For many years I've been looking for a movie where the great Bolo Yeung plays a hero and thanks to a friend of mine this film has finally come into my life. Mr. Bolo basically plays the Mr. Miyagi role from THE KARATE KID here as the teacher of a couple of young martial artists. The weird thing about that is that one of the young fellas he's training is Johnny, the main bad kid, from THE KARATE KID and if that's not weird enough the main bad guy here is the leader of the Cobra Kai himself, Martin Kove.
While this does satisfy me in seeing Bolo portrayed as a sympathetic character I think the director didn't really utilize his talents to their utmost. For one thing Bolo isn't really the main character here and the focus is clearly on his two trainees. While they're fine enough some of their scenes veer off into the overly-dramatic soap-opera territory that I doubt anyone viewing this film is looking for. I know not focusing on Bolo is most likely due to Mr. Yeung's limited skills in the English language but I still think there had to be someway to utilize him more. Perhaps in some buddy-cop type tale where he doesn't have to say much? On the plus side thought his one has some pretty brutal fights with bloody gore on display including a guy getting his neck slashed, another guy getting his neck ripped out, INDIANA JONES-style heart-ripping action, a vicious arm-breaking and a glorious Bolo going apeshit final fight. If like me you are a Bolomaniac check this one out immediately if not sooner.
There was a SHOOTFIGHTER II a couple of years later that I need to find pronto.
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