lemon_magic While this movie is obviously an attempt to cash in on "Blood Sport" (and shamelessly borrows the Stallone vs Lundgren training montage from "Rocky IV"), it still manages to have some charm on its own merits. I think what I really like about it is that the limited budget and unknowns in the cast keep the levels of bombast down to a minimum, and the director and actors keep sneaking in small touches and quiet moments that actually inject some human emotion into what could be nothing but another empty spectacle. Also, having the actors talk in their heavily accented English dialects (instead of HK style overdubbing) adds a nice flavor to the movie. They have to work so hard at expressing themselves in their second language that somehow a lot of the artifice and "attitude" that clots the typical Golan-Globus sausage factory gets left out, and the movie is better for it. I would actually prefer to watch a movie like this to most of the early Canon film/Golan Globus Chuck Norris stuff. Although FF can't hold a candle to "Code Of Silence". It's also sort of funny where it means to be (not "haw haw" funny, but mildly humorous), and some of the actual fights and most of training sequences have an authentic flavor; I practiced those footwork patterns and katas and candle exercises in my early martial arts days, and it was nice to see them done right. And of course, Bolo Yeung is always fun to watch - he always plays the same kind of character, but it's a role he was born to play. An obscure gem of sorts, worth taking the time to watch if you happen to come across it in a collection (like I did).

Scarecrow-88 At the heels of Bloodsport, director Shuji Goto snagged the formidable Bolo Yeung, attempting to capitalize on that film's success for his similarly titled, Bloodfight. The plot echoes Rocky IV as retired world champion martial artist, Masahiro Kai(Yasuaki Kurata), now the trainer of a fledgling gym, prepares for his main event fight against Chang Lee(Bolo Yeung), the one responsible for the murder of a former pupil, Ryu Tenmei(..a really young Simon Yam). Kai watched as Ryu battled against a group of bullying punks, led by Stuart Smith, seeing a possible champion-in-the-making, hoping to take him under his wing. At first Ryu resists, instead concerned with a career in basketball..that is until he has another altercation with the punks, left battered and bruised. To the dismay of girlfriend Milly, Ryu will abandon his potential basketball career, working hard with new trainer Kai, preparing for a tournament, in the hopes of becoming world champion. Ryu does indeed work his way through opponents, squaring off with Lee, but it doesn't fair well, and one snapped neck leads Kai into a drunken state, agonizing over the loss of his student, who was in over his head. In a publicity event, Kai agrees to enter the world championship tournament, setting up the main event between himself and Chang Lee.Undermined perhaps by the middle portion which gets bogged down in unraveling why Kai is awaiting his battle with Lee, Bloodfight, come hell or high water, is gonna place special emphasis on the characters and their story. It opens as if it might be a pure fight film, sacrificing story for bloody violence, but once the flashback story begins, the film at times grinds at a slow pace, with an exciting action sequence popping up here and there. The film follows the same "training regimen" scene from Rocky IV, as Kai prepares in the most difficult conditions / ways while Chang Lee works out in the comforts of a gym, with the finest equipment. While I personally wanted more of Yeung destroying opposition, Bloodfight is more concerned with the dynamic of trainer and student, how this relationship dictates the emotional level of the finale. The film establishes the main aggressors as the gang of cruel interlopers who attack innocent people and street vendors in the city just for kicks, with others having to put them in their place from time to time(..like a young woman defending her mother and sister, Ryu protecting his girlfriend, or Kai, wallowing in misery, who annihilates them even though he's drunk out of his gourd).The fight scenes are quite entertaining with the fighters flying through the air(..these moments are obviously choreographed fantasy, but enjoyable just the same, even if they are fictional acts of agility), swapping blows, with the usual assortment of odd-looking contestants and interesting finishes. The film allows Yeung, who is quite a physical specimen, to look really good, his fight against Yam incredibly hard to watch as his Chung Lee just obliterates the kid, showing no mercy, actually boozed up before the fight even begins. His closing fight with Kurata is worth the wait, and, again, Yeung, for a good while, just bashes and pummels his opponent. The problem is getting to these scenes, the dearth of story taking precedence over the fights. The film was shot in English, before the tolerance of subtitles, hoping to gain interest from Western audiences, I suppose. The Hong Kong locations are always a plus and I think Kurata does fine in the lead. Yeung is certainly menacing enough, even though his role doesn't differ much from others we are accustomed to.

aggie80 Nothing particularly notable about this one. Plot is almost identical to VanDamme's Bloodsport which came out a year earlier, even down to Bolo Yueng as the bad guy and the retrieval of a belt/headband. I see the cityscape training runs as very reminiscent of "Rocky." Actually, the acting was probably better than most of the genre and there are some great thugs being beat up on about three occassions. I would have liked it better if they had resolved that issue before the end of the movie.The one thing I did find interesting was the complete Naihanchi Shodan Kata (Japanese version is Tekki Shodan) done by the main character on the top of a hillside looking out over the city. And the contrast between the bad guy's wonderful training facilities and the good guy's traditional tools is a good message, showing how hard work overcomes good facilities.My biggest gripe is the amount of devastation absorbed by the characters in the final fight without dying!

AlbertV79 I got to see Bloodfight and I have to say it is one of the best tournament-revenge films I have seen. The one that shocked me was that this film was shot in English. Yasuaki "Shoji" Kurata, Simon Yam Tat-wah and most of the stars, who are from Hong Kong, spoke English. Not dubbed, which was quite a surprise. The fight scenes were great as well. I recommend this to any martial arts film fan!!!!