Lady Bloodfight

Alex and I kept getting confused on whether it was "Bloodfight" or "Bloodfist". Personally, Lady Bloodfist sounds cooler to me, but whatever. The things I watch at 2 in the morning with my buddy. It was my suggestion, though. Sometimes you want to watch people fighting, without paying exorbitant pay-per-view prices for overhyped nonsense.

There are two plotlines running through the movie. One is about Wai and Shu, who are a couple of martial arts masters with a long-running feud not helped by them fighting to a draw in the Kumite. Since Wai wouldn't accept that decision, they were each told to train up and fighter and enter that person in the next Kumite. Wai ultimately finds Ling, who lives on the street alone and tried to steal a priceless sword from Wai. Shu finds Jane Jones, an American who came looking for information about her father, who disappeared 18 years earlier after leaving home to enter the Kumite. Jane's search for answers and struggle to prove herself (since everyone at the tournament is pretty scornful of an American being involved) is the other major plotline.

So does the Kumite alternate, all-men one year, all-women the next? Are there intergender tournaments?

Jane is played by Amy Johnston, who has mostly done stunt work for a variety of films (including Deadpool and Captain America: The Winter Soldier, to name two movies I happened to enjoy). So it reminds me of Man of Tai Chi in that sense, but I'm not sure I think the fights are quite on par. But that could be because there is an actual tournament going, and so the film wants to show at least a little of all the fights, so there isn't necessarily the focus on a handful of longer fights. Also, there's time spent on training montages, since Ling and Jane both have to get trained up for the tournament, and frankly, probably more time spent on story than Man of Tai Chi.

There are good fights in here, a mixture of styles and personalities showing through. that Ling, when she gets a little desperate or bloodied, reverts to how she was when we first see her first, rushing things, reckless, not thinking. There's a character whose signature move is, once she's put someone on there back, just repeatedly punches them in the face until you think she's killed them. Which isn't a bad strategy; killing is allowed, but there's an element of enjoyment in it that doesn't seem to show itself in any of the others. Even Ling doesn't deal out more damage than she necessarily needs to, it's enough to win the match and move on. She wants that prize money, and maybe she's hoping she'll find someplace to be if she wins.

During the final battle, Jane seems a ghostly image of her father supporting her. Which in theory is fine. Jane had admitted she hears his voice (as does Shu with her deceased husband), so seeing him wouldn't be out of line. But in practice, it looks really cheesy for Ghost Dad to show up all of the sudden, and Alex and I both groaned at that. There's also one scene where Jane is debating dropping out that goes on far too long. Like, we know how these things work. Jane has to stay in the tournament and keep fighting. Trying to play up the suspense is pointless, because there is no question she was going to come back. So get on with it.

Those annoyances aside, the film basically delivered on what I hoped it would.