Movies with lots of weapons, fighting, strong female protagonists for young girls
I asked my friends for a list of movies I’ve find that are good choices for my sword and martial arts obsessed eight year old daughter. Must not contain any sexual violence and preferably available through Google play or DVD. (I don’t do Amazon because of grabyourwallet.org)
If you watch one of them and want to add commentary here, let me know.
Screened, acceptable, and enjoyed
Wendy Wu: From the moment this started I was sure I was in Disney tween sitcom hell. But it grew on me as it went on. Wendy Wu is truly the protagonist and her story arc has her rejecting superficial high school popularity. She kicks ass, and the warrior daughter was pleased.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (recommended)
Xena, warrior princess (recommended)
14 Amazons / Legendary Amazons: After a military loss devastates the male military leaders, the remaining matriarchs from a family charged with protecting the borders of China’s capital form a guerilla military force. This is an old enough movie that the fighting scenes show their age. It was enjoyed, but is never going to be the top of this list’s recommendations.
Buffy (oddly, my daughter didn’t take to this)
Iron Fist (we loved it for the supporting actress work of Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing)
Screened and appropriate, but not quite right
Supercop (for the supporting actress): Good, but still, not enough female heroine screen/fight time
Reign of Assassins (Michelle Yeo lead): Fun fight scenes, but the plot was difficult to follow for my child
Suggested as appropriate but not yet screened
Double Dare (story of a stunt double for Uma Thurman in Kill Bill)
Hero (Jet Li and Maggie Cheung)
Heroic Trio and the Executioners
Better Tomorrow 3
Butterfly and Sword
Wing Chun (parents guide)
Kung Fu Panda films
Kung Fu Hustle (for the landlady)
Iron Monkey (one of the three kung fu masters is a strong woman)
Salt with Angelina Jolie
The Bride with White Hair
Shaolin Soccer
The Grandmaster
The Badlands (lots of strong women)
Free Rein
So Close
Broken Oath
Executioners from Shaolin
Beautiful Boxer (trans hero)
Many suggested looking through Michelle Yeoh, Bridget Lin’s, Maggie Cheung’s, and Anita Mui’s ‘s career filmography
Not screened / rejected as unacceptable (see above)
Kill Bill
Chocolate: from a friend “we watched Chocolate a few nights ago. I would put that one in the NO category for a kid. The fighting is great, but the violence is too much and the depiction of an autistic girl (the hero) seems wrong.”