Pak Ho-sung’s ‘Fist of the Warrior’ on DVD

By Mark Pollard | Published April 28, 2009

FIST OF THE WARRIOR (DVD - Lionsgate)

Korean-American martial arts actor Pak Ho-sung, who played “Liu Kang” in the first two MORTAL KOMBAT video games and was one of Jackie Chan’s main opponents in DRUNKEN MASTER 2 is finally getting to see one of his long-delayed indie action movies released to the public. I missed reporting on it earlier but back on February 10th, Lionsgate released writer-director Wayne Kennedy’s FIST OF THE WARRIOR to DVD in North America.

First-class assassin Lee Choe (Pak) has spent years working for the mob. When his handler turns on him and kills his girlfriend, Lee stops at nothing to get revenge. When his handler then seeks out a corrupt cop to frame Lee, Lee does not surrender. Instead, he fights back with more vengeance and violently punishes those who played a part in the murder of his innocent love.

The film also stars Peter Greene, Roger Guenveur Smith, Robin Paul, Sherilyn Fenn, and Michael Dorn. Jim McConnell is listed as stunt coordinator with assistance from Chris Torres who I last recall seeing as the blond-haired MMA fighter in MAXIMUM CAGE FIGHTING.

FIST OF THE WARRIOR was produced by Pak and Matthew Chausse and is the sole directorial and writing effort for Kennedy whose biggest contribution to filmmaking is as a character modeler and visual effects supervisor working for Industrial Light and Magic on mainstream action movies such as MEN IN BLACK and THE PHANTOM MENACE.

This martial arts actioner has had a storied history. According to unconfirmed trivia on IMDb.com, it was produced in 2004 under the title of LESSER OF THREE EVILS. It was supposed to be distributed by Fabrication Films but a legal dispute kept the finished film locked up until 2008 when international rights fell to Boll World Sales and it was re-titled BLOOD MONEY. Then Lionsgate secured North American

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  • trevor42
    Where can i fine the sound track OR the studio that did the sound track OR courtney jade OR any-frickin-body that will lead me to the music and the rights to it? search anywhere for "jadedragon" and you shall find me... do i have to offer a reward?
  • nigel
    who can tell me the song of this film
    the title maybe is "save me"
    but i cannot find out
    and another question, courtney jade? who she is ? famoused?
  • Champ97
    she is my girlfriend and she works in the industry and is on the verge of breaking out this year. hopefully you liked the song.
  • KimchiGUN
    @Mark Pollard

    I've almost given up on American cinema due to that reason. I get tired of watching sub par action and stuntmen when watching American action flick. Everyone thinks Tom Cruise, Vin Diesle, and Chatum Tatum are action stars... Bullshit!

    Gather up everyone that consisted in the action sequence in "Fist of the Warrior" and drop them into "Never Back Down", with all the money and production. That would an insane movie!

    Past 10 years, American cinema has copied Asian cinema. From cartoons, movies, and games. Power Rangers are Super Sentai, Fight sequences from Matrix was Hong Kong style, and HORRIBLE remakes are Asian horror movies.


    It's going to be a long time before you see any good martial arts in the main stream.

    Holla!!
  • STDthaGreat
    The old Mortal Kombat games used real life people as base models for the characters. Digitized graphics I believe it was called. Pak Ho-sung was the person they directly modeled Lui Kang off from for the first two MK titles. I was and still am a beast with Lui. "Shan Tsung killed my brother!"
  • Douglas and BruisedLo, you're both right. I've updated the article to clarify that Pak appeared in the video games as "Liu Kang" and not the movies.

    Regarding the failure of many martial arts series on TV, the problem is that most of them lack well-rounded quality and broad appeal to sustain them. BLACK SASH had that problem and yet MARSHALL LAW, WALKER TEXAS RANGER and THE POWER RANGERS were all successful series because they were well made and all enjoyed appeal outside of the core martial arts fanbase.

    What I'd like to see is more comedy mixed with martial arts, perhaps with a touch of Stephen Chow or THE OFFICE. It's been over 30 years since kung fu comedies like DRUNKEN MASTER took hold of the Hong Kong box office. With the international success of films like SHAOLIN SOCCER and KUNG FU HUSTLE I think there is an opportunity to develop a TV series, reality series or whatever that combines comedy with high-impact martial arts action.

    There are a lot of talented, undiscovered screen fighters here in the U.S. like Eric Jacobus and Larry Leong, to name a few, who are more than capable of doing comedy and impressive fighting at the same time. Pair some of them with good writers and a producer willing to take a chance and some network could have a big hit on their hands.
  • BruisedLo
    haha i guess some people don't play video games. ho sung pak played liu kang in MK and MK2 the snes / sega video games. just play those games, and pick him, its ho sung as the character. anyway, you're right, robin shou does play liu kang, but thats the 2 movies.

    thats weird, a older film releasing.

    don't forget ho sung was in the show WMAC Masters, hosted by bruce lee's daughter. the show only lasted 2 seasons. i thought they were gonna give WWE/WWF a run for their money at the time, but that didn't happen. which goes to show, most martial art shows never last that long on television. so what does this mean? less people are interested in martial arts? a kung fu channel gone, dragon dynasty almost out of business, etc.
  • douglas ferguson
    i thought it was robin shou who played liu kang. now ho sun,
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