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Alex Helps Kickstart The Last Kumite

Cynthia Rothrock

 The early years of my life were built on a massive pile of martial arts movies. It was the one genre I could not get enough of. From the tornado kicks of Bruce Lee to the masculine brute force of Chuck Norris, I rented a new film nearly every day for four years straight. In addition there were random karate films on TV and kung fu theater on Saturday mornings. If you add cartoons and comic books, I was swimming in an ocean of chop saki action. In my world everybody really was kung fu fighting.

While I loved them all, there were a select few that really ignited my passion. The first was The Karate Kid (1984). This story of  a misplaced youth being trained by an old Japanese man to face down the school bullies really touched home for me. I was a skinny white kid dealing with similar issues. Hell, I even looked like Daniel Larusso, same haircut and everything. This was the movie that I used to convince my parents to finally sign me up for karate.

Billy Blanks

The second film was The Last Dragon (1985). Leroy Green was raised by his martial arts teacher to chase down an illusive level of mastery known as The Glow. This semi-musical romp through Mo-Town showed a more comical side to the martial arts that has been appreciated in later years. This was followed by No Retreat, No Surrender (1986). Jason moves to a new town only to face off with bullies who also know the arts. He is then trained by the ghost of Bruce Lee. This became my personal fantasy. 

This was the golden era of fighting movies. In rapid succession the hits just kept coming. BloodSport (1988) The movie that brought us superstar Jean Claude Van Damn. It also inspired mixed martial arts competitions and the Mortal Kombat video games. Best of the Best (1989) brought us the talent of Philip Rhee by following a fictional U.S. National Tae Known Do team to the Olympics. Bloodfist (1989) Introduced real life kickboxing champion Don "The Dragon" Wilson and future Tae Bo creator Billy Blanks. 

Kurt McKinney

These movies meant the world to me. In fact I dreamed of being in them. After more than a decade of studying martial arts and developing a style of my own, I decided to write a script. My film was supposed to be the sequel to BloodSport. However they were already working on one so I had to change the title. In 1998 my brothers, their friends and I bought a VHS camera and filmed All American Kumite. 

We used every ounce of our martial arts knowledge combined with brutal hours of choreography to create a pretty terrible movie with some half decent fight scenes. When it was all done we were so happy with the process that we went on to develop and film ten more movies. These fun, low budget flicks never saw the light of day except for random clips on Youtube.


So, why am I telling you all of this? As I explained in another article about Breaking into the Movie Business, I have taken an interest in supporting new projects. My latest is the upcoming film titled "The Last Kumite." This old school martial arts romp was meant to scratch that nostalgic itch for people like myself who loved those old 80s and 90s tournament battles. 

The Last Kumite was written by Sean David Lowe and will be directed by Ross W. Clarkson. The cast is a who's who of martial arts stars including Cynthis Rothrock (China O'Brien), Billy Blanks (King of the Kickboxers) and Kurt McKinney (No Retreat, No Surrender) among others. Songs will be provided by the legendary Stan Bush (Transformers: The Movie) with score by Paul Herzog (Kickboxer).

The Last Kumite - Fan Art

Financing was raised on Kickstarter with an initial goal of 165k but they made more than 195k backed by over 700 supporters. The movie will begin filming in June 2023 and is slated to be released in 2024. I took a funding position just like with the other project "You Can Call Me Bill," so my name will also be listed in the credits of The Last Kumite.

I'm thrilled to be a part of this movie. It is exactly the type of project I have been aspiring towards. So, stretch out those muscles and squeeze into your Gi one last time for this bad ass trip down memory lane. I will be posting updates on the film as it moves forward. Wish us all luck. Kumite! Kumite! Kumite!

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