Remembering Kickboxer

The year was 1989 and after a successful surprise hit in Bloodsport, Jean-Claude Van Damme had quickly become a hot new rising action star. After toiling away with a few bit parts and a rather forgettable debut staring role in Cyborg, Bloodsport capitalized off of Van Damme’s charisma, which gelled with the film’s great tournament styled fighting. For his follow-up film, Van Damme would sign onto Kickboxer (1989), a similar themed film. Van Damme played Kurt Sloane and after a violent injury to his kickboxing champion brother (Dennis Alexio) to a brutal Thai champion Tong Po (Michel Qissi), Kurt learns Muay Thai to face off against Tong Po.

Between Bloodsport and Kickboxer, the films shared a few connections, namely David Worth, who was the Director of Photography on Bloodsport and then got the chance to direct for Kickboxer. Killer Film discusses the film with director David Worth in Remembering Kickboxer.

“I always wanted to become a director and took the route of cinematography in order to become a better one. The producer of Bloodsport knew that I had already done two Clint Eastwood films (Bronco Billy, Any Which Way You Can) and after he saw how efficiently I handled myself and the Hong Kong crew I began to let him know that I was the best choice to direct the “next one”, says David Worth of how he got into this career. “I’m basically a self taught film maker who dropped out of college, picked up an 8mm camera and an editing viewer, and put hours and hours of film through both until I was confident enough to begin looking for work as a cinematographer. I did that mainly as a way of becoming a better Director, since I had worked with a lot of guys that I called “Gucci Bag” directors… They raised some money, bought a Gucci Bag, splashed some tanning lotion on their face and said they were directors.”

On many of the posters, including the recently released Lionsgate Blu-ray of Kickboxer, one will notice that they credited two directors, obviously David Worth and also Mark DiSalle, who was credited as the writer along with Van Damme. David Worth explains this: “When there were financial problems during pre-pre-production on Kickboxer, I drove into the producer’s offices in Century City everyday and worked on polishing the script, setting up the casting sessions, starting my storyboards and helping out on the publicity and ad campaign. I did this for over six months without a paycheck and without a contract. Eventually, my enthusiasm and persistence paid off as I was announced as the director of the film. I got up every day in Hong Kong and did my job as the Director of the film. I even shot many of the Main Title backgrounds while we were scouting locations in Bangkok. During post production I fulfilled my contract by delivering my Director’s Cut and leaving the rest of the post production to the producer.”

“A week before the film was due to be finished,” David Worth explains, “the producer informed me that he (DiSalle) was ‘sharing’ my credit [as the director] with me. I asked him if he wanted to kiss me? He asked, why?. [I said] because I like to be kissed when I’m being f*cked!”

One of the key elements to the film would be the fighting scenes. Working on Bloodsport helped Worth a little. “Yes, the experience of Bloodsport was amazing, but the Director Nute Arnold shot a lot of film – over 220,000 feet. On Kickboxer I wanted to be more efficient and I only shot about 125,000 feet. So we were not shooting as much coverage on our fights as we had done with Nute. Also, JCVD helped to make the film happen by coming on board as the star and his being an amazing martial artists made it easy for me to let him bring all of his creativity and expertise to the staging of the fight scenes.”

Besides Van Damme’s incredible skills, an important part of the fighting seen in Kickboxer belongs to Michel Qissi, who would later be cast as the villain Tong Po. After hearing that the production was looking for a taller oriental male, Qissi volunteered and won the role. Qissi and Van Damme during this period would share a lot of the credit for Van Damme’s fights in his films, namely Bloodsport, Kickboxer, and Lionheart. “From what I could see on both Bloodsport and Kickboxer, JCVD and Michel Qissi had been friends for a while,” Worth tells. “Qissi helped JCVD train and played a small part in Bloodsport. Then during pre-production on Kickboxer when we were looking for a Tong Po. Qissi eventually shaved his head and more or less became the character.”

Worth continues: “Since he knew how JCVD worked and what he needed to train and to make the fight scenes work, he was always careful on set to make sure that JCVD had whatever he needed. He was a good choice and I believe that Qissi brought a lot to the film both in front of and behind the cameras.” In the final fight with Tong Po (Qissi) and Kurt (JCVD), they laced their gloves with glass. Obviously, it wasn’t real glass, but their fight was intense, and as Worth explains incredibly well-planned. “Every move was very carefully an precisely rehearsed before we put it on film. Also, the initial glass going onto the gloves was real glass, but the gloves used in the actual fight was covered with colored plastic.”

One of the more popular moments in the film, is the bar scene where Van Damme is dancing drunk with some of the patrons dates. It’s become a Youtube sensation, as well as a fun scene showcasing Van Damme’s dancing skills. “As I recall the scene was scripted. We did the entire scene; the drinking, the dancing and the fighting, even the riding off on the bike, in one day. We simply started at the beginning and shot everything in sequence, and yes, we were working quickly. JCVD did a great job; he is a trained dancer who has very smooth moves and when it comes to the fighting, there is no one is better.”

Worth remembers working with Van Damme on-set and behind-the-scenes prior to filming, “he was amazing! Van Damme was very involved, as he liked all of my story boards for the dramatic scenes and he brought all of his creativity and expertise to the fight scenes.I thought it was a great collaboration.” After 20 years from Kickboxer‘s original theatrical release, its held up by the fans as an early Van Damme classic. “Obviously, no one can predict the audience’s reaction,” remakrs Worth, “if they could, every film would be a hit! I’m very pleased that Kickboxer has stood the test of time and along with Bloodsport has remained an all-time favorite of JCVD fans worldwide. We didn’t know it at the time, but the gods of luck, timing and production were smiling on us all as we managed somehow to create two films that became martial arts classics.”