The King Of The Kickboxers (1990) - A Review

 

Another classic martial arts movie starring Loren Avedon.

The King Of The Kickboxers (also known as No Retreat, No Surrender 4 and Karate Tiger 5) is a Hong Kong/American martial arts movie released in 1990 starring Loren Avedon, Billy Blanks, Keith Cooke Hayabusa, Don Stroud, Richard Jaeckel, and Sherrie Rose. This movie was directed by Lucas Lo Yuen-Ming, with fight choreography by Tony Leung Siu-Hung.

From left: Prang (Keith Cooke Hayabusa), Jake (Loren Avedon), and Molly (Sherrie Rose).

In The King of The Kickboxers, Loren Avedon plays Jake Donahue, a cocky detective on the New York police force who has been chosen by Interpol to go undercover in Thailand to find the people involved in the making of snuff films. It seems foreigners are being killed in martial arts snuff films! At first, Jake is not that interested in the assignment, until he finds out that the killer of his brother is in the snuff films. Jake is now determined to find the killer.

Ten years earlier Jake's brother, a champion kickboxer, was killed by Khan (played by Billy Blanks) for winning a fight he was supposed to lose. Jake witnessed this (he was a kid at the time); and Khan even savagely beat him up, leaving him for dead. Jake wants revenge for his brother, so he goes to Thailand to go undercover and get hired to be in one of the snuff films Khan stars in. Jake finds out he is not strong enough to defeat Khan, so he asks a drunken former martial arts champion, Prang (played by Keith Cooke Hayabusa), to train him. After torturous training, meeting a woman (played by Sherrie Rose) who is wanted by Khan, and getting the attention of the talent agent, Jake finally gets his chance to avenge everyone Khan has hurt...

Billy Blanks as the undefeated Khan. Dee Jay from the Street Fighter games is based on this character!

The King Of The Kickboxers came out a year after Jean-Claude Van Damme's Kickboxer, and the influence is...noticeable. It's not a straight copy, though. Basically, this is Kickboxer with Hong Kong-style fight scenes. Loren Avedon plays the cockiest character yet in this movie. He has reason to be cocky, as he can defeat common thugs with ease, by himself in New York. When he gets to Thailand, he gets humbled in a fight by a Muay Thai fighter who admits to Jake that he is just an average fighter. That fighter tells him to find Prang, the man who almost defeated Khan. It is nice to see Jake go from cocky to humble and focused. When Jake finally faces Khan, you will definitely root for him to win.

Billy Blanks as Khan is one menacing dude! When I first watched this movie, I was shocked at how murderous his character was, as I had seen movies with Billy Blanks playing the hero previously. He is believable as the monster fighter that can't be defeated. Keith Cooke Hayabusa is great as the disgraced fighter Prang. When I first watched this, I thought it was weird that Prang was a master martial artist even though he was so young. Watching it again and really paying attention to everything, I understand the Prang character's circumstances more. Keith Cooke Hayabusa is another underrated martial arts actor who should've been in more movies. At least he played Reptile in the original Mortal Kombat movie and Sub-Zero in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation!

The King Of The Kickboxers has a lot of fight scenes, and they rock!

The fight scenes in The King Of The Kickboxers are fun and plentiful! It is cool that in the fight scenes before Jake meets Prang, Jake is not as precise in his moves as you would expect (if you've seen Loren Avedon in his movies previous to this one). Loren is great throughout, and once again proves why he is one of the most underappreciated and underrated martial arts action stars of the 80s and 90s. Once Prang makes his entrance, that Hong Kong greatness shines through. Keith Cooke Hayabusa has quite the introductory fight scene! He does so many awesome, precise kicks and he is really fast. Billy Blanks is awesome in King Of The Kickboxers as well. He is powerful, has awesome kicks, and he floats when doing some of his spinning jump kicks. He is awesome, and he should've been in way more martial arts movies! Of course, the final fight between Jake (Loren Avedon) and Khan (Billy Blanks) is amazing. Worth watching the movie just for that scene. The power, the speed, the accuracy, and the stakes of the fight are top notch. Loren Avedon and Billy Blanks are just awesome.

So, if you like movies like Kickboxer, you will definitely like (or at least appreciate) The King Of The Kickboxers. The story is basically the Hong Kong version of Kickboxer. You gets lots of fight scenes, torturous training scenes, some comedy, and a hero you can root for. What more could you want? Do I think The King Of The Kickboxers is better than Kickboxer? I like them equally, but for different reasons. Loren Avedon, Keith Cooke Hayabusa, Billy Blanks, and Tony Leung Siu-Hung make an unbeatable martial arts movie combo. I miss those days of action cinema.

Reviewed by David Williams