Bloodfight (1989)

Bloodfight (1989)
Aka: Final Fight
Japanese title: Fainaru Faito - Saigo no Ichi-geki
Chinese title: 最後一擊
Translation: Final Blow

 

Starring: Yasuaki Kurata, Bolo Yeung, Simon Yam Tat-Wah, Meg Lam, Anzu Christina Lawson, Ono Shinya, John Ladalski
Director: Shuji Goto[1]
Action Director: n/a

Bloodfight is a fascinating anomaly. It is a Japanese movie, produced by the Kurata Film Company, which was founded by martial arts actor Yasuaki Kurata (natch!). It was made by a largely Japanese crew, but was filmed in Hong Kong with considerable Chinese talent in front of and behind the camera, too. Made at a time when action was frowned upon in Japanese cinema, it is sort of fitting that Kurata-san’s film wasn’t made for his homeland, or necessarily Hong Kong, but for international audiences. It was filmed in English with a script that makes no bones about ripping off Bloodsport, right down to casting Bolo Yeung as a brutal tournament competitor named Chong Li.

The movie starts off at the 1989 World Championship of Free Fighting in Hong Kong. We see a number of competitors going to the competition, such as a 7-foot Indian guy and a sumo wrestler. We focus on the matches of a guy named Kai Masahiko (Yasuaki Kurata, of The Prodigal Boxer and Heroes of the East), who moves through his bracket until he reaches the finals. Meanwhile, the other bracket is dominated by a fellow named Chong Li (Bolo Yeung, of Bloodsport and Tiger Claws). As Chong Li takes out one opponent after another, we switch a flashback of how Kai got into the tournament.

It’s 1987 (or so) and Kai Masahiko is a washed up former champion who runs a ratty gym on the roof a building somewhere in Hong Kong. His longsuffering wife, Suzie (Meg Lam, of Enter the Fat Dragon and Blind Fist of Bruce), is at her wit’s end. She drinks herself to sleep every night because her husband spends most of his free time watching his old tournament videos instead of giving her attention. One day, Kai comes across a street gang harassing the locals and is impressed by their leader’s (Stuart Smith, of Ninja Destroyer and Undeclared War) innate kicking ability. Kai gets it in his head that he can reform the kid through the martial arts and turn him into a champion. All it does is make the gang leader even more dangerous and put the final nail in the coffin of his marriage.

Some time later, the gang is out terrorizing the locals when a local Good Samaritan, Ryu Tenhei (Simon Yam, of Full Contact and Cypress Tigers), steps in and uses his kung fu skills to hold him off. Kai witnesses this and decides that Ryu should be his next project. Kai goes into stalker mode for the next few days, following a reluctant Ryu wherever he goes. The young man, however, just wants to study and play basketball for his college class. A vicious ambush from the gang, however, ultimately changes Ryu’s mind (this leads to an amusing segment where Kai turns him down because he doesn’t want to teach for revenge, and then Ryu starts stalking Kai instead). The two start training together, much to the dismay of Ryu’s girlfriend, Milly (Anzu Christina Lawson, of Best of the Best 3).

Kai eventually puts the idea in Ryu’s head that he should train for the World Championship of Free Fighting. Ryu takes the bait and enters the tournament. He wins all the matches in his bracket, but eventually is pitted against Chong Li. Chong Li viciously murders Ryu in the ring and suffers no legal repercussions…why? I mean, if you land a kick and the person dies, that’s one thing. If your opponent is sprawled out on the ground and you still take the time to break his neck, that’s something completely different. That’s a crime. What the hell was the referee doing at that time? Wringing his rag?

It goes without saying that Kai is completely crushed by the death of his student. He closes down the gym and goes into self-pity mode, drinking himself silly at all hours of the day. Eventually, the board of directors of the World Championship of Free Fighting—who still haven’t taken away Chong Li’s certification for…well…murder—has come up with the idea of letting Kai back into the tournament in order to “avenge his student” and sell more tickets. They send his old trainer, Jack O’Brien (the late John Ladalski, of City War and Death Cage), to roust him from his drunken stupor and train him…FOR REVENGE! FOR HONOR! And…FOR REDEMPTION!!!

It was an odd decision to film this exclusively in English. While most of the actors can get by with their lines, it is obvious that a) it is not their first (or second) language and b) their ability to emote in it is quite limited. Kurata can speak clearly enough that you can understand them, but he doesn’t really emote here (save a few Van Damme-esque screams at the end). Simon Yam, who had a year before he’d really hit it big with Bullet in the Head, does a little better. Ono Shinya, who plays the owner of the restaurant where Ryu works, is very hard to understand. Only Anzu Christina Lawson, who was born in the States (and modeled in Japan at one point), really sells her acting.

There isn’t much here that you haven’t seen in Bloodsport or Rocky IV. The training sequence in the third act is basically a copy of the latter, with Kurata-san training via more “rustic” methods (including going to a foundry and slamming a hot metal box into his stomach) while Bolo uses more “modern” exercise equipment a lá Ivan Drago. Sadly, the fighting also feels more like an American movie than a Hong Kong one, despite the talent involved. The only fight that feels Hong Kong in its execution is Simon Yam fighting against the gang in the first act.

There is no credited action director, so I’m not quite sure on who to place the blame. On one hand, it could have been Bolo Yeung. He contributed to the action in 70s films like The Greatest Thai Boxing and Bolo, among a few others. On the same token, Yasuaki Kurata had about 60 credits between Hong Kong and Japan by this point, and had worked a bit with the Hung Ga Ban (Sammo Hung’s Stuntman Association) in the years preceding this movie, so he’d definitely have the experience to stage his own fights. Finally, the IMDB lists old school veteran Chan Lau as the assistant director of the Hong Kong unit, so it might have been him. Chan Lau was known more as an actor than as a fight choreographer, but he choreographed more than 20 movies of the course of his career, spanning from the early 1970s into the mid-1990s.

Yasuaki Kurata does more aikido—one of the original styles he trained in—than he does in a lot of his other movies. In fact, many of his early fights in the tournament are won more through throws and locks than by punches and kicks. Obviously, once he throws down with stiffer competition like Bolo, he has to use more punching and kicking than arm twisting. Simon Yam looks fine in his first fight, but then the action director cheats by having him win his tournament fights via bionic-legged jumping axe kicks, instead of actual fighting. Bolo is Bolo. He’s big and strong and intimidating. Sometimes he wins via treachery—like strangling a sumo wrestler with his own diaper. Sometimes he wins by his usual brutal punches and kicks, backed up by his sheer brawn. If you liked him in other movies, you’ll be sure to like his fighting performance here. In fact, it is arguably better than his display in Bloodsport. But then again, that movie, while also low budget, had better acting, was more polished, and just flowed a lot better. So stick with that instead.

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[1] - Amusingly enough, the beginning and end credits were redone for the American release to look a little less cheap. However, they got the name of the director wrong and he is credited as Shuezy Gott.

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