26 reviews
A Martial Arts fighter named Masahiro Kai (Yasuaki Kurata), retired for years from the free fighting form, wants someone else to carry on his legacy so he seeks a student he can train. His first choice, a young punk, turns out to be too filled with anger and violence to ever amount to anything. He has better luck with young Ryu Tenmei (Simon Yam) who starts out seeking revenge against a group of punks who attacked him and his girlfriend, including Kai's former student, but soon comes to put his hatred aside and replace it with an appreciation and understanding of the true benefits of adopting the martial arts philosophy and lifestyle. Soon Ryu is good enough to fight in the deadly World Championship free-fighting tournament and the result proves shocking and unexpected, a result that may force Kai out of retirement and back into the fighting field seeking retribution for his fallen student. But can Kai possibly succeed against the powerful, devilish Chong Lee (Bolo Yeung)?
Honestly I like BLOODFIGHT far more than BLOODPSORT even though it has largely the same plot. There's a more believable edge to BLOODFIGHT I feel and it's helped by the fact it's an actual Hong Kong based film presentation. The fighting is quite good but even better is the emotional range the performers show managing to overcome language barriers with strong use of body language and the extra time and attention given to building up characters, something decidedly lacking in BLOODSPORT. Still there are problems. I believe they made a mistake filming this in English because most of the performers simply had not mastered the language even though it was an interesting exercise to watch them attempt it and a nice try on the part of those behind the film to presumably reach a larger audience and perhaps tap into some of the financial success BLOODSPORT enjoyed. Finally the resolution isn't fully satisfying as the punishment doesn't quite seem to match the crime that was perpetrated. That said, I ended up liking this far more than I expected I would.
Honestly I like BLOODFIGHT far more than BLOODPSORT even though it has largely the same plot. There's a more believable edge to BLOODFIGHT I feel and it's helped by the fact it's an actual Hong Kong based film presentation. The fighting is quite good but even better is the emotional range the performers show managing to overcome language barriers with strong use of body language and the extra time and attention given to building up characters, something decidedly lacking in BLOODSPORT. Still there are problems. I believe they made a mistake filming this in English because most of the performers simply had not mastered the language even though it was an interesting exercise to watch them attempt it and a nice try on the part of those behind the film to presumably reach a larger audience and perhaps tap into some of the financial success BLOODSPORT enjoyed. Finally the resolution isn't fully satisfying as the punishment doesn't quite seem to match the crime that was perpetrated. That said, I ended up liking this far more than I expected I would.
- Space_Mafune
- Mar 1, 2006
- Permalink
"Blood Fight" is an unexpectedly serious action flick that has some good, at times artistic camera work. Unlike most Chinese martial arts films, this one does not have the awful English overdubs that make these films so bad. The Chinese actors are actually speaking English, albeit with heavy accents, and it lends an extra level of quality to the production. The story is good, if not very original. A martial arts master becomes emotionally destroyed when his young protégé loses his life to a brutal opponent in the ring. Kung Fu cult icon, Bolo Yeung is his usual demonic self as the fighter who takes the kid's life. Basically a revenge flick, but with some decent character development and higher production values. Featuring some great shots of Hong Kong, both in daylight, and the neon-saturated nights. The fight technique is mainly kick-boxing, and at times things get quite bloody. Worth a look, especially for fans of Yeung Bolo.
I saw this movie in my local Book Off store here in NYC. It had Bolo Yeung on the cover of the DVD and being a huge fan of Bolo, I was immediately intrigued and I purchased it.
Overall, it's rough with the language because it's in Asian so I had to watch it on English subtitles. Starts off a little slow but if you hang in there, you'll get rewarded with a great fight scene between the main hero of the film and the main villain which is Bolo. Not a bad action film.
Overall, it's rough with the language because it's in Asian so I had to watch it on English subtitles. Starts off a little slow but if you hang in there, you'll get rewarded with a great fight scene between the main hero of the film and the main villain which is Bolo. Not a bad action film.
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!!!!
As a kid, we considered this movie as one of the funniest things ever, and it was a neighborhood sensation for about half a Summer. Essentially a direct (and abysmal) clone of "Bloodsport," "Bloodfight" was made the same year, and features the same bad guy: Bolo Yeung. (Who, strangely enough, plays the same CHARACTER as he did in "Bloodsport"). I hadn't seen this movie in 15-years and was pleased to discover that it remains as cheesetastic as my memories....Anyway, the movie is dreadful, almost continuously incoherent rubbish, but has its moments as an unintentional comedy. The acting is TERRIBLE, and some of the film's more dramatic sequences are laugh out loud funny. (Some segments had me questioning whether the lameness was intentional, but I don't think it is). There are some definite pacing problems, and the editing is so bad that the story is essentially broken and unnavigable, but there are a few pretty classic parts. If you appreciate the sublime comfort of late-vintage, bottom-of-the-barrel Hong Kong actioners, and need an easy one to laugh at, this one's OK. You'll have to fast-forward through some parts, but just know there is funny in here, friends. LONG LIVE THE KUMATE! ---|--- Reviews by Flak Magnet
- Flak_Magnet
- Sep 9, 2009
- Permalink
When i first saw this, i thought 'I will never see anything as terrible as this in my life'. I was wrong, though, because i saw Joel Reed's 'Bloodsucking Freaks'. This would have to come in a close second as the worst movie ever though.
People hire martial arts movies for one reason : Action. Me and 4 friends borrowed this while we were in a great mood, and turned it on hoping for some great fighting and possibly a feasible storyline. The first 5 minutes in the tournament were just what we wanted, and we were looking forward to more. 2 minutes later everybody but me had left. The movie starts off well, but simply degenerated into one of the most boring pieces of %#$^ ever. After the initial action, it is just people wandering around the streets talking to each other for over an hour. Would this satisfy a martial arts fan? That question doesn't need to be answered...
There is no reason at all to watch this movie. The acting is shoddy, the storyline in non-existent, and there is NO ACTION. I am disappointed in myself for sitting through this when everybody else got the fun of playing pool. This movie is so boring that I would rather spend 2 hours cleaning public toilets than watch it. The lowest mark should be lowered to a 0 for this movie. 1 is too high.
People hire martial arts movies for one reason : Action. Me and 4 friends borrowed this while we were in a great mood, and turned it on hoping for some great fighting and possibly a feasible storyline. The first 5 minutes in the tournament were just what we wanted, and we were looking forward to more. 2 minutes later everybody but me had left. The movie starts off well, but simply degenerated into one of the most boring pieces of %#$^ ever. After the initial action, it is just people wandering around the streets talking to each other for over an hour. Would this satisfy a martial arts fan? That question doesn't need to be answered...
There is no reason at all to watch this movie. The acting is shoddy, the storyline in non-existent, and there is NO ACTION. I am disappointed in myself for sitting through this when everybody else got the fun of playing pool. This movie is so boring that I would rather spend 2 hours cleaning public toilets than watch it. The lowest mark should be lowered to a 0 for this movie. 1 is too high.
- plantostickthat
- Jan 2, 2001
- Permalink
The only possible source of entertainment in a movie like "Bloodfight" is the fighting, but even that is spoiled here by terrible direction, bad camera angles and sloppy editing. The plot rambles on for about an hour, then turns into a tenth-rate "Rocky". The Oriental actors, burdened with someone's idiotic decision that they should all speak exclusively in English (in a misconceived attempt to help the film break more easily into the American market, perhaps?), recite their lines robotically, without any feeling. On the other hand, the white actors, who can speak English more fluently, can't act (only Cristina Lawson comes close to doing both of those things simultaneously). "Bloodfight" is only for those who'll watch Bolo Yeung in any film, no matter how atrocious it may be. (*)
- Leofwine_draca
- Dec 4, 2015
- Permalink
Some old guys kung fu pupil gets killed in the ring so he seeks to f··· some s··· up. Blood Fight is a horrible movie. What ruins what could of been a less s···ty movie is its horrid melodrama and slow ass pacing. It does have some hilariously cringy moments like the happy music, terrible fight choreography, bad acting, some of the most crappiest editing I've ever seen but it's not enough to help with the entertainment value. I like Bolo and Kurata but man did they screw the pooch with this one. Yipe yipe yipe!
- DavyDissonance
- Aug 28, 2020
- Permalink
- Scarecrow-88
- Nov 1, 2009
- Permalink
- donbendell
- Jan 24, 2007
- Permalink
For some strange reason, I like this movie. I's partly a spoof of _Bloodsport_ and partly your typical Hong Kong movie. The martial arts tournament is named the "Free Fighting Tournament," and Bolo Yeung plays basically the same character that he did in _Bloodsport_ (the name is spelled Chang Lee here). The fights are downright weird: a sumo wrestler smothers his opponent by squatting on his face; an Indian fighter who must be seven feet tall and who wears high-top sneakers accidentally breaks a floodlight with a high kick and tells the stage people, "Up, up, up"; a monkey-style kung fu fighter rolls around on the mat without making much attempt at fighting, then rips a tuft of hair off the Indian fighter's chest (as Bruce Lee did to Chuck Norris in _Return of the Dragon_). As if that wasn't bizarre enough, the master wanders around Hong Kong, tangling with some American punks (who have a very familiar obscene phrase spray-painted on their jeep). Even though _Bloodfight_ is really just your typical Hong Kong chopsocky flick, I am fascinated by it, maybe because I have an interest in anything Asian. Fans of Jackie Chan should give it a shot, as well as anyone who likes Simon Yam (who has worked with John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat in other films).
- lemon_magic
- May 24, 2011
- Permalink
Why in the seven hells Bolo Yeung did this trash no one except him will know. Bad presentation, bad "story" (told in a gigantic flashback in the middle of the movie) and terrible fight scenes.
- heretic369
- Feb 19, 2021
- Permalink
Bloodfight It's basically a shameless rip off of bloodsport but with some extras.....Circus music. That's right completely inappropriate circus music is played for long segments of this movie. Why? I would really like to know but it did have me chuckling. terrible acting no doubt in part by the fact that all the actors speak their lines in English when they no doubt couldn't speak a word of English without intensive coaching.
It wasn't looking good until Stuart Steen AKA Stuart Smith enters, playing the part of the cocky street gang leader. You think billy bob thornton gives spellbinding performances? LOL. Think again! Stuart Smith is our new god. Who cares who J Low is dating? I want to know what country Stuart Smith is the president of!!! He is an unstoppable actor who will give his all NO MATER WHAT! Long live Stuart Steen!!! AkA stuart Smith AKA a bunch of other names! He is the man! Anyway I have watched this movie more than once. It definitely has its slow parts but if you like crap you'll like this!
It wasn't looking good until Stuart Steen AKA Stuart Smith enters, playing the part of the cocky street gang leader. You think billy bob thornton gives spellbinding performances? LOL. Think again! Stuart Smith is our new god. Who cares who J Low is dating? I want to know what country Stuart Smith is the president of!!! He is an unstoppable actor who will give his all NO MATER WHAT! Long live Stuart Steen!!! AkA stuart Smith AKA a bunch of other names! He is the man! Anyway I have watched this movie more than once. It definitely has its slow parts but if you like crap you'll like this!
- rottingcarrot
- Jan 5, 2006
- Permalink
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.
- DanTheMan2150AD
- May 19, 2024
- Permalink
I recently saw the movie Blood Fight and it was amazing! But I don't think it was supposed to be amazing in the kind of way I was amazed. Blood Fight is amazing like the band Styx or amazing like a bald guy with a ponytail. And if I was a record producer way back in the day and I had a chance to sign the band Styx to a recording contract, I would pass on them. And then later, after Styx had made it big and like we run into each other at some Hollywood party and they would be all like, " look at us we made it big and you had your chance to sign us and you passed on us!" I would be okay with that.
- jessegehrig
- Oct 26, 2023
- Permalink
- talllwoood13
- Dec 12, 2023
- Permalink
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.
As far as low-budget, poorly made martial arts movies go, this one isn't bad...it has every element of the classical martial arts movie: an underground tournament, an aging sensei, an eager young student, an evil villain who kills said student so that the sensei has to overcome his alcoholism and seek revenge...
If you like acting, this isn't the movie for you. If you like cheesy fights and training montages, check it out.
If you like acting, this isn't the movie for you. If you like cheesy fights and training montages, check it out.
- jaredyoung
- Apr 16, 2003
- Permalink
- tarbosh22000
- Apr 5, 2023
- Permalink
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!
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!
The only good thing about this movie is more of the clone to "Bloodsport". Since the senses turned to the bottle after his student was killed in the tournament. It shows how pathetic he is. After he wises up, he goes back into training. Most would go back to training following an injury. That is a wise move. Staying hurt or angry leads to downfall. His desires are always his pride. He should have used them for better purposes.
Bolo Yeung character is the same as it was in "Bloodsport". A bloodthirsty character. Like in the last one, he killed his opponent.
This movie is a mirror image of the last one 2 out of 5 stars.
Bolo Yeung character is the same as it was in "Bloodsport". A bloodthirsty character. Like in the last one, he killed his opponent.
This movie is a mirror image of the last one 2 out of 5 stars.
- GOWBTW-5STARreviewer
- Dec 10, 2024
- Permalink
Director Shuji Goto's blissfully brutal, bloody-knuckled fight-flick 'Bloodfight' (1989) is a fearsomely fleet-footed, free-fighting, sweat-soaked, cranium-cracking martial arts classic! This genuinely exciting, bruisingly bellicose body-blasting extravaganza has harvested a truly golden cast, headed by the heroically hypertrophic, marvellously menacing, majestically mulleted, tibia-trashing titan Bolo Yeung, the handsome, super-charismatic Simon Yam, and that most serene skull-smasher, the high-kicking Kung Fu legend, sensei Yasuaki Kurata!
When these steel-thewed, mongoose mean martial artists bravely step into this deadly storied arena it's not sport, but a gruesome blood-fight for survival!!!! So if you need an intense infusion of adrenalized, ribcage-rupturing action Goto's 'Bloodfight' deliriously delivers a knockout blow to second-rate Kung Fu pretenders, as in the bloody but unbowed DTV martial arts arena very few celluloid contenders have got the warrior heart to finish a...'Bloodfight' B-Movie behemoth Bolo Yeung is on especially nihilistic neck-breaking form as murderously uncaged Bloodfighter Chang, and his scintillatingly savage showdown with sleekly sinister, flint-eyed fist-fighter Masahiro Kai (Yasuaki Kurata)is a barnstormingly bloodthirsty bout of balletic brutality, animalistic intensity, carnal viscerality, and sublime slo-mo majesty!!!! This 'Bloodfight' is certainly NOT for the faint of fist! In 'Bloodsport JCVD broke all the rules, in 'Bloodfight' they go for broke, and break all the heads instead!' - Are YOU up for the challenge?
When these steel-thewed, mongoose mean martial artists bravely step into this deadly storied arena it's not sport, but a gruesome blood-fight for survival!!!! So if you need an intense infusion of adrenalized, ribcage-rupturing action Goto's 'Bloodfight' deliriously delivers a knockout blow to second-rate Kung Fu pretenders, as in the bloody but unbowed DTV martial arts arena very few celluloid contenders have got the warrior heart to finish a...'Bloodfight' B-Movie behemoth Bolo Yeung is on especially nihilistic neck-breaking form as murderously uncaged Bloodfighter Chang, and his scintillatingly savage showdown with sleekly sinister, flint-eyed fist-fighter Masahiro Kai (Yasuaki Kurata)is a barnstormingly bloodthirsty bout of balletic brutality, animalistic intensity, carnal viscerality, and sublime slo-mo majesty!!!! This 'Bloodfight' is certainly NOT for the faint of fist! In 'Bloodsport JCVD broke all the rules, in 'Bloodfight' they go for broke, and break all the heads instead!' - Are YOU up for the challenge?
- Weirdling_Wolf
- Feb 20, 2022
- Permalink