Singleton, R.S. Filmmaker's dict., c2000 (martial-arts film: Movie featuring numerous fight scenes involving various Asian forms of fighting using the hands and feet, such as karate and jujitsu)

History of the American cinema, c1990: v. 9, p. 259 (three exploitation genres in ascending order of market strength: black action film, martial arts film, and feature-length hardcore porno film) pp. 266-267 (category: Martial Arts, or Kung Fu; martial arts film; kung fu films; kung fu movies; martial arts genre; an ethnic action genre; Japan's martial arts films tended to be more violent than their Chinese counterparts; occasionally combined with other exploitation genres)

The moving image genre-form guide, via WWW, Mar. 16, 2001 (Martial arts. Fictional work designed to showcase the hero's athletic agility and ability to turn his body into a weapon. This skill has been achieved through his dedication to, and personification of, Oriental teachings about physical and mental discipline, allowing the hero to execute fast, fluid, but spare movements that knock out or kill his numerous adversaries and allow him to triumph over formidable odds. The hero's adversaries range from criminals to supernatural beings. The emphasis on the actual choreographed movement dominates the narrative, which can be set in historical to modern times, in the East or the West. Used for Kung fu)

Yee, M.M. Moving image materials, 1988 (Martial arts drama. Use for fictional genre films and programs which consist largely of choreographed fight sequences employing martial arts which originally developed in the Orient (e.g. karate, kung fu, eastern sword-play techniques, etc.). UF Chinese action drama, Oriental action drama, Swordplay drama, Swordsmen in motion pictures, Kung fu drama, Oriental swordplay drama, Chinese swordplay drama, Jidai-geki, Chambara, Samurai drama, Samurai films, Spaghetti easterns)

López, D. Films by genre, c1993 (Kung fu film (Chop-chop Film, Chop-'em-Sock-'em Flick, Chopsocky Picture): An extremely popular genre in the early to mid-seventies, the kung fu films, originating in Hong Kong and later imitated in other countries, came and went as the repetitive and familiar plots of this type of martial arts film saturated the market. The plots of the kung fu films frequently center on the theme of revenge, the hero often having to accept reluctantly the task of avenging some injustice or the death of his/her mentor, teacher, family or friends.)