Kickboxing has a field day in BLOODFIST II. The cast is composed of real-life martial arts champions who may not know how to emote but sure use their feet expressively.
The movie opens with Jake Raye (light-heavyweight kickboxing champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson), a fighter with a conscience, accidentally killing a man in the ring. Disgusted by the senseless violence of it all, Jake throws his golden belt away and promises never to fight again. Astonishingly,
this vow is rejected almost immediately when Jake is lured to the Philippines by his old friend and fellow kickboxer Vinny Petrello (heavyweight kickboxing champ Maurice Smith). Arriving in Manila, Jake is surrounded by five beefy thugs whom he dispatches quickly with his agile feet. Someone is
out to get him. But who? Could it be the exotic and mysterious Mariella (Rina Reyes) who is also a talented kickboxer? Could it be the ghoulish German scientist Dieter (Robert Marius)? Not quite. It is the work of the sinister Mr. Su (Joe Mari Avellana), who kidnaps Jake and brings him to his
private island. There, in tropical splendor, Jake discovers he and other world-class kickboxing champions are being prepared to be sacrificed to Mr. Su's steroid-laden martial arts experts in a gladiatorial fight to the death!
A low-budget release from Concorde Films, BLOODFIST II is in no way original but it also isn't strained. The pace is relaxed and cheerful even if we are watching men get their necks broken. The film ambles along pleasantly until its hero runs into the next group of hoodlums and up come the feet.
Needless to say, the real star of the film is the stunts and acrobatics. And these are handled with real skill. In particular, there's an extremely enjoyable martial arts routine at the end performed by real-life champion Timothy Baker which features a lotus position.
The star, Don "The Dragon" Wilson, is stiff but unaffected. He's actually likable. And his costar Rina Reyes manages to appear demure while hitting people with large sticks. In their first scene together Jake nearly karate-chops Mariella and says, cavalierly, "Geez, I almost took your head off."
As a romantic couple they go well together since they both know how to kill people with their feet. The villainous Mr. Su is underacted by Joe Mari Avellana to pleasant effect. He's so politely sinister that he often recalls the arch villains of the Bond movies.
Surprisingly, the locations and sets actually give a feeling of being in the Philippines. Perhaps because of its tropical setting, BLOODFIST II goes down very gently. (And it will probably be even better when it's dubbed into Spanish.) Of course, there are some complete howlers that come with the
territory. The decadent international crowd who pay money to see Mr. Su's death tournament look like low-level management from AT&T. But then again, maybe that was intentional. (Excessive violence.) leave a comment
