Today’s quick review: Lady Bloodfight. Jane Jones (Amy Johnston), a fighter from Pittsburgh, travels to Hong Kong to test her mettle in the Kumite, a lethal fighting tournament that draws women from all over the world. There, she catches the attention of Shu (Muriel Hofmann), a finalist from the last tournament, who trains Jane to fight as her student. But Shu’s rival Wai (Kathy Wu) has a student of her own: Ling Chao (Jenny Wu), an aggressive, talented fighter.
Lady Bloodfight is a gritty martial arts movie. Lady Bloodfight fits the mold of the classic fighting tournament movie, with only slight variations on the usual story elements. The movie is notable for its mixture of different martial arts styles, its willingness to show blood, and its predominantly female cast. However, its execution is never more than adequate, limiting its appeal to action fans who aren’t that picky.
True to its premise, Lady Bloodfight delivers plenty of fighting. The focus is on one-on-one martial arts matches with no rules and no weapons, but the movie does dip its toes into armed combat and street brawling. The fights are reliably scrappy, with lots of blood and the occasional major injury. The stunts are not as impressive as the best of the genre, but they do get the job done. Overall, the action is competent but not memorable.
Lady Bloodfight’s shortcomings are typical of budget action movies. The dialog is far from brilliant, but there are only a handful of lines that are actively bad. Likewise, the characters are just adequate. Jane isn’t given quite enough development to pull off the underdog role, but she manages to avoid the usual protagonist pitfalls of arrogance and stupidity. The film also resorts to contrived drama in a few places to keep the story moving.
Watch Lady Bloodfight if you need some action and aren’t particular about story. Decent martial arts, an acceptable plot, and a lack of glaring weaknesses make it a fine, if unexceptional, choice. Those looking for a better martial arts movie should check out the work of Tony Jaa or Jet Li. For a budget martial arts film with a similar plot and more obvious flaws, check out Kickboxer: Vengeance.
5.5 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 6.5 for serviceable action and mediocre writing.