Bloodfist

My review was written in October 1989 after a Times Square screening.

Several notches below the level of Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme pics is "Bloodfist", a cheapo martial arts action for undiscriminating fans of the genre.

Pic gets underway with a novel opening credits sequence, in which each leading actor (i.e., kicker) is listed with his karate and/or kickboxing titles. Film quickly heads downhill with formula script, utilizing virtually th same premise as recent Van Dammr vehicle "Kickboxer".

Don (The Dragon) Wilson plays Jake (yes, the knowing screenplay by Robet King makes an in-joke about Robert Towne's "Chinatown"), who heads from L. A. to Manila when his brother is murdered following a kickboxing match. Under the tutelage of Kwong (Joe Marie Avellana), Wilson trains for a Ta Chang fighting competition, seeking vengeance on one of the combatants who he suspects killed his brother.

Pic has a couple of plot twists plus a statuesque blonde leading lady (Riley Bowman) to distinguish it from others in the genre. Unfortunately, the editing is ragged and photography hit-and-miss, while the fighters-turned thesps show little acting ability.

Lead Wilson, who's vaguely in the Mike Stone school of martial arts heroes, has a bland scr4een personality. Fans undoubtedly will be attracted by the high kicks and bloodletting. Roger Corman followers will be glad to see Vic Diaz again, stalwart of so many Filipino-lensed actioners of the early '70s.

Bloodfist (1989)

** (out of 4)

THE KARATE KID meets KICKBOXER Roger Corman style in this 80's cult favorite. Don 'The Dragon' Wilson plays Jake Raye, a retired fighter who travels to the Philipeans to get his brothers ashes and seek vengeance against his killer. He ends up getting involved in a kickboxer tournament and ends up falling for a big-breasted blonde. If you're looking for an uplifting story or a heart felt drama then it's best you go somewhere else. BLOODFIST, the first of (so far) nine films, is 100% exploitation and you get pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this. It's fast, cheap, questionably made but the most important thing is that it's at least fun. I thought Wilson was pretty good in the lead role and while he really wasn't required to give a "performance," I thought his skill as an athlete was on full display. He really makes for a good hero and he managed to be very entertaining during the fight scenes. The supporting players really aren't all that memorable but you Billy Blanks fans should be happy. The fighting scenes are entertaining but at the same time there's no denying that they were all cheaply done and quite often you have to wonder what the editor was doing. Some of the editing is quite sloppy but I'm going to guess this was due to how much footage was shot and him having to try and piece it together the best he could. For the exploitation factor there's some nudity as well but really not as much as you'd expect to find in a Corman-produced film. There's no question that the film was cheaply produced and it's not going to be mistaken for a classic but fans of cheap action films should at least get some mild entertainment from it.

I had actually never heard about this 1989 martial arts action movie titled "Bloodfist" before here in the beginning of 2023, as I had the opportunity to sit down and watch it. And with it being a movie that I hadn't already seen, and seeing that Don "The Dragon" Wilson was on the cast list, of course I opted to watch it.

Writer Robert King apparently must have had been watching the 1988 movie "Bloodsport" prior to writing the script for the 1989 movie "Bloodfist", because there were some massive similarities between the two movies. Of course "Bloodsport" is a far better movie than what "Bloodfist" turned out to be. And with that being said, don't get me wrong, because "Bloodfist" is not a bad movie, not at all. It just was a somewhat watered down version of "Bloodsport" with some tweaks to the storyline.

The acting performances in the movie were okay. I mean, you know you're not in for an evening of Shakespearian performances, of course. But for a martial arts movie, then the acting performances were fair enough, and as to be expected.

The martial arts sequences were, for the majority, good enough to watch and came off as being watchable. There were some scenes that were sluggish and amateurish, and not all the fighters were really convincing in their styles and fighting, especially Michael Shaner (playing Baby Davies).

I actually found "Bloodfist" to be an enjoyable movie and entertaining movie, despite of the similarities to "Bloodsport". If you enjoy the martial arts movies of the late 1980s and early 1990s, then you will definitely also find enjoyment in director Terence H. Winkless's "Bloodfist" movie.

My rating of "Bloodfist" lands on a five out of ten stars.

Don "The Dragon" Wilson plays a kickboxer named Jake Raye. He receives news from Manila that his brother, Michael, was found murdered. So he goes to the Philippines, to try and find his brother's killer. He meets a man named Kwong (Joe Mari Avellana), who trains him to compete in a martial-arts tournament called "Ta Chang" -- because he suspects that one of the fighters there was Michael's killer.

Some of the actors (excepting Wilson and Joe Mari Avellana) are quite bad, and the fight scenes aren't choreographed very well (you can make out that the fighters aren't really hitting each other). Still, this is an entertaining movie.

"Bloodfist" was remade twice (at least as far as I know), as "Full Contact (1992)" and "Dragon Fire (1993)". I've seen both, and they're better than this one. "Full Contact" is the best of the lot (and it would have been even better had Don "The Dragon" Wilson been in it instead of Jerry Trimble).

Seven sequels (to date) have followed "Bloodfist" -- most of them have nothing to do with the first one. They're all better than this movie (especially parts 6 and 7).

If you like low budget action movies, and if you are a fan of Don "The Dragon" Wilson, you might want to see this early movie of his. Others will probably not like this movie.

Roger Corman had an eye of what kind of movies the audience wanted to see....in the 80's and 90's there was a huge boom in the martial arts genre, Corman produced many martial arts movies starring kickboxing champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson.

The movie itself is stuff that you already saw: martial arts tournament, revenge and some twists (if you have seen Bloodsport and some other movie like that you know of what i am talking about), but is not so bad to get a 3.8 rating and it's not even the worst martial arts movie ever (trust me, i have seen crappier MA movies) My favorite scene in Bloodfist is the fight scene between Don Wilson and Billy Blanks, the slow-motion sound effects are just worth the whole scene.

The sequels are FAR better than this one.