Fight to Win (1987) Review

Here we have another Leo Fong picture, an equally messy and schlocktastic picture as the previously reviewed 24 Hours to Midnight (1985), which was hampered by production problems, but Fight to Win (1987) does not have that excuse. Also known as Eyes of the Tiger, Dangerous Passages and Paper Dragons, it stars National TaeKwonDo champion George Chung and features Richard Norton as a villain, Cynthia Rothrock plays a Sensei who trains the main lead and helps him fight the bad guys.  

Ryan (George Chung) has a major fight coming up with a fight manager's best student, however, when Ryan's master has a heart attack he must train with Sensei Lauren (Cynthia Rothrock), not only in order to win the fight but also to defeat the group of criminals who are after three mystical statues. Or something like that. It's really not an incredibly clear storyline, the different cuts of the movie might change the events and the way scenes play out. The normal cut is about 82 minutes and the uncut version runs for 95 minutes (apparently there’s another one that runs 77 minutes).   

Utterly cheap and borderline incomprehensible at times, this disjointed mess is a craptacular oddity that has to be seen to be believed. The editing is all over the place, no matter which cut you watch you find some continuity mistakes and a notable discordance in shots. Not to mention the clunky narrative the bad editing creates, always shifting between characters and horribly distracting jump-cuts, there's no sense of rhythm and is barely understandable, it could be dizzying at times. 

The sound fares no better, it's crude and sometimes not very audible. The direction itself is somewhat lazy, Fong shows off some curious camera movements and focus shifts here and there, but for the most part everything is stiff and static without any rhyme or reason other than to show the group of people present in the frame in one long master shot that's easier to edit and to shoot. 

Cynthia is a decent actress, and so is Chung for that matter, they aren't seasoned actors but their performances manage to be simple, humble, natural and charming without relying in exaggerated gestures or extravagant line deliveries, their comedy bits sort of shine because of the low key and mundane reactions and comments from the characters. The rest of the cast is actually just inept and trying too hard to be funny, like wannabe Eddie Murphy.

Rothrock has some good fight scenes and plays a very cool headed and likable master, she's sort of put into generic “female character in a martial arts movie” type of scenarios but these are over quickly. There's nothing truly spectacular about the fights, there's no sense of grandiosity like in the Hong Kong films we previously spotlighted, but there´s more inventive choreographies here than in 24 Hours to Midnight, and while the direction is just as stale, the battles can be appreciated fairly well because of the long shots. 

It's a trashy and low budget affair but not one without merit or at least things to like about it. I was prepared to dislike it because of its highly questionable quality but looking beyond that there's some lightheartedness to it and some small chuckles to be had with it. Not an obligatory one (well, if you like trash movies maybe it is) but one that could be enjoyable under the right state of mind.