Karate Tiger 3 - The kickboxer

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Movie
German title Kickboxer
Original title Kickboxer
Country of production USA , Thailand
original language English
Publishing year 1989
length 97 minutes
Age rating FSK 18
Rod
Director Mark DiSalle ,
David Worth
script Mark DiSalle,
Glenn A. Bruce
production Mark DiSalle
music Paul Hertzog
camera Jon Kranhouse
cut Wayne Wahrman
occupation
chronology

Successor  →
Kickboxer 2 - The champ returns

Kickboxer is an American Martial Arts - Action movie ( martial arts film ) with Jean-Claude Van Damme in the lead role.

action

After Eric wins the US Kickboxing Championships, he decides to fly to Thailand with his younger brother Kurt, as there are no more equal opponents for Eric in the USA.

In Thailand, Eric is supposed to compete against the reigning Thai champion Tong Po. When Kurt gets ice cream for his brother, he sees Tong Po kicking a concrete pillar with his shin. He tries to dissuade Eric from the fight, but a short time later he steps into the ring, completely unimpressed.

In a short fight, however, he is defeated by Tong Po; when Kurt throws the towel in the ring, Tong Po doesn't pay any attention and seriously injures Eric. Eric becomes paraplegic and can no longer walk, let alone fight again. Kurt wants revenge for his brother and seeks help from various Thai masters; but they laugh at him. As luck would have it, he meets Winston Taylor, who reluctantly but then takes him to Xian, a grand master of Muay Thai . At first, Xian is still against it, but after Kurt beats up a few gangsters who wanted to rob Mylee, his niece, he decides to take him under his wing. Xian explains the most important things to Kurt. Kurt has a hard time, but the hard training repeatedly pushes him to his limits and in the end becomes so good that a fight with Tong Po is arranged.

The criminal organization that Tong Po belongs to kidnaps Kurt's brother and it looks like he will lose the fight. But Xian and Taylor manage to free Eric. After Eric reappears, Kurt's fighting spirit is awakened and he manages to defeat Tong Po without any great effort.

criticism

"An action film trimmed with folklore, dealing with Vietnam and mythical frippery, with a racist, almost fascist basic tendency, which stylizes the blonde, muscle-bound hero into a superman."

- Lexicon of international film

"With the embarrassing news of good whites and bad Asians, the dramaturgy rushes from one brawl to the next."

- TV movie

background

The location of the film is Thailand. However, the main characters from Asia are not Thai, but Hong Kong Chinese. In addition to English (or German in the dubbed version), they also speak Thai, but without mastering Thai as their mother tongue, which is completely different from Chinese. Only the extras are Thai. The performer of Tong Po, Michel Qissi, is not a Thai, but a native Moroccan.

Furthermore, the impression is given here that kickboxing and muay thai, i.e. traditional Thai boxing , are one and the same. It is not so. Although both martial arts are similar, they differ in some details. Both martial arts are shown in the film, with a focus on kickboxing.

At the time, the German distributors were offered a different version of the film that had not yet been finally cut, which is why the original German cut version differs from the American theatrical version: in order to reach a youth release and thus a larger audience, some scenes of violence were censored, but this version offered for it more elements of action and an overall longer duration. The uncensored, somewhat shorter American theatrical version was only released in Germany for the first time in 2007; it was approved for people aged 18 and over.

Information about the title

The film is actually the prelude to the five-part Kickboxer series, but was released in German-speaking countries as Karate Tiger 3 , although the Kickboxer films have nothing in common with the “No Retreat, No Surrender” series (Karate Tiger 1 and 2) to have; apart from the fact that they are martial arts films.

Depending on your point of view, you can view both the films Kickboxer 2–5 following the original title or the films Karate Tiger 4–10 following the German title as sequels.

More detailed information on the arbitrary title can be found in the Karate Tiger article.

Since the first DVD release in 2002, the film has also been distributed in German-speaking countries under its original title Kickboxer .

publication

With a production budget of just under 1.5 million US dollars, the film returned to the box office for 14.7 million US dollars in the United States after its theatrical release on September 8, 1989. Worldwide it came to an income of 39.3 million US dollars and in Germany saw it after its cinema release on April 20, 1989 490,912 cinema-goers. After the film was released on VHS in August 1989 , it has been available on DVD since September 30, 2002 , but here in the old FSK-16 version, which was shortened in violence and extended in plot. In 2007, the US-R-Rated version, uncensored for violence but shortened in plot, was released on DVD in Germany, on February 9, 2009 this version will be released on Blu-Ray .

Others

  • Dennis Alexio was actually multiple kickboxing world champion and is still considered by many to be the greatest heavyweight kickboxer in sports history.
  • In the credits, the name of the Tong Po actor Michel Qissi is not mentioned, instead his role is simply named "Tong Po as Himself" (Eng. "Himself").
  • Qissi resumed his role as Tong Po in the sequel Kickboxer 2 , Dennis Chan resumed his role as teacher Xian Chow in both kickboxer sequels.
  • The scene in which Kurt's teacher Xian ties him up in a kind of pulley system, forcing him to do the balancing act , already existed in almost identical form in the film Bloodsport : There, too, Van Damme's film instructor makes him do a balancing act in a very painful way perform.

Remake

With Kickboxer: The Retribution ( Kickboxer: Vengeance ), a remake was made in 2016 . In the role of Kurt Sloane Alain Moussi is to see Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Master Durand and Dave Bautista is Tong Po . The director took John Stockwell . In 2018, Kickboxer: Die Abrechnung ( Kickboxer Retaliation ) was a sequel.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karate Tiger 3 - The Kickboxer. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film Service , accessed July 26, 2012 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  2. ↑ http://www.tvspielfilm.de/filmlexikon/?type=filmdetail&film_id=23168
  3. ↑ Gerald Wurm: Karate Tiger 3 - The Kickboxer - Schnittbericht: R-Rated (Schnittberichte.com). Retrieved October 18, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Kickboxer at boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed on November 5, 2011.
  5. ↑ TOP 100 DEUTSCHLAND 1989 on insidekino.de , accessed on November 5, 2011.