"The Quest" - The Unofficial Remake of "Bloodsport"

*SPOILERS ahead (but if you’ve seen Bloodsport, you've kind of already seen The Quest.

All this pandemic stuff has really stifled me when it comes to writing about movies. I had already been dragging my feet this month due to standard laziness (despite having notes and outlines prepped already for three articles). But when the pandemic stuff started to be treated with seriousness, it made my silly articles seem even less important than they were before (if that’s possible). I, like most of the country, have been much more preoccupied with the general safety of the nation, the safety of my family, the uncertainty about employment, and worrying about having enough food and baby supplies to endure a prolonged quarantine. Now that the reality of the situation has set in a bit more, I figured it was time to distract myself with writing. Because of that, I’m starting with a Jean-Claude Van Damme favorite of mine: The Quest. I know that the first article of each month is a JCVD movie, but this time the reason is twofold. Not only is this my first article of March, but it’s about a movie I enjoy because I find it relaxing in its simplicity, even if it is basically a Bloodsport remake set in a different time period. The Quest is a movie I can turn on and lose myself in, and that’s the perfect movie for me right now.

Bloodsport: The Prequel

One of the reasons I enjoy this movie is because it’s basically another Bloodsport. So much so that Frank Dux (the inspiration for Bloodsport) sued Van Damme over this, eventually getting a “Story by” credit because of a screenplay they wrote back in 1991. But it’s clear that if they were writing a movie, they were simply making Bloodsport again but set in the past. How the WGA saw this as reason enough to give him a writing credit is beyond me because I imagine this “screenplay” nothing more than Dux and Van Damme doing rails of coke and excitedly talking about all the different fighting styles in the film. But seriously, this is much more of a ripoff of Bloodsport (for which Dux did not receive a writing credit) than anything else. The writers of that film most likely had more of a case than Dux did (but what do I know?). 

The similarities to Bloodsport are obvious, but I still want to point them out. To begin with, Van Damme is on the run from the law. He’s not actively pursued this time around, but he’s still technically on the run.

Of course, the main similarity is that the film is centered around a secret martial arts tournament that you only get to fight in by invitation. All fighting styles are welcomed (much like how a guy like Jackson in Bloodsport is in the same tournament as Van Damme), and death in the ring is possible. 

Just like Frank Dux, Van Damme’s Christopher Dubois gains entry into the tournament even though he is not originally meant to fight in it. In both films, he is trained as an afterthought rather than as the main participant. In Bloodsport, he replaced the dead son of his trainer, and in The Quest, he takes the place of Maxie Devine (what a fucking perfect old-timey boxer name).

Speaking of Maxie Devine (played by James Remar who is really bringing it but simply cannot match the awesomeness of Donald Gibb), he basically becomes the Jackson of the movie after Dubois gains Maxie’s respect (by begrudgingly kicking his ass). After that, Maxie is Dubois’s loudest cheerleader in the crowd and is the unofficial color commentator, too (“He’s movin’ around like an animal!”). The only thing missing is Maxie getting a head injury from the Mongolian. Although Maxie does make some noises near the end of the film that could be evidence of some past head trauma.

Once again, the villain of the film is simply a villain because he’s good at fighting. Sure, both Chong Li and Khan (IMDb says this is his name, but I only knew him as the Mongolian dude) kill a guy in the ring, but it’s allowed! Don’t join the secret martial arts tournament if you’re afraid of dying in the ring. Khan is a little less excited about it murdering a guy, and he has even less lines than Chong Li. That is to say he literally has no lines in the film. We just know he’s the villain because of the slow motion shots of his uncaring face and menacing score that plays each time he’s on screen.

The last major similarity is the inclusion of a lady journalist love interest. In both films, she’s there to write about the tournament (in The Quest the story is so grand it becomes a book called...The Quest). But her real reason for existing is to give Van Damme a love interest. Kudos to The Quest, though, for not making her a victim at any point in the film. 

To be fair, there are also plenty of differences between Bloodsport and The Quest (some would argue that the main difference is that Bloodsport is actually good [I like them both, but I do prefer Bloodsport]). But The Quest is simply too similar to Bloodsport to ignore. And when Frank Dux ended up with a “Story by” credit, it was like confirmation that this was essentially another Bloodsport movie. But I don’t care. I still love this movie. Yes, it’s all very familiar, but a lot of times, that’s what I want from a Van Damme movie. Just give me some fight scenes and a simple plot. The Quest is comfort food cinema for me, and I don’t need comfort food to be all that original.

The Quest to Make the Most Epic Martial Arts Movie of All Time.

The Quest is admittedly derivative of one of Van Damme’s most beloved films, but it is also the most ambitious film Van Damme ever made. You can tell he was trying to make a grand, epic martial arts film, which is probably why he decided to direct it (though his directing prowess was called into question by Roger Moore in his book, and there are reports that the second unit director, Peter MacDonald, actually kept the film on track).

While The Quest didn’t lead to more films directed by Van Damme, you can still tell he was going for an old-fashioned epic style. The story spans decades (we get to see old man Van Damme!) and the globe and attempts to be about honor...or something. The Quest definitely fails to be an epic along the lines of Once Upon a Time in America, but I always appreciate someone swinging for the fences. 

From the music to the piracy to the golden dragon, The Quest tries to be something big and epic. But it’s only the superficial elements that are epic. The music and whatnot is just the wrapping paper. Underneath that, you just have a Van Damme movie. 

To be clear, I’m totally fine with having an epic-wrapped Van Damme movie. As I stated above, I’m not looking for a transcendent or grand experience when I watch a Van Damme movie. I want to see some fighting, a bit of humor, the splits, and at least one roundhouse kick. All that extra stuff doesn’t take away from the film, but there is one odd element that Van Damme used that is distracting: slow motion.

If this film is famous for anything in Van Damme’s filmography, it’s for its use of slow motion at seemingly random moments. Khan breaks a table: slow motion. Khan stares across the room: slow motion. A fight begins and the fighters get in their stances: slow motion. You get the idea. Slow motion is used in the expected places (like Van Damme’s amazing roundhouse kick), but it’s also used in nonsensical moments. I always chalked this up to Van Damme being the director and thinking that slow motion just makes shit better. But looking at it as a wannabe epic, I think this was Van Damme’s attempt to add weight to all these moments in the film.

But slow motion is mainly used to allow the viewer to see the detail in a complex scene, especially in a fight scene. But here it’s used during the boring parts of a fight. It just doesn’t make sense. And slow motion is not a hallmark of classic films or anything, either. I just think this was the only thing Van Damme could think of during post-production to attempt to make The Quest something more than it was. 

Van Damme just didn’t realize that a martial arts movie doesn’t have to be epic to be good. If the focus had been on making the fight scenes as good as possible, then maybe The Quest would be remembered as one of the better martial arts films. Instead, the focus was so much on having the film be presented as something it wasn’t that the most important aspect of it fell by the wayside. We don’t need old man Van Damme makeup. We don’t need cliché fighters from every country in the world. We don’t need this film to take place seventy years in the past. We don’t need a subplot about a mime raising street urchins. We just need good fight scenes. 

The Quest does have decent fight scenes, but aside from a badass roundhouse, nothing stands out. So instead of getting the epic film Van Damme intended, we get a simple forgettable film that’s great to watch when you want to shut your brain down for a while. That is actually a great accomplishment. When Van Damme goes for it, epic or not, the end result is always entertaining.

Why Do I Own This?

It’s a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Random Thoughts 

What bartender immediately assumes someone wants a cup of coffee? This dickhead deserves to be robbed.

The sound effects with the sumo wrestler are so fucking stupid.

I get why the cops are after him in the beginning. Who likes a juggling clown on stilts?

What is the backstory with Van Damme and all these street urchins?

These gangsters don't fuck around, bursting into a children's hangout guns blazing. 

Khao is a dick. He gives Van Damme shit for betraying him, but Van Damme was basically his slave. How can you blame him for looking for a way out?

I wish Maxie Devine was played by Conan O'Brien as his old timey boxer character from the episode of SNL that he hosted. "I'll baste your turkey!"

It's nice that the fighters from each country dressed as stereotypically as possible. I'm surprised the French dude didn't start his fight wearing a beret and holding a baguette. 

Van Damme won the heavyweight boxing belt in the weirdest way possible: ceded to him at a secret martial arts tournament.

So the Mongolian is the bad guy because he broke the table at the restaurant?

Sure, the Mongolian kills a guy later, but it's a secret martial arts tournament; traditionally, a few deaths are to be expected from such a tournament.

Lady journalist love interest wears some interesting headwear throughout the movie.

Do Spaniards really do the bullfight stance even when fighting humans?

I have to admit, when I first watched this I truly did not expect to see a zeppelin used to steal a golden dragon.

What is that noise Remar makes near the end of the last fight? "Hmmmmmeaaaaaah!"

I’ve always loved the roundhouse kick in this film. He’s basically doing the splits while doing a roundhouse. It’s the two Van Damme trademarks combined.

That wasn't much of an epilogue. And what happened with him and lady journalist? It just zooms in on her at the end without him saying a thing about her. And how was she in that group picture when she was the one who took it? Sure, the book is written by her, but he couldn't say what happened beyond her writing the story?

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"Bloodsport": Why I love this '80s "classic."

I revamped my site over a year ago for three reasons. 1. I wanted to get some use out of my overly large and neglected collection of movies. 2. I wanted to be able to contribute to my site more often because I don’t make it to the theater as often as I would like now that I have a child (and another on the way). 3. I wanted an excuse to write about Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. Somewhere along the way, I lost sight of that last (and most important) reason. From here on out, I will write about a Van Damme movie from my collection once a month until I run out of movies to write about. I’ve only covered Universal Soldier: The Return, and that’s just uncalled for. So I’m getting back into Van Damme with Bloodsport. With these articles I will try to come up with something interesting to write about, but they will mostly just be me nerding out about why I love these movies, even if I admit that many of them are not traditionally “good” movies. With all that written, here’s my take on Bloodsport.

Why I love Bloodsport.

Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of my favorite actors, and I mean that sincerely. Growing up, the debate was usually Van Damme or Seagal (later on, some foolish friends of mine would try to include Jet Li into the mix, but that’s just silly). It was no contest for me. Seagal was a whispering clown. Van Damme could do the splits! And he had that badass roundhouse kick! More importantly, he had charisma. Van Damme is simply likable. Sure, like Schwarzenegger, he often played all-American characters despite his obvious accent (he even played Guile in Street Fighter!), but I never cared that it didn’t make sense for a man named Frank Dux or Kurt Sloane to talk like they’ve never left Belgium. Van Damme’s natural likability made it work.

And that’s why Van Damme is still my favorite part of Bloodsport. His banter with Jackson makes me wish the movie was more about the two of them hanging out. But with Van Damme’s early work especially, his fight scenes are what impressed me the most. In particular, that final fight scene stuck with me. Mainly, it’s Van Damme’s insane reaction to being blinded by Chong Li. He goes into a wide-eyed frenzy that I love. His reaction is as if his eyes had been gouged out rather than just had some powder blown into them, and it’s great. Oh, and that part before the final fight when he punched a guy in the nuts to win? That was great.

Beyond Van Damme, there is plenty to love about this wacky movie. Jackson is clearly the high point after Van Damme. First off, it makes no sense for him to be at the Kumite. He doesn’t appear to have any martial arts skills, yet he was invited to a secret martial arts tournament? Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad he got the invite. Without Jackson, there’s no “I ain’t your pal, dickface!” He’s simply the funniest part of the movie. Rewatching it, I think my favorite two moments of Jackson’s occur during the fights. First, when he wins his first match he calls out Chong Li, and Chong Li seems thoroughly confused about Jackson yelling, “Yeah! You, man! I want you!” Chong Li, rightfully, is wondering why this dude is even here, much less why he’s calling out the reigning champion/murderer. It makes the later interaction even funnier. When Jackson knocks Chong Li down (not out, and it’s very clear that Chong Li is not knocked out), he starts jumping around yelling about how he won. He even says he killed him! This, of course, is followed by Chong Li nearly killing Jackson. I know it’s meant to be a serious moment and the motivation for Van Damme to beat Chong Li’s ass, but I still laugh every time Jackson starts hopping around like an idiot.

I have also just found the training montages in these types of films to be funny. They always include some stupid element. In this case, Van Damme is trained to serve tea blindfolded and stop an attack while doing so. (By the way, how many times was Van Damme backhanded during this particular training before he got the hang of it?) I get having hands fast enough to catch a fish or being able to take repeated hits to the body. But serving tea blindfolded? Of course it all makes sense when he is blinded later on, but did Tanaka know this would happen or something? Is it that common in martial arts tournaments? Maybe I’m just ignorant about martial arts…

Speaking of the training, the flashback sequence is this film’s funniest moment, though not intentionally. I go into plenty of detail in the Random Thoughts section, but I’ll still point out here that the young version of Frank Dux has to be the worst actor I have ever seen, and I love it.

Obviously, the filmmakers thought the film was too serious, so they included the Army guys (you know, the old guy and Forest Whitaker) bumbling their way through Hong Kong trying to catch Van Damme. They even add in a Mentos commercial type chase scene in the middle of the movie. I like these moments, but looking at the film as a whole, it would have been better if these moments had been devoted to Van Damme and Jackson. I do love it when they break out those oversize tasers, though.

I know it sounds like I’m making fun of this movie, and I am, but I do sincerely love Bloodsport. It’s truly a mess of a film. According to IMDb trivia, Van Damme had to help edit the movie to even make it watchable. I can’t find any other evidence of this, but it sounds plausible, which says it all. The movie thrives on fight scenes (which, judged by today’s standards, aren’t that great) and likable characters. So without Van Damme and Jackson, this movie ends up forgotten. This was one of the first Van Damme movies I ever watched, and it stuck with me enough to make me a fan to this day.

Is Chong li a bad guy?

Let me start by stating that Chong Li is definitely the villain of Bloodsport. I’m not going to try one of those clickbait things where I claim the bad guy is really the good guy. I am going to try to point out some elements that might make Chong Li a tad more sympathetic.

I have to say, though, I love how into being a villain Chong Li is in this movie. The way he hops around and gets chants going is hilarious. And the crowd. It’s refreshing to see a villain who just likes kicking the shit out of dudes and wants some recognition for being so good at it.

But why is he the bad guy? Sure, he killed a guy in the ring during the last Kumite. But we don’t know how that went down. We just hear that he killed a man. It obviously did wonders for the Kumite, because everyone was talking about it. It added a dangerous, exciting element to the tournament. And I think the leaders of the tournament liked it.

My evidence for this is when Chong Li kills a guy during the Kumite in the movie. First off, it was a bad look for him since he clearly intended to kill the guy. But when he did it, he looked up to the leaders, expecting their approval. They turn their backs on him a la the Russians to Drago in Rocky IV, and it’s clear: Chong Li is a bad guy, and everybody hates him now. But why did he look to the leaders in the first place? I think they loved Chong Li in previous tournaments, but now that Frank “I made all this shit up to get a movie deal” Dux is winning the hearts and minds of the audience, they can take the high road and shun Chong Li. I don’t think Chong Li would have killed the second guy had the leaders not shown their approval after the first kill. It’s still not a good guy move to kill a guy, even if it is at the behest of tournament promoters. I’m just saying there may have been some motivation aside from just wanting to be evil.

The other way we know Chong Li is a bad guy is the way he takes out Jackson. Sweet, lovable Jackson, right? Wait? Isn’t this the same Jackson who called Chong Li out for no damn reason earlier? Is this the Jackson who claimed he had killed Chong Li after knocking him down? Chong Li was simply retaliating. Jackson should have kept his big mouth shut. And he’s actually lucky that Chong Li didn’t shut him up for good.

Finally, Chong Li does cheat at the end, using a blinding powder on Van Damme. This one is hard to defend. (This is my life right now; I’m having a harder time defending cheating than murder.) Cheating is wrong, but Chong Li was pushed to his breaking point in this fight. The leaders and crowd had turned on him, and he was desperate to salvage his popularity. He made a mistake, and he paid for it.

So yeah, Chong Li is a villain, and he’s pretty much a bad guy. But there are elements in play that people should consider before they automatically root against the guy. We don’t know what Chong Li was going through leading up to this tournament. He still got what he deserved, but maybe he also deserves a little sympathy from the audience. He at least deserves some credit for developing those disgusting pecs.

Why do I own this?

It's a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Random Thoughts

I get the opening shots of people training for the Kumite, but the shots of people mundanely setting up for the tournament are pretty lame. “Now set up the decorations for the ultra secret tournament (that everyone knows about) that can result in death, common worker character!”

My God, that kid playing young Van Damme is terrible. First off, he looks nothing like Van Damme. And his accent is even worse than Van Damme's, which is probably why he was cast. “Look how much his accent improved with age!”

And why the fuck is he wearing a New York Giants football jersey and a San Francisco Giants hat? He's just a fan of giants in general?

There is so much going on with that fight with the bullies in the flashback. First, there's the kid rocking the Bartles and James t-shirt. Then after Dux saves the day, Shingo talks about fighting in the Kumite. Why? He just got beat up by common bullies; he has no chance in the Kumite! And then they shake hands? Why? What kids shake hands?

And in the next scene Shingo is dead for some reason. Why leave this unexplained? Why not have him go to the Kumite and get killed by Chong Li or something? I know a revenge plot would make this even more similar to Kickboxer, but who cares? Van Damme doesn't, which is why he basically remade this movie when he made The Quest.

By the way, there's a hilarious Facebook page dedicated to the actor who played young Dux. It hasn't been updated in a couple years, but what's still on there made me laugh.

The music that plays when Van Damme is getting all stretched out while Tanaka stares at him made the scene oddly romantic.

According to IMDb trivia, which you should check out as it's mostly jokes about the movie, Van Damme had to edit the film himself into something watchable. I can believe it because this film is a mess. It's not just the bad writing and terrible acting. The film is a tonal disaster. It's deadly serious, then a Mentos commercial breaks out, then back to death.

I still love it. I just wish the script was better. The dialogue is so strange and awkward at times.

The focus should have simply been on Van Damme and Jackson at the Kumite. The flashback stuff is bad, and the Army guys chasing him down just add unnecessary silliness to the movie.

Why did Van Damme have to prove he was worthy of his invitation but Jackson didn't? I get that Jackson had been there before (I think? He mentions stuff about the last Kumite like he was there, but it's not entirely clear.), but if you were putting on a martial arts competition and you saw Van Damme and Jackson showed up, which one would you question?

Hossein's dialogue and performance is laughably bad.

This movie has one of my biggest pet peeves. A scene takes place, then it cuts to the characters walking in an entirely new location, but they start talking about what just happened. In this case it's the scene in which Van Damme “wins” the female reporter from Hossein. After he wins, it cuts to them walking outside. So they walked for ten minutes then Van Damme decided to bring up what happened with Hossein? Wouldn't that be the first thing he brought up?

“That's why they call this thing Bloodsport, kid.” Thanks, Jackson, I wasn't sure how the title connected to the movie until you said that.

Chong Li looks genuinely confused when Jackson calls him out. Something tells me the actor genuinely had no idea what was going on when they filmed that scene.

Man, Forest Whitaker is really having fun with that food.

“I ain't your pal, dickface.” Easily one of my favorite lines, but I also like how Jackson calls the two Army agents in suits “scumbags.”

The tasers the agents have are the Zack Morris cell phones of tasers.

It's crazy how much the chase sequence is like a Mentos commercial. I'm not sure what came first, this movie or those commercials,  it whichever one did it had to have inspired the other.

What the fuck was Jackson thinking jumping around celebrating like that? He clearly only knocked him down, yet he even yelled, “He's dead!” What a dumbass!

Janice suddenly trying to keep Frank from fighting and the subsequent montage are clearly inspired by the Rocky movies.

Janice does a pretty quick turnaround from “You'll get hurt!” to “Yeah, kick him again, Frank!” But then again, that is the classic Adrian story arc.

The crowd reactions and the audio of said reactions during the final fight are awful. First off, the army dudes are way too into it. And why can’t we hear them? The older one is clearly yelling shit the whole time, but we never hear it. But during one reaction shot of them clapping we can hear the individual claps. So was that guy just mouthing things? God, this movie is a mess.

How fitting this crazy movie ends with some wacky (and since proven fabricated) facts about the real Frank Dux. He has the record for “Fastest punch with a knockout - 0.12 seconds.” What does that even mean. Then there’s the “Fastest kick with a knockout - 72 MPH.” So why (and how) is a kick measured in miles per hour, but a punch is measured in seconds? Nevermind the fact that neither record makes any kind of sense. But my favorite is the “Most consecutive knockouts in a single tournament - 56.” Fifty-six?! How long did this tournament last? What tournament even has that many fights overall, much less for a single fighter? My God, how did anyone ever believe Frank Dux’s bullshit? I’m glad they did, though. Because without his glorious and idiotic lies, we wouldn’t have Bloodsport.

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