Bloodsport is the story of Frank W. Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a Westerner who won the kumite.  The kumite is a free-form martial-arts tournament, in which fighters from all around the world show off their fighting skills.  It is a violent match at the end of which one fighter will prove himself to be the best.

Dux is a US soldier who earlier trained and learnt martial arts from his master, Tanaka (Roy Chiao).  Dux goes to Hong Kong to take part in the kumite to honour Tanaka.  In Hong Kong, he makes friends with fellow fighter Ray Jackson (Donald Gibb) and reporter Janice Kent (Leah Ayres).  Apart from the fact that he has to face several fighters, including the reigning champion, Chong Li (Bolo Yeung), Dux also has to bother about two US agents who want to bring him home.

I thought Bloodsport was a nicely made movie, with some exciting action scenes, and a fast pace.  The movie didn't waste time on unnecessary story build-up or anything - it got straight to the action.  The training sequences were all impressive, and I also thought Van Damme's acting was good.  Another thing about this movie that I liked was the music by Paul Hertzog, which suited the movie very well.  About the fight scenes themselves, I liked the style of the African fighter, and the way Dux defeats a big opponent was ripped off in a scene in Mortal Kombat (the scene where Johnny Cage fights Goro).  Bolo also makes a terrific bad guy, and he has an Enter the Dragon-like line "Brick not hit back!".  If you like movies like Bloodfist, Kickboxer (I haven't seen that one, but I very much liked Part II), then this one's your kind of movie!

Followed by some three sequels to date.

The end credits say that the Fight Choreographer was Frank Dux.  According to the IMDb, Van Damme did some uncredited editing on this film.

Running Time: 90 minutes | Country: US | Genre: Action