Stills from the filming and interesting facts about the film "Bloodsport" that many do not know about (16 photos)

The film "Bloodsport", released in 1998, became the first significant film in the career of Jean Claude Van Damme, which became for him essentially a springboard for his acting career. And today I would like tell some interesting facts about this film and show interesting footage from the shoot.





1. Filming took place in the walled city of Kowloon (50,000 residents), which was essentially a city within a city. Filmmakers went to a very desperate step, because Kowloon was an unruly city in which drug trafficking, prostitution and other crime flourished.



Now, by the way, this fortress no longer exists, and in its place there is a park, which, however, has retained the name "Kowloon".



Kowloon Park today

2. Frank Dukes, played by Jean Claude Van Damme, is a real person. And he even put up fights for it movie. But, as it turned out later, he never traveled to Asia. for the kumite championship. This makes him related to the notorious Alexander Nevsky, who also attributed to himself many awards and regalia.



3. Even after the release of the film "Bloodsport", cooperation the real Frank Dukes and Jean Claude Van Damme didn't end. They are together worked on such films as AWOL and Only the Strongest.



4. In the early 90s, Jean-Claude Van Damme was offered to play Johnny Cage for the very first part of the Mortal Kombat game, but he refused. However, the image of the character was still based on Belgian actor. And the most popular "split-hit" technique was taken It's from the movie Bloodsport.



A little later, by the way, Van Damme was offered to play Johnny Cage in the first film adaptation of the game "Mortal Kombat", but he again refused, and in favor of the film adaptation of the game "Street Fighter", which turned out to be a failure in contrast to the "Mortal Kombat".



5. A fighter named Hussain was played by an actor named Bernard Mariano. While filming the battle between him and Van Damme, the Belgian in all seriousness, he hit Mariano in the face with his elbow, not calculating the distance and strength. As a result, Mariano really fell from the blow and even lost consciousness. This shot, by the way, was included in the film.



6. The budget of the picture was about 1.5 million dollars, and the lead actor (that is, Van Damme) received for his role only 25 thousand dollars. Well, this is understandable, because then he was just starting his path.



By the way, if it were not for Van Damme, this film might not even get into the box office, but immediately go on video.

In general, the company "Cannon films" was quite greedy (or economical), and therefore the fees of the actors were modest. Moreover, for this film was deliberately sought out by actors who are proficient in combat arts and are capable of performing tricks themselves. And all because they they just didn't want to spend money on stuntmen.



7. Bolo Yen, who played Chong Lee, used in the film some lines from Enter the Dragon (1973). Only in that thread These lines were spoken by Bruce Lee. And Bolo Yen, by the way, also starred there.



By the way, this is not the only reference to Bruce Lee. Trick with the coin that we see in the film was also very fond of making Bruce Lee.

8. Bloodsport is one of Donald Trump's favorite films.



9. The film "Bloodsport" was the first in the career of Van Damme, where he got the main positive role. Before that, he had only acted in episodes, and also played a Russian karate villain in the film "Not give up and don't give up."



Also, a year before the releaseand the film "Bloodsport" he should was to play a predator in the film of the same name with Arnold Schwarzenegger, but already during filming, he decided to abandon the role. According to one version, he didn't want to run around the whole movie in a suit that wouldn't show him faces.



10. At the time of filming, Jean Claude Van Damme was 28 years old, and Bolo Yen was 43 years old.



Jean Claude Van Damme and Bolo Yen today

Now the main characters are already 62 years old and 77 years old. Time flies unnoticed. It seems like this movie just came out yesterday.