| | | | No Retreat, No Surrender
(1985) |
uckily 'No Retreat, No Surrender' wasn't one of those Golum Globus Ninja movies whereby in the first 10 minutes some crusty English Agents acquire the Kung Fu expertise of a Young Master, in order to infiltrate the operation of a crippled Hong Kong based businesman in a white suit who is selling heroin. Nope, 'No Retreat, No Surrender' was much more 80's. It even had scenes of breakdancing!
 Jason Stillwell (KURT MCKINNEY) is a Bruce Lee fan and keen Karate student. His family is forced to flee their home after a local Protection Racket threatens the Dojo which Jason's Father (TIMOTHY D. BAKER) owns. Next come some fight scenes proving the fact that Jason's Father isn't very hard, his leg is broken by 'Ivan the Terrible:actor' (JEAN CLAUDE VAN-DAMME) and his wellbeing is disrupted.
Seattle seems as good a place as any, and the family scoot. Jason can't settle in, and soon finds that the local thugs arent too impressed with his wooden dummy and his sweat pants. He is ridiculed and beaten up trying to join the local Karate Centre and even the hip breakdancing scenes from neighbour R.J (J.W FAILS) cant sway his mood. Finally the last straw comes when Jason's Father sacreligiously rips up a Bruce Lee poster!! Jason runs away from home and quite miraculously, the ghost of Bruce Lee appears to him and gets his fan-kicks in shape.
After some twenty minutes of love story vs. karate subplot meandering, Jason uses his newly acquired skills in a Seattle Tournament to save everyone from the same Martial Artist who broke his poor Dad's leg. He is spurred into the ring when the vicious Van-Damme grabs his Girlfriend Kelly..and pulls her hair!!
So it seems he either fights for his life or he'll be running for the rest of it. Jason neither Retreats, nor Surrenders and pulls off a spectacular final kick in the process.
Lovely.
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In the wake of the success of films like "The Karate Kid", these Martial Arts 'against the odds' movies were very common.
This isn't a bad one, even if it has the fundamental flaws of a completely preposterous premise and a third act that actually goes nowhere at all. The supernatural element does work in its favour though and sets it apart from the other teenage Kung-Fu movies of the decade. As a result, I'll happily groove along to Paul Gilreath's music and watch a few cheddar moments.
Notable Camembert must be the 'say the name of the movie when in a crisis' scenes. This happens twice during the film to my recollection and is actually a crime in some States. First time, as we see R.J and Jason cornered by thugs at the Fast Food Joint and they stand back-to-back. Secondly. the final confrontation turnaround-moment where R.J just has to shout "Jase! No Retreat No Surrender!!"
My verdict:
-Kick ass, high-energy Kung Fu with more training montages than you can shake an underdeveloped script at.
[Ed. Note: The movie was successful enough to spawn 2 sequels. Anyone seen em?!!?]
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You can now correct/update any item of trivia by clicking the "Update" button next to it...
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The film was Corey Yuen's Hollywood debut, even though it was financed by Hong Kong film company Seasonal Films. Corey Yuen got frustrated when Kurt McKinney couldn't hit the bag with his foot with his other leg tied up. Corey showed Kurt how to execute the move and Kurt was then able to perform the move. The martial arts choreographer "Harrison Mang" is Hong Kong stuntman/actor Mang Hoi, who collaborated with Yuen on a series of old kung fu films.  -Thanks to Albert Valentin
The original title in Europe was 'Karate Tiger'
Jean Claude Van Damme made his breakthrough in "Bloodsport". -Thanks to Patrick And Tony G
You mention that Kim Tai Chung (the korean actor playing Bruce Lee) was actually a double for Bruce in his films. This is only partially true as they never met. He played the role vacated by Bruce after his death "Game of Death", and years later played the character of Lee's brother in Game of Death. He then went on under the name Bruce Li in films such as Fist of Fury 2.
Bruce Lee's actual "double" in his own films was Yuen Wah, a former student from the same school as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and ironically the director of No Retreat No Surrender (Cory Yuen Kuei) -Thanks to Tony Ryan
Favorite line: "Nice Dojo... I'll probably join." -Thanks to Bel
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In the film's training montage, you see Kurt McKinney, who plays Jason Stillwell, doing one arm fingertip pushups. First off, Kurt didn't know how to do one arm pushups, so had to be shown the correct form. Then, he tried to do it for the camera and it just didn't have the impact. So, Yuen Kuai, the director, decided that it would be much more effective for the pushups to be faster and to be off two fingers. When asked: "He can't even do one arm push ups fast enough, how's he going to do this?" Yuen Kuai just smiled and held up a piece of wire cable. They affixed a wire to Kurt's back with a special harness and every time he goes up and down, there are really three Chinese stunt men off screen pulling on a wire that takes him up with ease, and keeps the pressure off his fingers! He looks great doing it, doesn't he? The wire doesn't show because they hid it by having the trees in the background and what wire did show they spray painted white so it would blend in with the sky!
Another interesting point is that the Korean actor playing Sensei Lee (Kim Tai Chong) had been a double for the real Bruce Lee in his films. He couldn't speak any English so a Korean dialogue coach had to construct sentences in Korean that matched the timing of the English script. English was then dubbed over the Korean. So when we see Kurt McKinney and Kim Tai Chong talking to each other neither had a clue what the other was saying. -Thanks to Andrew Ellis
On the set of this movie, Van Damme could barely speak English. -Thanks to Dwayne Fails
Before and during filming Kurt Mckinney (Jason Stillwell) would only refer to Kim Tai Chong (Sensei Lee) as Sensei Lee on and off the set. He thought this would help his performance. Kim Tai Chong got very mad that Kurt wouldn't refer to him by his real name and because of this a fight between the two almost happened on more than one occasion while filming. -Thanks to THIEN VO 864
In the scene where Jason is taught to do the 'Hocket Counter', we see him put his foot into the rope hole wearing a yellow shirt, yet in the next shot he has a red shirt on. -Thanks to George Raptis
It could be the fact that No Retreat, No Surrender was filmed in such a short space of time it appears that no-one kept an eye on things such as continuity. For example, if you look carefully in some scenes (those in the abandoned house) you can see the microphones used by the crew to record the sound, also, throughout the film Jean Claude Van Dammes' character is called Ivan Krajinsky but in the titles at the end of the film he is called Karl Brezdin. There are many more examples of this but we would require an entire page just to list them all. Most fans of the movie are by now aware of them and would agree that they are part of its charm! -Thanks to Andrew Ellis
In the final scene that takes place in what looks to be a high school auditorium, a few of the thugs in Ivan Krashinski's entourage can, minutes later, be seen sitting ringside in the front row.
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|  |  |  | | No Retreat, No Surrender
Locations |
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The Dojo scenes were filmed at my uncle's Karate studio in Sherman Oaks, CA. My cousin Michele can be seen in the front of the class. Michele went on to become a Karate Champion under the nickname Mouse and also co-starred in "Kickboxer 4". [Thanks to Monica]
The scenes where Jason Stilwell (Kurt Mckinney) visits the grave of Bruce Lee were filmed at the actual grave of the martial arts legend himself. [Thanks to Andrew Ellis]
Can you help? Do you know any of the filming locations used for No Retreat, No Surrender? [Please send them in]
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Thank God for Silva Screen! [The soundtrack record label] -Not terribly easy to find but it's out there, so use our search device. Combines the original trailer music with Paul Gilreath's accomplished 80's pop rock instrumentals and of course the title track 'Stand on your Own'.
Accomplished stuff. Probably the best aspect of the whole production. Track listing:
1. Making Contact (The trailer music)
2. It's Showtime (1:02)
3. Stand on Your Own (3:16)
4: Main Theme (0:57)
5: Reflections (1:04)
6: To Seattle (1:29)
7: Country Music Hell (2:59)
8. Bruce Lee Appears (1:28)
9. I-5 (1:14)
10. Training Montage (3:27)
11. The Russian Appears (0:48)
12. The Pike Place Markets (1:13)
13. Young Lovers (1:06)
14: The Aroma of Tacoma (3:03)
15: The Rescue (1:27)
16: A Night Out In Fife (1:04)
17: Time To Kick Ass (0:50)
18. The Race to Victory (2:36)
19. The Lovers Kiss (0:59)
20. "No Retreat, No Surrender" Love Song (2:51)
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Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
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