that has just had its world premiere at the Berlinale (Special Gala section) has the two traditions merging into a curious hybrid. (Marina D. Richter)

33. We Will Not Die Tonight (Richard Somes, 2016, Philippines)

It is always nice to watch an action/martial arts film that does not hold its punches back, and “We Will Not Die Tonight” does just that, through a violent, dark and “dirty” approach that benefits the category to the fullest. If you like your action films brutal, dark, and dirty, you have to search no further than “We Will Not Die Tonight”, definitely one of the best action films of the year. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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32. Operation Red Sea (Dante Lam, 2018, China)

“Operation Red Sea” offers everything a fan of action blockbusters would ever with from the genre, and that is where the true value for one of the greatest entries in the category lies. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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31. Bhavesh Joshi Superhero (Vikramaditya Motwane, 2018, India)

While the film didn't light the box office on fire, mainly due to a poor marketing campaign, “Bhavesh Joshi Superhero” remains an entertaining, realistic and believable superhero origin film with strong production values, marred slightly by mediocre acting. It needs a far bigger audience that it will most certainly find on online streaming services and home video. Hopefully that might ignite talks of a much needed sequel. (Rhythm Zaveri)

30. Wira (Andrian Teh, 2020, Malaysia)

“Wira” has its faults, but the combination of Ruhian's action choreographies, his own, Hairul Azreen,  Fify Azmi and Ismi Melinda's (Vee) performance and a number of impressive action sequences result in a great spectacle that is bound to satisfy all fans of martial arts films. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

29. A Better Tomorrow 2018 (Ding Sheng, 2018, China)

Ding Sheng directs a film where the frantic action begins from the first minute, once more implementing the handheld-camera tactics Ding Yu, his cinematographer, used on “Saving Mr Wu”, with the outcome being impressive, giving a more realistic essence to the gunfights. Ding Sheng was born in Qingdao and the film highlights his knowledge of the area, with the film unfolding in the Old Town, the port and the nearby fish market, the marina, and even the underground military tunnels, with him presenting the city through a number of images that highlight its beauty. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

28. Brotherhood of Blades (Lu Yang, 2014, China)

Set in the late Ming Dynasty, the movie tells the story of three people who serve in there kingdom as Jinyiwei guards. They have to go after Wei Zhongxian (Jin Shijie), who is on the run and must be caught at all costs (But is it all a strange conspiracy?). (King of Kung Fu)

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27. The Villainess (Jung Byung-gil, 2017, South Korea)

As a whistling tune seeps into what seems to pay homage to Oldboy's corridor scene, with relentless bloodshed and ragged gasps, the opening sequence comes on too strong before viewers can get their bearings. The first 10 minutes of the film are shot in first-person point-of-view, which enables viewers to stay engaged and to be active participants rather than passive sponges. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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26. Blade of the Immortal (Takashi Miike, 2017, Japan)

Slightly aging, massive pop star Kimura Takuya fits well in the moody and battered Manji's shoes and he manages to infuse it with the right amount of sense of humor and grumpiness.  Sugisaki Hana as Rin does her best but her character is not very well developed by the script, and therefore the couple suffers from a lack of chemistry. Fukushi Sota is Asano, a bit too boy-band-faced for the part maybe, but one can't say he is not consistent with the whole Ittō-ryū bunch and their camp Manga aesthetic. The movie launched at Cannes last spring and sold out tickets literally minutes after its opening sale at BFI London Film Festival. (Adriana Rosati)

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25. War of the Arrows (Kim Han-min, 2011, South Korea)

Kim Han-min directs a film in utter action blockbuster fashion: frantic pace with continuous action scenes, excellent utilization of the scenery and of the cinematic value of the bow as a weapon, which in this case, is presented much like a sniper rifle (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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24. Alpha: The Right to Kill (Brillante Mendoza, 2018, Philippines)

Mendoza uses these techniques in order to present an “intellectual” action film, which functions much as Erik Matti's “BuyBust”, with the emphasis though, being on the social commentary rather than the violence and the action, although these two are anything but scarce here. The action part finds its apogee in the raid, which is rather impressively shot, utilizing all the aforementioned techniques, while providing the apogee of both Joshua A. Reyles's cinematography and Diego Marx's editing. (Panos Kotzathanasis)

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23. RE:Born (Yuji Shimomura, 2016, Japan)

I would recommend “Re:Born” to fans of the action genre. It may be short on story, but if you like martial-arts and well-choreographed fight sequences there is a lot to enjoy here. A solid thriller that puts some effort into creating an interesting world, characters that you care about, and some great set-pieces. (Matthew Cooper)

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22. SPL 2 (Cheang Pou-soi, 2015, Hong Kong)

A Hong Kong cop named Kit busts a major gangster only to find his cover blown and his main witness gone. The gangster, in retaliation, has him kidnapped and put in a Thai jail with a false criminal identity. A lowly prison guard Chai with extraordinary fighting skills guards kit and prevents his escape from prison. The prison guard's daughter suffers from a rare form of leukemia and Kit is the only donor who can save her. The prison guard discovers Kit's real identity and helps him to escape in return for his agreeing to save his daughter. Together, Kit and Chai must face the gangster and his minions and take them down

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21. The Raid 2: Berandal (Gareth Evans, 2014, Indonesia)

“The Raid 2” is one of the best action films of the last couple of decades. This is a spectacle you cant miss and this film consolidates both the director Gareth Evans and his star Iko Uwais in the action film genre. If you haven't seen it yet, I don't know what are you waiting for. (Pedro Morata)

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