No Retreat, No Surrender

A Hong Kong production shot in America

This was the first English-language film for Corey Yuen, a choreographer who trained at the Peking Opera school alongside Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. Ng See-yuen produced through his Seasonal Film Corporation, the company behind Drunken Master (1978). The budget was small and the shoot took place mostly in Los Angeles, with exteriors in Seattle, where Bruce Lee is buried. It was shown at the MIFED market in Milan in October 1985 and opened in the US on 2 May 1986 through New World Pictures. In Europe it also circulated as Karate Tiger.

Bruce Lee's ghost as coach

The ghost is played by Kim Tai-chung, a taekwondo practitioner cast for his resemblance to Lee, whom he had already doubled in Game of Death; he spoke his lines phonetically and was dubbed. The training scenes follow jeet kune do principles: no fixed style, speed, precision and adaptability. Jason starts from his father's karate and learns to move beyond it.

Van Damme before Bloodsport

The villain, Ivan the Russian, is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's first roles; he had competed in karate and kickboxing in Belgium. His kicks and splits in the final tournament point to Bloodsport (1988) and Kickboxer (1989). Mang Hoi choreographed the fights with Corey Yuen, at a Hong Kong pace, though the 83-minute US cut trims several passages of the international version.

From critical flop to cult film

Critics savaged it: The New York Times found the story slapped-together and the Los Angeles Times called it hilariously bad. It still took 4.66 million dollars in the US and Canada, spawned two sequels without McKinney or Van Damme, and became a cult item of 1980s martial arts cinema.