I don't know many action choreographers, but Corey Yuen seems to be a big one.I've seen Kiss of the Dragon, The Transporter, Lethal Weapon 4, and Romeo Must Die, and they've all had pretty creative fight sequences. Just out of curiousity, which other action choreographers are out there that could beat his ideas?
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well i suppose yuen wo ping is the most famous one....apart doing the choreography in countless hong kong films including crouching tiger hidden dragon, he also directed a few - drunken master, iron monkey, tai chi master) he did all the fight scenes in the matrix trilogy, kill bill...
shareActor and Martial Artist Donnie Yen also choreographs fight scenes. You can see his stuff in "The Princess Blade" and "Blade II" which he stars in as well. I think he help with the fight scenes in "Iron Monkey", too.
Hollywood? You wish!!- http://www.gofishpictures.com/casshern/
Hands down the best action director is Yuen Wo Ping. Although Cory Yuen does fantastic work(Transporter series) Ping owns all martial arts choreography. If you can find a few of his earlier films(Buddhist Fist, Drunken Master, Dreadnaught or even Instant Kung Fu Man)then your in for a real treat. His American films such as The Matrix series, Kung Fu Hustle, Unleashed and Kill Bill 1/2, are great, but I find that when he works w/actors he knows from China his films turn out much better action wise, instead of training w/actors who dont know jack about Kung Fu, he can just hop into a fight scene knowing his actors will produce.
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Jackie Chan may be comedy, but his choreography is a talent. People tend to skip over him.
shareyou want to know the greatest action choreographer of all time? that would be master lau kar leung, director, choreographer and occasional star of masteperpieces such as eight diagram pole fighter (greatest kung fu flick movie ever made) legendary weapons of china(best weapons fight in the history of cinema). another prominent juggernaut in the world of choreography would have to be the great sammo hung: responsible for some of the most hard hitting, techhinally complex jaw dropping fight scenes in the history of cinema, just check out the painfully exquisite fights pedicab driver, wheels on meals, dragons forever, it can be said sammo hung directs jacke chan in fight scene better that jackie directs himself. any budding action directors out there should definetly study the works of these two great masters. two styles of choregraphy that are distinct from another, but similar in there power to inspire.
shareI can't believe no one's mentioned Bruce Lee yet. His fight with Norris still remains the single greatest one on one combat scene.
"When my opponent expands I contract. When he contracts I expand."-Bruce Lee
My favourite choreographer is Sammo Hung. He knew how to make any on-screen fighter look as good as they were ever going to, without reliance on wires etc. Even Jackie Chan never looked as good a fighter as he did when Sammo choreographed him (such as in Wheels On Meals, Dragons Forever, My Lucky Stars and Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars).
Sammo was asked to do the choreography for Game Of Death after Bruce Lee died. He also choreographed some of the fights in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle before illness forced him to pull out and Yuen Wo-Ping took over.
i think one of the best fight scenes ever is the opening of transporter 2. That was awesome how he just took those guys down like that. Corey Yuen also choreographed jet li's video game. The fights in atare pretty good. But Yuen Wo ping has amazing fight scenes, check out his USA films, unleashed, the matrix and kill bill. Kill bill vol. 1 has the best sword fighting scene ever.
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