Bloodsport (film)

Infobox Film
name = Bloodsport


caption = Original Movie Poster
director = Newt Arnold
producer = Mark DiSalle
Yoram Globus
Menahem Golan
eproducer =
aproducer =
writer = Christopher Cosby
Mel Friedman
Sheldon Lettich "(also story)"
starring = Jean-Claude Van Damme
Donald Gibb
Bolo Yeung
Norman Burton
Forest Whitaker
and Leah Ayres
music = Paul Hertzog
Michael J. Bishop
cinematography = David Worth
editing = Carl Kress
distributor = Cannon Group
released = February 26, 1988
runtime = 92 mins
country = USA
awards =
language = English
budget = $1,500,000 USD (estimated)
preceded_by =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:6184
imdb_id = 0092675

"Bloodsport" is a 1988 martial arts film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Although it enjoyed little box office success, it is considered a cult classic by martial arts film enthusiasts for showcasing a large variety of international fighting styles, ranging from Kung Fu to Jeet Kune Do and Muay Thai, among many others.

Plot

Allegedly based on real-life events which took place between 1975 and 1980–1981, "Bloodsport" tells the story of an American man named Frank W. Dux (Jean Claude Van Damme), who was trained from his youth in the ways of Ninjutsu by a Japanese master of the art, Senzo Tanaka (Roy Chiao). Primarily to honor his mentor out of gratitude and respect for having been allowed the training in place of Senzo Tanaka's deceased and only son, Dux leaves for Hong Kong to participate in the Kumite — an illegal and underground, freestyle, single-elimination and occasionally deadly full-contact martial arts tournament to which the world's best martial artists are clandestinely invited every five years.

The movie begins with the preparation of the Kumite somewhere in Hong Kong. Then it shows a number of fighters preparing for the Kumite with their own training regimens (from climbing trees to bash coconuts to breaking big ice blocks and boards). Then it shows a man cleaning a platform when it finally shows Frank Dux kicking a speed bag in an Army gym. An officer talks to him about how the commanding officer found out about Frank leaving for the Kumite in Hong Kong and wanted to talk to him. Frank tells that he would take a shower and talk to him only to go AWOL from there.

Dux goes to the Tanakas' house to say goodbye to his trainer and remembers back to his training days. Two military law enforcement agents (Army Criminal Investigation Division) (Norman Burton and Forest Whitaker) are sent to track down and arrest him.

After arriving in Hong Kong, Dux befriends fellow American contestant, vale tudo fighter Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) and eventually becomes involved with a female American journalist, Janice Kent (Leah Ayres), who is attempting to investigate the secretive Kumite event. Dux believes the Kumite is for the fighters, and not for the people who read newspapers. As the tournament progresses, Dux beats all of his diverse opponents, including a Syrian fighter (Bernard Mariano), a Muay Thai kickboxer (Paulo Tocha), and a formidable Sumo wrestler-type fighter (David Ho). He advances to the third and final day of the tournament to face the defending Kumite champion, Chong Li (Bolo Yeung) — a man with the tendency to cripple and sometimes outright kill his opponents on the platform, and who has also hospitalized Ray Jackson during the second day of the Kumite. When Chong finds that Dux is the better fighter, he blinds Dux with a handful of quicklime, but Dux manages to train his senses and emerge victorious to become the first Western winner of the Kumite. The film closes with Dux returning to the United States and statistics detailing the real-life Frank W. Dux's alleged achievements (such as the fastest KO) are shown.

Overview

Despite being only modestly well received at the box office, "Bloodsport" became one of Jean Claude Van Damme's first starring vehicles and extensively showcased his athletic abilities. On display are numerous physical feats such as his trademark helicopter-style, jump spinning heel kicks, as well as another one of Van Damme's trademark in his ability to perform a complete split.

"Bloodsport"'s soundtrack, released only briefly to the public, has long been out of print and remains a collector's item.

Though the movie is claimed to be based on real-life experiences, many of the situations, activities, awards, fights, and other claims are disputed. [cite news | url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/59828805.html?dids=59828805:59828805&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=May+1%2C+1988&author=JOHN+JOHNSON&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=4&desc=NINJA%3A+Hero+or+Master+Fake%3F+Others+Kick+Holes+in+Fabled+Past+of+Woodland+Hills+Martial+Arts+Teacher| title=NINJA: Hero or Master Fake? Others Kick Holes in Fabled Past of Woodland Hills Martial Arts Teacher | publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=1988-05-01 | first= | last= | accessdate =2007-07-27]

Cast

*Jean-Claude Van Damme: Frank Dux
*Donald Gibb: Ray Jackson
*Ken Siu: Victor (as Kenneth Siu)
*Bolo Yeung: Chong Li
*Leah Ayres: Janice Kent
*Roy Chiao: Senzo Tanaka
*Lily Leung: Mrs. Tanaka
*Norman Burton: Helmer
*Forest Whitaker: Rawlins
*Philip Chan ( [陳欣健): Captain Chen
*Nathan Chkueke: Sen Ling
*Michael Qissi: Suan Paredes
*Samson Li: Budimam Prang
*Bernard Mariano: Sadiq Hossein
*Dennis Chiu: Chuan Ip Mung
*Steve Daw: As himself
*Paulo Tocha: Paco
*David Ho: Pumola
*Ng Yuk Shu: As himself
*Joao Gamez: Joao Gomez/As himself
*Eric Neff: Ricardo Morra
*AP George: Referee/Judge

oundtrack

"Bloodsport"'s soundtrack score was composed by Paul Hertzog, who also composed another Jean-Claude Van Damme movie titled "Kickboxer". Hertzog's score was only issued on CD a few times. Due to its rarity, it is now considered a collector's item and goes for as much as $150 on eBay.

The movie's score contained the songs "Fight To Survive" and "On My Own", both of which were performed by Stan Bush. However Stan Bush's songs as featured in the movie are not present on the official soundtrack, and alternate versions with vocals by Paul Delph are present on it instead.

The film also contained a song by Michael Bishop titled "Steal The Night", which plays during a scene when Van Damme's character runs away from Helmer and Rawlins. This song was never released until 2006, when it was made available for online purchasing. The single contains a vocal and instrumental version.

The tracklisting for the original CD was as follows:

*1. Fight to Survive (02:23) - Performed by Paul Delph
*2. Kumite (Main Title) (02:39)
*3. Father and Son / Training (04:24)
*4. The Tree and the Sword / In Hong Kong / The Walled City / Ceremony (07:43)
*5. Chong Li Kills (02:50)
*6. On My Own - Alone (03:34) - Performed by Paul Delph
*7. The Second Day (04:23)
*8. The Morning After (02:45)
*9. Preparation (02:32)
*10. Dim Mak (01:59)
*11. Powder (03:42)
*12. Triumph (02:33)

Also of note is a previously unreleased piece of score from the movie titled "The Gamble", which was released on the "Best of Van Damme Compilation Volume 2" CD.

The 26th of June 2007 saw a limited edition release of the soundtrack on CD by record label Perseverance Records. This particular version was limited to just 3,000 copies. This release is considered by fans of the soundtrack as a vast improvement over all previous releases as the CD contains for the first time, the original versions of the tracks performed by Stan Bush as heard in the motion picture. The track listing for this limited edition version is as follows:

*1. "Steal the Night" (04:28) - performed by Michael Bishop
*2. Kumite (02:25)
*3. Captain (00:23)
*4. Flashback/Martial Science/Father & Son/Training/Tree & Sword (10:20)
*5. In Hong Kong (00:58)
*6. The Walled City (01:53)
*7. Dim Mak (00:42)
*8. Police (00:14)
*9. First Day: Ceremony/ First Fight/Good, Bad, Ugly/Dux vs Arab (04:31)
*10. "Fight to Survive" (02:02) - performed by Stan Bush
*11. Morning After (01:55)
*12. Second Day (04:25)
*13. Samoan Balls (02:16)
*14. Jackson Falls (01:28)
*15. "On My Own - Alone" (02:12) - performed by Stan Bush
*16. Here for the Final?/Inspector, No! (00:57)
*17. Paco vs Dux (02:20)
*18. Chong Li Kills (01:29)
*19. Preparation (00:49)
*20. Finals/Powder/Triumph (07:28)
*21. "Fight to Survive" (End Title) (02:40) - performed by Stan Bush
*22. "Steal the Night" (instrumental version) (04:32)

Titles around the world

*Argentina: "El Gran Dragón Blanco" (The Great White Dragon)
*Brazil: "O Grande Dragāo Branco" (The Great White Dragon)
*Bulgaria: "Кървав спорт" (Bloody Sport)
*Canada: "Bloodsport"
*Czech Republic: "Krvavý sport" (Bloodsport)
*Finland: "Bloodsport: Viimeiseen Asti" (Bloodsport: To The Last Man)
*France: "Bloodsport: Tous Les Coups Sont Permis" (Bloodsport: All Strikes Are Allowed)
*Germany: "Bloodsport: Eine Wahre Geschichte" (Bloodsport: A True Story)
*Hungary: "Véres Játékok" (Bloody Games)
*Italy: "Senza Esclusione Di Colpi" (Without Exclusion of Blows)
*Mexico: "Contacto Sangriento" (Bloody Contact)
*Poland: "Krwawy Sport" (Bloody Sport)
*Portugal: "Força Destruidora" (Destructive Force)
*Romania: "Sport sângeros" (Bloodsport)
*Russia: "Кровавый спорт" (Bloody Sport)
*Spain: "Contacto Sangriento" (Bloody Contact)
*Sweden: "Utmaningen" (The Challenge)
*Turkey: "Kan Sporu" (Bloodsport)

Records

* Fastest Knockout - 3.2 seconds
* Fastest punch with a knockout - .12 seconds
* Fastest kick with a knockout - 72 mph
* Most consecutive knockouts in a Single Tournament - 56

These records were supposedly from the first Kumite, the one depicted in the film, but regardless of which one, Frank Dux has described them repeatedly as having occurred within a single tournament. This is highly debated for several reasons. For the fastest knockout, it is merely a matter of whether or not Frank Dux competed at all. 3.2 seconds is very fast but completely possible for a knockout. However most fights have a "feeling out" period that often last 10 or more seconds making a 3.2 second fight very rare.The fastest punch with a knockout is another matter. It's not that .12 seconds is an impossible feat, quite the opposite. For a professional fighter, it's very possible to throw quality punches under .09 seconds. An ordinary person with no training at all should find it no trouble to throw a .2 second punch. It would be odd to be measuring the speed of one's punches anyways, but for a very ordinary blow (to the world's greatest fighters) to remain an unbeaten record for over 20 years is highly debated.The fastest kick with a knockout is oddly measured, since the punch was in seconds, by being in mph. Again, a 72 mph kick, though fast, is not out of the range of any properly trained fighter. That the record was made isn't so hard to believe as one has to assume that measuring the speed of attacks is infrequent and probably not used for the majority of the Kumite's hundreds of years existence. The hard to believe part is that the "established" record hasn't been beaten for over 20 years despite the fact that fighters are getting stronger and faster every year.The most debated record is the Most knockouts in a single tournament. 56 KO's would mean that Frank Dux fought at least 56 fighters in a single elmination bracketed tournament. In order to fight that many fighters on his way to the semi-finals and finals, Frank Dux would have to be one of 72,057,594,037,927,936 fighters competing, if you assume half the current fighters are eliminated each round and 56 KO's would mean at least 56 rounds. It is possible for Frank Dux to have fought a few extra fighters than everyone else but even if he had fought 36 more fighters than anyone else in the tournament, to have enough fighters for 20 rounds would mean there would still have to be 1,048,576 competing. The more logical reasoning would be that his KO string spanned several tournaments but all sources including Frank Dux claim these records occurred during just one tournament.

Trivia

* The real-life Frank W. Dux was the coordinator of "Bloodsport"'s martial arts scenes.
* Bolo Yeung, seen portraying the defending Kumite champion Chong Li, was 49 years old during "Bloodsport"'s filming.
* Van Damme and Yeung would face off again 3 years later in the film "Double Impact".
* The 'split & punch' attack of the Mortal Kombat video games character Johnny Cage is based on a scene from this movie (Frank Dux v. Pumola).
* The character of Johnny Cage itself was based loosely on Jean-Claude Van Damme's portrayal of Dux.
* "Bloodsport" makes several tributes to the late Bruce Lee. Dux originally convinced his mentor that he was worthy of the complete training - despite him being neither Japanese nor a member of the Tanaka familyline - by reminding Senzo Tanaka that; "You taught me using any technique that works. Never to limit myself to one style. To keep an open mind.", which is a direct reference to the philosophy behind mixed martial arts as it was pioneered by Bruce Lee in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In a later scene Chong Li also says to Frank Dux; "Very good. But brick not hit back.", which is a reference to a similar line spoken by Bruce Lee in the movie "Enter the Dragon" -- "Boards don't hit back.". Lastly, "Bloodsport" was set in Hong Kong, whereas the real-life Frank Dux claimed that the Kumite he attended had been held in Jamaica.
* The game Jackson and Dux played when first befriending each other was the 1984 arcade title Karate Champ.
* Was originally released on Region 2 in 2001 but has since been deleted and is a sought-after item.
* In the SNES game Best of the Best you can see the 2 detectives and the reporter sitting in the front row just like in bloodsport. The game itself was very much like bloodsport where you compete in a kumite.

ee also

*"", a limited release sequel
*"Bloodsport III", a direct-to-video film
*"" a direct-to-video film
*Martial Arts in Fiction

References

External links

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