BLOODSPORT IS PEAKÂ VAN DAMME.
In 1988 Cannon Films would finally unleash a movie upon the world that had been sat on their shelves gathering dust for a couple of years. The movie in question starred a young, thickly accented Belgian martial artist in his first leading role as well as a veteran, monosyllabic Chinese bodybuilder as the main villain and would be set within the walls of an inhospitable no man’s land ruled by gangsters and bootleggers. That movie was Bloodsport. To say Cannon didn’t have faith in the movie would be an understatement, in fact, they came within weeks of scrapping it altogether until the movies young star, Jean-Claude Van Damme took it upon himself to re-edit the movie and coax the b-movie legends into releasing it.
10. IT HAS FOREST WHITAKER IN IT.
I think most will agree that action movies get a bad rap when it comes to the acting stakes, so the fact that Bloodsport has a future Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winner among its ranks certainly lends weight to its claim as being one of the best action movies ever. Forest Whitaker plays Rawlins, the rookie to Norman Burton’s grizzled Helmer as the bumbling taser wielding CID officers tasked with bringing Frank Dux back from Hong Kong. As you can probably guess, this was a fairly early movie role for Whitaker coming at a time when he was transitioning from television work to films. Having spent most of the eighties appearing in walk on parts in shows such as Diff’rent Strokes and The Fall Guy, Whitaker’s career was on something on an upswing by the time he appeared in Bloodsport coming off the back of appearances in Hollywood smashes The Color of Money, Platoon and Good Morning, Vietnam.
His quality as an actor is evident throughout Bloodsport, displaying great comic timing and some brilliant slapstick moments as he and Helmer are foiled at every turn by Dux. Whitaker’s career would of course come on in leaps and bounds as the nineties hit and today he is considered one of Hollywood’s most respected actors, which makes it even more of a guilty pleasure seeing him chasing Van Damme through the streets of Hong Kong and cheering along with the rest of us at the movies climax.
A lot of actors could have played Rawlins as a stock heavy, but it took an actor of Whitaker’s quality to find the charm and humor in the role and in turn taking a generic character and making him a memorable one.
9. THAT SOUNDTRACK.
Let’s face it, when it comes to soundtracks and scores, the eighties owns all other eras. The rise of the synth brought a whole new sound to movie soundtracks and they are used to full effect all over Bloodsport by composer Paul Hertzog. He manages to capture the mood of the movie perfectly throughout ranging from dark mysterious pieces to far more airy and light themes during the movies reflective moments. Okay, that might sound all a bit arthouse-y, but I dare you to listen to the soundtrack and not be transported back to Hong Kong in the late eighties, he really does smash it here. However, I think for most the highlights probably come with the three signature tracks, Steal the Night by Michael Bishop and Stan Bush’s Fight to Survive and On My Own.
8. KEN SIU AS VICTOR LIN.
Ken Siu’s acting career was something of a flash in the pan, lasting just four years over the course of five movies but in Bloodsport he stands out as one of the most memorable characters by far. As the fast talking bespectacled Victor Lin he acts as the interpreter and guide to Frank Dux and Ray Jackson in Hong Kong and is the man who helps get Dux into the Kumite, admonishing officials with the line ‘what’s the difference if Bruce Springsteen is his shidoshi?‘ when they question Dux’s training. Throughout the movie he pops up with pieces of sage advice and at times, savage sarcasm making him highlight every time he’s on screen.RELATED:
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Newt Arnold in one of the latter’s few directorial roles.
Siu continued to have a long running career as an assistant throughout the nineties and well into the 21st century working alongside Van Damme again in the following years with Kickboxer and in a number of Hong Kong movies as well as Rush Hour alongside Jackie Chan. But it’s a Victor Lin that Bloodsport fans will remember him best with I’m sure many agreeing that it’s a crying shame that we don’t have enough of him committed to tape.
THE COOLEST FIGHTERS.
I think sometimes martial arts movies can be guilty of being a little generic when it comes to presenting opponents, not Bloodsport though. Sure, there’s a quite few Bruce Lee-alikes here (it is set in Hong Kong after all), but among them are some of the coolest and most memorable fighters ever committed to celluloid and it’s this variety that keeps you wanting more when it comes to the tournament scenes. There’s someone for everyone here, whether it’s Joao Gomez whose tactics appear to be win via voodoo curse, the guy who mirrors Dux move for move or future Tong Po, Suan Paredes and his brittle leg, but I think for most the favorites (outside of the main cast) have to be one of the following trio. First up we have Pumola, the giant and deceptively ripped sumo guy, who in my head has always been from Mongolia.
6. THE DUX/JACKSON BROMANCE
A bromance before bromances were cool, Dux and Ray Jackson hit it off instantly as the unlikely couple of the movie and actually share some pretty un-action-like tender moments together. Jackson is as brash as they come and immediately makes you think he’s going to be yet another villain for Dux to overcome, but he flips it instantly to become Dux’s most loyal ally. Quite what a fighter as unskilled as Jackson is doing in the Kumite is never made apparent but his fascination and support of Dux is endearing and he does prove himself to be a pretty tough dude when taking a beating, so we’ll let him off. The massive Donald Gibb is perfectly cast here. Probably best known for being Ogre in Return of the Nerds up to this point he is the perfect combination of imposing and lovable and it’s due to this that you actually get your heart strings tugged when this great bear of a human finds himself in dire straits.
5. MONTAGES UPON MONTAGES.
Every truly great action movie needs some montages and Bloodsport delivers them by the bucket load. Whether it’s flashbacks, training or fight sequences, Bloodsport has you covered. The best and most iconic come when Frank Dux is being trained by his Shidoshi, Senzo Tanaka in place of Tanaka’s late son and Dux’s friend, Shingo. Tasks include fishing goldfish with his hands, blindfolded waiter service and of course the tree splits, because let’s face it, are you really watching a Van Damme movie if no one does the splits? This also gives us some great fight scenes between Dux and Tanaka with Roy Chiao playing the old master perfectly, giving Van Damme a real run for his money and a great bit of background info into why Dux finds himself at the Kumite. However, the biggest shout-out has to go to Pierre Rafini who plays Young Frank in flashback scenes.
4. LOCATION LOCATION LOCATION.
Hong Kong is an ever evolving city, with such a dense population certain areas find themselves under constant redevelopment meaning that each time it is committed to film it could be the last time that it looks as it does. In Bloodsport the city becomes a character in itself, with the neon lights, high-rise buildings and beautiful harbor all playing the perfect backdrop to some of the movies best scenes. However, it is the Kowloon Walled City, where the Kumite is taking place that is the star of the show. Notorious for its crime and black-marketeering the Walled City was as dangerous as it was made out to be in the movie for an outsider. Still, this didn’t stop people spending their entire lives within its winding corridors and many levels and the city would see entire generations come and go within it.RELATED:
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3. CHONG LI
If there has been a more imposing movie villain than Bolo Yeung’s Chong Li, I am yet to find them. Despite only standing at around 5’6, Bolo’s solid mass and planet sized pectorals make him someone you instantly know you don’t want to mess with. The man just exudes strength and all round menace and he turns this up to eleven to play Chong Li. Brutal and sadistic, Chong Li is the ultimate movie villain who will stop at nothing to break those who dare oppose him. By the time Bloodsport came around Bolo was certainly no newcomer to the movies, having starred in hundreds of Hong Kong productions since the early seventies and was probably best known for appearing opposite Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon (the movie where his Bolo nickname came from) as well as dozens of ‘Bruceploitation’ movies following the great man’s death.
2. IT’S A TRUE STORY, SORT OF…
Or, not at all really, depending on who you believe. As it turn out, the behind the scenes story of the real Frank Dux is nearly as interesting and arguably twice as strange as the actual movie. A controversial figure, Dux’s increasingly outrageous claims about his past life has left him a polarizing figure within the martial arts community with many going out of their way to try and debunk him. Despite this, he still has his supporters (as well as followers of his Dux Ryu Ninjitsu system) and was once considered credible enough to appear in a now iconic 1980 Black Belt Magazine article which detailed his appearances in the Kumite and in a way, planted the seeds for Bloodsport. Away from his martial arts career, Dux has also spoken extensively about his life as a covert military operative, which apparently took him all over the world, requiring him to use his martial arts skills in variety of situations that would make even James Bond flinch.
To this day, Dux continues to assert that his claims are complete fact despite others stating otherwise (perhaps most famously in a 1988 L.A. Times expose) and while it is easy to dismiss what he says as the rantings of a madman, there are just enough seeds of fact there to make you think twice. For a start there’s the infamous receipt that the 1988 story is based around.
Allegedly the proof that Dux bought and commissioned the Kumite trophy himself the receipt contains numerous factual errors ranging from the misspelling of Dux’s name to a completely different description of the trophy in question, it was later dismissed as inadmissible evidence in court. Then there’s a certain U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Alexander Martin who listed Frank Dux as one of a number of covert military agents while under oath, something which Dux used in yet another court case, this time against Soldier of Fortune Magazine.
1. THE MUSCLES FROM BRUSSELS
Well, who else could really have topped the list? This might have been Jean-Claude’s first leading role but it’s virtually impossible to think of anyone who could have played Frank Dux better. To many, it would have seemed like Van Damme became a star overnight, but after a successful martial arts career back in his home country he had actually been in the United States since the early eighties with friend (and Bloodsport co-star) Michel Qissi doing part time jobs while they tried to gain the attention of Hollywood. His quest for stardom had seen him make a few appearances as an extra in various movies (most famously alongside Qissi in Breakin‘) as well as a stint as a Soviet villain in Corey Yuen’s No Retreat, No Surrender. His big break looked to have come when he was cast as The Predator opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, however production issues and costume changes ultimately saw him replaced by the giant Kevin Peter Hall after just a few weeks in the jungle.
He was soon back on the job hunt and the story goes that Van Damme met Cannon head-honcho Menahem Golan in the street and impressed the Israeli mogul by doing some of his trademark kicks right there in front of him, thus landing the role of Dux. The slightly more mundane reality is probably closer to the fact that producer Mark Di Salle wanted an action star with sex appeal (see gratuitous slow pulling up of underwear) but that could also kick ass, Van Damme simply fit the bill.
He and Qissi would soon be signed to deals with Cannon and Bloodsport would be the first in a series of movies for the legendary schlock merchants. Unbelievably, Bloodpsort was actually shelved for some time which in the meantime saw Van Damme take the role of another Soviet villain, this time in Black Eagle before Bloodsport was eventually given the greenlight (after being re-edited by Van Damme himself) and in turn gave Cannon their newest action star.
The movie would eventually gross over $65m worldwide and would propel Van Damme into the A-List of action stars for most of the nineties, becoming one of the most profitable martial arts stars ever in the process. However, as successful as he became, very few of his films produced the instant charm and sheer entertainment value that Bloodsport contained and that is why, 30 years later it is still the Magnum Opus in the career of the Muscles from Brussels. Kumite, Kumite, Kumite!