Kickboxer (film)
- Jean -Claude Van Damme: Kurt Sloane
- Dennis Alexio: Eric Sloane
- Dennis Chan: Xian Chow
- Michel Qissi: Tong Po
- Haskell V. Anderson III: Winston Taylor
- Rochelle Ashana: Mylee
- Mark DiSalle: U.S. reporter
Karate Tiger 3 - The Kickboxer is an American martial arts action film ( martial arts movie ) with Jean -Claude Van Damme in the lead role.
Action
After Eric wins the U.S. kickboxing championships, he decides to fly to Thailand with his younger brother Kurt, as no more worthy opponent for Eric can be found in the U.S..
In Thailand, Eric will compete against the incumbent Thai champion Tong Po. When Kurt gets ice for his brother, he looks like Tong Po occurs against a concrete pillar with his shin. He tries Eric discouraged from fighting, but totally unaware of this short time steps into the ring later.
In a short fight, he is defeated by Tong Po; when Kurt throws in the towel in the ring, Tong Po pays no attention and injured Eric difficult. Eric is a paraplegic and can not walk, let alone fight ever again. Kurt wants revenge for his brother and seeks help from various Thai Masters; but these laugh from him. As luck would have it, he meets Winston Taylor, of him reluctantly, but then, brings to Xian, a grand master of Muay Thai. First Xian is still against it, but after Kurt bashed a few gangsters who Mylee, his niece wanted to rob, he decides to take him under his wing. Xian says Kurt the most important things. Kurt is struggling, but through hard training he comes again and again to its limits and will end up so well that a fight with Tong Po will be arranged.
The criminal organization to which it belongs Tong Po, Kurt's brother kidnaps and it looks as if he would lose the fight. But Xian and Taylor manage to liberate Eric. After Eric shows up again, Kurt's fighting spirit is aroused again and he manages without major effort Tong Po defeat.
Criticism
" An embellished with folklore, Vietnam Bewältung and mythical nonsense action film of racist, fascist almost basic trend, the stylized blond, muscle-bound hero to Superman. "
"With the embarrassing news of the good whites and Asians evil dramaturgy rushes from a brawl to the next. "
Background
Location of the film is Thailand. However, the Asian main characters are not Thais, but Hong Kong Chinese. Although this talk next to English (or German in the dubbed version ) and Thai, but without dominating the Thai language as their mother tongue, which is completely different from the Chinese. Only in the extras are real Thais. Also the actor Tong Po, Michel Qissi, is not Thai, but native Moroccans. But you have to say to that live in Thailand, especially in Bangkok, many immigrant Chinese, who have a significant share of the business. And so the film contains a piece of reality.
Furthermore, here in the impression that kickboxing and Muay Thai, that is the traditional Thai boxing, one and the same are. That is not the way. Although similar to both martial arts, but differ in some details. In the film, both martial arts are represented, mainly kickboxing.
There is this part now in a new version that is released from 18 years. It contains some additional scenes, for example, the violation of the dog and the final battle against Tong Po at the end of the film.
Information about the track
The film is actually a prelude to the five-part Kickboxer series, but was published in the German-speaking countries as Karate Tiger 3, although the Kickboxer movies anything with the " No Retreat, No Surrender " series ( Karate Tiger 1 and 2) together have; apart from the fact that there are martial arts films.
One can - depending on the perspective - so consider both the original title the following films Kickboxer 2-5 or the German titling following films Kickboxer 4-10 as continuations.
More detailed information on the title arbitrariness can be found in Karate Tiger article.
Publication
With a production budget of just under 1.5 million U.S. dollars, the film alone 14.7 million U.S. dollars in the United States played after his release on September 8, 1989 again at the box office. Worldwide he came on revenues of 39.3 million U.S. dollars and in Germany saw him after his release on April 20, 1989 490 912 moviegoers. And after the film was released in August 1989 on VHS, it is available on DVD September 30, 2002. On 9 February 2009 an uncut BluRay version was published.