An underground martial arts competition is to be held in Hong Kong, for which an American serviceman is also preparing. At one time, as a child, he became the adopted son of a Japanese karate teacher, achieved perfection through persistent training and received a sacred Japanese sword as a sign of success.

He leaves his military unit on his own and goes to Hong Kong on “Kumite”. The FBI is on the trail of the young man. Despite all obstacles on his way, he manages to achieve victory and join the Brotherhood of the Black Dragon.

4k movies reviews
Bloodsport is a sports action film.

Production began in 1987 at Cannon Group Studios, headed by Menachen Golan and Yoram Globus. Jean-Claude Van Damme, then nobody knows a young man who emigrated from Belgium to the States in ’81, and who left in his native land virtually all the values and possessions (his beloved wife, paternal home, own gym, bringing considerable profit) began to pester the doors of various studios, now and then asking for some insignificant roles in the extras or work as a stuntman.

According to the Van Damme himself, he took with him to the U.S. only a few thousand dollars, which oh how not enough to accommodate him, his English was limited to a couple of or three phrases spoken with a terrible accent, and pounding the doorsteps does not bring results. At one time Jean had even had to deliver pizzas and dance in a strip bar in order to secure a place to live.

Perhaps this would have been limited to the residence of Van Damme in America, if it was not for it so that at one point in Hong Kong, he did not get acquainted with one of the main producers studio “Cannon”, Menachen Golan. The latter promised the young man a role in any of the pictures coming out under his auspices, because Jean-Claude just flooded him with his portfolios and the press, which began to piss Golan off. The promise was made only to get rid of a pushy young man from whom there was no passage, but Van Damme is not aware of the subtleties of the promise, he decided to officially meet with the producer, but in the end, he received several refusals.

Here’s where the funniest thing happened, having got up with Menachem on the street, Jean showed him all his crowning blows and then finally got an invitation to an audition. As far as I know, there is a rather true legend that Golan was three hours late for his meeting with Van Damme, but they soon informed him that Jean had been sitting for those three hours on the twine between two chairs. This was the final chord for the impressed producers, after which they fell down and the parties signed a contract for Jean’s participation in the shooting of the film as the protagonist.

In principle, the film itself did not promise anything worthwhile to the studio, the budget was only a million and a half dollars, and allocated to it was not the strongest team, led by the then little-known average director Newt Arnold. It would seem that something special to expect from the project? Nothing. But for Jean-Claude presented the script was just a huge opportunity, because he had the opportunity to loudly declare itself, and to show the world all their techniques and crowning blow.

The idea of making a film of the “mashrrl arts” genre was not new, but at the same time not uninteresting to the audience. It was based almost entirely on the biography of Frank Dukes, a famous karate master in the 80s, and he was very well known at that time, so his popularity could in no way influence the success of the film.

The project did not promise big receipts, and therefore the producers have reacted to it with cool: the role of champion kumite, (ie the role of the villain) took the master of martial arts, Boal Young, known only for the movie with Bruce Lee’s ‘Emergence of the Dragon’. For the role of fighters were invited unknown persons, some were not even professional athletes, they were required only a strong physique and a different racial identity. Van Damme also dragged his great friend Michel Kissy (he would later play his best role as Tong Po in ‘Kickboxer’) to this film and the most important thing was that Frank Dukes himself had to train all this company and prepare them for the shooting. During filming, Van Damme and Dukes developed a friendship that resulted in Jean inviting Frank to work in his films on more than one occasion.

Thus, the whole friendly company began shooting, which lasted for several months, after which the picture was completely out of budget, although it was still in the post-production stage. This only meant that it would soon find its place in the trash garbage can. For Jean-Claude, this course of events was unacceptable, and he had to himself, his own efforts to finish the picture, to ensure its editing and bring it to full combat readiness for the rental.

Van Damme did everything as it should, and at the preview with the producers, it caused indescribable delight. After that it was allocated cinemas and was launched in theaters, where it was a unique success, on video media alone it grossed more than 50 million dollars, and the collections in the U.S. of 11 million more than paid off the budget. “Bloodsport” became an overnight hit and brought fame to both the young Van Damme and Cannon Studios itself, especially since the main dinosaur on which it then relied on Sylvester Stallone, broke all relations with them after the failure of “Isolation” and returned to “Carolco”.

The plot of ‘Bloodsport’ read as follows:

‘An underground martial arts competition is to be held in Hong Kong, for which an American serviceman is also preparing. At one time, as a child, he became the adopted son of a Japanese karate teacher, achieved perfection through persistent training and received a sacred Japanese sword as a sign of success.

He leaves his military unit on his own and goes to Hong Kong for “Kumite”. The FBI is on the trail of the young man. Despite all obstacles in his way, he manages to achieve victory and join the Brotherhood of the Black Dragon…’.

For Jean-Claude, ‘Bloodsport’ was actually his debut picture, if you don’t count his appearance as an almost cameo, in the youth film adaptation of ‘Rocky,’ ‘No Retreat and No Surrender.’ With his role as Frank Dukes, he by definition, could not fail. First of all, his character throughout the filming was constantly with him, and if there are any questions about his image, Jean-Claude could easily turn to Frank. Secondly, his character is not a Shakespearean Hamlet, all you need – to throw a couple of lines and rush into action, it is not difficult. It’s more difficult to be worthy, to prove yourself in this fight. In this regard, Jean-Claude with his perfect twine, magnificent 180 degree turn in the air, technical punches and colorful physique again could not fail.

Stylistically, the movie is a prime example of an ’80s movie. It is made at a slapdash, at the knees, as they call it. The script and dialogues are at a school-age level, the shooting is primitive, there are no special effects, everything is madly simple, but strange as it may seem, this ‘cheap’ style was the main reason for the film’s success. Who wants to strain after a hard day’s work, to enter the twists and turns of the plot, to understand the plot details or dashingly twisted intrigue? It’s easier to put on a movie that has lots of great action, with rousing music and no tension, just relaxation. “Bloodsport” is just such a film, riding out on three whales…

First. The charisma of the protagonist in the person of Jean-Claude, who is opposed by an equally impressive villain played by Bola Young and the many other fighters that will get in Jean-Claude’s way.

Second. Coolly staged fighting games. In the making of which respected the traditions of different cultures, have been shown different styles of martial arts, and they are made with such energy that they can be viewed separately from the film and used as a visual aid for training.

Third. Paul Hertzog’s wonderful soundtrack. Especially songs like “Fight to Survive” or “On my alone.” They were hits of the time and have not been forgotten by fans even after almost 20 years since the movie was released. This OST undoubtedly played a key role for the film, as without it it would have been a boring action.

And most importantly, I would like to note, the film clearly shows the value of friendship, the resilience of the hero and his principles, love and respect for his teacher, honor and dignity. At first glance it may seem that I am exaggerating, but you can easily observe all this in the film and discern all these important moral and ethical values with the naked eye.

“Bloodsport” will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary, but that will not make it any less of a great picture that millions of people know. It gave birth to a mass of different copies, clones, a lot of sequels, which only added “Bloodsport” epochality in its genre. This picture became a kind of foundation for a lot of films on similar subjects. I don’t advise you to watch it just because you all have seen it countless times, and if you haven’t seen it, don’t get upset, because this movie will never pass you by, because it is a classic.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (76.5 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10+
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0
English: LPCM 2.0 (48kHz, 16-bit)
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 16-bit)
German: LPCM 2.0 Mono

Subtitles
English, English SDH, German, German SDH.