Bloodfight

1989 "Beneath the fight. Beyond the fight. Become the warrior"
4.6| 1h40m| en
Details

Master martial artist Masahiro Kai is a shadow of the champion fighter and trainer he once was. After his protégé was slain in a no-holds-barred, underground fight by the incomparable Chang Lee, Kai slips into a numbing alcohol-induced stupor to try to forget the past.

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Reviews

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!
Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?
Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!
Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.
Leofwine_draca Here's a cheap Japanese knock-off of the Van Damme "classic" BLOODSPORT, except made with only a fraction of the budget and skill. This boring, muddled film actually only contains about fifteen minutes of footage in the ring, as it were. The rest is taken up with a modern, realist drama charting the life and times of tough fight promoter Yasuaki Kurate as Kai, a middled-aged Japanese karate warrior who enjoys training new warriors to fight against the champ of the ring, Chang Lee.We get to watch Kai train, fight with his wife and lose her, become a hopeless drunk, and then finally enter the ring himself to take on Chang Lee. It's not as interesting as it sounds, and contains hardly any action – certainly not enough for a film with the promising title BLOODFIGHT. The on-the-street camera approach quickly becomes tiring, especially as there are no sympathetic actors to engage with along the way. Kurate does seem to be a halfway decent performer but his sullen, monosyllabic lead doesn't give him much opportunity to shine.The first half of the film is a pointless time-wasting exercise dealing with a moronic gang of street thugs, led by the insolent Stuart Smith (hilariously misspelt as Stuart Smita in the credits). You may remember Smith from the likes of NINJA HUNT and other ultra-cheap cut-and-paste ninja epics of the '80s; BLOODFIGHT appears to be his genre swansong but the film isn't any better than his earlier work. A young Simon Lam, possibly the most famous of the cast, doesn't fare any better with his heavy emoting. Lam later made a name for himself with gangster films and the heroic bloodshed genre but he's as bad here as the rest. Bolo Yeung is the only one to come out of it with some dignity, although he's just as much laughable here as he is scary.The film is poorly made throughout, shot in English (and in Hong Kong) with a script that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The fight sequences are typically poorly shot, aside from a few choice battles in the last half hour of the film. The only good thing in the whole movie is the last match between Kurate and Yeung, an impossibly long slug-fest to the death, which is, as the title suggests, pretty bloody. It's just a shame that the rest of the movie doesn't carry on in the same mould, instead alternating between mindless bizarre moments and stultifying boredom. Give this one a miss and check out the Van Damme film instead.
Space_Mafune A Martial Arts fighter named Masahiro Kai (Yasuaki Kurata), retired for years from the free fighting form, wants someone else to carry on his legacy so he seeks a student he can train. His first choice, a young punk, turns out to be too filled with anger and violence to ever amount to anything. He has better luck with young Ryu Tenmei (Simon Yam) who starts out seeking revenge against a group of punks who attacked him and his girlfriend, including Kai's former student, but soon comes to put his hatred aside and replace it with an appreciation and understanding of the true benefits of adopting the martial arts philosophy and lifestyle. Soon Ryu is good enough to fight in the deadly World Championship free-fighting tournament and the result proves shocking and unexpected, a result that may force Kai out of retirement and back into the fighting field seeking retribution for his fallen student. But can Kai possibly succeed against the powerful, devilish Chong Lee (Bolo Yeung)? Honestly I like BLOODFIGHT far more than BLOODPSORT even though it has largely the same plot. There's a more believable edge to BLOODFIGHT I feel and it's helped by the fact it's an actual Hong Kong based film presentation. The fighting is quite good but even better is the emotional range the performers show managing to overcome language barriers with strong use of body language and the extra time and attention given to building up characters, something decidedly lacking in BLOODSPORT. Still there are problems. I believe they made a mistake filming this in English because most of the performers simply had not mastered the language even though it was an interesting exercise to watch them attempt it and a nice try on the part of those behind the film to presumably reach a larger audience and perhaps tap into some of the financial success BLOODSPORT enjoyed. Finally the resolution isn't fully satisfying as the punishment doesn't quite seem to match the crime that was perpetrated. That said, I ended up liking this far more than I expected I would.
rottingcarrot Bloodfight It's basically a shameless rip off of bloodsport but with some extras.....Circus music. That's right completely inappropriate circus music is played for long segments of this movie. Why? I would really like to know but it did have me chuckling. terrible acting no doubt in part by the fact that all the actors speak their lines in English when they no doubt couldn't speak a word of English without intensive coaching.It wasn't looking good until Stuart Steen AKA Stuart Smith enters, playing the part of the cocky street gang leader. You think billy bob thornton gives spellbinding performances? LOL. Think again! Stuart Smith is our new god. Who cares who J Low is dating? I want to know what country Stuart Smith is the president of!!! He is an unstoppable actor who will give his all NO MATER WHAT! Long live Stuart Steen!!! AkA stuart Smith AKA a bunch of other names! He is the man! Anyway I have watched this movie more than once. It definitely has its slow parts but if you like crap you'll like this!
Jim T. For some strange reason, I like this movie. I's partly a spoof of _Bloodsport_ and partly your typical Hong Kong movie. The martial arts tournament is named the "Free Fighting Tournament," and Bolo Yeung plays basically the same character that he did in _Bloodsport_ (the name is spelled Chang Lee here). The fights are downright weird: a sumo wrestler smothers his opponent by squatting on his face; an Indian fighter who must be seven feet tall and who wears high-top sneakers accidentally breaks a floodlight with a high kick and tells the stage people, "Up, up, up"; a monkey-style kung fu fighter rolls around on the mat without making much attempt at fighting, then rips a tuft of hair off the Indian fighter's chest (as Bruce Lee did to Chuck Norris in _Return of the Dragon_). As if that wasn't bizarre enough, the master wanders around Hong Kong, tangling with some American punks (who have a very familiar obscene phrase spray-painted on their jeep). Even though _Bloodfight_ is really just your typical Hong Kong chopsocky flick, I am fascinated by it, maybe because I have an interest in anything Asian. Fans of Jackie Chan should give it a shot, as well as anyone who likes Simon Yam (who has worked with John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat in other films).