No retreat, no surrender (1986) is one of the best martial art action movies of the 80's era and even today IMO and there have been many. I remember it was one of the first movies I had ever watched on a VHS tape. I watched it at my friend's place who had a VHS player before me. It's crazy how fast the technology has progressed since.

People born in the 2000's probably don't even know what a VHS tape is :)

Plot

Jason Stillwell is a young karate student in his father dojo in Sherman Oaks, California and a big Bruce Lee fan.

One evening mobsters from New york pay his father's dojo a visit. They demand they take over his dojo to be used as a front for organized crime.

The father declines their "offer". A lesson is handed out to him by a Soviet thug Ivan Kraschinsky (played by Jean-Claude Van Damme) when he brakes his leg.

Jason is pissed and want revenge but the father decides to close the dojo and move to Seattle.

Seattle

In Seattle he befriends R.J. Madison while he continues to follow his passion of learning Bruce Lee's Jeet kune do by himself.

He reunites with his old girlfriend Kelly at her birthday party.

However Dean Ramsay, a friend of Kelly's black belt brother Ian, has his eyes set on her. He gets jealous at them kissing and beats Jason up.

In distress he visits Bruce Lee's grave (located in Seattle) and asks for his help.

Later that night Bruce Lee's spirit does show up at an abandoned house where Jason is staying for the night.

His real training now begins under his guidance.

Later he will get a chance to test his skills against Ivan Kraschinsky again.

Review

This is your typical martial arts action movie where the master teaches a student how to fight after he gets in trouble.

The twist in this movie is that the teacher is not made out real flesh but a spirit. And a very famous spirit at that - Bruce Lee.

If you're a fan of these type of movies you will enjoy the training scenes and montages with the music soundtrack. I loved this as a kid and still do.

In general the 80' and 90' was the era when they knew how to make these type of movies. Today the choreography is there but the spirit is missing. I don't really know how to describe it.

• Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/12721-no-retreat-no-surrender?language=en-US

• Critic: AAA

• 영화 URL: (https://www.themoviedb.org/ 에서 리뷰하고싶은 영화 검색후 URL 이곳에 삽입)

• 별점: (A, AA, AAA 중 선택해서 이곳에 삽입)![tr1.jpg]