Nackte Fäuste - Die tödliche Karatelady

This movie was probably singularly responsible for my interest in B-grade martial arts movies. I saw it when I was very young (before cable - eeeeek!) on late-night "Kung-fu Theater". The local station had obviously made a mistake and aired the movie uncut - violence, nudity, and all! The epic final fight scene finds the heroine steadily losing pieces of her clothing one item at a time until she finishes the battle wearing nothing but her panties. The sight of her fighting in such a condition forever made me a fan of the genre! See it if you have a chance.

Jillian Kesner is a standout in this fast-moving action film set in the Philippines. She's radiantly beautiful, with her fit figure unabashedly displayed several times. Also, she is the action star of the movie, frequently mixing it up with the bad guys and winning out.

We get a good amount of well-shot locations; the film, on the dvd-three pack, looks crisp and the colors are vibrant. It's definitely a B film, but so what? It's highly entertaining all the way through. A few times the violence gets quite gory, but it isn't a gore-fest by any means. Because of the setting, it works fine that the majority of the cast is from the Philippines; it fits with the story.

Watching this movie, I wish that Jillian Kesner had starred in a good many more films of this type. She's very likeable, and that comes through to the viewer; that quality she has, combined with her beauty, makes one more willing to overlook cheesy aspects of the movie. Recommended.

(1981) Firecracker ACTION

Co-written and directed by Cirio H. Santiago (also credited as co-executive producer) and Allan Holzman that has martial artist, Susanne Carter Susie for short (Jillian Kesner) coming to the Philippines from LA. For the intention of finding her sister, Bonnie who was a photo journalist and has suddenly disappeared. And it is like, by the time Susie arrives and almost immediately, two thieves attempt to break into her apartment and rob her while she is half naked in a hotel room, and of course she beats both of them down. And then, by the time she goes to a bar where her sister "was" staying, both the big bar server, Pete (Pete Cooper) and his server Rey (Reymond King) are then being attacked by Philippine customers and they are beating them down, with Susie joining in the fight. And after that brawl had settled down, Pete and Rey then inform her that the last time Susie's sister was last seen was with club owner, Erik Stallard (Ken Metcalfe). And what is unusual about this particular club is that the stage itself is actually used for one on one fights. Except that as soon as she entered into the club, Erik's #1 fighter Chuck Donner already knew who she was, and that Susie is not just any kind of martial artist, we soon find out that she happens to be a six time black belt karate expert who owns her own dojo back in LA. And by getting Chuck to discourage her, he then offers her 500 bucks to get in the ring with the current winner, and when she does beat him, Chuck does not even pay her. As the movie continues, and is predicted, we find out Susie's sister, Bonnie stumbled onto an illegal dope racket happening with Erik's number one fighter Chuck double crossing his boss to intercept those exchanges by stealing them from his boss, Erik's supplier Grip (Vic Diaz) for the intention of enriching himself.

Acting is bad, the fights are bad, where almost all of them looked fake when people are clearly are not even touched, and react as if they are, as well as the few shoot outs shown when the characters are just waving the guns and the sound effects does the rest. And yes, even king of low budget movies, Roger Cormon is shown on the credits here uncredited as executive producer. From what I've seen I'd give the film two stars for the effort, but because the led actress, Jillian Kesner is very voluptuous, it did motivate me to check out other work she has done Speaking as a heterosexual male it's one of those movies when if the actress is attractive enough, you can some times perhaps look at her all day, regardless how bad her acting and the action is, there are times a persons presence can be sufficient enough.

Yup, star Jillian Kesner does manage to combine a karate fight scene with a slow strip, and it actually is a bit sexy. She's not the most lovely woman who ever took her clothes off in a movie, but I thought she was attractive and there's something appealing to a certain sort of adolescent sexual mind (like mind) in the sequence. She gets her clothes ripped off, a bit at a time, while she's fighting for her life. It adds vulnerability to her physical allure, and that worked for me. Of course, that's because it's a movie, and not reality. Seeing women attacked for real is nothing I hope for. Hell, most of what happens in movies is nothing I hope for.

There are other scenes in this movie, but I don't remember any of them from the one time I saw it, over 20 years ago. They're probably awful. But, who cares? There are many films that are worth seeing for one scene and, if you share my fondness for the sort of thing that makes teenaged boys snicker and rewind their VCRs, over and over, you'll think this is one of them.

Forgotten, lost, underappreciated. Whatever you want to call it. It's 5.5/10 rating on here makes no sense. I'd rather watch this film, than most of the modern films that most of you are rating 8 out of 10's on here. Then again, this film only has 712 rating votes so far. I find it hard to believe that this hasn't become more of a cult favorite. That is its destiny I would have to say. Eventually it will find enough of its suitable audience and become more well known and appreciated I believe. I've seen it happen to a number of films on here over the years, and I'm often one of the people helping to get these underseen strong films seen by more people. If you like low budget martial arts films that are somewhat funny and exploitive. Don't miss this. It is similar to many other cheesy films of its type, but it has its own unique vibe this film, it deserves more recognition. These types of films aren't for everyone obviously, in fact not nearly everyone. However there certainly is a big audience out there that would appreciate this film if they saw it.

7/10.