Looking for a streaming service with a cool selection of martial arts films?
Well, I was recently contacted by Channel Fight about their Martial Arts film platform, and was offered a temporary account to review what they offer.
Yes, that’s right, a streaming platform designed specifically for martial arts film fans!
So naturally, I said yes and checked it out. I have my thoughts below here for you.
So, what did I look out for?
What do you look for when reviewing a service like this? Well, I let myself go into playful child mode and observed. Here’s what I found myself prioritizing:
- How does it work and how much does it cost?
- What selection of movies do they offer?
- How well does the service work?
That’s it in a nutshell, right? Can you afford the service, does it have anything you want and does it actually deliver?
Well, let’s dive in…
How Channel Fight works & how much it costs
Well, it’s a streaming service so it allows you to watch movies online. But I won’t reinvent the wheel here, see for yourself with this screenshot from their website:
Make sense? Right, you rent films online to watch in 30 days or you can buy and keep. But another cool thing is you can also buy/rent bundles of films, and there’s a nifty feature (similar to Netflix) where you can download the movie and watch it if you have no internet access.
The prices are in £, and each bundle is anywhere from £2.99 to £4.99. I couldn’t see individual pricing as my account had access to everything without needing to rent or purchase – even logged out, pretty much all videos were unavailable in Australia – Channel Fight seems to focus more on the UK.
But if you are in the UK, the price is good. That’s a positive!
The Selection
The martial arts movie selection on channel fight is not massive, but it’s definitely good.
They have put focus on the most popular martial arts films out there. You’ll find some of the best Donnie Yen films ever released like Ip Man and Kung Fu Killer, whilst also offering classics and Jackie Chan films like the Police Story films and other even older cult classics like Touch of Zen and Lady Snowblood. They also have more modern US made films and older war films and Japanese action films.
There’s a modest selection of high-quality films across the board – but the films chosen are some of the best.
Even if you don’t sign up to Channel Fight or watch any movies, they do have a section with technique videos for martial artists that are curated from YouTube – so you may find some cool new YouTube channels you like through there.
If you are curious, you can explore the Channel Fight selection without signing up, just click here. They are quite open and transparent.
They do also sort things into a handful of categories:
- Hell Yeah (assorted action films)
- Bundles (You can rent bundles of films grouped together)
- Boxing / Kickboxing
- Kung Fu
- Asian Gangster Action
- Girls without Mercy
- Modern Warfare
- Age of War
- Deadly Vengeance
- Cult
So you can view based on the kind of martial arts film you like, they aren’t just all lumped together under ‘martial arts’ It’s nicely organized.
My Experience using Channel Fight
The first thing I did was scope out the selection of movies. After some time I realized I’ve watched nearly all of them (being someone who watches a TONNE of martial arts films) but I found a film I hadn’t previously watched and thought I’d test out my experience.
I really wanted to sit back with my iPad and soak up some action, after all, Channel fight has apps and can be watched on phone, tablet, etc – but I personally couldn’t access them!
I live in Australia and it just isn’t available here. I had no access to the apps, so I had to watch it on my computer in my browser. So I opened up the movie and got started.
One thing I did notice is there didn’t seem to be subtitle or audio options, but that’s fine, most martial arts films these days are in their native language with subtitles – the subtitles seemed to be on automatically.
There was a setting for resolution though. I figured that the ability to serve videos quickly was very important so I put that at full 1080p and it kicked off instantly, no problems. That’s very good because I live in Australia and our internet is very slow compared to other countries, so I’m quite happy with that.
The video quality was good, the movie was fun (which movie isn’t really important) but overall the technology of Channel Fight seems pretty on point!
Overall?
Channel fight has a decent selection, it’s available on most devices and seems to run pretty smoothly. It’s a pretty unique service as martial arts films don’t gt as much spotlight these days.
If you want to watch the films they offer, check it out and show your support. If you vote with your wallet you may just get the chance to help Channel Fight grow into a Martial Arts Movie giant we can all turn to for our fighting fix.
