Watched in the cinema (76th visit in 2024)

"The Last Kumite" goes back to an idea and the ongoing commitment of producer and screenwriter Sean David Lowe. The former music producer eventually shifted his focus to the world of sports, especially basketball, and dedicated his show "NBA Got Game TV" to greats such as Dennis Rodman and Shawn Kemp. As he affirms in many interviews, "The Last Kumite" was something of a heart project for him and, in the context of the still ongoing 80s retro wave in pop culture, a tribute to the action/martial arts cinema of the decade.

You can approach a movie like "The Last Kumite" in two different ways, there really is no middle ground. If you like martial arts in the sense of "John Wick" or even "The Raid", i.e. if the action is legitimized by a reasonably complex story, you won't have much fun with Ross W. Clarkson's film. This is not necessarily a point of criticism, as "The Last Kumite" is pretty much tailored to a specific category of viewer, namely those who grew up with productions such as "No Retreat, No Surrender", "Bloodsport" or "Kickboxer". All aspects of the film, from the cast to the soundtrack and the general aesthetic, are geared towards satisfying the nostalgia of this category of viewer. On the one hand, the plot is extremely simple and there is no need to expect any in-depth character development, but on the other hand, the fight scenes are still handmade, i.e. without CGI, and the level of craftsmanship is on a par with the examples mentioned above.

"The Last Kumite" scores first and foremost in aesthetic terms. As in "Bloodsport", each fight tells its own story, is interesting and grippingly choreographed, so that other flaws could almost be overlooked. Why, for example, it is still necessary to discuss exactly how far the influence of villain Ron Hall (Matthias Hues) goes, to name just one example, remains unanswered and seemingly only serves the purpose of giving the individual actors a few more scenes. Here, too, "The Last Kumite" aims to score points with nostalgia, with actors such as Kurt McKinney, Cynthia Rothrock, Billy Blanks and aforementioned Matthias Hues, a veritable who's who of 1980s martial arts cinema. Mathis Landwehr as Michael Rivers does well in the truest sense of the word and scores particularly well with his charisma.

The film music by Paul Hertzog, who also composed the score for "Bloodsport", deserves a special mention. The driving, powerful and of course very synthesizer-heavy music makes the montages, which are indispensable for a production of this kind, and the fight scenes in particular stand out immensely.