Jet Li – now available on UFC Fight Pass. | Photo by Dominic Nahr/South China Morning Post via Getty Images
Ten movies make up the first installment of films to watch while in quarantine.
UFC Fight Pass has expanded its offerings in the wake of the coronavirus lockdown. Ten action movies are now available to subscribers.
UFC.com has suggestions on where to get started with staff picks and reviews. Their first recommendation is Payment in Blood (2000). The film is directed by Phillip Ko-Fei, who had a long career as actor, writer, and director of martial arts films in Hong Kong before he passed away in 2017. Payment in Blood follows gang leader Park Min-Wah as he decides to pull a heist on a rival gang. He hires foreigners to conduct the heist, in the hope his enemies will not realize who is truly behind it. His newfound employees, however, don’t work out as planned.
Their second recommendation is the Cynthia Rothrock film, Honor and Glory (1993). Rothrock plays an FBI agent trying to capture Jason Slade on charges of extortion and murder. She teams up with her sister Joyce and Joyce’s partner in Hong Kong, Dragon, who help her navigate Hong Kong and hunt down Slade. Cynthia Rothrock’s background as a martial artist paved the way for her groundbreaking career as a female action lead.
Of the remaining eight films, Jet Li’s Martial Arts of Shaolin (1986) and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1978) jump out as movies worth a watch. Both are directed by Lau Kar-leung and are widely recognized as genre defining masterpieces. The 36th Chamber of the Shaolin was hailed by the Harvard Film Archive as ”exhilarating rendition of the legendary dissemination of the Shaolin martial arts.”
UFC Fight Pass states that there is “more to come” but on what timetable has not been announced.