Bloodfist V: Human Target (1994) New Horizons/Action RT: 83 minutes Rated R (martial arts and gangster violence, language) Director: Jeff Yonis Screenplay: Jeff Yonis Music: David and Eric Wurst Cinematography: Michael G. Wojciechowski Release date: January 19, 1994 (US) Cast: Don “The Dragon” Wilson, Denice Duff, Steve James, Don Stark, Yuji Okumoto, Michael Yama, Joe Son, Ron Yuan, Brian George. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ***
Another week, another movie bearing the Bloodfist label. This week, it’s Bloodfist V: Human Target, the fifth movie of the series. As usual, it stars Don “The Dragon” Wilson” in the hero role. That’s the only thing it has in common with the others. By now, you know these movies have nothing to do with each other (aside from I & II). It’s just producer Roger Corman’s way of ensuring the boxes won’t just sit there collecting dust on video store shelves. You have to hand it to the guy. He knew how to sell a movie through deception and misdirection. Not that it’s hard to pull one over on movie junkies desperately perusing the shelves at West Coast Video for their entertainment fix late on a Friday night. I’ve been there; I know their pain.
The biggest selling point of Bloodfist V: Human Target is also the most disappointing aspect of it. It co-stars Steve James, a name that should be familiar to fans of B-level action movies of the 80s. He frequently fought alongside Michael Dudikoff in films like Avenging Force (1986) and American Ninja 1 & 2 (1985-87). He’s fourth billed here despite having a total of ten minutes of screen time (if that). In that time, he never once fights side by side with Wilson. What gives? It could be due to health reasons. James was sick with pancreatic cancer while filming what would be his final film role. The 41YO actor died in December 1993, a month before his swan song was released.
Wilson plays an amnesiac (?!) struggling to remember who he is while on the run from bad guys and government agents trying to kill him. In the opening, he’s shot in the head and left to die by his assailants. He wakes up in the hospital a month later with no memory of who he is or how he got there. A woman claiming to be his wife (Duff, Subspecies 2, 3 & 4) shows up acting all relieved that she finally found him. She tells him his name is Jim Stanton and just wants to bring him back home where he belongs. Does it sound too good to not be a set-up? It’s only because that’s exactly what it is.
In the hospital parking lot, Jim and Candy (that’s the name she gives) encounter a couple of Asian guys with guns. Jim might not remember any personal information, but he hasn’t forgotten how to fight. He gives the goons a good beatdown before escaping with his supposed wife. By now, you’ve probably surmised something is amiss with Candy. Big surprise, she’s NOT his wife. [Insert audible collective gasp here] She’s a hooker who was hired to get him released from the hospital. Her pimp Marcus (James) is involved. Before Jim can find out what’s going on, the two hitmen show up and kill Marcus. Once again, Jim thrashes them soundly before escaping with his life and not-wife.
Despite her deception, Jim tries to keep Candy safe by telling her to get lost while the getting’s good. She wants to stick around anyway. Together, they try to figure out who he is and why people want him dead. A fight or two later, Jim finally learns he isn’t Jim. He’s actually a government agent named Michael Wilkes. According to his colleague Agent Cory Blake (Stark, That 70s Show), he’s been undercover in a Chinese smuggling ring in an effort to bring down crime boss Quan (Yama, Number One with a Bullet). When he went MIA, they thought he turned traitor. Once it’s confirmed he’s still on their side, Cory asks him to go back in and finish what he started. Oh, and retrieve a couple of missing canisters of plutonium while he’s at it. As Jim/Mike so succinctly puts it, “I don’t think plutonium should just be out there floating around.” My sentiments exactly, kung fu dude!
Jim/Mike chooses to proceed with the plan after all of his fellow agents are killed in an ambush carried out by Quan’s guys. He tracks down the guy (George, The Big Bang Theory) selling the plutonium and arranges a meeting at a crowded restaurant only for it to be interrupted by an irate Quan. Another shootout ensues, this one featuring a beefy Asian guy (Son, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery) screaming like Rambo while wildly firing a machine gun. Jim/Mike gets away with the money and plutonium while Quan gets away with Candy.
Like the four before it, Bloodfist V: Human Target lists credentials beneath cast members’ names in the opening credits. This time however, there is only one other martial artist on hand besides Wilson. It’s Middleweight World Kickboxing Champion Danny Lopez. He plays a security guard who takes on Wilson when she shows up at the NSA office. It’s a brief role. There are a few recognizable faces on hand. The beefy gunman played henchman Random Task in the first Austin Powers movie. He’s now serving time in a California prison for sexual assault and manslaughter. One of the two hoods that keep showing up is played by Yuji Okumoto who played nemesis Chozen Toguchi in The Karate Kid Part II (1986) and defendant Shu Kai Kim in the courtroom thriller True Believer (1989). The other is Ron Yuan from Ring of Fire I & II (1991-93).
Bloodfist V: Human Target is written and directed by Jeff Yonis whose filmography includes the 1996 made-for-TV remake of Humanoids from the Deep. I never saw it; I never felt the need to. He keeps things moving along nicely even in the face of the plot confusion in the second half. It’s a good story with plenty of action. He and fight choreographer Art Camacho put together some cool fight scenes. The score by the Wurst brothers is pretty typical for the cheapie action genre.
Wilson has carved out a nice niche for himself as a DTV action star. He possesses superior martial arts abilities that far outweigh his acting abilities or lack thereof. To be fair, he appears to be more comfortable in front of the camera than he was at the start of the Bloodfist series. Duff is okay but unexceptional as the female sidekick and potential love interest. SPOILER ALERT! James does reappear at the end of the movie. He and Wilson go mano-a-mano in a too-short fight. It’s good to see him even if he’s visibly ailing.
What we’re looking at with Bloodfist V: Human Target is a passable Saturday night DTV actioner from Roger Corman. He cuts costs without cutting down any of the fun. At a scant 83 minutes, it’s just as long as it needs to do. Sure, the whole amnesia thing is the oldest plot device in the book, but it seems fitting for a series that doesn’t exactly exemplify originality.
