The King of the Kickboxers (1990)

The King of the Kickboxers (also known as Karate Tiger V and No Retreat, No Surrender 4) is a 1990 martial arts film directed by Lucas Lowe and starring Loren Avedon as Jake Donahue and Billy Blanks as Khan.

Plot:

1981, Bangkok, Thailand. Sean Donahue is in the kickboxing ring against the current Thai champion. In his corner is his little brother Jake, who is cheering Sean on. Sean is able to overpower his opponent and wins after a spin kick knocks the Thai fighter out. Sean is rewarded with the championship. En route to their hotel after the fight, Jake and Sean are ambushed by some armed men. Sean is able to fight them off until he is shot at by Khan, who warned Sean he was not to have won the fight. Sean admits that it wasn’t his intention but the opponent wasn’t much of a contender.

Khan, angry with the decision, fights Sean and obliterates him in front of young Jake. Khan performs a triple kick combination starting with a double jump kick to the head, followed by a double jump kick to the chest and a jump spinning back kick, which kills Sean. Jake, saddened and angry, races towards Khan who beats Jake up and knocks him out. It has been ten years and Jake is now a New York City detective who has gone undercover to bust a drug deal in an abandoned warehouse. Jake mocks the dealer and tells the dealer that he is a cop.

Production:

According to an interview with Avedon, he shot his scenes independently with his scenes involving Jaeckel as his boss. In addition, in the scene where Avedon’s character does the Stallone-like scream after seeing Khan and remembering the death of his brother, Avedon told director Lo he wanted to just toss the film tape into the fire in anger. He also did not get along well with actress Sherrie Rose. Avedon claimed Rose was acting like a “prima donna” and told her to “shut up” and that she had badmouthed him afterwards.