This month’s theme: Sport. What better movie to review than one about the greatest sporting tournament of all time: The Kumite.

The basic premise is that Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), trained by ninja master Tanaka (Roy Chiao) enters the tournament to honour his “shidoshi” after finding out that he is ill. The US military (that Frank is now a part of) have disallowed him competing, and send enforcement officers to stop Frank.

There’s a girl... in this case she’s a reporter.

It’s a Van Damme movie, so we all know what happens. Yes. He wins. What made Bloodsport so influential, however, was the brutality and the brilliance of the martial arts on display. No one was ever going to take the acting or plot seriously; what they were interested was the tournament.

So, how much of this is real? The credits claim that it was based on the life of Frank Dux, and gives all sorts of impressive fight records. The truth of this has been contested however, many claiming that Dux’s military career, training, martial arts lineage, and tournament results are vastly exaggerated, if not completely fabricated. He founded the martial arts style “Dux Ryu Ninjitsu” , was responsible for inspiring and choreographing much of Bloodsport, and has published a number of books (most of which are of a biographical nature). This really does seem to be a guy to talk himself up.

Another interesting behind the scenes aspect is that Bolo Yeung’s character “Chong Li” is Korea’s entry into the tournament, as well as being the official bad guy of the film. Forgetting the fact that Bolo is actually Chinese (but that’s okay, because all non Americans look the same), when the movie was released in 1988, Korea was hosting the Olympic games, and there was a lot of friction between the two countries over that particular sports tournament (and the media coverage).

Back to the movie.

Let’s not focus too much on the weak plot, B-grade acting, or questionable facts. Sure, the critics destroyed it, but it still returned over 1000% profit; it helped catapult Van Damme to superstardom, and generally kicked ass. It’s just fun to watch. There’s a bunch of cartoonesque characters, there’s an epic soundtrack -- with appropriate montage music -- and there’s some actual legit martial arts!

I guarantee that when Bloodsport came out, Karate schools doubled in student numbers. It gave a lot of people their first look at more than just Kung Fu. It showcases Karate, Muay Thai, Sumo, Judo, and a whole bunch of other arts, it creates fights that are varied, and interesting, albeit somewhat predictable. Its choreography (whilst completely unrealistic in 99% of cases) is exciting, and gives enough moments that make you squirm to create a sense of realism: Dux performing the classic Johnny Cage splits-to-groin-punch as an example.

I’m not going to go too far into it, and pick any more holes in this one. It’s not a movie that takes itself seriously, and neither should you. It is a classic and it helped define a genre of films (which may not be a god thing you might argue... but, shut up). No, it isn’t a movie that makes you think. But that’s why it’s so good.

A director like Michael Bay would love this movie (except for the lack of explosions). If you can deal with that, if you liked Kickboxer, if you liked any Jean-Claude Van Dame movie to date, and haven’t seen this yet -- hang your head in shame. Then go and see it.

   -- Jason Murdoch