10 Best Martial Arts Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked 

The Furious is instantly one of the best martial arts movies of this century. It hits theaters this week and has received universal critical acclaim (100% on Tomatometer as of June 11, 2026). Now is the perfect moment to take stock of just how good this century has been for martial arts cinema. Kenji Tanigaki‘s brutal, bone-crunching spectacle has critics reaching for superlatives. FandomWire’s own Matt Hambidge, in his 9/10 review of The Furious, called it, “a brutal, no-holds-barred action thrill ride”.

But it didn’t emerge from a vacuum. It’s the latest in a long line of 21st-century martial arts movies that have consistently redefined what the genre is capable of. There’s the assumption that the glory days of martial arts cinema came to an end somewhere between Bruce Lee’s death and Jackie Chan‘s Hollywood pivot. But that’s not true. Since 2000, martial arts cinema has produced some of its most dazzling work. These ten films, including The Furious, make the case better than any argument could.

To compile this ranking, we considered these things: fight choreography, cultural impact, influence on the genre, critical reception, filmmaking craft, and, finally, lasting legacy within the genre.

10 Kung Fu Hustle (2004)

The genre’s great comedy, and one of its most technically accomplished films, despite pretending otherwise. Stephen Chow sets his tale of gangsters and a hapless wannabe criminal in a grimy 1940s Shanghai housing block, then uses it as a launchpad for action sequences of brilliant choreography that are often grisly and always visually spectacular. 

The joke in Kung-Fu: Hustle is always in on the genre, not at its expense. Chow references the past to shed light on social roles and dismantle expectations. He makes something that functions as both loving tribute and genuinely original filmmaking. 

Where to watch: Tubi

9 Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024)

Criminally underseen, in this movie, director Soi Cheang plants his gangland brawler inside the labyrinthine alleys of 1980s Kowloon Walled City and lets choreographer Kenji Tanigaki (who directed The Furious) loose on it.

The result is a colorful, blazing fury of fisticuffs that spins the infamous Hong Kong landmark into an entertaining pop art mythology. There is some truly inventive fight choreography that is fluid and powerful. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is both an elegy for, and a triumph of, Hong Kong action cinema.

Where to watch: ViX

8 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

The Western outsider that earned its place. Tarantino has never been shy about his cinema inspirations, and his Shaw Brothers obsession produces here something the genre had never seen before. This is an American martial arts film that genuinely understands what it loves. The Crazy 88 sequence in Kill Bill: Vol. 1 turns a two-level nightclub into a slaughterhouse in one of the most balletic and bloodiest action spectacles in cinematic history. Choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, who also worked on Crouching Tiger, does his normal masterful self. The results are the kind that go down in movie history. It also remains one of the best among Tarantino’s movies.

Where to watch: Prime Video (rent)

7 Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003)

The film that reset expectations for what real looked like. Tony Jaa‘s breakout announced itself with a tagline: “No computer graphics. No stunt doubles. No wires.” That was a mission statement, not a boast. 

Jaa showcases raw, bone-crunching Muay Thai executed at full speed. His action is done with ferocity and authenticity. This gives Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior a visceral edge that cinema hadn’t felt since Jackie Chan’s first death-defying stunts. Every other martial arts film made around this time suddenly looked slightly fake.

Where to watch: Prime Video

6 Ip Man (2008)

Kung fu films had not been popular in Hong Kong since the early 1990s, when Ip Man was unleashed in 2008. It launched another wave of martial arts films, finally turning Donnie Yen, who had been working in the industry for over 20 years, into a well-deserved superstar. The film earns that legacy.

Yen, who is the star of the upcoming John Wick spinoff movie Caine, portrays the Wing Chun grandmaster in a precise and devastating manner. He is a man of almost total stillness until he isn’t. The scene where he takes on ten Japanese soldiers in silence remains one of the decade’s great action sequences.

Where to watch: Fubo

5 Hero (2002)

Zhang Yimou’s Hero barely even resembles a martial arts movie for long stretches, for it looks more like a series of living paintings. Zhang breaks the film into chapters, each intentionally washed with a dominant color that contrasts with the neutral-toned palace, using those complex themes to inform striking visuals and aesthetics. 

Each fight is less a fight than a philosophical argument conducted with swords. Hero is simultaneously one of the great wuxia films and one of the most considerable visual achievements in 21st-century cinema.

Where to watch: Kanopy and Hoopla

4 The Furious (2026)

The newest entry, Kenji Tanigaki’s revenge film about a mute father hunting child traffickers through Southeast Asia, has no interest in subtlety and every interest in reinvention. There will be inevitable comparisons to The Raid and The Night Comes for Us, but there are times when The Furious feels like it’s inventing a whole new language as it throws one insane action scene after another in your face. 

One of the best martial arts movies of the 21st century, Tanigaki knows exactly how to film his acrobatic fighters to highlight their uncanny ability to wail on each other in new, gut-wrenching ways.

Where to watch: Releases in the US in theaters on June 12, 2026.

Check out the trailer here:

3 The Raid 2 (2014)

A rarity: a sequel that becomes an entirely different kind of film. Gareth Evans expands the claustrophobic premise of the original Raid into a full-blown crime epic. He gives every villain their own aesthetic and every fight its own personality.

The final hour of The Raid 2 is particularly masterful. It features, among other stuff, a gonzo car chase through Jakarta, and one of the best one-versus-one fight scenes in cinema history. At two and a half hours, it never loses its grip.

Where to watch: Prime Video (rent)

2 The Raid: Redemption (2011)

The Indonesian action classic made Iko Uwais an international star. The fight scenes are bone-crunchingly brutal, compounded by Iko Uwais’ full-body deployment of pencak silat and Evans’ frenetic camerawork. 

There’s a simplicity to The Raid‘s plot and a lethal efficiency to its action that makes it the most memorably vicious action movie of the 21st century. The premise, a SWAT team trapped in a building full of killers, strips the genre back to its purest element: survival. Nothing wasted, nothing ornamental. It is easily among the best action movies of the 2010s.

Where to watch: Hulu

1 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon started the century’s conversation. Ang Lee did something with the wuxia genre that no one had before. On top of high-flying action, he added high drama, bringing together Western dramatic sensibilities and Eastern action, while the film’s unusually thoughtful gender politics prioritized women’s desire to carve out autonomy for themselves, whatever the cost. Twenty-five years on, it still soars.

Where to watch: Prime Video (rent)

Here are all the movies in the list, summarized:

Title	Director	Year	Main Cast	Premise	IMDb Score (as of June 11, 2026)	Rotten Tomatoes Score (as of June 11, 2026)
Kung Fu Hustle	Stephen Chow	2004	Stephen Chow, Yuen Wah, Yuen Qiu	A small-time crook becomes embroiled in a gang war and discovers legendary martial artists living in a housing complex.	7.7/10	90% | 89%
Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In	Soi Cheang	2024	Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Terrance Lau, Sammo Hung	A refugee finds shelter in Kowloon Walled City and becomes caught in a violent conflict between rival gangs.	6.9/10	90% | 85%
Kill Bill: Vol. 1	Quentin Tarantino	2003	Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah	A former assassin awakens from a coma and begins a relentless quest for revenge.	8.2/10	85% | 81%
Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior	Prachya Pinkaew	2003	Tony Jaa, Petchtai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol	A young Muay Thai fighter travels to Bangkok to recover a sacred Buddha head stolen from his village.	7.2/10	85% | 84%
Ip Man	Wilson Yip	2008	Donnie Yen, Simon Yam, Lynn Hung	The life of Wing Chun grandmaster Ip Man during the Japanese occupation of China.	8.0/10	86% | 93%
Hero	Zhang Yimou	2002	Jet Li, Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, Donnie Yen	A warrior recounts how he defeated three legendary assassins seeking to kill the King of Qin.	7.9/10	94% | 87%
The Furious	Kenji Tanigaki	2026	Xie Miao, Joe Taslim, Yang Enyou, Jeeja Yanin, Brian Le, Joey Iwanaga	After his young daughter is kidnapped by a human-trafficking syndicate, a mute handyman joins forces with a journalist whose wife has also been abducted, launching a relentless assault on a sprawling criminal empire across Southeast Asia.	7.7/10	100% | N/A
The Raid 2	Gareth Evans	2014	Iko Uwais, Arifin Putra, Yayan Ruhian	An undercover police officer infiltrates a criminal empire to expose corruption and gang warfare.	7.9/10	82% | 87%
The Raid: Redemption	Gareth Evans	2011	Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian	An elite police squad becomes trapped inside a building controlled by a ruthless crime lord.	7.6/10	87% | 87%
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon	Ang Lee	2000	Chow Yun-fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, Chang Chen	The theft of a legendary sword intertwines the lives of warriors, lovers, and a rebellious aristocrat.	7.9/10	96% | 86%

What do you think is the greatest martial arts movie fight scene ever filmed? Let us know in the comments below.