Plot: Jason Stillwell, a young karate prodigy and kung fu enthusiast is a huge admirer of late martial arts superstar Bruce Lee. Desiring to be a champion just like Bruce, Jason attempts to train religiously in Bruce’s art form of jeet kune do, even though his father a retired karate instructor forbids his son to practice. When bullies begin to harass him, Jason finds himself losing faith in himself and his abilities as a martial artist and believes that he’ll never live up to the standards of his ‘hero’. Seeing one of his ‘fans’ in turmoil, the spirit of Bruce Lee shows up at Jason’s doorstep to lend a helping hand and provide him with the spiritual tools he’ll need in order to become the warrior that he desires to become.
Within a few months, Jason goes from novice to expert thanks to Lee’s tutelage and with his new skills, he must prepare to face off against the dreaded Ivan Kraschinsky, a full-contact martial arts champion who is also the enforcer responsible for the injury of Jason’s father that resulted in their family’s dojo being shut down months earlier.
With the hopes and dreams of the town riding on his shoulders, Jason prepares to make a valiant last stand against his adversaries in a world where there can be ‘no retreat and no surrender’…
The First of the ‘Karate Kid’ clones
I remember I was a teenager looking at vid trailers on imdb.com everyday at the library trying to find movies to rent for the weekend that involved some good martial arts scenes and I just happened to come across the trailer for this film and from the reviews on that site, there was obviously a lot of hype from fans about how good this film was. When I saw this, I was very eager to see it but sadly, no video store in my town had a copy of this film on VHS and years later, there was no one around who had it on DVD (hell, nobody was even uploading clips of the fight scenes to any streaming sites to show off how good it was) and I was deeply disappointed as I really wanted to check this film out. Honestly, I never got to see this film until 2011 when it was finally released for a download purchase. Needless to say, I came to understand why everyone was giving this film so much praise but was totally dismal at why this film was so hard to find and why it took so long to be released on DVD or streaming sites for purchase.
A rare gem produced by the Seasonal Film Company, the same studio who created the ‘Secret Rivals’ franchise with Hwang Jang Lee, ‘No Retreat, No Surrender’ was the first U.S./H.K. collaboration to be filmed in the States by this company. Directed by Hong Kong fight choreographer Corey Yuen (Yes Madam), No Retreat, No Surrender definitely gained its inspiration from the ‘Karate Kid’. In fact, Corey Yuen said himself that film was an inspirational martial arts tale but felt that the choreography from it could’ve used a little tweaking up. In fact, if the ‘Karate Kid’ was an old Camaro, Corey Yuen and his action crew would be mechanics who would give it a major tuneup and ‘No Retreat No Surrender’ would be the ‘pimped out’ new ride for H.K. enthusiasts all over the world!
No Retreat No Surrender has a lot going for it: an unknown cast (including a then unknown Jean Claude Van-Damme before his Bloodsport days), a phenomenal script, great training montages and some wicked cool fight scenes followed by an underdog tale about a ‘Bruce Lee’ fan who learns to believe in himself and obtains the skills necessary to be the champion that he hopes to be!
Why was it good?
A lot of people have flocked to this movie to see the ‘Muscles from Brussels’ Jean Claude Van-Damme in action and even though he gets top billing on the DVD cases, the real star of this gem is Kurt McKinney. Acting-wise, Kurt was spectacular as the story’s protagonist Jason Stillwell and you really like his character in this movie. While he comes off at first as a fun-loving clown at the beginning of the story, he shows that he’s someone who takes his training as a fighter seriously and is not afraid to speak his mind or stand up for people when he sees them in trouble. Though Jason had the will and the drive, he lacked the combat skills necessary to stand by his philosophy of ‘standing up’ to people and Kurt really had me thinking at first that he wasn’t really a fighter.
At first glance, Kurt didn’t really look like much of a martial artist but if there’s one thing Hollywood has taught us is that looks can be very deceiving when it comes to who is cast for what role. When I first started watching this, I thought to myself, this kid can’t fight H.K.-style in a movie like this. But after his character’s training was complete and Jason got to show off his skills in this clip, I instantly had to eat my words:
Jason Stillwell demonstrates his skills.
The choreography in that fight was spot on and Kurt had no problem whatsoever with holding his own against the thugs who were beating up on his dad. Everything in the scene was perfect: the timing of the strikes, the reaction from the stuntmen, nothing was under-cranked (sped-up, a visual technique utilized a lot in a lot of modern day Hong Kong fight movies from back in the day) and the sound effects totally rocked! The best part of the fight is that at the end, Jason and his dad have a ‘heart to heart’ about how you have to stand your ground and fight to protect yourself. That scene right there is proof that the writers did their homework when creating this: while the aim is to get people hyped up over the fight scenes choreographed for the film, they also wanted to send a message to martial artists young and old that a true fighter knows when to use their skills and how much force they should use when it comes to protecting one’s self from danger. They showed in this story that violence is not the best option but it shouldn’t be the only option one resorts to when resolving a problem. If anything, it should be the last option when all other means of reasoning have failed but you have to make sure that you maintain control over yourself during the fight.
Another thing that made the story fun was the idea of utilizing Bruce Lee’s spirit as the ‘medium’ to help Kurt’s character in this story. Where as Daniel LaRusso had Mr. Miyagi in his corner, Jason gets assistance from the ghost of Bruce Lee played with gusto by the late Kim Tai Jung.
Believe it or not, Kim Tai Jung was actually one of the ‘doubles’ to help finish Bruce Lee’s ‘Game of Death’ after Bruce passed away before its completion. That’s right, he was the one who played substitute for the character of Lee’s character Billy Lo and though Kim was Korean where as Bruce was Chinese, he showed that he had the skills and flare to match Bruce’s fighting movements using his taekwondo skills. In fact, the studio loved Kim’s performance so much that he was asked to be in Game of Death’s sequel ‘Tower of Death’ as Billy Lo’s brother so it’s no surprise here that Seasonal Films asked him to play the spirit of Bruce Lee to help Kurt’s character. A little known fact, Kim didn’t know any English and Jason couldn’t speak Korean so when we see these two communicate with each other in English, it’s actually Kurt speaking his own lines and someone in audio production dubbing Kim’s lines in English. Upon learning that, I have to say that was quite an impressive ‘dubbing’ technique for the movie.
Like Mr. Miyagi, Kim’s character teaches Jason about how a martial art is only as good as the principles of the person who practices it. Throughout the training montage, he uses all sorts of techniques to help Jason build his skills up including learning a special somersault kick in order to deal with someone who grapples the leg to throw you off balance. That part was rather philosophical to the story, showing that when life grabs you by your leg, you always have the means to break free of your problems and regain and maintain your balance.
Basically, every lesson that Bruce’s spirit hands down to Jason helps him in his showdown with Ivan Kraschinsky, played with fierce ruthlessness by Jean Claude Van-Damme. Van Damme’s character was not to be messed with in this movie and even though he is shown only twice in this film, the producers made sure to make good use of his time during the scenes that involved him. He has at least five fights in this film, the last four are in the ring with the members of a karate team that are fighting to protect their dojo and the town from the syndicate seeking to take over things and then with Jason himself when the Russian proves to be too much for them. J.C. makes short work of the competition and he gets to show off his high-kicking as well as his famous butterfly split that he is well-known for in his Hollywood movies. The final fight between Jean Claude and Kurt is magic and the moves that they pull off on each other is just phenomenal!
A small taste of Jean Claude in action!
The Wrap-Up
Of all the ‘Karate Kid’ clones, No Retreat No Surrender is definitely the first within the long line of movies that pays homage to the original Karate Kid while still staying true to form within its own roots in terms of Hong Kong action and Western storytelling. Though it did produce two sequels (neither of which are connected with the first one), this film is one of many ‘underdog’ stories geared at the world of martial arts and producing the theme that if you must fight, make sure that you fight with honor. For when there can be only one champion in the ring, there can be ‘no retreat and no surrender!’
The Cable Critic 
Wow! I saw this movie years ago, and now you’ve made me want to go back and look at it again. I remember Jean-Claude Van Damme and his signature split move. I wonder if this movie is what jump started the popularity of UFC fighting.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey Angelique! Glad u could make it to the party. When I saw the preview trailer for this movie back as a teen, I hunted high and low for this film but nobody had it in stock. Eventually when it got released for purchase via download, I hopped up and got it and I began to understand why this film go so much praise. I was surprised to see Van-Damme playing a villain as I was used to seeing him play the hero when I saw him in Bloodsport as a kid.
LikeLike