To prepare his cast before making the film The Three Burials of Melquidas Estrada, Tommy Lee Jones had them read The Stranger by Albert Camus since the theme of alienation is central to both that book and the film they were about to shoot. Before he commenced filming the movie Heat, director Michael Mann gave the cast copies of the book No Beast So Fierce by former convicted felon turned author Edward Bunker about a recently paroled convict and his attempt to go straight. In my senior year of college, before we began rehearsals of the one-act play I wrote “Show Me Your Tong Po,” I invited the cast over to my house to watch Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor for similar reasons as those directors. Previously, I had been writing a sophomoric sex comedy on a par with American Pie in which one high school friend says this to another “Haven’t you ever had any aspirations in life other than wanted to make a kickboxing porno called ‘Show Me Your Tong Po?’” To which the friend replies “No.”
Show Me Your Tong Po, the one-act play, (you can read more about it in another essay: https://dailydrunkmag.com/2021/05/12/show-me-your-tong-po/) is about two aspiring pornographic filmmakers who kidnap whom they think is a retired actor to convince him to come out of retirement and act in their film. In case you hadn’t realized, I had been a huge fan of the original Kickboxer film. In fact, I celebrated the star of that film, Jean-Claude Van Damme’s, entire catalog. In the first Kickboxer film, Kurt Sloan, portrayed by Van Damme, gets revenge against reigning muay thai champion “Tiger” Tong Po for paralyzing Kurt’s brother Eric Sloan. The sequel, Kickboxer 2: The Road Back, features the youngest brother, David Sloan, played by Sasha Mitchell, best known as Cody on the T.G.I.F. television show “Step by Step” with Patrick Duffy and Suzanne Sommers. In the sequel, David must fight Tong Po, so Po can salvage his honor after he murdered Kurt Sloan in cold blood. The murder takes place after the first, but before the events of the second film. Of course, David defeats Tong Po. The 3rd film in the series doesn’t include Tong Po, so I’m going to skip over it. By this point, you’re probably thinking the story about the Sloan family has been wrapped up, so why make a 4th film? Well, then you are obviously not familiar with the resiliency and dedication of “Tiger” Tong Po. Two defeats in hand-to-hand combat will not deter Po from finally realizing his revenge. In the 4th film, we discover Po’s wife had been killed during a DEA raid, which he blames on David Sloan. Suddenly, Po’s character is given depth. While you certainly won’t confuse Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor for “Hamlet,” the 4th film has introduced certain Shakespearean elements. I had wanted my cast to be able to embody the same gravitas, walk the same narrow and delicate line of plausibility, and suspension of disbelief as a film in which the villain had been a disgraced muay thai fighter who subsequently became a druglord in Mexico, has abducted the hero’s wife and sold her into sexual slavery while framing the hero for murder and having him incarcerated. Of course, this conflict is settled in a fight-to-the-death martial arts tournament held at the villain’s compound. Therein lies the nuanced artistry of Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor.
During the filming of Tetro, Vincent Gallo discusses how he thinks of the movie The Rainpeople before beginning to direct a movie. “ It’s the only time I think of a movie when I’m making a movie. I’ve got to make a film that’s got that…” I had the same feeling when I was going to direct Show Me Your Tong Po. I needed to capture the same “je ne sais quoi” from Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor. Like Floyd Gondoli so eloquently explains in the film Boogie Nights when discussing his fondness for lollipops and butter. “I don’t want to win an Oscar, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel.” Kickboxer 4: The Aggressor does neither, but along the way, we are treated to a unique film that addresses a Hegelian dialectic in which the stakes have increased exponentially to effectively realize the only possible trajectory to the series. Sometimes a cathartic experience comes from watching “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Other times, it’s necessary to watch a somber antihero gain access to the impenetrable compound of a drug kingpin and participate in a winner-takes-all-no-holds-barred-fight-to-the-death martial arts tournament.
Andrew Davie has worked in theater, finance, and education. He taught English in Macau on a Fulbright Grant and has survived a ruptured brain aneurysm and subarachnoid hemorrhage. He's currently pursuing a Clinical Mental Health Counseling Degree. His work can be found: https://andrew-davie.com/
