I played Mr Director, a talking bit-part, in the filming on-location at Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.
I won't bore you with production secrets like Sherri Rose running all the way from the National Park to downtown Bangkok in 17 seconds flat, I'll just focus on content.
Billy Blanks at that time was 7-Time All-World Full-Contact Karate Champion, in excellent form, hard as nails, and Avedon wasn't.
This sets the basic dilemma for the director: Keith Hirabachi was an All-American champion, Billy was a champion, but the STAR of the film wasn't up to much at all, karate-wise! So there are shots in the film where, in the thick of brawling, Avedon's hair changes to the exact color of his stunt-double's hair... or that ridiculous scene in the climax where Billy's thick, kicking leg is stopped by Avedon, who then ADJUSTS IT, in order to flip Billy...
Puh-leeze! Billy's bits, and Keith's and Ong's... they're authentic, and add something to the film... but as good an actor as Avedon is, with this plot/framework/vehicle and his skinny shanks, the film became a verging-on-ludicrous tale of "Chunky Yellow Man Teaches Skinny White Man to Beat BIG, THICK BLACK Man!" Its inauthentic, through and through...
But what the hey! Its a yarn! Karridine/John Kay
I won't bore you with production secrets like Sherri Rose running all the way from the National Park to downtown Bangkok in 17 seconds flat, I'll just focus on content.
Billy Blanks at that time was 7-Time All-World Full-Contact Karate Champion, in excellent form, hard as nails, and Avedon wasn't.
This sets the basic dilemma for the director: Keith Hirabachi was an All-American champion, Billy was a champion, but the STAR of the film wasn't up to much at all, karate-wise! So there are shots in the film where, in the thick of brawling, Avedon's hair changes to the exact color of his stunt-double's hair... or that ridiculous scene in the climax where Billy's thick, kicking leg is stopped by Avedon, who then ADJUSTS IT, in order to flip Billy...
Puh-leeze! Billy's bits, and Keith's and Ong's... they're authentic, and add something to the film... but as good an actor as Avedon is, with this plot/framework/vehicle and his skinny shanks, the film became a verging-on-ludicrous tale of "Chunky Yellow Man Teaches Skinny White Man to Beat BIG, THICK BLACK Man!" Its inauthentic, through and through...
But what the hey! Its a yarn! Karridine/John Kay