With the rousing success of the film that launched the film career of world kickboxing champion Don “The Dragon” Wilson, producer Roger Corman unleashed this fairly decent sequel to the original film, the only sequel in the series to be related to its predecessor.
Almost a year after avenging the death of his brother, Jake Raye (Wilson) is now a champion in the ring as the world light-heavyweight kickboxing champion. However, when he accidentally kills his opponent in the ring, Jake makes the painful decision to retire, much to the chagrin of his trainer and best friend Vinnie Petrello (kickboxing and future UFC champion Maurice Smith).
Months pass and Jake learns that Vinnie has been taken to Manila because he owes a debt to the unscrupulous Su (Joe Mari Avellana). When Jake goes to search for Vinnie, he finds himself a pawn and is trapped by Su’s henchman Dieter (Robert Marius). Jake is knocked out and taken to a boat, where he finds an old friend in Bobby (Richard Hill), wrestler Ernest (Steve Rogers), karateka Sal (Timothy Baker), boxer John (James Warring), fighter Manny (Manny Rivera) and taekwondo champ Tobo (Monsour del Rosario) all on the boat with him.
The group are taken to Su’s island, where they are forced to fight Su’s bodyguards and warriors in a gladiator style fight to the death. Of course, as if it is no surprise, Vinnie has allied himself with Su the whole time due to his bitterness over Jake retiring. Now, Jake must find a way out of Su’s island with the help of his fellow fighters and the mysterious Mariella (Rina Reyes), even if it means Jake must fight his one-time best friend.
When BLOODFIST was released in 1989, it was a success on the home video market and Roger Corman took advantage and would serve as executive producer on this sequel. This would be the only true sequel to the original as kickboxing champion Don “The Dragon” Wilson returns as Jake Raye, who is now a kickboxing champion forcing himself to retire after accidentally killing his opponent, played by Ned Hourani. Hourani is the same actor who played Wilson’s dead brother in the original BLOODFIST.
The film once again brings back the tournament cliche of the plot, only this time its kidnapped fighters against the bodyguards of the evil Su, played by Filipino veteran actor Joe Mari Avellana, who played Wilson’s martial arts teacher in the original BLOODFIST.
Martial arts enthusiasts will get to see that like its predecessor, some of the kidnapped fighters are played by martial arts champions again, such as UFC fighter and former kickboxing champion Maurice Smith as Jake’s friend turned enemy, kickboxing champions James Warring and Richard Hill, taekwondo champion Monsour Del Rosario, and Timothy Baker, the karate champion perhaps best known as Kurt McKinney’s father in the cult classic NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER (1985).
The fight sequences are just a tad better this time around as Ronald Asinas returns as the stunt coordinator. He makes good use of the martial artists involved and utilizes their skills pretty well for this brand of film. The best one to come out of it all is Monsour Del Rosario, who shows off some excellent kicking skills as the Filipino Ambassador of Tae Kwon Do. While the bodyguards are beefy wrestler type guys who look like they have been recycled from the defunct WCW, the fight between Wilson and Smith fares somewhat well, but at times off due to dialogue that kind of ruins the fight when you talk while trying to thrash each other.
While BLOODFIST II is somewhat of a step above its predecessor, it still suffers from fighters who can kick butt against big beefy wrestler types. Think of it as a poor man’s BATTLE CREEK BRAWL with Maurice Smith emerging as the one true good bad guy and Don Wilson being what else? “The Dragon.”
by Albert ValentinRelated Topics:
Bloodfist II (1990) • Don "The Dragon" Wilson • Philippines • underground
- jiujitsu77
