{"id":11604,"date":"2025-04-02T00:23:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T04:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=11604"},"modified":"2025-04-02T00:23:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T04:23:33","slug":"bloodfist-v-human-target","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/04\/02\/bloodfist-v-human-target\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodfist V: Human Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong> (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts and gangster violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jeff Yonis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Yonis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David and Eric Wurst\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael G. Wojciechowski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 19, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Denice Duff, Steve James, Don Stark, Yuji Okumoto, Michael Yama, Joe Son, Ron Yuan, Brian George.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Another week, another movie bearing the Bloodfist label. This week, it\u2019s Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong>, the fifth movie of the series. As usual, it stars Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson\u201d in the hero role. That\u2019s 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\u2019s just producer Roger Corman\u2019s way of ensuring the boxes won\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019ve been there; I know their pain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The biggest selling point of Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wilson 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\u2019s 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\u2019s only because that\u2019s exactly what it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In the hospital parking lot, Jim and Candy (that\u2019s the name she gives) encounter a couple of Asian guys with guns. Jim might not remember any personal information, but he hasn\u2019t forgotten how to fight. He gives the goons a good beatdown before escaping with his supposed wife. By now, you\u2019ve probably surmised something is amiss with Candy. Big surprise, she\u2019s NOT his wife. [Insert audible collective gasp here] She\u2019s a hooker who was hired to get him released from the hospital. Her pimp Marcus (James) is involved. Before Jim can find out what\u2019s going on, the two hitmen show up and kill Marcus. Once again, Jim thrashes them soundly before escaping with his life and not-wife.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Despite her deception, Jim tries to keep Candy safe by telling her to get lost while the getting\u2019s 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\u2019t Jim. He\u2019s actually a government agent named Michael Wilkes. According to his colleague Agent Cory Blake (Stark, That 70s Show), he\u2019s 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\u2019s confirmed he\u2019s 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\u2019s at it. As Jim\/Mike so succinctly puts it, \u201cI don’t think plutonium should just be out there floating around.\u201d My sentiments exactly, kung fu dude!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jim\/Mike chooses to proceed with the plan after all of his fellow agents are killed in an ambush carried out by Quan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Like the four before it, Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong> lists credentials beneath cast members\u2019 names in the opening credits. This time however, there is only one other martial artist on hand besides Wilson. It\u2019s Middleweight World Kickboxing Champion Danny Lopez. He plays a security guard who takes on Wilson when she shows up at the NSA office. It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wilson 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!<\/strong> James does reappear at the end of the movie. He and Wilson go mano-a-mano in a too-short fight. It\u2019s good to see him even if he\u2019s visibly ailing.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What we\u2019re looking at with Bloodfist V: Human Target<\/strong> 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\u2019s 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\u2019t exactly exemplify originality.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloodfist V: Human Target (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 New Horizons\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 83 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (martial arts and gangster violence, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jeff Yonis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Jeff Yonis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: David and Eric Wurst\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael G. Wojciechowski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: January 19, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Don \u201cThe Dragon\u201d Wilson, Denice Duff, Steve James, Don Stark, Yuji Okumoto, Michael Yama, Joe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b-movies","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Bloodfist-V-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11627,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11604\/revisions\/11627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}