During the 60's to early 70's karate tournaments were known for being more heavy handed than the tag that's played today. American servicemen coming home brought over the martial arts they learned over seas in Korea and Japan to teach and prove their skills. The tournaments had the one hit scoring that you see today but the hits and injuries were much worse. It was called the blood and guts era. During this time people like Chuck Norris (Tang Soo Do, Taekwondo) and Jim Kelly (Goju-ryu, Shotukan) cut their teeth in these style of tournaments before becoming martial arts movie stars.
One of the older guys who I train BJJ with came up during this era of karate. Really cool to see how martial arts competitions have evolved
My old kaju instructor use to heavily compete in these before going on to kickboxing.
When you mean good do you mean acting wise or martial arts choreography? Almost all the acting is either mediocre or straight up bad (with the exception of the matrix).
Off the top of my head.... the snake dragon and crane, street fighter (no relation to the arcade game), never retreat never surrender, a force of one, the bride, perfect weapon
Late recommendation for The Thundering Mantis . Although honestly it's all for the last scene, the lead up is kinda boring but makes the ending really over-the top by how much it suddenly escalates.
Also keep an eye out, we are planning to do something like a watch party in this comm
Its always really really interesting to watch old videos of martial arts and see how they have changed.