Blazing Fist | Blu-ray (Well Go USA)
Director: Miike Takashi
Cast: Kinoshita Danhi, Yoshizawa Kamame, Mikuru Asakura, Gackt, Kuon Chikashi, Mariko Shinoda, Katsunori Takahashi, Susumu Terajima, Riki Sanada
Running Time: 119 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Over the last year chances are that, if you spend enough time scrolling on social media, you’ll have come across clips of trash talking Japanese fighters yelling at each other and almost coming to blows, set in what appears to be some kind of underground tournament. The clips are likely from the YouTube series Breaking Down, an amateur kickboxing tournament founded by mixed martial artist Mikuru Asakuru, which invites everyone from streetfighters to fellow mixed martial artists to take part in short one-minute rounds (perfect for the social media age!). Asakura himself came from a street-fighting background, eventually finding his way as an MMA fighter, rising up to most famously take on Floyd Mayweather in 2022. In 2025, he decided to enter the film industry, producing (and appearing as himself) in Blazing Fists, which features his Breaking Down series as a prominent part of the plot.
I guess it’s a little like if The Scrapyard where to make a movie in the U.S.. While a production based around a YouTube fighting series may seems like a dubious proposition, Asakura has brought onboard Miike Takashi to sit in the director’s chair, a name guaranteed to grab the attention of any audience who enjoys the wilder side of Asian cinema. For long time fans of Takashi his frequently unhinged 1990’s V-Cinema output casts a long shadow over anything he’s Continue reading →
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