Once upon a time, in a world where martial arts meant something different to people, Jean-Claude Van Damme movies were watched unironically. He was a spiritual heir to Bruce Lee and inspired young martial artists around the world. Those days are long gone! Today, Van Damme entertains people for very different reasons including: his bizarre, excesses-ridden face, sexual awkwardness, the ironic fascination with bad cinema, a desperate need for attention and an uncanny ability to do the split. KICKBOXER survived the test of time pretty well. It's not particularly well-written or well-acted, but it's a testimony to the kickboxing craze that swept through the U.S in the eighties. It's an intoxicating mist of bizarre, dated martial arts storytelling and surprisingly accurate historical details.
Kurt (Van Damme) is full contact kickboxing champion Eric Sloane (Dennis Alexio)'s brother *. Eric is a dominant champion looking for an interesting challenge, so he travels to Thailand to fight local champion Tong Po (eighties badass Michel Qissi). Eric walks into the fight cocky and self-assured despite Kurt's warnings and gets put in a wheelchair for his effort. Devoured by the need to avenge his brother, Kurt goes into the heart of Thailand to learn Muay Thai and kick Tong Po's ass. He gets entangled in a more complicated story than he would've liked, as he discovers the important cultural significance of Muay Thai for the local people.
To best enjoy KICKBOXER, you have to put it in perspective. The eighties were the years of Dennis Alexio, Rick Roufus, Don Wilson and Jean-Yves Thériault. In this world long gone, these guys were as revered as UFC fighters are today. Kickboxing became an international craze and eventually, Occidental guys traveled to Thailand and got their asses kicked by guys who clinched, knee'd, elbowed and kicked with unprecedented power. There are several surprisingly accurate details in the movie that leads me to believe KICKBOXER was filmed to promote Muay Thai in America: The Thai people jealously keeping the secrets of Muay Thai from outsiders, the style's dominance over North American full contact **, the shin conditioning, the realistic atmosphere of a Thailand stadium that is a lot more convincing than in recent movies such as ONLY GOD FORGIVES.
What people want to remember from Van Damme today.
Of course, there are things that don't add up with KICKBOXER also. It wouldn't be a JCVD movie otherwise. For example, everybody in Thailand has a Chinese name. I mean, what is this about? Also, JCVD's character isn't learning Muay Thai. He trains it, but he's not learning it. During the infamous drunken dancing scene, Van Damme is wearing a ridiculous, girly tank top to display his puffed out muscles and kicks ass with his usualy flying antics rather than with the moves he learned. This leads to an extreme, dramatized Muay Boran fight (the ancient way) where Van Damme and Qissi fight almost butt naked with glass glued to makeshift handwraps. KICKBOXER is a relevant JCVD movie for its willingness to mix Van Damme's usual high flying theatrical and sell Muay Thai to American kids at the same time.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is a product of his era. He did was he was told, as long as he could kick somebody's ass at the end of the day. His brand brought credibility to whatever martial arts movie you were trying to sell. Van Damme never cared if your movie was credible or not, because his name bought you automatic credibility back then. If martial arts still carried the mystic it did in pre-UFC days, we would probably drink the words from Van Damme's mouth like we still drink those of Bruce Lee, but the world changed immensely in two decades. KICKBOXER aged bizarrely, because the Van Damme factor hurts its credbility rather than help it. It's a rare occurrence of a movie who could benefit a reboot, but there is a unique charm to the movie as it is selling you a martial arts style using an actor that didn't believe in it or even thought anything of it. You could only get away with stuff like that in the eighties!
* Despite, you know, having a French accent.
** Michel Qissi fights a rudimentary Muay Thai, but he does uses the proper style, unlike Van Damme.