Blu Review – Bloodfight & Ironheart (MVD Rewind Collection)

Blu Release – 3/5

Bloodfight
Director – Shuji Goto (Angel Target, Kings of the Square Ring)
Starring – Yasuaki Kurata (Blood: The Last Vampire, Monster Killer), Simon Yam (Election, IP Man), and Meg Lam (Happy Hour, The Seven Angels)
Release Date – 1989
Rating – 2/5

Tagline – “Enter if you dare”

If you grew up when I did you often found yourself renting some seriously entertaing and underrated direct to video action flicks from the late 80s and early 90s. Horror is and always will be my favorite genre but there was something enjoyable about renting a stack of action flicks on a Friday night with some junk food and watching them over and over until you had to return them Monday after school. It was in some of these films that I first saw Bolo Yeung.

This imposing martial arts star made a name for himself in the late 80s as a hired goon for different crime bosses in a bunch of action and martial arts flicks. Sometime back MVD releases a Bolo Yeung double feature as part of their MVD Rewind Collection. Both films in the set are ones I had never seen so I reached out to MVD for a review copy. They were kind enough to send one my way and now I’m digging into 1989’s Bloodfight.

**spoiler Alert** The film follows a martial arts fighter who is too old now to compete in competitions so he trains others to do so. When he finds someone showing promise he believes he has a winner on his hands. However, he dies in his match against Chang Lee (Yeung). After losing his prized fight her finds himself suffering from alcoholism and sinking to a whole new level of depression. That is until he finds the strength to train so he can beat Chang Lee himself. **Spoiler Alert**

I was so fucking excited to dig into this one but it was quick to show me it wasn’t going to be a fun one. I wanted to love it but I found myself bored out of my mind or laughing at some seriously bad choices the production team made when filming this one.

The acting in this one is very over the top. I’ve seen some action films in the past where the cast really hammed up their performances but this one is some of the most overdramatic performances I’ve seen in a long time. This is something I never thought I would say but I’ve seen better acting in a JCVD flick. With that being said, Bolo Yeung is not the star in this film. He has some screen time but not nearly enough to bill him as the lead. It’s very misleading. The story for this one is just like every other martial arts film. We follow someone who has desires to be on top but struggles to get there only to find himself doing what he wanted to do from the very beginning. There is nothing really new about the story and the lack of action and interesting characters makes it a difficult one to finish.

Finally, the film has some bloody moments and a really fitting death scene but those are easily forgettable. I was expecting a lot more bloody fights than what we were given. Overall, Bloodfight is not as entertaining as I was hoping for. In fact, I would have rather watched Bloodsport over this one. With that being said, the blu looks great from MVD. Collectors will want this one but fans of martial arts will want to look elsewhere for another movie to watch.

Ironheart
Director – Robert Clouse (Enter the Dragon, Black Belt Jones)
Starring – Britton K. Lee (Fatal Revenge), Bolo Yeung (Legacy of Rage, Double Impact), and Richard Norton (Mad Max: Fury Road, Lady Dragon)
Release Date – 1992
Rating – 2.5/5

Tagline – “Only the strong will survive”

Sometime back I saw that MVD was releasing a Bolo Yeung double feature on blu as part of their MVD Rewind Collection. Both of these films were films I had never seen before but I had seen a bunch of films with Yueng in them. After I took a dive into Bloodfight I couldn’t wait to spin Ironheart in hopes that it would be a better film than the first. It was but still not that great.

**Spoiler Alert** The film follows an L.A. cop who just happens to be a martial arts master. He has targeted a local gang that has a knack for kidnapping beautiful women and uses his martial arts skills to stop them. **Spoiler Alert**

I went into this hoping it would be better than Bloodfight and I was greeted with a superior film but being better than Bloodfight doesn’t make this one a good movie. In fact, it was better than the first one but it was still a tough one to finish.

The acting in this one is absolutely laughable. Yeung is a secondary character but he, along with the lead and the rest of the supporting cast, delivers some unintentional funny performances. Their horrible dialogue delivery, cheesy acting, and one sided fight scenes made for a very rough movie to sit through. The cast, along with the lack of action, made this one funny at time and boring the rest.

The story for this one lacks depth and it painfully generic. I love no budget action flicks because they are simple and straight forward. Ironheart is simple and straight forward but the story is so simple it could have been told in 30 minutes. Instead, it’s stretched so thin that the last half of the film is just filler. The editing and run time really needs worked out in order for this one to be anything other than a forgettable martial arts flick.

Finally, this one has some blood and extremely one sided fight scenes. In fact, the main character doesn’t get hit the first time in any of the fight scenes. If he did it was out of focus of the camera. Overall, Ironheart is a better film than Bloodfight but that’s not saying much. Bolo Yeung is billed as star in both of these films but he is not. Honestly, MVD has released some much better films than these that I would recommend. Skip them.