I don't know about USA but here in Bulgaria this movie was a cult 15 years ago. I mean it. It was not released legally here so we had to watch this and many other martial arts movies illegal on a VHS tape with a terrible video quality and many times dubbed in six or seven languages. It was pretty terrible but we saw many movies that way.
But I did not see this movie on a VHS tape. I saw it on the TV about ten years ago. It was really terribly dubbed but I thought it was great. The fights were very good and the story was good enough to make an 11 years old boy happy.
I saw it again a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed it but this time I didn't think it was that great. The fights were really good but the story was not that good. The acting was not good. Some people here say that it was good to hire actors instead of martial artists to play the roles but they are pretty wrong. Eric Roberts is an actor. But he has black belt in karate and that is why they hired him. Chris Penn had a black belt too. Not to mention Philip Rhee. But the characters were one-dimensional and not as developed as they had to be. The only really good actor here was James Earl Jones but his character was wrong somehow. I mean wrong. He was the trainer of the US karate team but he was FAT and completely out of shape. And he was not a martial artist. How could he train martial arts masters? He didn't show any martial arts experience or knowledge in the entire movie. Also the movie didn't need the character of Sally Kirkland. Really. May be she was supposed to represent the spirit of the martial arts or something like that but I think they put her in the movie just because there has to be a female character. But the big problem of the movie was... I don't know. I will call it americanism. It is obvious that the movie was made to make the Americans feel they are the greatest nation of the world. When you see a Korean guy yelling "USA! USA!" you will get what I mean. We could even see the Americans in the bar watching a martial arts tournament. That is not normal and you know it. They watch football or basketball or even boxing. But not karate. And what we saw was not a world karate championship. The only competition that actually happened was between the American and the Korean team. Why was this called "world championship"?
But despite all I said this is a very good martial arts movie. It was much better than "Bloodsport" or "Karate Kid". At least it looks much more real.
But I did not see this movie on a VHS tape. I saw it on the TV about ten years ago. It was really terribly dubbed but I thought it was great. The fights were very good and the story was good enough to make an 11 years old boy happy.
I saw it again a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed it but this time I didn't think it was that great. The fights were really good but the story was not that good. The acting was not good. Some people here say that it was good to hire actors instead of martial artists to play the roles but they are pretty wrong. Eric Roberts is an actor. But he has black belt in karate and that is why they hired him. Chris Penn had a black belt too. Not to mention Philip Rhee. But the characters were one-dimensional and not as developed as they had to be. The only really good actor here was James Earl Jones but his character was wrong somehow. I mean wrong. He was the trainer of the US karate team but he was FAT and completely out of shape. And he was not a martial artist. How could he train martial arts masters? He didn't show any martial arts experience or knowledge in the entire movie. Also the movie didn't need the character of Sally Kirkland. Really. May be she was supposed to represent the spirit of the martial arts or something like that but I think they put her in the movie just because there has to be a female character. But the big problem of the movie was... I don't know. I will call it americanism. It is obvious that the movie was made to make the Americans feel they are the greatest nation of the world. When you see a Korean guy yelling "USA! USA!" you will get what I mean. We could even see the Americans in the bar watching a martial arts tournament. That is not normal and you know it. They watch football or basketball or even boxing. But not karate. And what we saw was not a world karate championship. The only competition that actually happened was between the American and the Korean team. Why was this called "world championship"?
But despite all I said this is a very good martial arts movie. It was much better than "Bloodsport" or "Karate Kid". At least it looks much more real.