No Retreat, No Surrender Information

No Retreat, No Surrender is a 1986 Hong Kong-American martial arts film written and directed by Corey Yuen, and starring Kurt McKinney, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Tai Chung Kim. The film is about the American youth Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) who learns martial arts from the spirit of Bruce Lee. Stillwell uses these lessons to defend his martial arts dojo against the Russian Ivan Kraschinsky (Jean-Claude Van Damme).

No Retreat, No Surrender was written by Keith W. Strandberg after being contacted by the owner of Seasonal Film Corporation Ng See-yuen to write a script for them, despite having never written a script beforehand. Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast in the film and caused problems on the set for continually physically contacting other actors during the fight scenes even after directory Yuen told him not too. On it's relesae, the film received negative reviews focusing on the story that two reviewers found was too similar to the film The Karate Kid (1984).

Plot

Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) is a young karate student and Bruce Lee fanatic who trains in his father's (Timothy D. Baker) Los Angeles dojo. One night after a training session, the dojo is visited by members of an organized crime syndicate. After refusing to join the organization, Jason's father has his leg broken by a Russian martial artist named Ivan Kraschinsky (Jean-Claude Van Damme), the hired thug of the boss.

The Stillwell family relocates to Seattle, where Jason meets R.J. Madison (J.W. Fails) and they become good friends. Jason's girlfriend, Kelly, also comes to visit him. Despite this, Jason has a hard time adjusting and is constantly beaten and harassed by the local bullies. Fed up with the abuse, Jason visits the grave of Bruce Lee and beseeches him for aid.

That night, Jason and his father have a heated argument which results in Mr. Stillwell destroying some of Jason's Bruce Lee memorabilia. Distraught, Jason consults with R.J., who suggests that Jason move all of his training gear into an abandoned house nearby. Exhausted from the move, Jason inadvertently falls asleep at the house, but is suddenly awakened by the ghost of Bruce Lee (Tai Chung Kim), who appears to Jason and begins to train him. Under Lee's tutelage, Jason goes from a below average fighter to a superior martial artist, at one point easily fending off several thugs attempting to assault his father in a parking lot.

Later, an annual full contact karate tournament is held featuring teams from Seattle and New York, which Jason and his father attend. Before the contest can get underway, however, the crime syndicate interrupts and makes a wager that none of the Seattle fighters can defeat Ivan. While the first two fighters are easily dispatched by the Russian, Ivan's last opponent, Kelly's brother Ian, makes an impressive showing, forcing Ivan to resort to dirty tactics to defeat him. With her brother helplessly entangled in the ring ropes, Kelly tries to stop Ivan by hitting him with a chair, but the Russian easily disarms her and grabs her by the hair. Spurred into action, Jason charges to the ring and attacks Ivan, much to the delight of the crowd. Utilizing his advanced training, Jason is finally able to conquer his nemesis and earn the respect of his peers.

Production

After living in Taiwan for a year in the early 1980s, screenwriter Keith W. Strandberg became interested in working in martial art films as an actor. Strandberg moved back to the United States and became a tour director in China, where he continued to stop by in Hong Kong to make contact with producers and screenwriters. After being turned down by several studios including Shaw Brothers. Strandberg read about Seasonal Film Corporation and got in contact with the studio head Ng See-yuen. Ng See-yuen expressed an interest in making an American film and asked if Strandberg knew anything about screenplays. Strandberg stated that he had despite never seeing one before. A year later, ng See-yuen contacted Strandberg in America stating that he wanted to write a script for them. Strandberg wrote a draft of what would become No Retreat, No Surrender. While production began on the film, Strandberg was on set and spent hours every night changing the script to improve it's quality while filming.

Jean-Claude Van Damme was cast as the Russian villain Ivan Kraschinsky. On set, Van Damme performed a round house kick on Pete Cunningham which made him unconscious. Actor and martial artist Timothy Baker stated that while working with Jean-Claude Van Damme during the action scenes on the set that the production manager and director Corey Yuen instructed Van Damme to not make contact with the other actors and stuntmen. Despite continuous warnings, Van Damme continued to make contacts with his kicks to Baker on the set. Other actors and martial artists claimed that Van Damme had not been reckless with his physical contact with people during the fight scene including Ron Pohnel who said that "His control wasn't such as mine, but I had no complaints." Van Damme originally had a two picture deal with screenwriter Keith W. Strandberg but broke his contract.

Cast

• Kurt McKinney as Jason Stillwell
• Jean-Claude Van Damme as Ivan Kraschinsky the Russian
• J.W. Fails as R.J. Madison
• Kathie Sileno as Kelly Reilly
• Tai Chung Kim as Ghost Bruce Lee
• Kent Lipham as Scott the Fatboy
• Ron Pohnel as Ian Reilly
• Dale Jacoby as Dean Ramsay
• Peter "Sugarfoot" Cunningham as Frank Peters
• Timothy D. Baker as Tom Stillwell
• Gloria Marziano as Mrs. Stillwell

Release

No Retreat, No Surrender was released on May 2, 1986. The film was the 11th highest grossing film on it's opening week in the American box office grossing $739,723. The film gearned a total of $4,662,137.

Reception

The New York Times gave the film a negative review, noting that the screenplay was "thrown together". Time Out compared the film to The Last Dragon, Karate Kid, and Rocky IV noting that it "borrows heavily" from those films and "makes them look like masterpieces". The martial arts magazine Black Belt gave the film a rating of one and a half out of five noting that Jean-Claude Van Damme does not have much screen time and that the film was derivative of The Karate Kid.

In 1993, Black Belt placed No Retreat, No Surrender at seventh on their list of top ten choreographed martial arts films. The magazine specifically praised Jean-Claude Van Damme's jump kicks while noting that Kurt McKinney's look "suspiciously quick" noting that "unlike the Hong Kong movie industry, American filmmakers have yet to master the technique of speeding up the film without "jumpy/fidgety" side effects".