The Last Kumite Flm Review

I came for Cynthia Rothrock and was happy to stay for Billy Blanks but the whole film genre of brutal tournaments is not one that I am familiar with really. From reading a few other reviews, it appears that there are lots of connections to those ones from the 1990s when this was so popular. The title Kumite is one such connection. I guess one of these days I need to spend a day watching all those Bloodsport and Kickboxer films. The films that I have seen of this sort have an I.Q. smaller than that of a baked potato - but that just doesn't matter. No one comes to these films for a plot that goes beyond, fight, hurt, bleed!

This genre can be traced back to Hong Kong martial arts films I think - there were lots of them in which men gathered to see who the best fighter was. The King of Boxers. The King of Swordsmen. Bruce Lee made the concept go global with Enter the Dragon and later on Jean Claude Van Damme became a star in films like this. There were gentle ones like The Karate Kid but the ones that people loved were brutal and vicious - but stuffed with skilled martial artists and great choreography. These films tend to be straight to video these days, but they are still going on. This one was funded through kickstarting.

There always has to be a reason for men to gather to get the crap beaten out of them. Sometimes for money, sometimes for pride, sometimes for revenge. This one was truly absurd. Our main hero is Michael Rivers (Mathis Landwehr) who runs a dojo, has a daughter and wins a local karate tournament. A nice one in which the fighters congratulate each other after the fight. Watching is the main villain of the film, Mr. Hall (Matthias Hues) who runs a yearly tournament in Eastern Europe and wants Rivers to join. For one million dollars. He turns them down so naturally they kidnap his daughter and will kill her if he doesn't come. But of course. And if he loses, she dies. Turns out they have done the same with many of the fighters.

Off he goes - the fighters have a week to train - and we get a Flashdance sequence of them training to music. The current champion is Dracko (Mike Derudder) who would scare the shit out of you if he came within a 100-yards of you. It looks like steroids were in his baby formula. He doesn't bother to talk - just growls and roars. The other fighters are an interesting assortment - some look like they haven't lifted anything but a beer glass for years - others formidable with different styles. Rivers gets lucky - he gets a few trainers - none other than Blanks and Rothrock - past their fighting prime - though they each get a moment at the end of the film. It takes a while to get to the actual tournament and Dracko kills his first opponent. The audience loves it. But the fighting is decently staged - one fellow rips out an eyeball of his opponent and eats it. Good stuff.