Most
of us have at least one favorite film, that we've seen multiple
times. In addition to that movie, there are those we've seen in the
past, that are in regular TV rotation. Given the opportunity to see
something for the fifth or sixth time, you may be surprised to notice
small details, that you weren't aware of before. It's satisfying, to
be able to point those out, and it's interesting to note how the
passage of time influences what we see.
Classic
Movie Trailers - Bloodsport (1988)
I
can't tell you how many times I've seen this movie. I'm not saying
that I've seen it dozens of times, I'm saying that I honestly don't
know, how often I've sat down to watch it. "Bloodsport" was
a big hit, back when Netflix wasn't a thing and HBO was the dominant
source of entertainment.
It
must have run on every channel that could possibly show it, and they
must have shown it hundreds of thousands of times. If "Beverly
Hills Cop II" and "Ghostbusters" wasn't on, I'd bet
money that you could find Van Damme and Bolo Yeung, somewhere in the
schedule. I don't think there's any question, that the majority of
the people that are fans of this movie, never saw it in a movie
theater. All you had to do was adjust the rabbit ears on the set,
and you could watch the show again and again.
Personally,
I don't ever think I've caught it at the beginning. Whenever it was
on, I got to see it somewhere in the middle. Of course, I was also
normally watching the "made for TV" cut, so there were
plenty of changes done to reduce the violence and soften some of the
language. While watching it again online, I was reminded about the
obvious voice-over work, that's ubiquitous in old broadcast
television.
It
was then, that it hit me. I had never realized before, that they
changed Chong Li's voice. It's a little embarrassing to admit this
today, but I honestly didn't catch that until now. You would think
that it might seem odd, for a man from China to sound like the leader
of a biker gang. For some reason though I was fooled, and I have been
a fool for years.
To
be fair, Bolo wasn't the only one to lose his voice, and I did catch
on to that fact before. There are at least two other actors in
"Bloodsport", that had their dialogue replaced by other
people. The practice is a lot more common than you may realize, and
when it's done well you'd never expect it. Let's just say that there
would be a lot more accents, and a lot more cringe-worthy
performances, if the studios weren't allowed to change the sound.
After
I had sufficient time to cope with my discovery, I took a few moments
to think about what else I might have missed. Regarding this
particular movie, I can report that an underlying theme involves the
mindset, of professional fighters. Boxers, martial artists and people
of that ilk, are largely misunderstood. They are driven by more than
just money, and more than just some base need to beat down on an
opponent.
If
fighting is your trade, and that is a part of who you are, you need
some test of skill. It isn't a craft that you can frame and put on a
wall somewhere. There has to be some way to gauge how far you've
come, and the only way to do that is to compete. If every one of them
fought only when they had to, if every fighter simply taught in a
school, I imagine there would be a lot of people living with regret.
-------------------------------------------
@ChannelSeals
See
"Bloodsport" on Netflix!
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