Punhos Sangrentos

My review was written in October 1989 after a Times Square screening.

Several notches below the level of Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme pics is "Bloodfist", a cheapo martial arts action for undiscriminating fans of the genre.

Pic gets underway with a novel opening credits sequence, in which each leading actor (i.e., kicker) is listed with his karate and/or kickboxing titles. Film quickly heads downhill with formula script, utilizing virtually th same premise as recent Van Dammr vehicle "Kickboxer".

Don (The Dragon) Wilson plays Jake (yes, the knowing screenplay by Robet King makes an in-joke about Robert Towne's "Chinatown"), who heads from L. A. to Manila when his brother is murdered following a kickboxing match. Under the tutelage of Kwong (Joe Marie Avellana), Wilson trains for a Ta Chang fighting competition, seeking vengeance on one of the combatants who he suspects killed his brother.

Pic has a couple of plot twists plus a statuesque blonde leading lady (Riley Bowman) to distinguish it from others in the genre. Unfortunately, the editing is ragged and photography hit-and-miss, while the fighters-turned thesps show little acting ability.

Lead Wilson, who's vaguely in the Mike Stone school of martial arts heroes, has a bland scr4een personality. Fans undoubtedly will be attracted by the high kicks and bloodletting. Roger Corman followers will be glad to see Vic Diaz again, stalwart of so many Filipino-lensed actioners of the early '70s.

I'd be lying if I say I do not love this movie, Bloodfist was one of those movies you see on TV all the time to fill some space in the programming, is a typical martial arts film of the nineties,enters the fighting tournaments genre,nineties were plagued by this type of movies and it was awesome,the titles in those movies were very generic like Bloodsport,blood fist,blood match,ring of fire,forcé to fight,showdown,American kick boxer,you put two words together than meant something intense and you had your title,it is more likely that if you saw two or three of these films saw virtually all,with a minimum differentiate in each one all these tournament fighting movies had the same plot, but Bloodfist was the most cliché of all these films, not only that this film was cloned at least twice: Full Contact (1993)and Dragon Fire (1993)which does not involve a dragon or a technique called fire dragon,these three films have in common the same exact plot, I mean scene by scene they are exactly the same movie just in different locations and with different actors but dialog and the characters are the same in each of the films.

This is because these three films have the same writer credited to each one Robert King if you think this was his nadir, he is one of those responsible for the screenplay of Cutthroat island his most decent work was red corner (1995),back to Bloodfist as any illegal martial arts tournament film it begins when the protagonist learns that his brother was killed by participating in an illegal tournament, in search of the murderer and the ends participating in the tournament and wins it, that basically sums up this movie, one has little interest in the plot what catches our attention are the fight scenes in the movie, they usually use real martial artists in this movies for their credit they accomplish more believable fighting scenes what makes this film so entertaining,in other hand the acting is not that great but who cares let's see some kicking and punching.

another remarkable thing in this film are the so cliché characters let's start with the protagonist starring Don 'The Dragon' Wilson as Jake Raye, Wilson was the star of all the nine Bloodfist movies, This is the best known of all, Jake Rayne is the archetype of the good guy in this films, clean cut nice guy who believes in the fundamentals of martial arts, always looking for justice/revenge, never starts a fight but always trouble is looking for him, basically random people will pick a fight with him and they will always go one at the time even if they are 50 they will let their friend get beat up so the next one can go and get kicked as well, we have his new found best friend Baby (Michael Shaner) a compulsive gambler and kick boxer if you ask why his called Baby its explained in the movie and trust me it is as bad as joke can get, he serves as comic relief and as the guy that always gets killed fighting the main villain because it's his friend, baby has a girlfriend called Angela that I won't talk about (nothing interesting to say about this character) but he has a sister Nancy (Riley Bowman...her first and last film ) that is the F.R.I. : forced romantic interest, in all B-grade American martial arts film is full of this lazy strategy to put T&A in the movie, then we have Kwong (Joe Mari Avellana),our ¨Mr. Miyagi¨ who knows the tournament inside out and offers to train Jake in the martial arts so he can compete in the tournament in hopes of finding his brother's killer. Then we have the competition usually there's not much story about them but they have some character trades such as Raton (Dutch kick boxing champion Rob Kaman), who listens to music to get his adrenaline pumping, like many of athlete's do but somehow listening to music makes him a super fighter just don't mix his music or he will get distracted and loose then there's Black Rose (Billy Blanks),Tae Bo creator plays a high-kicking powerhouse, he has his menacing stare that makes him look like a rapist more than a fighting stare and of cores his nickname has to include the word black and Chin Woo (Kris Aguilar), a monster fighter who uses his brute strength to take out/kill his opponents, if you see him fighting it actually looks like his killing them more than taking them out , but hey his the main villain he has to do villainies stuff like killing it common sense right, he looks like the Asian Mr. T , if you're asking if his the one that killed Jakes brother you have to find out and see in the end you probably won't care who did it you will be glad it's over . and that's all I have to say about Bloodfist its cheesy, action packed, with bad writing and horrible editing but it's entertaining from start to finish if you are hangover with a rainy day you should give it a go

Many martial art films come and go, and yet some are very interesting to watch. Don "The Dragon" Wilson packs a punch and strong kicks in "Bloodfist". I liked all the fight and power-breaking scene. kicking the bottles, smashing the bricks, and the matches, are accounted for will be memorable for all times. The quest is getting the fighter who killed his brother. And boy was he ever brutal! Billy Blanks did a short role as Black Rose. I liked the part where he smashed all the bricks with one chop, and I liked the part where he cartwheels every move. The problem was who won the match between Jake Raye(Wilson) and Rose. That was a bit of a downer. And the real surprise of the movie is where the guy he trained with is a dirty double-crosser, especially when he laced that mango with a narcotic. At least he was able to get the fighter and ripped off his earring was enough to really ridicule him. I would have done the same myself. A entertaining movie, and very articulating in the fighting, which I like the most, could have been better though. 3 out of 5 stars.

Bloodfist (1989)

** (out of 4)

THE KARATE KID meets KICKBOXER Roger Corman style in this 80's cult favorite. Don 'The Dragon' Wilson plays Jake Raye, a retired fighter who travels to the Philipeans to get his brothers ashes and seek vengeance against his killer. He ends up getting involved in a kickboxer tournament and ends up falling for a big-breasted blonde. If you're looking for an uplifting story or a heart felt drama then it's best you go somewhere else. BLOODFIST, the first of (so far) nine films, is 100% exploitation and you get pretty much what you'd expect from a film like this. It's fast, cheap, questionably made but the most important thing is that it's at least fun. I thought Wilson was pretty good in the lead role and while he really wasn't required to give a "performance," I thought his skill as an athlete was on full display. He really makes for a good hero and he managed to be very entertaining during the fight scenes. The supporting players really aren't all that memorable but you Billy Blanks fans should be happy. The fighting scenes are entertaining but at the same time there's no denying that they were all cheaply done and quite often you have to wonder what the editor was doing. Some of the editing is quite sloppy but I'm going to guess this was due to how much footage was shot and him having to try and piece it together the best he could. For the exploitation factor there's some nudity as well but really not as much as you'd expect to find in a Corman-produced film. There's no question that the film was cheaply produced and it's not going to be mistaken for a classic but fans of cheap action films should at least get some mild entertainment from it.

Don the dragon Wilson is one of my favorite martial arts champions so i was thrilled when i got all 8 bloodfists in one huge box set as a present.

Watching this first chapter i was so disappointed that i was thinking not to watch the rest of the sequels. Gladly i changed my mind and watched all the rest.

It's a shame cause all of the sequels were great for their standard and only part 1 is so poorly made that disappoints in every level.

Only don Wilson can't save this movie. The fights are bad and the story is so poorly made that is way below average even for these kind of b-movies.

Fortunately all the sequels faired a lot better and i suggest u skip this part and begin with part 2.

After part 2 there is no plot continuity as don Wilson play different characters so u don't have problems with plot continuity.

All in all the bloodfist box set is great but not this movie.

If u like don Wilson also check out for the following gems in which he stars...

BLACKBELT

RING OF FIRE TRILOGY

OUT FOR BLOOD

MOVING TARGET

BLOODFIST 2-8