Kickboxer

Kickboxer is an American action film from 1989 directed by Mark DiSalle and David Worth. The story was created by DiSalle and Jean-Claude Van Damme, and the screenplay was written by Glenn A. Bruce. The film was produced by Kings Road Entertainment. Eric Sloane, an American heavyweight kickboxing champion, travels to Bangkok to prove the superiority of kickboxing over Thai boxing. In a fight with the Thai champion Tong Po he is deliberately crippled. His brother Kurt (Van Damme) therefore looks for a Muay Thai teacher, kru Xian, to be able to match Tong Po. The film pits American kickboxing against Thai boxing. Eric is played by Dennis Alexio, a real professional kickboxer who won sixteen titles between 1980 and 1999 in organizations such as PKA, ISKA, KICK or WAKO Pro. In the film he therefore represents his own sport. Tong Po is played by the Moroccan Michel Qissi, who had boxed since the age of seven and trained Shotokan, Muay Thai and kickboxing. For the role he went through heavy makeup. Van Damme himself comes from Shotokan karate, in which he holds a 2nd dan, and from full-contact kickboxing, while in the film he shows Muay Thai as an actor in the role of Kurt. English Wikipedia states that the film is often considered the first to bring Muay Thai to a global audience. The website /Film called it one of the most influential martial arts films, while a Los Angeles Times critic, on the other hand, called it exceedingly boring.

Martial arts in this work

Fight choreography

It was filmed mainly in Thailand, in Bangkok and Ayutthaya, and also in Hong Kong. The training scenes set in "Stone City" were shot in the ruins of the Wat Mahathat temple in Ayutthaya Historical Park, and the house of master Xian was built at the Shing Fung studio in Sai Kung in Hong Kong. Who choreographed the fights differs between sources. English Wikipedia says of Van Damme that he worked on the film as co-writer, fight director and choreographer, and says of Michel Qissi that he was the choreographer of the film. The article on the film itself names no choreographer, and we did not find a second independent source. The two had known each other since childhood, trained martial arts together and left for Hollywood together in 1982.

Influence

According to English Wikipedia, the look of the character Tong Po inspired the character Goro from the Mortal Kombat series. The film was followed by a number of sequels. In Kickboxer 2: The Road Back Michel Qissi returns as Tong Po, in Kickboxer 3 Sasha Mitchell plays the character David Sloan, in Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor Tong Po was portrayed by Kamel Krifa, and the fifth installment is Kickboxer 5: The Redemption. On 2 September 2016 the reboot Kickboxer: Vengeance was released, in which Van Damme plays a different role.

People and martial arts

• Mark DiSalleDirector
• David WorthDirector
• Jean-Claude Van DammeActor — as Kurt Sloane· Muay Thai (portrays the art on screen)
• Dennis AlexioActor — as Eric Sloane· Kickboxing (real practitioner)
• Michel QissiActor — as Tong Po· Muay Thai (real practitioner)
• Dennis ChanActor — as Xian Chow· Muay Thai (portrays the art on screen)