Warrior of Justice

This is a pretty obscure 1990s martial arts movie.

The movie is about a martial arts tournament where fighters fight to the death. A student disappears, and his karate instructor learns that it's due to his student being hired to appear in unsanctioned martial arts tournament where the losers die. The tournament is being run by a former nemesis who the instructor thought he had killed.

This was the first lead role for Jorgo Ognenovski, who plays George, the karate instructor, who also co-wrote and co-directed this. Ognenovski previously only had one small role in Caged Fury a number of years earlier. He does a great job in his first leading man role. I'm surprised he didn't become more known in the low budget martial arts movie spectrum, because he's a great actor and great martial artist. He only did a few other movies after this, but none are martial arts movies like this one. His next one, The Russian Godfather, is an action movie, but does not have a lot of martial arts in it.

Lots of great fight scenes in it. I'm surprised Jorgo Ognenovski didn't become a star.

'Warrior of Justice' aka 'Invitation To Die' is a dtv trip also doubling as an obvious vanity project for co-writer / co-director / producer and star Jorgo Ognenovski. Low budget means poor fight choreography, some suspect audio, bad acting, but also a barrel of laughs. Female nudity, villains running an underground fight tournament (of course), Jorgo's stilted English line delivery and an awful sword fight finale.

Karate dojo sensei George (Ognenovski) becomes concerned when he doesn't hear from one of his pupils. His gut feeling turns out to be right when he vanishes after a shady fight. Verdugo (Jorge Rivero) a Karate ace himself runs a very profitable Kumite which harvests the organs of its losers while also entertaining wealthy friends / bettors. As George & his gf cop Sara (Shari Blum) slowly close in to shut 'em down.

If you've sat thru too many pieces of cheese you'll notice faces beyond just Richard Lynch slumming it in a bit part. Nick Hill (Fists of Iron), Ian Jacklin (Ring of Fire II), Nils Allen Stewart (Bloodsport 2). Plus Jorgo is not gonna settle for just the standard vanity male butt shot. You almost see his taint twice. Blum get naked multiple times too and shows off a full bush. Add in swords, nunchucks, a crossbow and a silly karate-like yoyo along the way.

If you want a competent beat 'em up go elsewhere. 'Warrior of Justice' has a title credit sequence that doubles as an excuse for Jorgo to flex incessantly to the camera for nearly three mins just to further drive my point home. However if you want solid laughs - daft dialog, disjointed closeups, lol training montage - this might hit the spot.