What is there to say about Lady Bloodfight? There were ladies, blood and fighting so if you are looking for only those elements, congratulations, this movie delivers. I am a simple customer, and sometimes I just need to restock on my chicks kicking butt vitamins. It delivered on its promise so I am basically fine with it.
For those of you with more discerning palettes, Lady Bloodfight focuses on Jane Jones, which is a name just a skosh above Jane Doe or Smith, a humble American waitress who decides to go to Hong Kong to find out what happened to her martial artist daddy and to try her luck as a martial artist. She unwittingly finds herself in the middle of a fight between two teachers with at least a five-year old grudge, which will finally be settled at the Kumite, an international tournament for lady fighters. Will she survive or end up just like her daddy?
Lady Bloodfight’s story is fairly standard and predictable, which is fine. Apparently it is a remake of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport, which I do not recall seeing, but honestly if you are watching a movie about a secret fighting tournament where serious injury to death is on the table, do you really need anything more? The supernatural elements did not quite work, and I kept waiting for a Monkey’s Paw twist that never came with the powers issue or for the death blow to make a reappearance, but it never does so not Chekhov’s death blow. One scene which is supposed to be heartwarming and inspirational felt lifted from The Empire Strikes Back. I do not care. We are here for the fighting. So when the lines do not quite line up with the context as if Google translate did not quite capture what the author was going for, it is forgivable.
I enjoyed the way that Lady Bloodfight staged the tournament. Each fighting style and weapon was announced before the fight started so even though it is not a plot point, when Krav Maga is announced, you know that the person is probably not from an East Asian country. The Westerners, with the exception of the Russians, were seen as outsiders and underdogs. The protagonist’s secret power was not her fighting ability, but her innate American ability to get beaten up psychologically and physically and still believe that she stood a chance, i.e. cognitive dissonance. Screw merit, she has heart!
If Lady Bloodfight has a twist, it is the denouement regarding who the real enemy is, which I never cared about, but okay. It feels a bit extraneous initially, but ultimately I am fine with the let’s all be Slayers approach to the ending. It does not necessarily wipe clean the slate of bad teacher’s amoral willingness to win at all costs, but I will allow it. I would have preferred if bad teacher was completely unleashed, but I am also fine with the yin yang, complementary approach to morality as opposed to diametrically opposed morality. Unofficially I imagined that she actually worked for The Hand in Daredevil, but when she lost contact with them, and no longer got orders, she decided to do her own thing.
My main complaint about Lady Bloodfight is that the director did not stay focused on the fighting but tried to execute some fancy editing to show time lapse and that the film was shot in Hong Kong. Save the cityscapes for before and after the fight, pal. I am here to see people beat each other up, not get postcards. Also why the focus on only torsos? Have you heard of long shots? I want the Fred Astaire approach to shooting action scenes. I want to see the full length of the bodies so I can appreciate the kicking with the hands. A lot of the actors were originally stunt actors so get your money’s worth. Cut all her scenes out if you are not going to use her. It is possible that the referee from Bangkok was featured, but I missed her. While I do not begrudge those who get turned on by seeing scantily clad women changing in a locker room, I only ask for the same full coverage during fights. The exception was when a fighter hurls another across the room—the director always gave a full shot then. Also what happened to the Brazilian fighter? I got zero capoeira.
Lady Bloodfight’s acting is adequate. Mayling Ng is a standout as a villain, Svietta, a Russian psycho fighter who enjoys what she considers the fringe legal benefits of fighting with no danger of liability or criminal charges. I did not recognize her, but apparently she was the Amazon in Wonder Woman that likes jumping off of cliffs. In this film, most of the women are introduced in a fighting sequence whereas she is shown sneering with gold plated teeth in a prison shower while women stay away. She is the woman that scares other hard women by simply smiling, and honestly, the idea that anyone could beat her was the most fictional part of the story. At one point, she almost says to herself, “Screw this! I prefer killing people the old-fashioned way-with my bare hands, sheer brute force.” I don’t care how quick and/or smart you are, unless you have a gun with plenty of bullets and lots of locked doors in between you and Svietta, you are dying. Jet Tranter as Cassidy infused humor and humanity into Lady Bloodfight. She was a believable, good humored badass. The Australian accent did not hurt. Otherwise everyone else gave the expected two-dimensional wooden reading and let their clothes and makeup do most of the heavy lifting though to Madam who won the fight, if I had outfits, a great haircut and a necklace like that, I would let them do the acting as well. Since I do not watch action films for the acting, I did not have a problem with it. Everyone has to start somewhere. Even Zoe Bell was not Zoe Bell on day one.
For a film about fighting to the death, Lady Bloodfight has some funny silent moments thanks to the actors’ reaction shots, particularly during a literacy afterschool special scene. Also the fight choreographer definitely had a sense of humor in the way that he ended fights, and if the director waited a couple of beats, the scene could have been milked for a few laughs.
Lady Bloodfight was entertaining, but not memorable. There were fights from The 100 that I would put in a compilation of best fight scenes ever in movies and television, but not one from this movie would make the cut. If you want to watch a martial arts film and have nothing better to do, definitely check it out, but if you care about quality and substance, then skip it. This movie is not making any best of lists.
