The King of the Kickboxers

Plot

Jake Donahue and his older brother Sean are in Thailand. Jake's brother is fighting for the kickboxing championship of Thailand and wins his bout. Jake and Sean leave the arena victorious and are soon attacked by Khan and his henchmen. Khan takes Sean on in a fight and subsequently kills him. He then attacks Jake and leaves him scarred for life.

Ten years later, Jake is a police officer, fighting crime in New York city. Jake is given a special assignment by his commanding officer Captain O'Day (played by Richard Jaeckel). His Captain tells him that there are filmmakers in Thailand who kill the actors on the set of their films. Jake is to travel to Thailand to stop them. Jake refuses but changes his mind when he later finds out that Khan is involved.

Jake travels to Thailand and meets a kickboxer who convinces Jake that he is no match for Khan. He tells him about Prang, a man who may be able to help him. Prang was once one of Thailand's top fighters but now lives a recluse in the wilderness. Jake finds Prang and Prang agrees to train Jake.

Khan tries to rape a young lady called Molly (played by Sherrie Rose). She escapes but is chased by some of Khan's thugs. Jake witnesses the chase and saves Molly. Jake then befriends Molly.

Jake continues to train with Prang and perfects his skills. He develops an intimate relationship with Molly. Jake attracts the attention of the filmmakers he is supposed to be investigating and scores a role in a film.

Jake leaves Prang's abode and heads for the film set. This gives Khan and his thugs a chance to kill Prang and kidnap Molly. Jake arrives on the film set and goes through several scenes before Khan appears. Khan throws Prang's lifeless body into the water below and throws Molly into a net and traps her.

The final fight then takes place between Jake and Khan. Jake defeats Khan and subsequently kills him. He rescues Molly and the police move in to arrest the corrupt film makers.

Cast

Production

According to an interview with actor Loren Avedon, he shot his scenes independently with his scenes involving Richard Jaeckel as his boss. In addition, in the scene where Avedon's character does the Stallone-like scream after seeing Khan and remember the death of his brother, Avedon told director Lo he wanted to just toss the tape into the fire in anger. However, the director didn't allow it so Avedon ended doing the scream. He also did not get along well with Sherrie Rose, who played his girlfriend in the film. Avedon claimed Rose was acting like a prima donna and told her to 'shut up' and she had bad mouthed him afterwards.

According to an interview with screenwriter/producer Keith W. Strandberg, actress Sherrie Rose had issues with a scene where she was to go topless in a love scene with co-star Loren Avedon. She replaced an actress who refused to do the nudity scene but she also had complained once it was time to shoot the scene. However, the filmmakers were careful in only getting a few seconds of the nudity in the scene. Strandberg also confirmed that Billy Blanks' character of Khan is actually the son of a Thai mother abandoned by his American serviceman father, thus Khan having a hatred for Americans.

The film has some noticeable similarities to the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer (1989 film) which was released a year earlier and features similar locations, plot and general atmosphere. Martial arts fans have tended to disregard these similarities due to the superior quality of the fight scenes in Kickboxer

Influence

James Goddard, former member of Research and Development at Capcom confirmed in an interview with Capcom Unity that Blanks' character of Khan was the inspiration for his creating the character of Dee Jay in the video game Super Street Fighter II in 1993.