Customer Reviews

Blood Heat

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Luckily though, this movie has some of the most kick ass fight scenes I have seen in a long time. Kane Kosugi is certainly someone to look out for. Ken Lo did look a bit slow, but just so you know, his and jackie's legs on the close ups are slightly sped up for DM 2. But anyway, Lo looks really really good in this. Add in a fat guy who can SERIOUSLY fight(not the blonde guy, though I am sure he is a real fighter), and a final fight that will blow you away, it adds up to a flick that is AT LEAST worth a rental(if you can). But there I go mentioning the final fight, AWESOME, until the end of it. One word to describe it------dissapointment. That is the only word to describe it. Then they have the nerve to put a make it seem justified by making you think that you should have cared about the characters. What? Am I supposed to just now believe we are in in this futuristic world even though they don't even freaking dwell on it for more than 2 total minutes? And then throw in a spectacualr final fight with a dissapointing ending. You have a 3 star movie. A cool 3 starrer, but nothing more.

Picture is widescreened and near perfection. Sound is 2-channel and good with good subtitles. The extras are plentiful with GREAT behind the scenes stuff, this actually almost caused me to give the movie a 4. IMHO-the director had no idea what he was doing. It also has a couple other cool featurettes you will like.

5/5 for the dvd release itself.

But again, this movie is dissapointing and i have to make at least one more point why. And I can't name all my problems with this movie, so I will put in the one that it is fitting to the title. Blood Heat, they didn't really exlpain this so I will have to make a guess at it. It makes you stronger?

Dissapointment.

Dissapointment big time!!!!!

Dissapointment on many levels!!!!!!!!!!

Dissapointment.

With the news of Jet Li's intention to retire from martial arts movies, it seems that candidates to be his successor are popping up all over the world. In Thailand, Tony Jaa has shown fantastic promise with ONG BAK and TOM YUM GOONG. In France, his KISS OF THE DRAGON co-star Cyril Raffaelli strutted his stuff in the french flick BANLIEUE 13. And in Japan, Kane Kosugi, son of Ninja film legend Sho Kosugi, takes his shot a martial arts stardom with BLOOD HEAT and comes out a winner.

U.S. Navy Seal Joe Jinno (Kane Kosugi) is released from an American military detention center to the decrepit Tokyo of 2009 as an agent recruited by the Japanese government to bust drug traffickers. The most popular drug is an extrmely addictive steroid known as Blood Heat. Drug lords, hiding out in the worst parts of Tokyo, push their products while running a no-rules combat circuit where fighters, high on Blood Heat battle to the death. Joe's partner Aguri Katsuragi (Sho Aikawa) is captured by drug lord Kenji Rai (Masaya Kato)and forced to fight in the circuit against Blood Heat addict Lee Son-min (Ken Lo). He's brutally killed and Joe vows revenge. While Kenji attempts to force a scientist to manufacture more Blood Heat, Joe allies himself with Aguri's daughter and a group of orphaned children known as "Sewer Rats" and they declare war on the drug lord and his operation.

Let me just say that I, for one, am glad that drug dealers have finally made a name for a drug that can be an apprpriate action movie tittle. Kane has some of the fastest moves put on film.

He seems to always be attacking his opponents from every direction, and is able to deliver more punches in a split second than you can possibly count.

Several matches are worthy some karate oscar award. The hallway fight, which begins with Kane turning a corner and hurling two knives down the hall, is mind-blowing, and may be the the only scene since the original POLICE STORY to shatter so much glass. Kane's lenghty cage match with Ken Lo, who is aging but nevertheless can kick with the best of them, provides some of the best action. Kane's aggression in this scene is unparalled by any other fight in BLOOD HEAT.

The final match between Kane and Masaya Kato, of DRIVE fame, is also well done, and, to quote kungfucinema.com, "may be the first time in film history that two screen fighters duel with sledgehammers."

BLOOD HEAT ranks up with other great Japanese martial arts movies as THE PRINCESS BLADE and is fully worthy of repeated viewing. Kane's stepping out from his father's shadow mirrors Brandon Lee stepping out of Bruce's shadow and making a few great movies of his own before his tragic death (RAPID FIRE being the best one.) Kane may be new to having the lead in a martial arts movie, but if BLOOD HEAT is an indication of anything, it's of Kane's ability to carry an action movie.

After having the luck of being born to Hollywood's resident ninja Sho Kosugi and following him faithfully through his movies as one of the few legitimate martial arts child stars, Kane Kosugi deserved to be a proper action hero in his own right. He had done a few promising supporting parts prior to "Blood Heat", wherein he teamed up with director Ten Shimoyama (Shinobi - Heart Under Blade) and action coordinator Man-Ching Chan (Supercop) in what should easily have been one of the best action movies of the year. What it ends up being, eventually, is a big pile of meh, as well as a wasted opportunity.

The story: Joe Jinno (Kosugi, D.O.A. - Dead or Alive) is a policeman in an increasingly lawless world. When his partner (Sho Aikawa, Gozu) is presumed murdered in their attempt to slow the trafficking of an addictive performance-enhancing drug, he begins a quest of vengeance against the crime lord responsible (Masaya Kato, Brother).

"Blood Heat" is a slick 2002 Asian action movie, which should give you an idea of its presentation. I don't know what kind of a budget the filmmakers had to work with, but it allowed for a pretty nice-looking feature with apparent good production values. The story is fairly old-hat, comparable to the evil steroid scheme in Rocky IV once you get to the cage fighting, but I guess it was played off as well as it could be. Kosugi's character is so impassive that he's easily less interesting than everyone around him, including Misato Tachibana (Silver Hawk) as the sister of Joe's partner and Japanese TV star Noboru Kaneko as the leader of a group of street children. None of them, however, are intriguing enough to keep you glued to the screen: the performers play their roles well enough but the roles themselves are so bland and unmoving that it's hard to identify with or even care about anybody.

At this point in an action movie, the fight scenes ought to kick in and save your viewing experience; here, they only prolong it. I won't say that the hand-to-hand battles in "Muscle Heat" are bad, but if you have any experience with martial arts films prior to watching this one, trust me that you've seen all of these fights before. Kosugi is underutilized: he doesn't do the flipping and flying of Hong Kong stars, but he's quick as a cat, has obvious real-life experience, and his spinning jump kicks look pretty powerful, but still he's still presented very general choreography filmed with could-be-better camera angles and presented with way too much slow motion. The action centerpiece - pitting him against superkicker Ken Lo (The Legend of Drunken Master) in a cage - ends up being pretty good but is endlessly interrupted by intersecting scenes. The duel he has afterwards with Masaya Kato features both of them wielding sledgehammers and also passes as decent, despite the nonstop slow-motion, but you've got to wait until the last 20 minutes of the movie to get to those. Up until then, it's pretty basic stuff: not terrible but nowhere near award-winning.

Were the film made with lower production values, it'd pass as a B-movie and its action and acting content would be a lot more tolerable. However, its high-end presentation ends up making these other factors seem substandard by comparison. This may not have granted the film a higher rating, but at least it'd be a more enthusiastic three stars - a three-star movie I'd be able to recommend to others - but as things are, these are a very lukewarm three stars for a movie I can only recommend if you have nothing better to watch or are a proven fan of the man. "Blood Heat" doesn't do anything wrong but it doesn't strive for excellence either, so save it for viewing after you've watched any other movies you're more excited about seeing.

Blood Heat is described by its participants as a Hong Kong style action flick. I also think it was meant to be a stepping stone for Kane Kosugi, son of Sho, an action star of the 80's. This movie, from 2002, is a classic "B" film, great on the action, short on the plot.

The fight scenes were choreographed by Jackie Chan collaberator, Sam Won, and it's the reason to watch the film. The cage matches are good, as well as the one on one battle between the character played by Kosugi and Kato at the end. They are not imitations of the Jackie Chan -infused with light heartedness - nor of the Jet Li - infused with futuristic effects - styles, but more of a straight-forward style.

As far as the rationale behind the plot, there were just some things that did not make sense to me, among which, why they requested a Japanese-American court-martialed and jailed ex-Navy SEAL to be released and work in Japan, except to showcase Kosugi's English language abilities. Kosugi's character also has to work through his guilt caused by the event which caused his court-martial. The way he reacts to his partner's "death" is supposed to give him redemption and re-birth, but the film doesn't pull it off. I also understand why Kosugi's character is brooding throughout, and I'm not faulting Kosugi's portrayal, but it certainly didn't cause me to have any care for his character. Nor did I really care for any of the other characters, neither liking nor disliking them. It's a great showcase for Kane Kosugi's abilities for action scenes, but other than that, it's a standard B film.

WARNING: SPOILERS (Skip first paragraph to avoid spoilers)

An agent and his partner hired to take out the head dealer of the drug, Blood Heat, is the basic plot. Partner is caught, forced to fight in the Muscle Dome, which is a place where people in desparate need of money bet their life on the winners. Parnter loses and the main character searches for revenge. Meets up with a young girl, a group of underground children who lost their parents to the vises of the Muscle Dome, and his partner's sister. In the end, the head dealer decides to fight with fists instead of using his trusty gun. Guess who wins.

In some action movies, you can identify with the characters, but in this one you could careless about them. I don't know if it was the script or lack of, or maybe too much downtime sitting and thinking by the characters. It gets to the point where you really don't care and just want to fast forward to the fight scenes. This is where the film sheds a little light. They are decent with some interesting moves. They contain a little wire-work, but not enough to really hamper the experience. The movie tries to too subtle and dark, but the characters were unable to back up those objectives. The head drug dealer is a decent actor, until he whips out his English. I've seen him in other movies that had original Japanese and he is a lot better than this. For the most part, people who love action flicks will enjoy the action scenes.

I would definately rent, before making a purchase.

I really got this film based totally on some really good reviews I read online. I never saw a Japanese martial arts film before and I also have never heard of Kane Kosugi so I wasnt sure of what to expect. Man am I glad that I bought this movie!! The story involves a typical drug plot where there is a harmful designer drug called blood heat and its messing people up blah blah blah. I actually think the story wasnt the greatest but lets be honest why we all watch these movies, for the action/fight scenes. Kane is by far one of the fastest and most athletic martial artists today which is suprising considering this is his first major film. Im pretty sure english is his 1st language b/c he spoke it very clearly in the movie and also b/c he has very little lines in Japanese (in this movie). Anywayz, let me talk about the best part of the movie:

The first action scene is def the best. Kane and his partner go into this club and try to break up a drug deal going down. His partner begins to shoot in a john woo fashion while Kane confronts a couple of goons in a hallway. What ensues is an awesome series of arm deflections and my favorite part: a leeping spin kick that takes out guys on either side of Kane. Its so cool that you will be rewinding it over and over again. The second awesome fight is in another hallway but a little bigger than the one near the beg of the movie. Kane begins by going around a corner and throws 2 knives (in a nice slo mo) and just annihilates the baddies. The last kick he does is pretty cool since you think he is going to do a spin kick.........but i will let u see it for yourself.

HOnestly, i wasnt to thrilled with the UFC style fights partly b/c they involve aged super kicker Ken Lo who although isnt as good as he was in legend of drunken master, he still manages to play a sufficient and believable bad guy. The last fight scene is pretty unique as Kane and the head drug guy square off using sledgehammers. Awesome. Anywayz, Kane Kosugi will be the next big star. I just hope he doesnt start doing hollywoodized crap.

I do like Chinese/ Japanese action or kungfu movies in general. I picked up this one from Blockbuster expecting a so so martial arts movie but as it turned out I REALLY don't like it. Plot is an average B movie type. Acting is so bad it seems funny. Fighting scenes look like amateur work.

Hmm.. can't really find anything good to say about it.

Only rent it if you are okay with the worst of Van Dam movies.

It's becoming more popular as the excuse for using martial arts: performance enhancing drugs in a sort of futuristic land (see jet li's "Black Mask"). So essentially the plot doesn't matter, because theyr'e all the same. Overall, the martial arts were pretty sweet featuring some caged matches (think UFC) and some normal martial arts venues (sewer-type settings, medical/computer labs, etc.). Also, plenty of good shoot-outs, featuring some of the most realistic death scenes I've ever seen.

BUY THIS MOVIE AND WATCH THE ULTIMATE FIGHTING GOODNESS.I GOT TIRED TIRED OF WATCHING AMERICAN MADE CRAP!THIS ROCKS LIKE A GOD SO BUY OR GET OWNED!!!!