Shootfighter: Fight to the Death

1993
R
1h 36m

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

Bolo Yeung, Michael Bernardo, and William Zabka in Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993)

Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.

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Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them ... Read allFight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.Fight matches, that end when a man is either unconscious or dead, are fought in Tijuana. 2 naive friends, hoping to make a quick buck, go there. One owes money to a loan shark - giving them plenty of practice in no rule fights.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

1.5K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
In the original cut of the film, James Pax's Teng was the primary villain, having been defeated by Bolo Yeung's Shingo in a previous Shootfighting match, thus leading him to set up his own tournament to lure him back for a rematch. This is also why some international VHS summaries of the film have the line "From the day they were born, Shingo and Teng had been trained and primed like human bombs to explode." However, after internal screenings, additional funding was put towards reshoots, which would bring in Martin Kove as the film's new villain, Lee, and changing Pax's character to a subordinate villain. The reshoots would also add the new "octagon" location for the finals (most likely introduced into the production by Kazja Patschull, who would also play "Skeeter"), and ramp up the violence level in these new fights. The only footage released publicly of the original cut of the film came from a film market trailer/"sizzle reel" (awkwardly set to Giorgio Moroder's "Ivory Tower" from The Neverending Story), showing the original fights with Bolo VS Pax, as well as deleted dialogue segments.

Goofs
(at around 1h 29 mins) In the end fight, Lee fights Shingo. Lee throws several punches to Shingo's head. Shingo dodges them, but you still hear a punch impact sound.

Alternate versions
When this was first released on video, two version were made: A 94-min R-rated version and a 96-min. unrated version. The unrated version contains more blood and gore and uncut mortal kombat type fatalities. Cut scenes include:
Lee (Kove) tearing out Shingo's friend's throat.
At the end of the exhibition match between Boa and Buck, Buck picks up Boa by the throat on to the cage and tears his heart out while Boa spits out blood and blood squirts from the heart. In the R version, we just see Buck slam Boa on to the cage and here him punch into Boa's rib cage and about five to eight cuts.
A fighter gets his throat slashed and blood sprays out of his throat and blood flows out of his mouth. He then falls on the mat and blood starts leaking out of his throat into a puddle of blood on the mat.
During another fight, a fighter grabs his opponent's arm and bites a piece of his flesh off. He then spits out the chunk of flesh. In the R version, we see him knaw on it from a distance.
In the fight between Ruben and Hawk, Hawk is about to get back up to fight Ruben. But since Ruben's sword was pointing down, the sword went into Hawk's stomach. In the unrated version, we see blood leaking out of his stomach and at some times start to squirt.
In the last fight between Shingo and Lee, Shingo grabs Lee's arm and shatters it and the flesh bursts open exposing the bone and blood from the inside. We then see Lee's battered face and him screaming. In the R version, we just hear Shingo break Lee's arm and then we see Shingo jump down on Lee with a falling knee attack to Lee's back. The R-cut is rarely available to rent and has only been seen on HBO and Cinemax. All rental outlets rent only the Uncut version.

Connections
Featured in Bad Blood (1994)

User reviews20

Review

Featured review

6/10

Bolo as a good guy!?!

Two young karate heads (Michael Bernardo and THE KARATE KID villain William Zabka) travel to Mexico and become seduced by the world of shootfighting, a deadly bloodsport type tournament. Hoping for a quick profit, our dudes stay to duke it out with a bunch of other fighters. Profit, however, is the least of the tournament organizer Mr. Lee's (Martin Kove) motives. Seems the boy's sensei Shingo (Bolo Yeung, in a rare good guy role) disgraced Lee in the past, leaving him with an arm forever in a brace. Seeing as how these are the prize pupils, Lee hopes to get the sensei to come to Mexico, setting the stage for and unscheduled rematch.

This was riding that post-BLOODSPORT wave (hell, they got Bolo) but perks it up a bit with some graphic violence (throat slashings, brain bashing, and even a heart ripped out). It was one of the few direct-to- video action titles back in the day to come out in R-rated and unrated offerings. The fight scenes are nothing new and the two leads (Bernardo looking like a muscle-bound Mickey Dolenz) are annoying. But you have to respect a film that casts Bolo as a docile sensei. There is even a bit where he shoots basketball with a young kid. You can't beat that type of anti-typecasting. Maryam d'Abo is the love interest and Eddie Albert also appears as a manager/gambler type (which he also did in FIST FIGHTER). The two karate kids and the sensei returned a few years later in SHOOTFIGHTER 2 (1996).