This is the first of seven essays that will focus on the “Seasonal 7”, seven films released and made for international audiences from 1985 to 1997 with martial arts the focus. All images courtesy of Seasonal Film Corporation and New World Pictures unless noted.

The 1980s. At a time where martial arts films have gained a cult following in the United States after the wake of the 1970’s classic kung fu boom, one movie broke out and changed the landscape of success of the genre. That film was 1984’s The Karate Kid, which focused not only on a bullied kid learning martial arts to stand up for himself but also broke the ground when it focused on the relationship between student and teacher.

In 1984, after seeing the film in theaters, Hong Kong filmmaker Corey Yuen Kwai (1951-2022) thought it would be a good idea to bring a similar premise but adds a few twists. One would be the fights would be that of the Hong Kong-style of action and two, the mentor would be the ghost of the legend himself, Bruce Lee. Pitching the idea to Seasonal Films founder Ng See-Yuen, the duo hired American-born screenwriter Keith W. Strandberg and cast new actors who are also trained martial artists in some of the central roles. That film would go on to be one of the greatest American cult classics today: No Retreat, No Surrender.

When Strandberg wrote the original script, it had a different title, Ring of Truth. The script was about 200 pages long and was deemed too long. Cutting it down, once the script was complete, it was time for casting as Yuen would serve as director and Ng as the producer. Hiring the late Mang Hoi (1958-2023) as martial arts choreographer, the rest of the crew would be American as the intent was to bring modern Hong Kong choreography to American films, a full decade and a half before The Matrix (1999).

Casting would play an important role in the film as Yuen wanted to hire actors who actually have martial arts backgrounds to bring a sense of authenticity to the fight sequences. One of the most crucial characters to cast was that of Ivan Krashinsky, a Soviet enforcer for the New York crime syndicate attempting to take over the nation’s top dojos. A Belgian martial artist who aspired to become an action star took the chance and audition. Prior to the audition, this young man had background roles in two Cannon films, Breakin’ and Missing in Action. That man is Jean-Claude Van Damme and his impressive skills in Shotokan Karate and ballet training, which gave him the superior flexibility he would be known for, won the role.

Like Van Damme, Kentucky-born Kurt McKinney moved to Los Angeles to give acting a shot. While he was looking for auditions, he worked as a car salesman. Upon hearing the casting call for what was at the time, Ring of Truth, McKinney was one of the last actors to audition for the role of protagonist Jason Stillwell. McKinney, a black belt in Taekwondo and amateur kickboxing champion, impressed the filmmakers with his ability to act and do martial arts and beat out at least a hundred actors for the role.

Unlike The Karate Kid, the bullies of the film in Seattle had comprised of a non-fighting bully in Scott, played by the late Kent Lipham (1961-2008) and assistant instructor Dean Ramsey, played by karate black belt Dale Jacoby, who would go on to have a career mainly playing the bullyish roles in various martial arts films in the 90s especially.

Frank, a top fighter from Dean’s school, is played by kickboxing legend Peter “Sugarfoot” Cunningham. Yuen was so impressed with Cunningham that he would bring him to Hong Kong to play an antagonist in his 1986 action film Righting Wrongs, where he had an iconic fight against Yuen Biao. Ron Pohnel, a tournament champion and black belt under the iconic Chuck Norris, played karate champion Ian Reilly with Shotokan Karate black belt Timothy Baker as Jason’s father Tom, who has one brief fight in the opening before getting his leg broken by Ivan and cowering down.

In the role of Bruce Lee was Korean actor Kim Tae-Jeong (1956-2011), who had been one of two stand in actors for Lee when Golden Harvest decided to complete Game of Death under the direction of Robert Clouse in 1978. He would also star in an official sequel as Lee’s brother, 1981’s Tower of Death. Interestingly enough, there were quite a few language barriers on the set as Kim only spoke Korean and this led to McKinney having to be cued to say his lines with Lee’s lines being dubbed over in post-production. In addition, Corey Yuen only spoke Cantonese and Mandarin. Thankfully, screenwriter Keith Strandberg’s fluency in Mandarin led to him serving as Yuen’s translator on set.

Production took place in Los Angeles in late 1984 for six weeks and then another month to shoot exteriors in Seattle, where most of the film would take place. The film opened up to international markets first in 1985 before New World Pictures secured distribution to the United States on May 2, 1986. Surprisingly, despite critics bashing the film as uninspired and a mess, fans flocked to see the film and made a modest $4.7 million at the box office. For Seasonal Films, that was considered a hit for them.

The film goes like this. At Sherman Oaks Karate in Los Angeles, Sensei Tom Stillwell is confronted by a New York-based crime syndicate who wants to take over the nation’s top dojos. When he refuses, he fights their champion and bests him. However, the syndicate have a secret weapon, a Soviet enforcer named Ivan. Ivan breaks Tom’s leg and proves to be an impressive martial artist. When Jason, Tom’s son, attempts to confront Ivan, he is easily defeated. Tom tells Jason fighting is not the answer. He closes the school and decides to move the family to Seattle.

There, Jason, an avid Bruce Lee fan, turns the garage into a mini dojo so he can continue training. He meets a local kid R.J., a breakdancer and all-around good guy, and the two become friends. R.J. constantly finds himself bullied by another local, Scott, and one day, Jason comes to the rescue when R.J. is surrounded by Scott and his goons. When Jason learns about the dojo of national champion Ian Reilly, he decides to try it out. There, he meets the assistant instructor Dean. However, one of the students is Scott, who makes up a B.S. story how Jason beat him with declaring L.A. karate is better than Seattle karate. To teach Jason a lesson, Dean sets Jason up to spar with champion Frank, who easily defeats Jason with his quick and fast moves.

Jason is invited to a birthday party by Kelly, a former girlfriend he recently reunited with and picked up where they left off. However, Dean has a crush on Kelly as well and it doesn’t help Kelly’s brother is none other than Ian Reilly. When Ian shows up at the party, he gets a call from the syndicate to meet at his school. While Ian confronts the syndicate and issues a challenge for a full contact karate team match, Dean and Scott find Kelly and Jason kissing and this leads to Dean humiliating Jason at the party.

A battered Jason goes to Bruce Lee’s grave, having gone there a few days prior with R.J., begging for help and to give him a sign. That night, Tom berates Jason for fighting and in a fit of rage, Jason calls his father a coward for just taking the brunt of the matters. Tom, in retaliation, begins destroying the garage and tears down a poster of Bruce Lee Jason had put up. Going to R.J. for help, he learns of an abandoned house nearby and moves his training gear there.

That night becomes a game changer for Jason as when he falls asleep, a light shines. Jason soon discovers that the man who came from the light is Bruce Lee himself and offers to train Jason in his martial art of Jeet Kune Do. Jason slowly begins to gain back his confidence through training with Sensei Lee (or Lee Dai Goh, “Big Brother Lee”) and proves to his dad that sometimes you have to fight after he rescues him from a group of thugs at the local bar he works at. His father, realizing Jason was right, makes amends with him. Once Jason learns the ultimate move from Lee, Lee returns to the light and Jason has become a full-fledged warrior.

Attending the match between Ian and the Seattle Sidekicks (made up of Dean and Frank) and the team representing the New York syndicate, the syndicate henchman interrupts and declares that only one man can destroy all three Seattle fighters. Enter Ivan, who Jason and Tom instantly recognize. Jason attempts to warn Ian about Ivan but is rebuffed by him. Dean and Frank are decimated by Ivan, but Ian gives him a run for his money, resulting in the Soviet powerhouse using dirty tactics. When Kelly attempts to intervene, she is grabbed by Ivan, prompting Jason to enter the ring and finally use all of his newfound knowledge to take on his former nemesis in the ring.

The film had its issues with production aside from the aforementioned language barrier. One of the biggest issues apparently involved Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was a full contact karate champion in his native Belgium. In the film’s opening fight, Ivan had to jump off the New York champion’s back and kick Tom in the chest. However, it took a few takes because Van Damme wasn’t used to the control of fight choreography as of yet and had accidentally struck Timothy Baker in the face or neck before finally getting the shot right. In his fight scene against Peter Cunningham’s character, he had accidentally knocked out Cunningham briefly and broke character, causing Yuen to explode on set. The second time it happened again; Van Damme stayed in character to get the shot right.

As for Kurt McKinney, he too was understanding fight choreography and one specific move he had trouble with was there he had to have his foot tied up and jump up to kick a bag with the other leg. When McKinney felt he couldn’t do the move, Corey Yuen would show him how to do it by doing the move himself. He may have seemed upset that he couldn’t do the move, but it would end up becoming a motivator as McKinney eventually was able to execute it as seen in the film. Fight choreographer Mang Hoi, credited as Harrison Mang, also doubled for both McKinney and Kim Tae-Jeong when it came to Bruce Lee’s flip kick while also doubling McKinney for an impact shot after receiving a kick from Ivan during the final confrontation.

In a funny story, writer Keith Strandberg makes a cameo appearance as one of the bar thugs who beat Tom up before Jason comes to their rescue. When Jason throws a jump spinning kick to him, Strandberg spun the wrong way before going off screen. This led to Corey Yuen yelling at him for reacting in the wrong direction, but when Jason does his three spinning kicks to Strandberg, he reacted in the correct direction.

The film would go on to have two versions. The international version runs 95 minutes and focuses on a mix between the story and action with a soundtrack by Frank Harris and a theme song, “Hold On to the Vision”, by Kevin Chalfant and guitar legend Joe Satriani. The U.S. cut from New World Pictures runs 85 minutes and adds a scene not in the international version which consists of Jason and Kelly going on a date after their reunion. In addition, Paul Gilreath brought a new soundtrack and a new theme song, “Stand On Your Own”, performed by Joe Torono.

The film’s surprising success would lead to Seasonal Films to make a sequel and bring back McKinney and Van Damme in the central roles. The sequel would be more of a thematic one (the Hong Kong film SPL did this in the 2000s) and would be filmed in Thailand and Myamar (formerly Cambodia). Van Damme had heard horror stories about Cambodia and decided he wasn’t going to make the sequel. When Kurt McKinney asked producers if he can bring his new wife to the locations, they were a bit sketchy and told him it wasn’t a good idea. McKinney called Van Damme and once he heard what Van Damme had to say, McKinney decided also not to return.

Eventually, like the original film, newcomers would be cast with Loren Avedon replacing McKinney and Matthias Hues replacing Van Damme for what would be No Retreat, No Surrender II: Raging Thunder.

After its initial run in theaters and home video in the early 1990s, Kino Lorber Classics finally released the film on Blu-Ray and DVD in 2016 to celebrate the film’s 30^th Anniversary of its U.S. release. The Blu-Ray has both versions of the film along with commentary by Strandberg and a new interview with McKinney. In 2024, Hollywood actor Ryan Gosling mentioned the film as one of his favorite action films growing up while promoting his film adaptation of the 80’s hit series The Fall Guy.

Since its release, the film has still holds its own today as a cult classic. While critics first panned the film, magazines who had trashed the film upon first release considers it today somewhat groundbreaking with fusing Hong Kong action with American filmmaking, a first since Bruce Lee’s iconic Enter the Dragon in 1973. The change in choreography since Lee’s days has emerged and while it will be forever known as one of the early films featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, who would go on to be the biggest thing to come out of the film as a successful action icon in the 1980s and 1990s.

In the next essay, I will be talking about No Retreat, No Surrender II: Raging Thunder and what happened when Van Damme and McKinney would not return.