Best movies like The Magic Crane
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
On his way to a congress of kung fu masters, an initiate falls from a high cliff, only to be rescued by lovely Tien Lam (Anita Mui), who rides a huge (and sorry-looking) crane. The rest of the movie features a battle between warring martial arts factions, an equally fierce rivalry between the two daughters of the Crane Master, the accidental empowerment of an unprincipled master after having eaten half of a secret scroll, a battle with an immense tortoise whose spleeny vapors save a group of poisoned swordsmen, lots of great aerial fights against nearly invincible villains, and the usual blood spurting from assorted mouths.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 392
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: exciting, stylized, semi serious
Best tv shows and movies like The Magic Crane (1993):
Similar in 79%
The Bride with White Hair (1993)
Plot Summary:
The sensitive swordsman Cho Yi-Hang is tired of his life. He is the unwilling successor to the Wu-Tang clan throne and the unsure commander of the clan's forces in a war against foreign tribes and an evil cult. One day, he meets the beautiful Lien, a killer for the evil cult who is equally unsatisfied with her situation, but their love angers both the Wu-Tang clan and the evil cult.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Fantasy, Romance, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, suspenseful, surreal, scary, exciting, serious, stylized, epic, splatter
Similar in 75%
The Heroic Trio (1993)
Plot Summary:
Tung and Ching were both adopted by the same master. But later Ching was abducted by the eunuch-Chan. Ching grew up and became scientist Li's assistant and Tung married officer Lau. Chat had escaped from Chan at 15 and became a thief-catcher. During Chan's intrigue the trio united to become "The heroines of the East".
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: serious, suspenseful, surreal, stylized, fast, campy
Similar in 85%
The Restless (2006)
Plot Summary:
After his beloved fiancée is killed by demons, Yi Gwak (Woo-sung Jung) joins the royal demon-hunting squad and distinguishes himself as a great hero. And though Yi eventually falls in battle, his adventures are just beginning. His spirit is whisked away to Joong-cheon, a place between heaven and earth where souls await reincarnation -- and where the final, epic clash between the forces of good and evil will be played out.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Country: South Korea
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, stylized, epic, bleak, serious
Similar in 90%
Saviour of the Soul (1991)
Plot Summary:
A woman blinds a martial arts master and his pupil vows revenge on her. She is forced to abandon her loved ones without explanation in order to protect them from her ill-intentioned pursuer.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 757
Genere: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Romance, Sci-Fi
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 92 min
Plot tags: futuristic, stylized, semi serious, fast
Similar in 79%
Magnificent Guardsmen (1978)
Plot Summary:
Chan is asked by a young, wealthy lady to take her sick brother to a particular doctor in order to be cured. To reach this doctor, Chan and a handful of travelling companions must pass through bandit-infested wild country. They meet and kung-fu-fight several gangs of thugs along the way.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 948
Genere: Action
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: humorous, semi serious
Similar in 87%
The Blade (1995)
Plot Summary:
A young man adopted by a renowned swordsmith, discovers that his real father was killed by a powerful bandit called Lung. Leaving to seek revenge, he runs foul of a group of vicious desert scum, losing his right arm in the process. After being nursed back to health, he eventually learns to compensate for his loss and returns to confront the man who murdered his father.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: perverse, exciting, rough, epic, serious, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 88%
Butterfly and Sword (1993)
Plot Summary:
Dynamo Michelle Khan stars as a loyalist who attempts to keep the King's empire from being overthrown by a revolutionary group. Top fight action.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Romance
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, tense, stylized
Similar in 85%
A Chinese Ghost Story (1987)
Plot Summary:
Ning Tsai-Shen, a humble tax collector, arrives in a small town to carry out his work. No one is willing to give him shelter for the night, so he ends up in the haunted Lan Ro temple. There, he meets Taoist Swordsman Yen Che-Hsia, and the beautiful Nieh Hsiao-Tsing, with whom he falls in love.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Action, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, scary, talky, exciting, serious, suspenseful, tense, stylized, surreal, inspirational
Similar in 83%
Magic to Win (2011)
Plot Summary:
Nobody knows that Professor Hong Sum Kwai is actually the Water Magician, one of the five elemental wizards. One day, Hong accidentally loses his magical powers, which are transferred to his student Cheng Meisi. The girl happily uses the superhuman abilities she acquired by luck in life, at school, and on the volleyball court, but those powers also land her in trouble as a war of wizardry rages around her... Fire Magician Bi Yewu is desperate to turn back time to change a tragedy in the past, but to do so he needs to bring together the powers of all five elemental wizards. Wood Magician Gu Xinyue foresees catastrophe if time is warped, so he alerts the other wizards - including Earth Magician Ling Feng and Metal Magician Charlie - to join forces and prevent it from happening.
IMDB Rating: 4.6
IMDB Votes: 385
Genere: Action, Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, humorous, stylized, semi serious
Similar in 75%
The Sorcerer and the White Snake (2011)
Plot Summary:
The Sorcerer and the White Snake is an ancient Chinese fable about a woman demon who falls in love with a mortal is brought to life through the latest advances in CGI and action techniques.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 9000
Genere: Action, Fantasy, Romance
Country: China, Hong Kong
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: serious, stylized, exciting, romantic, epic, psychotronic
Similar in 87%
Ashura (2005)
Plot Summary:
Adapted from the successful play, the film takes place in 19th-century Japan, where a war between demons and their slayers is fought. Izumo, a kabuki actor with a demon-slaying past, meets and falls in love with Tsubaki. However, something is not right, as mysterious marks appear on her body as time progresses. At the same time, it is announced that Ashura, the queen of all demons, will be resurrected and bring destruction to the universe.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 750
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: Japan
Duration: 119 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 82%
Zu: Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983)
Plot Summary:
In the fifth century, constant civil war scars western China. To escape death, Ti, a young scout, jumps through a crevice in the Zu mountains where he meets and becomes the apprentice of Ting Yin, a spiritual man with great fighting powers. They encounter a monk, Hsiao Yu, also a great fighter and a good man, but unfriendly to Ting. Because Ting and Hsiao can't work together, it falls to Ti to team with Hsiao's acolyte Yi Chen: they have 49 days to travel far to claim two swords that are the only weapons that can defeat the Blood Demon, who has decided the wreak havoc on the world. They get help from Long Brows, Ting falls in love with a countess, and civil war still rages.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 98 min
Plot tags: cult classic, atmospheric, serious, suspenseful, surreal, stylized, eighties, cult film
Similar in 76%
The Wrath of Vajra (2013)
Plot Summary:
In the 1930s , a Japanese cult called The Temple of Hades was ordered to cooperate with the Japanese military to destroy China. They buy so many young children from poor family , who will be trained as a lethal killing machine and serve the Empire of Japan. One of them is Vajra , who was forced by his captors to fight for the food , and accidentally causing the death of his brother. Several years later , Vajra grown up and become one of the biggest killer in the Hades sect. Vajra escapes to China and joins Shaolin , where he receives spiritual enlightenment and determined to support China against Japan.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: China, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, stylized, serious, suspenseful, scenic
Similar in 85%
Swordsman II (1992)
Plot Summary:
Jet Li plays Ling, a student from the Blue Mountain school of martial arts, who, along with fellow students and Kiddo, find themselves embroiled in a country-wide political/clan war with the Highlander clan in the forefront of the battle.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: surreal, cult classic, exciting, serious, captivating, suspenseful, stylized, cult film
Similar in 83%
The Storm Riders (1998)
Plot Summary:
Based on a comic book called Fung Wan (or Tin Ha), the movie stars Ekin Cheng as Wind and Aaron Kwok as Cloud. The plot involves two children, Whispering Wind and Striding Cloud, who become powerful warriors under the evil warlord Conquer's tutelage. They grow up serving as his subordinates, but a love triangle and an accident leads to a quest for retribution.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, stylized
Similar in 84%
The Storm Warriors (2009)
Plot Summary:
Wind and Cloud find themselves up against a ruthless Japanese warlord intent on invading China.
IMDB Rating: 5.2
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, stylized, visually stunning, action adventure, epic
Similar in 79%
A Chinese Ghost Story III (1991)
Plot Summary:
Having slept for a century, the monstrous Tree Devil is now awaken and starts finding lost souls again. One stormy night, a wise High Priest and his student Fong pass by the Orchid Temple and realize that it is haunted. Fong encounters two evil spirits, the seductive Lotus and her hated sister Butterfly in the temple. Although Fong knows his master wants to capture them, he finds himself being attracted by them so he sets them free. The monks stay at the temple has to be prolonged since Fong carelessly loses the valuable Gold Buddha. Later on, they come to a corrupt local town, while the High Priest meets Yin by chance and a series of misunderstandings evolve. Meanwhile, Fong encounters Lotus again and finds himself falling in love with her.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, tense, atmospheric, stylized, semi serious, cult film
Similar in 83%
Tai Chi Hero (2012)
Plot Summary:
Chinese steampunk martial arts blockbuster about the early years of Tai chi master Yang Luchan, the man who founded in the 19th century what has now become the most popular Tai Chi style in the world. The second instalment of the "Tai Chi" trilogy continues the journey of Yang Luchan, a gifted child with a fleshy growth on his forehead who helped save a village from a frightening army of steampunk soldiers bearing strange machines with the knowledge of Tai Chi that they entrusted him with.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: China
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: exciting, stylized, serious, tense, offbeat
Similar in 88%
The Tsunami Warrior (2008)
Plot Summary:
As sea pirates threaten to invade their kingdoms, three queens of Langkasuka must band together to defend their lands and peoples.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, History
Country: Thailand
Duration: 154 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, captivating, epic, stylized
Similar in 83%
Cross (2011)
Plot Summary:
Given incredible power by an ancient Celtic Cross. Callan continues to fight evil... Now, joined by a team of weapons experts, Callan battles an unstoppable empire in Los Angeles.
IMDB Rating: 3.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, fast
Similar in 80%
Dr. Wai in the Scriptures with No Words (1996)
Plot Summary:
A serial adventure writer with problems in his personal life lives out the adventures of his literary hero, King of Adventurers.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: Hong Kong
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, humorous, semi serious, fast, cult film
Similar in 77%
Blood of the Samurai (2001)
Plot Summary:
Action Adventure starring Bryan Yamasaki, Shawn Forsythe, Michael Ng.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 75 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, humorous, independent film, fast, cult film
Similar in 78%
Painted Skin (2008)
Plot Summary:
Painted Skin is based on one of Pu Songling's classic short stories in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Zhou Xun stars as Xiao Wei, a fox spirit that feasts on human hearts in order to maintain her lovely, youthful appearance. When General Wang Sheng (Chen Kun) 'rescues' her from a band of bandits and brings her home, trouble brews as the demon falls in love with the general.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Action, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: China, Hong Kong, Singapore
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: exciting, atmospheric, rough, serious, stylized, epic, psychotronic
Similar in 79%
Death Trance (2005)
Plot Summary:
In an unknown place and unknown time, a lone Samurai known only as Grave thirsts for the ultimate battle.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: Japan, USA
Duration: 89 min
Plot tags: semi serious, captivating, fast
Similar in 88%
The Twins Effect II (2004)
Plot Summary:
In the mythical land of Huadu, Charcoal Head, a humble boy born to rule an empire must undertake his journey to claim his throne.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: exciting, humorous, stylized, semi serious, fast, epic
Similar in 87%
Jade Warrior (2006)
Plot Summary:
Thousands of years ago in ancient China, a love struck sword hero fights against his destiny. He wants another chance to be reunited with his loved one and he gets that chance, in a far away place and a far away time, in the cold north, in modern Finland. Jade Warrior is set in ancient China early iron age and present day Finland. The past is feeding the story in present day, slowly revealing our warrior his real origin, his superior skills and his destiny. Jade Warrior - the first Finnish Kung Fu film - combines Finnish and Chinese mythologies into one film. Jade Warrior is an homage to Kung Fu genre strongly spiced with a truly original approach to Finnish national epic Kalevala. Like Kalevala Jade Warrior is a pure melodrama. A story of Kalevala's greatest hero. Written by www.ses.fi.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
Country: Finland, Netherlands, China, Estonia
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, epic, serious, stylized, romantic drama
Similar in 75%
Zu Warriors (2001)
Plot Summary:
King Sky (Ekin Cheng), the sole disciple of the Kun Lun Sect, falls in love with his master Dawn (Cecilia Cheung). Dawn is killed when Insomnia destroys the Kin Lun Mountain. King Sky waits for two hundred years and meets Enigma (Cecilia Cheung), who is the reincarnation of Dawn, and in love with her again. However, Insomnia's Blood Clouds is ready to destroy Zu.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Fantasy
Country: Hong Kong, China
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, stylized, epic
Similar in 85%
Forbidden Warrior (2005)
Plot Summary:
The Gaia Za is a sacred tome that holds many ancient and powerful spells to be unlocked by a so-called Chosen One expected to be born to one of two leading families: the Khans or the Marajis. Unwilling to leave the clan's fate to the gods, Che Khan decides to take matters into his own hands by plotting the murder of a new Maraji baby, who may be the child in question. In doing so, he sets off a furious clash.
IMDB Rating: 3.5
IMDB Votes: 663
Genere: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 91 min
Plot tags: exciting, captivating, tense, suspense, serious
Similar in 84%
Wolfhound (2006)
Plot Summary:
He was doomed to die, but managed to survive, and now his mission is to revenge for the annihilation of his tribe. He is the great warrior who calls himself Volkodav, and is the last man from the tribe of Serie Psi (Grey Hounds). After escaping certain death, Volkodaw — accompanied by Neletuchaya Mysh — is on a mission to kill Ludoed who is responsible to what happened to Serie Psi.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: Russia
Duration: 136 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, exciting, stylized, action adventure, fairy tale, dark fantasy, epic, suspenseful
Similar in 82%
SAGA: Curse of the Shadow (2013)
Plot Summary:
A secret cabal, The Shadow, works to bring about the return of Goth Azul - the Undead God - in the rich world of SAGA, populated by elves, orcs, dwarves and dragons. A ruthless elven bounty huntress (Nemyt) shoots down the dragon ridden by the fugitive orc shaman, Fangtor Bloodmoon. When Fangtor refuses to surrender quietly, the huntress must battle for her own life against the dangerous villain, and comes away with more than just his head.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: exciting, serious, suspenseful, stylized, independent film