Karate King starring Kane Kosugi

[Chinatown Kid]

Got this flick from Flashlegsrare last month and was pleasently surprised. The story is about a young karate student played by Kosugi, who competes in a tournament against other martial artists of different styles. Yasuki Kurata plays one of Kosugi's Sensei. One of his opponents was TKD master Simon Rhee from Best of the Best fame. Other opponents were a tall white karate fighter, a muscular black fighter who I think might have been a professional wrestler, and a kung fu stylist. Kane showed some great technique in his fight scenes and his kicks really looked nice. He seems to be rather young in this film(late teens or early 20's) so I think it was made in the early 90's. There is some English in the dialogue but it's mostly Japanese with no subs so couldn't understand what was being said for the most part but the story is pretty easy to follow just by watching visually. I'm eager to see Kane in more stuff now, I heard Blood Heat was pretty good and will probably get it next. Can anyone recommend any other films were he gets plenty of action? I saw him in War but he was totally wasted.:(

[AlbertV]

Blood Heat is definitely a must see when it comes to Kane. Sam Wong and Chan Man-Ching of the Jackie Chan Stunt Team choreographed the fight scenes and the highlight is Kane taking on a bunch of gangsters in a hotel hallway. Kane also gets to fight Ken Lo in the movie.

He co-starred in a erotic actioner called Zero Woman 2, and he has some action in that one, as well as another film called Cat's Eye, which co-starred Norika Fujiwara.

There was a sequel to Karate King but don't know where its available.

[Chinatown Kid]

Cool, thanks for the info Albert. I'll definately be getting Blood Heat next but I'm gonna try to track down some of the other films you mention as well. I want to get the sequel to Karate King if it's available since I liked the fights in the original quite a bit.

[AlbertV]

No problem Chinatown. I also came across this clip.

It's Kane fighting his own father, Sho Kosugi, on Ninja Sentai Kakuranger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B95oQnLRKoo

[Chinatown Kid]

Wow that was a pretty wild fight scene, thanks again! :)

[will91XingYu]

Thanks for that! That fight was great! Kane is awesome he was the best thing about War with Jet Li. Apparently Kane and his dad don't talk to each other anymore.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Nice find Albert. that was cool.

[AlbertV]

I have an all Japanese book about Kane and his dad's relationship. A friend of mine works at a Japanese bookstore and while I was living in New York, he gave the book to me. The reason why Kane and his dad don't speak anymore is because Sho wanted Kane to take over running the SKI Institutes, but Kane opted to continue with his career. On a show a few years ago, Sho even called Kane a coward. Pretty harsh stuff IMO.

There were some nice pics from when Kane was a kid to Sho at a karate tournament back in the early 80's to Kane appearing on a J-Drama and even training at the Shaolin Temple.

http://asianimpact.ulmb.com/starimages/kanekosugi.jpg
Here's the pic of Kane before he takes on Jet in War...I agree...it was the best fight of the film as well as the sword spar between Kane and Ryo Ishibashi.