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Blood Fight (Final Fight)

I came across a Bolo Yeung tribute on Youtube.


There were clips of his movies, one of which looked a lot like Bloodsport. Now let me tell you something, I LOVE Bloodsport. If you do not like Bloodsport, then I do not like you. I likely resent having to share Earth with you.

Now looking into it, I find out the movie is called Blood Fight. Bolo Yeung even plays the same character. I'm guessing it was made shortly after Bloodsport proved to be a hit. Its also better than any sequel Bloodsport had in the 90s.

Now the movie gets bad reviews, but I really don't care. It has a lot of heart and I think its good outweighs the bad.

It opens at the tourney, with various fighters arriving. Now first thing they got right was, everyone has a distinctive look. You have the tall Great Khalli looking Indian. You have the big fat sumo master. Your basic karate guys. A big pro wrestler type. Also you have Bolo Fucking Yeung as Chong Li.

The movie goes right into the action which I appreciate.

Big Fat Sumo squashes a karate guy. Great Khalli throws a dude into the third row. Bolo Yeung fucks shit up.

He chokes the sumo out with his own diaper. We then see him fighting Great Khalli, and see a sad man in the back staring at a wall. He is the star of the movie.

Flash back to two years before and we see he is a former world champion living in his past. Like a karate Sunset Boulevard. He watches his matches obsessively, rewinding to the cool spots again and again.

His wife is sick of it and wants him to get a real job. It has drove her to drink.

Next we see a gang lead by a big D Grade Reb Brown. The drive around in a sweet ass jeep (with Fuck You written on the back) terrorizing the city. The former champion (Whose name is Masahiro Kai  BTW) sees the guy has potential to be a great fighter.

So he shows him his tapes and lets him move into be his student. His wife is understandably pissed and leaves him.

Now we go to the gang harassing a family. A Chinese girl starts beating them up and the American returns and punches her out.

Now it seemed odd to give the girl such a big scene when she never comes back. But I do like how it played with expectations. The punk has not changed and is still a punk.

He starts harassing this girl named Susie, until her boyfriend saves her. I think it would be harder to find someone in Hong Kong who does not know some form of Karate.

Kai turns up and witnesses his new star pupil being a asshole and getting his ass kicked. Kai knows a loser when he sees one and hops on the new hotness.

But the guy (Whose name is Ryu Tenmei) does not want to learn. His dad taught him and died or something. He knows enough to protect himself and that is enough. We get a montage set to the All Japan Pro Wrestling Theme, with Kai stalking young Tenmei. But Tenmei remains uninterested in Kai's offer.

Until the American and his gang return with weapons and nearly beat him to death. He crawls to Kai's door a bloody mess. He begs to be taught but KAI SAYS NO. Because he wants revenge. I don't see how revenge is a less pure motive than glory, but I'm not Masahiko Kai.


So now set to the same AJPW theme, Tenmei is stalking Kai. Finally Tenmei explains his back story and Kai trains him.


Once Tenmei masters a devastating forehead kick, Kai enters him in the Kumite.

He makes it to the finals, denting in a dudes forehead with his finisher. Chong Li is there too and known as the Vietnamese Cobra. He has a sweet Cobra tat on his arm and forehead.

Finals get down to Tenmei and Chong Li. Tenmei's finisher is blocked and Chong Li dismantles him. Finally defeating him in front of a cheering crowd. But this is not enough for Chong Li, who snaps Tenmei's neck killing him.

If not for the Youtube vidya spoiling it, would of been really shocking. I do like how the movie plays with the story, going against expectation. First with the punk student remaining a punk and next with Tenmei dying.

Kai is devastated as Tenmei's girlfriend blames him for it. Which I suppose is safer than blaming Chong Li.

Kai goes on a drunken bender not giving a shit. Various people trying to pull him out of the gutter. Even Not Reb Brown returns and runs into him with his Jeep, calling him a bum.

His ex wife turns up, having married an old rich dude. She seems hurt by what Kai has become. I'm not saying its great acting, but I appreciate the director trying to make everyone a somewhat complete character.

A guy (his former trainer or something) from the tournament tries to get him to return. Saying Chong Li is a disgrace, but Kai is still too drunk to care.

Eventually Tenmei's girlfriend realizes what martial arts meant to him and decides to help Kai. She urges him to sober up and avenge Tenmei.

So we get him training with his completely unnecessarily American trainer, ending where we started. Kai is staring at the wall and preparing to fight Chong Li.

We get a pretty awesome fight out of this. Which I think lived up to the build up. With the way this movie had went, I honestly expected Kai to lose and/or be killed. But it did not go that far.

Movie ends with a nice song showing Kai and Susie (Tenmei's girlfriend) moving on with their life.



I'm not going to sit here and tell you this was a great movie with brilliant acting. It has problems, a big one being  it has a very confusing narrative in places. It could be a lot clearer, you could also safely take out twenty minutes and have a very complete movie. The American actors are awful, in particular Not Reb Brown. There are too many unnecessary characters like the trainer and Tenmei's boss at the restaurant.

 But I think the guy playing Kai had a great presence and truly felt like a hard nosed sensei. Bolo Yeung was great as Chong Li. The bottom line with this kind of movie is

1. Did it make me want to see a fight at the end between the protagonist and the antagonist?

2. Did said fight live up?

The answer to both is a yes and that puts it firmly in the W column.

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