Arthouse action film

The arthouse action genre is an emerging film genre in contemporary cinema that traces its roots back to Asian and European films. Various sources have recently begun referring to various films under this label. Such titles include Hanna, Drive, Haywire, and Looper.^[1][2][3][4]

The genre is often characterized by heavy action and suspense, interlaced with stylized imagery and cinematographic techniques, that convey an overall feeling of surrealism. More recent titles have shown depictions of gory violence. The narrative of these movies may also be quite surreal, and the viewer is given a strong sense that the movie is not meant to be interpreted literally. These films also have a much smaller production cost than most action films; the films represented below are said to have budgets no greater than $50 million.

As of 2014, the most financially successful of these films (not factoring inflation) is Rian Johnson's Looper, with a total worldwide gross of $176 million. However, the most critically successful of the lot is James Cameron's 1984 breakout hit The Terminator, which has a 100% Fresh rating on the Rotten Tomatoes movie review website.

List of films

• Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa, 1948)
• Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)^[5]
• Yojimbo (Akira Kurosawa, 1961)
• Pale Flower (Masahiro Shinoda, 1964)
• A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964)
• Abashiri Prison (Teruo Ishii, 1965)
• For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)
• Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966)^[6]
• Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966)
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Sergio Leone, 1966)
• Django (1966 film) (Sergio Corbucci, 1966)^[5]
• Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1967)
• Point Blank (John Boorman, 1967)^[6]
• Le Samouraï (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)
• Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
• The Wild Bunch (Sam Peckinpah, 1969)
• Performance (Nicolas Roeg and Donald Cammell, 1970)^[6]
• Le Cercle Rouge (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)
• Sympathy for the Underdog (Kinji Fukasaku, 1971)
• Get Carter (Mike Hodges, 1971)
• The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971)
• Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, 1971)
• Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)
• Street Mobster (Kinji Fukasaku, 1972)
• The Getaway (Sam Peckinpah, 1972)
• Battles Without Honor and Humanity (Kinji Fukasaku, 1973)
• Jailbreak Hiroshima murder prisoner (Sadao Nakajima, 1974)
• Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (Sam Peckinpah, 1974)
• The Yakuza (Sydney Pollack, 1975)
• Riot Shimane prison (Sadao Nakajima, 1975)
• Keoma (Enzo G. Castellari, 1976)
• The Killing of a Chinese Bookie (John Cassavetes, 1976)^[6]
• L'Alpagueur (Philippe Labro, 1976)
• Osaka blitzkrieg (Sadao Nakajima, 1976)
• Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
• Sorcerer (William Friedkin, 1977)
• Mad Max (George Miller, 1979)
• Gloria (John Cassavetes, 1980)^[5]
• Cutter's Way (Ivan Passer 1981)
• Le Professionnel (Georges Lautner, 1981)
• Mad Max 2 (George Miller, 1981)
• Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
• Golgo 13: The Professional (Osamu Dezaki, 1983)
• Scarface (Brian De Palma, 1983)
• The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984)
• To Live and Die in L.A. (William Friedkin, 1985)
• A Better Tomorrow (John Woo, 1986)
• Highlander (Russell Mulcahy, 1986)
• City on Fire (Ringo Lam, 1987)
• A Better Tomorrow 2 (John Woo, 1987)
• RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)
• Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
• Batman (Tim Burton, 1989)^[5]
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Shinya Tsukamoto, 1989)
• The Killer (John Woo, 1989)
• Violent Cop (Takeshi Kitano, 1989)
• Black Rain (Ridley Scott, 1989)
• Bullet in the Head (John Woo, 1990)
• Boiling Point (Takeshi Kitano, 1990)
• Darkman (Sam Raimi, 1990)
• La Femme Nikita (Luc Besson, 1991)
• Once Upon a Time in China (Tsui Hark, 1991)
• Hard Boiled (John Woo, 1992)
• El Mariachi (Robert Rodriguez, 1992)^[5]
• Sonatine (Takeshi Kitano, 1993)
• Ninja Scroll (Yoshiaki Kawajiri 1993)
• Léon: The Professional (Luc Besson, 1994)
• Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)
• The Crow (Alex Proyas, 1994)
• Men of War (Perry Lang, 1994)
• Ghost in the Shell (Mamoru Oshii, 1995)
• The Usual Suspects (Bryan Singer, 1995)
• Silent Trigger (Russell Mulcahy,1996)
• Brother (Aleksei Balabanov, 1997)
• Hana-bi (Takeshi Kitano, 1997)
• Dark City (Alex Proyas, 1998)
• Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (Guy Ritchie,1998)
• Spriggan (Hirotsugu Kawasaki,1998)
• Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1999)^[5]
• Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Jim Jarmusch,1999)^[5]
• The Boondock Saints (Troy Duffy,1999)
• Battle Royale (Kinji Fukusaku, 2000)
• Brother (Takeshi Kitano, 2000)
• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
• Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Shinichiro Watanabe, 2001)
• Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002)
• Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2002)
• Oldboy (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
• Zatōichi (Takeshi Kitano, 2003)
• House of Flying Daggers (Zhang Yimou, 2004)
• Layer Cake (Matthew Vaughn, 2004)
• A History of Violence (David Cronenberg, 2005)
• Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (Park Chan-wook, 2005)
• No Country for Old Men (Coen Brothers, 2007)
• In Bruges (Martin McDonagh, 2008)
• District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, 2009)
• Valhalla Rising (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2009)
• Outrage (Takeshi Kitano, 2010)
• The American (Anton Corbijn, 2010)
• Drive (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)
• Haywire (Steven Soderbergh, 2011)
• Hanna (Joe Wright, 2011)
• The Raid: Redemption (Gareth Evans, 2011)
• Beyond Outrage (Takeshi Kitano, 2012)
• Dredd (Pete Travis, 2012)
• El Gringo (Eduardo Rodriquez, 2012)
• Killing Them Softly (Andrew Dominik, 2012)
• Looper (Rian Johnson, 2012)
• Seven Psychopaths (Martin McDonagh, 2012)
• Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
• Pusher (Luis Prieto, 2012)
• Hummingbird (Steven Knight, 2013)
• Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
• Prisoners (Denis Villeneuve, 2013)
• Blue Ruin (Jeremy Saulnier, 2013)
• The Guest (Adam Wingard, 2014)
• The Raid 2 (Gareth Evans, 2014)
• Snowpiercer (Bong Joon-ho, 2014)
• John Wick (David Leitch, Chad Stahelski 2014)
• Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, 2014)
• Skin Trade (Ekachai Uekrongtham, 2014)

References