Kickboxer
Short description
American kickboxing champion Eric Sloane travels to Thailand with his brother Kurt to test himself against the country's best fighters. He faces Tong Po, a brutal local champion who does not simply beat Eric but deliberately cripples him, leaving him paralyzed. Kurt, who has no real fighting skill of his own, sets out to avenge his brother. He trains under Xian, an older martial arts master, learning to endure punishment and to fight in the Thai style before confronting Tong Po himself.
David Worth directed the film, sharing directing duties with Mark DiSalle, who also produced it. It was Worth's second feature, following Soldier's Revenge, and it remains the best known title in his small filmography, which later moved into television and low-budget creature features. Glenn A. Bruce wrote the screenplay. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Kurt, with Dennis Alexio as Eric, Dennis Chan Kwok-San as Xian, Haskell V. Anderson III as Winston Taylor, Rochelle Ashana as Mylee, and Michel Qissi as Tong Po.
Produced on a budget of about 2 million dollars, the film took roughly 15 million dollars worldwide, a strong return that helped confirm Van Damme as a screen fighter in the late 1980s. Its martial arts tournament premise, training sequences and revenge structure placed it alongside other Cannon Group action productions of the period. It holds a 6.4 rating on IMDb from around 66,000 votes and a 6.8 on TMDB from 1,631 votes. A critics' rating of 4.9 from 11 reviews sits below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In real life, Michel Qissi – an actor of Moroccan origin – is a long-time and close friend of Jean-Claude Van Damme.
- A scene of a conversation between Kurt and Eric in the hospital was cut from the theatrical release, where the latter admits he was wrong and should have listened to his brother and is now disabled for life.
- Actor Michel Qissi is credited as Tong Po, which led many viewers to mistakenly believe that Tong Po is a real athlete.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 99 minutes.
- Winston Taylor's rifle is an M16A2.
- Before filming began, Van Damme went through a 'tough life school' named after Claude Gertz, the karate instructor whose spartan exercises made it into the film's plot. For example, one of the mentor's cruel quirks was to unleash a German Shepherd on his student at the end of the session, forcing the already exhausted young man to run home, but Jean-Claude doesn't hold a grudge, as it was Gertz who helped him achieve every goal he set.
- Filming took place in Thailand and China.
- In the film, Van Damme utilizes the Shotokan Karate-do fighting style, mixing it with Muay Thai. Tong Po uses only Muay Thai.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
