Bezenby
There's racial tension on the streets and what can build those bridges? Lengthy talks? Kickboxing? How about accidentally stabbing an innocent bystander? That seems to work, but it takes a long time to get there.Don "Draygo's guilt" Wilson is Johnny (Cash), an ex-kickboxer from the streets who is now a doctor patching up kickboxers at his local hospital. Seems like tension arising amongst the Chinese kickboxers and a bunch of white kickboxers who can't seem to tell the different between Japanese, Chinese or Vietnamese folk. One of the white guys is played by Gary Daniels, who does his patented 'doing the splits' thing, only this time he does it at a forty-five degree angle! The other two white guys of note are Chuck and Brad. Now Chuck is going out with Brad's sister but after a change meeting at a Chinese restaurant Brad's sister now has the hots for Johnny, and vice versa, and this is where the film spends a lot of time being a romance instead of a kick arse nineties martial arse movie. Do I need to point out that these guys are racialists and aren't happy that Brad's sister is hanging around with a Japanese Chinese Vietnamese guy? More tensions arise when Tommy, Johnny's cousin, is all set up to fight Brad and Johnny says the best way to get Brad to back off is to make the fight as dangerous as possible by using gloves with glass on them. How do you think that turned out for Tommy? Couldn't you have just called the police there Johnny? This all heads towards a showdown at the end but I signed up to see Don "The Don" Wilson knock folk out with his feet. Too much romance, not enough fighting – the sequel is much better by the way.Mad props however for this being the only film I've seen where a Chinese guy pees on Gary Daniel's head – I bet Jackie Chan wishes he thought of putting that in City Hunter!
The_Phantom_Projectionist
While PM Entertainment – that glorious company of action and excess – had already made action movies featuring martial arts, RING OF FIRE is the studio's first genuine karate flick, as well as a triumph for martial arts of the B-movie scale. It's also a pretty unique vehicle for star Don Wilson – possibly one of his best, which is ironic given his limited input to the action content. As a genuinely exciting kickfest that's powered by a real plot and investable characters, I deem this a must-have for fans of low budget action and just about all of the performers involved.The story: In the middle of a violent gang rivalry in Los Angeles, a doctor and cousin of the Asian gang's leader (Wilson) falls in love with the sister and fiancé of the Surfer gang's leaders (Maria Ford).I believe this is the perfect role for Don Wilson, who I find enjoyable though not for the quality of his other movies. In an all-time low count for a feature advertised with his name, Wilson has only a single fight – the finale – and spends the rest of the film interacting with others in a dramatic way, opposed to a physical manner. Don is naturally likable and gives a smooth performance, all the while acting well with costar Maria Ford. Ford's acting ability is often underrated in favor of her sexuality, but here it is clearly at the forefront of her performance. Together, she and Wilson make a sound dramatic duo and a believable couple.Thematically, the movie may not be particularly strong, but I say that it's as significant as the viewer allows for. It's obvious that this is a take on "Romeo & Juliet" with kickboxing, but it's also one of only a handful of films at the time that addressed interracial romance from an Asian perspective. Race relations would be a non-factor in most of Wilson's films to come, so it's all the more significant that he sets such a positive standard for a masculine Asian-American who perseveres for the sake of love. I haven't seen many western films wherein an Asian male is portrayed as desirable and romantic; Wilson makes the absolute most of the opportunity to be both, and delivers one of the best performances of his career.The action content is both ample and solid, with approximately eight full-length matches providing a good stage for a supergroup of film fighters: Steven Vincent Leigh, Dale Jacoby, Vince Murdocco, Eric Lee, Gary Daniels, Ron Yuan… (And those are only the performers with additional acting scenes.) Admittedly, many of the matches are a bit too heavily edited for my taste, but the occasional creativeness of the choreography and the consistent athleticism of its performers shine through, making for a cumulatively enjoyable adrenaline package. Even the final showdown featuring Wilson (and even more editing) can be considered among Don's personal best, making it worth waiting for.The film bounces along with an agreeable pace and hums with a level of energy that PM would frequently try to recapture and often fail at. It's enjoyable, and despite its imperfections, that is the most I can ask of a movie. If you know this is your kind of picture, I encourage you to check it out.
jeffolee
Holy crap! I've found the finest film ever made. It's called Ring of Fire, and the story centers around two rival kick-boxing clubs (one white, one Chinese) in California. The main character is a Chinese doctor (a Chinese doctor? That's weird!) who has given up fighting in the ring. (Actual quote: "I don't fight anymore. You beat them up, I patch them up.") After his shift at the hospital one night, he goes to help out at his aunt's Chinese restaurant (oh, I love this so much!) where he falls for a pretty Blonde who mistakens him for a waiter who can't speak English ("Excuse me, can I get chopsticks? You know, chopsticks?"). After she finishes her meal, she opens a fortune cookie that tells her that "Like a mountain lily, love lives in rocky terrain". She smiles and keeps it. The blonde happens to be engaged to one of the white kick-boxers, so drama ensues. Meanwhile, the rival kick-boxers start taking their fights to the street, gaining the attention of a local detective, who likes to say stuff like, "You better watch yourself, or I'll be on you like white on rice! No pun intended".This move is nothing short of phenomenal. There's more than enough Chinglish to satisfy anyone who has an appreciation for mispronounced L's and R's, lots of chop-socky action, horrendous 80's hairdos and clothes, and multiple scenes of a girl getting naked in the bathroom, the hot tub, the locker room, and some other places. I'm not sure how she fits into the movie (I think she's the Blonde's friend), but she's got a great rack and really big hair. In one scene, the main character, Johnny, even dresses up like the Phantom of the Opera to get into a masquerade ball so he can woo the blonde, who sees him from across the room (cue 80's synthesizer music!) and approaches him to share a romantic slow dance filmed through a Vaseline-smeared camera lens.In another one of my favorite scenes, the Blonde, Julie, goes back to the Chinese restaurant to find Johnny. Johnny's aunt asks her a series of questions to determine if she's a good girl. It goes something like this. "How old are you?" "22" "Oh, that is a good age for having children! What did you eat for breakfast?" "Bacon and Eggs." "Did you cook yourself? No McMuffin?" "I can cook. No McMuffin." At this point, the aunt decides that she's a quality girl, seeing how she can cook and is of child-bearing age. "Do you have a pain?" "Pain?" "A pain in your heart? Maybe you should go to the hospital!" "So you're saying I should go to the hospital...hmm..." (I swear, I am not making this up!) She then goes to the hospital and gets examined for having chest pains. Johnny comes in and asks her to remove her sweater so he can listen to her heart with his stethoscope. Oh yes! This is actually caught of celluloid!Oh! let's not forget the love scene. They sensually undress each other, and Julie tweaks Johnny's nipples in a close-up. I almost fell out of my chair. Oh, and the entire love scene is inter-cut with the rival gangs meeting up for a showdown, wrapping their hands and dipping them in broken glass, Bloodsport style. This leads to a fight in the middle of a (you guessed it!) ring of fire!It gets better! One of the Chinese guys dies in the fight, so Julie puts on a black dress to go to the funeral, where she discovers in horror that you're supposed to wear white, not black, to a Chinese funeral. Then, Julie's brother and ex-fiancé come to crash the funeral, wearing blue and pink tank-tops and white jeans, looking like the guys who painted my house. That display, coupled with her black dress faux pas convinces Julie that she can't be with Johnny and doesn't belong.Luckily, the fortune cookie's message saves the day (as it often does in real life), and Julie's grandma uses it to convince both Johnny and Julie that they belong together. This all culminates in Johnny's professing his love to Julie during her jazzercise aerobics class (Leotards and leg warmers galore!). Julie's brother shows up and hits her, and this finally convinces Johnny to fight him in the ring. They fight, and through some weird series of events, Julie's ex-fiancé ends up accidentally slicing her in the stomach with a sword (yes, a sword! Like, a samurai sword!). Johnny carries Julie out of the ring very slowly and dramatically, even though he should probably be running since she's most likely losing a lot of blood. Julie is putting pressure on her wound when she looks up at Johnny and smiles. That's when the movie abruptly ends.Oh god, what a movie! AWESOME! I checked the credits just to make sure I didn't actually direct this movie and forgot about it somehow. My goodness. I don't think anything can top this .
