There is a rumour in the martial arts community that Frank Dux was exposed while auditionning for the very first UFC event in 1993. He would've gotten the shit kicked out of him by karateka Zane Frazier for several minutes in front of Rorion Gracie, Art Davie and Bob Meyrowitz, the original UFC triumvirate. Frazier ended up participating in the event, losing a notoriously sloppy fight to Kevin Rosier. Whatever story Frank Dux has been selling, his biggest contribution to martial arts is not his career. Not by a long shot. It's the movie BLOODSPORT, arguably the most influencial martial arts movie of the eighties and a source of inspiration for young martial artists around the world. It has become impossible today to watch it unironically, but it still is a tremendous viewing experience.
Frank Dux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has been taken under Senzo Tanaka (Roy Chiao)'s wing after breaking into his house as a teenager to steal a katana. He was shown the secret ways of ninjitsu and treated like a son by Tanaka. When Tanaka's actual son Shingo (SeanWard) gets himself killed in the underground fighting kumite, Dux develops an obsession about participating in the event to ''honor his shidoshi''. Dux eventually travels to Hong Kong to fight, earning himself two U.S government agent on his trail, in what was probably the most useless subplot in cinema history. But it implied that Frank Dux was a dangerous man, a human weapon and it starred a young Forest Whitaker, so it ended up being kind of awesome anyway.
Let's settle a decades old debate among fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies: the hypothetical Tong Po Vs Chong Li (the awesomely named Bolo Yeung) fight. The popular hypothesis is that Tong Po wins because he is an actual kickboxer as Chong Li's just a brute, but if you watch BLOODSPORT closely, this fight happens...sort of. Michel Qissi, the man behind Tong Po, actually plays one of the tournament's fighters who ends up fighting Chong Li. His character's name in the movie is Suan Paredes, check it out. Of course, he ends up getting whooped by Li, but pertinent information we can gather from the Li Vs Paredes fight in BLOODSPORT is that Tong Po would be a lot smaller than Chong Li, giving an edge to Bolo and his giant, balloon pecs of doom.
pictured above: transcendence.
Let me talk about my favorite aspect of BLOODSPORT. The last ten minutes of this movie are beautiful, transcendent. Jean-Claude Van Damme movies have a nasty habit of suspending reality when fighting is involved, but in BLOODSPORT, it is used to create abstract art from action scenes. There are a few of these abstract scenes throughout the movie, but the entire final fight is. In these scenes, the music stops. Action slows down and Van Damme moans during his attacks like he caught his stubbed his little toe against the kitchen island. I know several martial artists (including yours truly) who transcended boredom several times by recreating these scenes during dead time. Everyting is suspended in these scenes, even fighting skills. All that matters is Qi, the mystical power of martial arts floating heavy in the air. Say what you will about BLOODSPORT, but it is the movie that picture Qi on screen the best and by far.
I do not know one person who has seen BLOODSPORT and doesn't have a soft spot for it. Nothing can bring back its original intended meaning except maybe an extinction event, but it earned its place in cinema and martial arts history as a witness to evolution. There was a time where Frank Dux was the most respected martial artist in America, a living legend. It was an era far removed from the internet age where legends and myths motivated and inspired young martial artists. BLOODSPORT also remains to this day Jean-Claude Van Damme's most influential movie. The one he's remembered for. It's a film I've owned for so long, I still have a VHS copy. Van Damme fans, martial arts movie buffs and eighties cinema enthusiasts will all tell you: BLOODSPORT is one of a kind. A unique object that transcended its time and purpose.