No Retreat, No Surrender

what the film does

seattle. the mob is strongarming local martial arts schools, and when jason stillwell’s father is injured defending their dojo, the family moves and the father rejects violence outright. jason is left to train alone to protect himself and his best friend from a rival karate school. his teacher arrives in the least likely form possible: the spirit of bruce lee, who shows up to coach him toward a final match against ivan, a soviet fighter played by jean-claude van damme. the plot is a karate kid skeleton with hong kong action direction bolted on, fight choreography by mang hoi, and a supernatural mentor where mr. miyagi should be.

why this one

it is the van damme origin story. before bloodsport, before any american leading role, there is ivan: a french-belgian actor playing a russian, opening the film by repeatedly kicking a man in a full suit, bookending it in the ring. you can watch the entire future career in his fight choreography here.

and it is the bruce lee ghost movie that actually got made. the spirit of bruce lee as a literal character, training a white teenager in the hills, is the kind of idea that only an international co-production with no adults in the room could greenlight, and the film commits to it completely. corey yuen brings real craft to the fight staging even when the script is camp.

the film is also a document of its own moment: new world pictures distributing, a us cut re-edited and re-scored for the american market (paul gilreath) against the international cut (frank harris), two different films shipped from the same footage. that is how the genre traveled west.

what stays with me

the opening: ivan kicking a man repeatedly while wearing a full suit with a silk scarf in the pocket. the letterboxd reviews single that exact image out. it is the most confident entrance van damme ever made, in a film where nobody else is confident about anything.

on hand

the dvd is the new world pictures us cut release in the canon.