Donald Trump called it ‘incredible’: Bloodsport, the Hong Kong-set film that launched Jean-Claude Van Damme as an action-movie star
- Hong Kong-set action movie Bloodsport was inspired by the too-outlandish-to-be-true story of Frank Dux, ex-US Marine who won a top-secret fighting tournament
- Made for US$1.5 million, the film, which Donald Trump reportedly called fantastic, starred Jean-Claude Van Damme, took US$30 million and spawned three sequels
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” goes the famous line from 1962’s The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. But when it comes to 1988’s Bloodsport, a larger-than-life Hong Kong-set action movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, it is hard to know which is which.
Inspired by an outlandish true story, and the subject of much Hollywood mythmaking, Bloodsport was based on the adventures of Frank Dux, a Canadian-American martial artist who served in the United States Marine Corps Reserve from 1975 to 1981.
Dux claimed to have trained under the Japanese ninjitsu expert Senzo “Tiger” Tanaka, and that during his military career, he was sent on covert CIA missions across Southeast Asia and won the Medal of Honor for his troubles.
In a 1980 article in Black Belt magazine, he told writer John Stewart he was the first Westerner to win a top-secret fighting tournament called the kumite (pronounced “ku-mi-té”), held every five years in exotic locations around the world.
