Looking for "Gun Fu" Inspiration Sources

Insight · Jul 13, 2012

Hello all,

I am working on a campaign idea and I'd like to draw upon the various interests of the people here to add to my own research into the "Gun Fu" style of movies (and other media sources, where applicable).

I already have a list that I got from wikipedia and doing some research on imdb.com. I'd like to see what other people might come up with. My list only includes films, so other media, like TV, books, comics, manga, video games, would be helpful.

My goal here is to provide my players, most of whom are not all that familiar with the genre, something for character inspiration.

Here is my list so far:
The “A Better Tomorrow” series –
A Better Tomorrow (1986) - IMDb
A Better Tomorrow II (1987) - IMDb
A Better Tomorrow III: Love and Death in Saigon (1989) - IMDb
City on Fire - City on Fire (1987) - IMDb
The Killer - The Killer (1989) - IMDb
Desperado - Desperado (1995) - IMDb
Hard Boiled - Hard Boiled (1992) - IMDb
The Replacement Killers - The Replacement Killers (1998) - IMDb
Hard Target - Hard Target (1993) - IMDb
“The Matrix” series -
The Matrix (1999) - IMDb
The Matrix Reloaded (2003) - IMDb
The Matrix Revolutions (2003) - IMDb
Bulletproof Monk - Bulletproof Monk (2003) - IMDb
Equilibrium - Equilibrium (2002) - IMDb
Ultraviolet - Ultraviolet (2006) - IMDb
Kick-Ass - Kick-Ass (2010) - IMDb
The “Supercop” Series –
Supercop (1992) - IMDb
Supercop 2 (1993) - IMDb
The “Mission Impossible” series –
Mission: Impossible (1996) - IMDb
Mission: Impossible II (2000) - IMDb
Mission: Impossible III (2006) - IMDb
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) - IMDb
Wanted - Wanted (2008) - IMDb

General martial arts films set in the modern day would also be good, although I would be looking for fairly "high concept" action, such as Jackie Chan films. You will see that I have Supercop listed above for those reasons.

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 13, 2012

Try the God of Gamblers series of movies, starting in 1989.

God of Gamblers (1989) - IMDb

I don't know if it was the first movie with gun-fu, but some of the movies listed above lifted things directly from it.

Insight · Jul 13, 2012

Dannyalcatraz said:
Try the God of Gamblers series of movies, starting in 1989.

God of Gamblers (1989) - IMDb

Cool, thanks. I saw that on wikipedia, but I hadn't heard of it.

Hand of Evil · Jul 13, 2012

Boondock Saints fails into this group.

trancejeremy · Jul 14, 2012

I'm fond of Johnnie To's action movies

Fulltime Killer and Exiled in particular.

StreamOfTheSky · Jul 14, 2012

Bayonetta, a video game. She even shoots with two guns on her feet and does acrobatics with them, along with the two in her hands. Oh yeah, one of the weapons you can get is literally "gun-chucks," too. They actually work best in tight quarters where you can ricohet the bullets around off walls for higher combo scores!

EDIT: here, video of someone fighting mostly with sai fung (the gun-chucks). [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aErjrjL22rM[/ame]

Dannyalcatraz · Jul 14, 2012

Angelina Jolie has been in a few movies that might qualify as gun-fu or having gun-fu elements:

Tomb Raider
Wanted
Mr. & Mrs Smith
Salt (and the upcoming Salt II)

Also, if you can find it, the official music video for Mayer Hawthorne's "The Walk" was strongly gun fu influenced.

Kobold Stew · Jul 18, 2012

If you read comics, check out 100 Bullets. It's 100 issues of ultra violence focusing on gunplay, and a great read to boot.

Aaron L · Jul 20, 2012

On the anime end, there are lots and LOTS of examples of gun-fu. The ones that I a personally familiar with are;

Outlaw Star. The main character Gene Starwind gets into quite a few lose quarters fight with opponents while still armed with various pistols. Some of the defensive techniques he uses are pretty spiffy.

Cowboy Bebop. Anytime Spike and Viscous fight there will be a demonstration of gun-fu from Spike, whose favored weapon is a pistol, against Viscous, whose favored weapon is a katana. The combats get pretty hairy and are just cool to watch.

I know her are many many MANY more example of gun-fu in anime, but these are just the ones I remember personally seeing at the moment off the top of my head. A quick google search for anime gun-fu should give you lots more examples.