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.
