It's easy to dismiss the 1989 "Bloodfist" as being only a re-packaged version of Jean Claude Van Damme's wildly successful "Bloodsport." Critics weren't overwhelming in their praise of the film. No one really thought much of it at the time.
In similar fashion, its star, "The Flash That Will Not Last" was a tag given to kickboxing phenom Don "The Dragon" Wilson when he first started his professional fighting career.
"Bloodfist" spurned an astounding eight (EIGHT!) sequels and Don Wilson is still going strong, even rumored at the age of 58 to be considering resurrecting his professional kickboxing career.
So much for experts and expectations.
"Bloodfist" is similar to "Bloodsport" in that it features a winner-take-all battle, called The Red Fist Tournament , that the lead character has to win. Van Damme's movie is for the honor of his adopted father and Wilson's is about the murder of his brother which he seeks to revenge.
Wilson's character heads to Manilla to find answers as to how his half-brother died after winning a fight that the brother was supposed to lose by arrangement (unknown to everyone, the fix was in.) The trail leads him to a school where the fighters compete to win a cash prize. Wilson, after picking up a trainer (the fantastic Joe Mari Avellana) - who was also his brother's trainer (hint, hint) begins to work long hours to get into shape to fight such foes as Billy Blanks (Black Rose,) Rob Kaman (Raton,) and the ferocious Cris Aquilar (Chin Woo) - all real life martial artists and competition champs.
He meets a hot babe (Riley Bowman,) sorta-kinda falls in love (or at least lust,) fights various matches, discovers his brother's killer and wins the competition against last year's winner Chin Woo.. Familiar sure, but we're never going to be that impressed with the stories in these films - they are what they are - vehicles to get to what's important - the martial arts and the central character.
The fight sequences and Wilson, a real, true champion kickboxer with a real world record of 72-5-2 (48 knockouts) with 3 no-contests delivers on both.
Don isn't perhaps as flashy as some in this first film of the series; it was 1989 after all. But there is little doubt when he fights that you are watching a master with consummate control of his body and skills. If you watch his real fights on YouTube and compare them with the movie fights you see a lot of what made him a champion in those arenas where he had to defend against flailing fists and feet determined to knock him out.
One of the odder moments in this movie that made me chuckle was when Wilson went to claim his brother's body. You tend to process things like that with your worldview, thinking that "claim the body" means exactly that. But instead of an actual body, Wilson's character was led to a file cabinet where his brother's ashes were kept. An urn tag instead of a toe tag identifies him I wondered if that was unique to the Philippines or just a production decision - but it was a bit weird in any case.
All the characters in the film fall into comfortable categories - except for the guru/trainer character played by Avellana who is really good in the role in his matter-of-fact manner. He trains boxers but he's also an artist which is unique. Perhaps it's a reflection of that Samurai thing where they were warriors but also used to do art and calligraphy to be a well-rounded individual.
The one really interesting aspect of Wilson's character is woefully under-utilized. I'd never seen this before and was already anticipating some cool drama but it was not to be. Wilson has a scar. His students ask him what it's from. He tells them he gave a kidney to his half-brother (the one who is killed) and because of it had to retire from competition since you can't fight with only one kidney. I have no idea if this is true or not but I really thought it was a great way to ratchet up the stakes. Sad to say, the storyline never touched on it again.
Wilson's acting is surprisingly good for someone who was just starting out. I think it's part of who he is as a person - straight ahead, no false pretense - that makes him that good in this, one of his first films. I worked with Don on "Terminal Rush" in 1996. He was just simply a nice guy, smart and totally real. I never felt like I had to do any of the
Hollywood dance with him. I wish our movie had better production values and a bigger budget but the work I did with Don was first rate.
Wilson's career since "Bloodfist" has always been on an upward arc. His work ethic, lack of pretense and expert martial arts skill set is no doubt why.
Hall of Fame producer Roger Corman, best know for his low-budget horror/sci fi movies, is one of the geniuses behind the "Bloodfist" series. There are box sets of all the "Bloodfist" movies (see list below) available.
Well worth it to experience Don "The Dragon" Wilson's flying kicks and hammer fists.
Bloodfist Movies
