Fighting Black Kings

As a student of Tae Kwon Do, I found it interesting to observe the fighting styles of so many different individuals, from a wide background of martial arts. It's also fun to notice the 1970's styles, and fighting attitude of the different competitors. Unless you are interested in fighting techniques or a student of martial arts sparring, I don't see why this film would interest you.

I caught this film on digital cable, and as someone who has strong interest in martial arts(especially Martial Arts Competitions) I found this documentary to be highly informative and reasonably entertaining. Essentially it is about a major international Karate tournament that occurred in Japan in mid 70's, but with most of the focus being directed toward 3 African Americans who qualified for and were favored to make a big impact on the Tournament and the international Karate world. This film profiles these three men extensively with interviews and filmed bits of their training as well as their private lives. The film also gives slightly less focus towards some of the other big names from Japan and the world Karate/Martial Arts scene who also participated in this tournament as well. Then of course the film goes on to show a good amount of filmed footage from the tournament itself, showing some of the many breaking and other demonstrations, as well as a good amount of the matches that took place. In addition to all of these things, there are some bits about the history and culture of Karate as well as some similar albeit much briefer treatments for some of the other styles of predominately stand-up fighting(Chinese Kung Fu, Muay Tai, Singaporean Martial Arts) that were represented in this particular tournament. All in all, its a pretty straight forward account of all these things.

I think the film is pretty good for what its trying to be, but if I had to nitpick the biggest flaw here is production value. By today's standards the camera work, and film quality are pretty bad at times. Especially in the actual Tournament fight scenes where the picture is often just a little blurry, and it is clear that they didn't have access to a whole lot of cameras as there not that many different camera angles. In fact, much of the fights are seen in mostly wide-shots. Also some will find the narrator annoying. As in most documentaries, Narration underscores the whole the film, and the Narrator here is very much in that old 70's era style. In fact, he sounds suspiciously like the same guy who narrated all those old film strips in my high school biology class. Personally, I enjoyed the sense of nostalgia his voice-over work provoked but I think some might find it to be a little cheesy. Also bringing up the cheese factor here is the soundtrack. I won't go into too much detail, but lets just say its very 70's. In fact, when you put all of these things together you get down to the fact that this is just a low budget 70's film, and if you can get past that, than none of these things mentioned above should be too much of a problem.

Overall, I feel that if you are martial artist(I'm not BTW) or are interested in martial arts, you should watch this. Its an interesting look at the state of martial arts and martial artists of the day. Yes Karate is the focus, and as another user commented their is definitely a bias towards karate present here, but this is more a product of the time in which this was filmed, when Karate was the most accessible martial art form to study and learn in outside of Asia. As far as the action goes, don't expect a lot of flashy moves(well maybe some). This is straight up full-contact-tournament-style-Karate. The film does highlight the danger of a full contact martial arts event, and many matches shown end due to injuries. However, there is nothing here that I would consider graphic in terms of violence. For those looking for flash, I will say that some of the breaking and other demonstrations are pretty fun to watch.

All in all, I enjoyed this film, and if you are interested in real martial arts, then I think that you will too. Check it out.

Wow! Man, is this documentary dated. Lips out of sych, horrible voice-over, senseless editing . . . just actually pretty terrible. HOWEVER, if you are a karateka, it will be of immense historical interest. I found that the quality of the copy I obtained is poor enough that I can't get much information watching the styles. But, as a martial art snapshot that captures the beginning of open-hand international karate tournaments it is priceless.

I am biased because I study Enshin Karate with Joko Ninomiya (3rd place in this tournament), so I clearly had a vested interest in the video.

As a practitioner of Kyokushin Karate, I found it very interesting to see the roots of my martial art. The fact is that this particular style of Karate has been deemed "The Strongest Karate", known for its pad-less FULL contact sparring: consisting of head kicks, body blows, knees to body and head, and body punches. Just no head punching (or it would be to bloody). this movie is about the very first World Tournament of Kyokushin and it is filled with Hard Core training, cheesy 70's music and crazy spinning back heel kicks to the chin making the opponents jaw resemble a cash resister!, or nasty head kicks blasting opponents on the mat twitching and flexing there toes and fingers like there playing a invisible piano. The story also follows a few American fighters as well as a few from other nations and fighting styles as well. It is as informative as it is entertaining. I had DVR'd it about 3 years ago and had it for most of the time but i changed my cable provider and lost it in transition. If i came across it anywhere I would buy it as fast as I could! if you get the chance to see it take advantage of the rare opportunity. As a MMA fighter and Kyokushin Karate fighter i see both the beauty and the brutality of this GOD HAND KARATE. Osu!!!!

"Fighting Black Kings" is one of the best films ever made on the martial arts. Mosat films of this genre are action, but this piece displays the training, personalities and performance of a great period of global Karate interest. I also highlights the different styles of Karate, from the host Kyokushin to the popular Shotokan. One of the more enjoyable parts of the film is the hair styles ofd the time, featuring some incredible affros. Some will notice tat the fighters are not allowd to punch the head or face, which severely limits many competitors. the film does have anegative bias towards some amrtial arts such as Kung Fu, but this proobaly has mroe to do with rivalry than fact. The influence of Bruce Lee on the film is also felt, as many seem to copy him. If you want to see something tangible of Karate or Martial aRts in general, watch this film