Bloodsport with Van Damme

One of Van Damme’s earlier roles is also, in my opinion, one of his best. Bloodsport (apparently) tells the story of Frank Dux.

We’re introduced to Frank Dux, played by Van Damme, as he visit’s his teacher Senzo Tanaka. After the death of Senzo’s son and Senzo claiming he would never train or teach his family’s style ever again, Frank pipes up and tells him he has far too much to teach,convincing him to pass along his style.

Although having trained with Senzo his whole life, he is taken in and begins a whole new level of training and becomes the next link in passing the Tanaka style from generation to generation.

To honor his teacher, Frank leaves his post with the Army and heads over to Hong Kong to compete the secret Kumite – a full contact fighting competition that is as brutal and bloody as it gets. As he works his way through his opponents he befriends another fighter named Ray Jackson, and a female reporter whose hoping to get a story on the Kumite.

As things progress Ray Jackons is seriously hurt by reigning champion Chong Li (Bolo Yeung), and Frank starts to develop a romantic relationship with the reporter.

While all of this is happening he is also be hunted down by two American detectives who are under order to bring him back to the army as he is too valuable to lose. He must deal with all of these obstacles while preparing for his the final match between him and the ruthless Chong Li.

The story of Frank Dux?

When the movie ends we’re told the Frank Dux retired undefeated after 329 fights from 1975 to 1980. Then we are shown some records:

Fastest Knockout – 3.2 seconds
Fastest Punch with a Knockout – .12 seconds
Fastest Kick with a Knockout – 72 mph
Most Consecutive Knockouts in a Single Tournament – 56

Pretty crazy stuff! But a lot of what happened in the movie has come to question.

After the movie was released some events were investigated by the media and discovered to be pretty hyped up. Some reports even state that his 1975 trophy was ordered by himself downtown at a trophy shop. On top of that, some military vets have declared his military record as being completely fake. After all, there is no such record of a ‘Kumite’ tournament as he described ever existing and Van Damme himself has even labelled him ‘a fraud’!

The truth is pretty sketchy and it’s hard to figure out if the events are even real, so watching this movie in the belief that the events are based on truth seems like a bad idea. But it does make for a good ‘fictional watch’.

The old tournament style story line is fun, especially when you create rivalry like that between Dux and Chong Li (apparently based off a ‘real’ opponent of Frank Dux!). The two detectives add a layer of difficulty to his path, but to me also seem a little unnecessary to the story, but it doesn’t negatively impact the movie.

A top Martial Arts themed movie.

The Kumite constists of fighters from many of the world’s foremost styles, with authentic martial arts actor representing their corresponding art.

On top of that, it’s hard not to notcie a few Bruce Lee references, with Bolo Yeung letting slip a few lines like “Bricks (or boards) don’t hit back” from Enter the Dragon, a movie he also starred in.

Also one of Bruce Lee’s old tricks, a demonstration of his speed, is taking a coin from someones hand and swapping it for another before the person can react and close their hand. Frank Dux does this in a bar on one of the ‘less intelligent’ looking Kumite fighters. I thought it was pretty cool and a good tip of the hat to Bruce.

Of course having splits obsessed Van Damme and Bolo Yeung with his pec pumping poses adds a little cred to this classic.

The Martial Arts & Action

The fights are decent and relatively entertaining.

To me personally the most interesting fights were among the many fighters during the whole tournament montage. Seeing each stylist fight the other whilst demonstrating their moves and art was like a public performance of a wide range of styles. The difference between each fighter gave them all a unique visual style and added a bit of authenticity to the film.

Van Damme offers one of his best performances, doing some good kicking (of course) and showing a few decent hand techniques also. My only compaint was the overly repetitive kicks during the final fight scene. We see in slow motion 4 kicks that are exactly the same performed one after the other…..on two separate occasions!

But it’s only a small shortcoming and overall it’s a good physical performance by Van Damme, Bolo and the entire cast. It’s easy to see how this 80’s classic seems to be a constant name in peoples ‘favorite martial arts movies’ lists.

The Verdict?

One of America’s top martial arts classics. It’s a cheesy 80’s movie with the bad music and awkward moments but overall it’s tops. Van Damme at his best!