Lady Bloodfight is about an American woman who goes to Hong Kong for personal reasons and gets being beaten up and mugged by thugs not soon after arriving. She then is taken in by a martial arts master who trains her to take her place in a formidable fight competition known as the Kumite.
Lady Bloodfight is several random fight scenes wrapped up in a narrative of a tournament. So far, so direct to video actionsploitation. What makes Lady Bloodfight stand out from the rest is... well nothing. Maybe there is a little more character development here than is usual for these tournament films, and it's set in Hong Kong, but apart from that, the story is just a combination of American and Asian action movie cliches.
The acting ranges from mediocre to scenery chewing and the screenplay makes no effort to sell the Kumite fight competition or even the sub-culture surrounding it as either evocative, flamboyant or realistic. The main focus is the cliched story of protagonist Jane (Doe) traveling to a far off country to investigate the death of a loved one. An unwise decision as action films have always favoured better with audiences when they are concept heavy in narrative. And if you're trying to be that one in one hundred that puts character over plot and make it work, then at least find a lead actress than can pull it off as Amy Johnston had already proved with Female Fight Club that she can't do that.
However, not all the blame should be put on Johnston's shoulders. The drama is flat and directionless and the fight scenes, whilst feeling brutal thanks mostly to some decent foley, feature vanilla choreography, lack emotion and do not move the story at all nearly far enough to justify their longevity.
All that Lady Bloodfight had going for it was a decent cinematographer and a slightly higher above average budget that allowed for some impressive production value. But apart from that, it's totally uninspired.
Lady Bloodfight is several random fight scenes wrapped up in a narrative of a tournament. So far, so direct to video actionsploitation. What makes Lady Bloodfight stand out from the rest is... well nothing. Maybe there is a little more character development here than is usual for these tournament films, and it's set in Hong Kong, but apart from that, the story is just a combination of American and Asian action movie cliches.
The acting ranges from mediocre to scenery chewing and the screenplay makes no effort to sell the Kumite fight competition or even the sub-culture surrounding it as either evocative, flamboyant or realistic. The main focus is the cliched story of protagonist Jane (Doe) traveling to a far off country to investigate the death of a loved one. An unwise decision as action films have always favoured better with audiences when they are concept heavy in narrative. And if you're trying to be that one in one hundred that puts character over plot and make it work, then at least find a lead actress than can pull it off as Amy Johnston had already proved with Female Fight Club that she can't do that.
However, not all the blame should be put on Johnston's shoulders. The drama is flat and directionless and the fight scenes, whilst feeling brutal thanks mostly to some decent foley, feature vanilla choreography, lack emotion and do not move the story at all nearly far enough to justify their longevity.
All that Lady Bloodfight had going for it was a decent cinematographer and a slightly higher above average budget that allowed for some impressive production value. But apart from that, it's totally uninspired.