DanTheMan 2
Right out of the gate, Bloodfight is a unique piece of martial arts cinema, shot by a Japanese crew, filmed in phonetic English and set in Hong Kong starring a plethora of recognisable names including a baby-faced Simon Yam, unfortunately, there's no escaping the fact that Bloodfight simply isn't a very good film in its own right. Part of the problem is that it never really knows what story it is trying to tell; half of the film is a Bloodsport rip-off while the other is a messily cobbled-together morality tale. The film was clearly marketed towards an international audience with the all-English dialogue but the cast's varying grasp of the language is make or break at best, although there's very little that can elevate material as hammy as this, they try their damnedest to do so. Nevertheless, despite the film's issues, it's made with a lot of earnestness, which I can never bring myself to hate. Shûji Gotô's direction is fine if often let down by some clumsy editing and bland fights, while the soundtrack by Micky Oguchi is one of synth-pop goodness. While on paper Bloodfight may have seemed like a winner, the execution is a different matter entirely; I still ended up liking this way more than I expected but so much of the film comes across as unsatisfying, one I'm sure Frank Dux would have a field day with if he ever watched it.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
05/20/24
Full Review
Allan C
Super surprised that Simon Yam (FULL CONTACT, NAKED KILLER) and Bolo Yeung (BLOODSPORT, ENTER THE DRAGON) would be in such a badly made movie. Hong Kong made plenty of cheaply made low-budget action flicks, but this one is just incompetent. The story is basically a rip-off of BLOODSPORT and even casts Bolo as the villain again, this time playing Chang Lee, the Vietnamese Snake. The film gets one star because Bolo is still pretty awesome in the few scenes he had in the flick. It's also a film that can certainly be enjoyed on a so-bad-it's-good level (some of the training sequences are laugh-out-loud bad), which may earn it up to two stars of inadvertent entertainment.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
12/21/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This my favor action package movie,
used your skill challenge on stage one by
one, frighting to death, remain who is
a karate champion.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
Audience Member
After his student gets killed in Hong Kong's World Championship Tournament, a martial arts mastercomes out of retirement to avenge his death. <i>Final Fight</i> depends too much on trying to emulate other films of it's kind (ex. <i>Bloodsport</i>, <i>Rocky IV</i>, <i>Karate Kid</i>). We have the baddie protagonist in Chang Lee (Bolo Yeung), again being the sole opponent everyone has to beat to say they're the best. Bolo Yeung looks amazing here, considerably taking command of the entire film.
The acting could use with some cleaning up, but we're presented with an Asian film that doesn't use subtitles or voice-overs. I give <i>Final Fight</i> that much, at least it tries. With a bigger budget and some better choreography, <i>Final Fight</i> would have surpassed <i>Bloodsport</i>. The storyline was heartfelt, even though the dialogue was choppy and a little difficult to follow along at times. The matches had some ferocity to them, but that pesky camera seemed to zoom in on all the wrong angles. The funny thing about this film is how it mirrors <i>Rocky IV</i> on it's training sequences, completely turning into a parody of it. I can't see Bolo Yeung training in such a fashion. He belongs in a dungeon surrounded by iron maidens and dodging flying arrows thrown from various mechanisms; not all proper and fairy-like.
At least the final match wasn't cheesy, having Chang Lee completely decimate his opponent and throwing some massive POV shots. Kai (Yasuaki Kurata), who is no Van Damme, handles his own in the bout, rising up and out of his beating and overcoming Lee quite triumphantly. It seems the character of Yeoung still has a weak stomach, which Kai pays special attention to here; culminating on some jumping kicks that have an air of familiarity to them. Unlike <i>Bloodsport</i>, the blows that are dealt rattle intensively; just in need of a little fine-tuning and more concentration on the other competitors.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie sucks with it's crappy training montages that go on forever. The only thing cool is the gang of punks that occasionally show up to do some half assed menacing.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
definitely not BLOODSPORT! pretty lame overall.
Rated 1/5 Stars •
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
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