Los Angeles Streetfighter

Am i glad i was recommended this film by a pal...i found it in the neglected bottom corner shelf at my local video rental store gathering dust...it cost me £1 to rent out and now that £1 investment is worth a million dollars in laughs.

Ever since watching it ..it has stayed wedged in my brain as a inspirational movie experience on par with the likes of Braveheart and Gladiator - but for different reasons.

I have to admit it may be one of the most talked about movies amongst my friends. When we talk about it we reminisce about it like a long lost funny fat friend ..with hilarious memories! The film is good for the same reasons why Barry White or Abba are now considered greats. Naff, untrendy and old skool but now has a cult following amongst fans.

It is so bad that it comes round in a full circle to become absolutely brilliant. Awful acting, mediocre effects, awful acting, simplistic plot, funny fight scenes, poor production value and oh, awful acting!

I could swear, in a scene, rather than do slow motion action playback the fighters fight really s...l...o...w! Cannnot recommend it enough ...the ultimate classic in Z grade movie experiences!

What a movie! It's no wonder that martial arts movies have for years been stereotyped as crap, this movie is the archetypal example. Still, it's great fun. If you want to see a movie where the heroes have thick accents to accompany their less-than-stellar acting, this is the one. Very little plot-wise makes sense, but this may be one of the few films that deals with the predicaments of Asian-American youth in any way, not that it does so realistically. Jun Chong is great as FOB leader Young and Phillip Rhee is amusing in an early performance. The sequence in the liquor store featuring the thug with the giant flute is simply classic! How did these people think to include such things?!? To the film's credit, the fight sequences are actually well done, and karate legend Bill Wallace adds a touch of class with his presence, though I wonder what he was doing in this movie. If you can find this movie anywhere, do watch it. It will encourage you to make a film of your own.

Young (Jun Chong), Tony (Phillip Rhee) and three friends start up a security business and this results in them getting in fights a lot. The main plot doesn't kick in until an hour has passed when Young steals a ton of drug money from a client who hired them ("It was bad money and I would put it to a good cause"). Naturally, the dealer wants it back so he hires two assassins - Japan's Yoshida (Ken Nagayama) and New York's Kruger (Bill "Superfoot" Wallace) - to retrieve it and teach the boys a lesson.

This is an odd, yet enjoyable 80s action flick. Odd in the sense that it has no plot for the first hour and that lead tough guy Jun Chong spends a lot of time crying about his drunk mom not loving him. Oh, and there isn't a single ninja in NINJA TURF (its original title was LOS ANGELES STREETFIGHTER). I'm not sure if it hit theaters or not, but RCA/Columbia did release it on VHS. Director Woo-sang Park (under the name Richard Park) directs the action scenes well with an emphasis on the marital arts talents of the leads. This was Rhee's first lead role and he went on to star in the popular BEST OF THE BEST series. Brinke Stevens shows up as a drug dealer's girlfriend and supplies the film's only nudity. I was surprised when I looked up Chong's filmography to see I own 5 of the 6 films he's made, with 2 of them unwatched now. Why I was surprised is beyond me.

Looking up the supporting cast, it seems they have a real superstar in their midst. Mark Hicks is a member of Young's crew (aptly named Mark) and he achieved internet superstar notoriety as the famous Afro Ninja, the guy who attempts to do a flip with some nunchaku and falls on his head. I'm sure you've seen it.

When I began to watch the movie, I had to try not to laugh...and nothing funny was going on! The bad lip synch of the entire movie made me want to vomit. God. The acting was crap, some martial artists have some acting skill (ie Jackie Chan), but if you think these guys will give you a good show, you'll be sadly mistaken. The fight sequences seem so planned. Very little seems to set off the characters. The camera is wobbly and...God, just for the love of all that is holy, DO NOT WATCH THIS MOVIE (unless you want to laugh at one of the worst movies of all time).

The acting in the film is beyond dumb. I'll admit that. I mean, how do you have Jun Chong, who was in his 40's when the film was made, play a high school student? Anyway, IMHO, the fights truly made up for the film. Kwon Young Moon (the 70's chop socky star) truly had the stars of the film display taekwondo & hapkido beautifully. Jun and Phillip Rhee really were great in terms of the fights. Look for action stars Loren Avedon (as one of James Lew's gang), Thomas Wilson of Back to the Future (as one of the redneck gang - he fights Phillip using a mallet or something), and Mark Hicks of Gen-Y Cops (as one of Jun Chong's crew) in the film.