This is a remake: The original version was much different and better.

Rating: Null/10 (18 October 2005)

I have seen this movie twice on In-Flight Movies on Thai International Airways flights from Bangkok. It was a low-budget film but with a great story line. I think that the title was simply "Kick Box".
The plot was: There are two brothers. One brother is the World Champion Kick Boxer. However, in a fight to defend the world championship, he is severely injured. He is put in a wheel-chair and cannot box any more.
His brother wants to gain revenge, so he goes looking for a grandmaster to teach him Thai kick boxing. After a long search, he finds the Grandmaster of Kick Boxing living as a recluse far out in the jungles of Thailand. At first the grandmaster denies that he is the right person. Then he says that he does not box any more. Finally with great reluctance he agrees to teach him kick boxing.
There follows months of rigorous training. Finally the brother decides he is ready and leaves.
We soon find out why the grandmaster was so reluctant to box any more, even denying who he was. The same boxer who severely injured the brother has been searching for the grandmaster too. He finally finds him in the jungle, they fight and the grandmaster is killed. The brother returns to find his teacher dead. Now the brother goes searching to gain revenge against the kick boxer who both injured his brother and killed his teacher.
I finally got around to seeing this movie today in DVD format. However, there were major, major changes from the original version I saw as an in-flight movie on Thai International Airways. The changes are so big that it is almost a different movie. Here are some of the changes: The Viet Nam War veteran Winston Taylor part does not exist in the original. There is no such person.
The female lead MyLee does not exist in the original.
The only female in the original is the hooker who the elder brother is taking into a hotel. The hooker in the original is a different girl and more beautiful.
All or almost all of the actors are different. The bad guy Tong Po is a different actor in the original. In the original, that part is played by a very mean looking black man. He kills three people unnecessarily, and is killed himself in the end.
The trainer in the original is a different actor. He is a much younger man who merely wants to retire from fighting, so at first he pretends not to be that person. We later learn that he is hiding from the Tong Po character who wants to hunt him down, kind of like in the old western movies where the two fastest gunslingers in the west want to battle each other to see who is the fastest.
The final fight scene does not take place in an arena in front of a paying audience. Rather, the final fight takes place in the jungle and it is a fight to the death.
With all these changes, one must wonder if it is really the same movie. Yet, it is clearly the same. The earlier part up to the point where the defeated and injured elder brother is taken out and left on the street is virtually identical to the in-flight movie I saw.
The movie I saw was very primitive. It looked like it had been shot with a home movie camera. What I suspect is that some Hollywood producers saw the original I saw, realized its potential and purchased the rights and remade the movie completely.
I still prefer the original. Perhaps they should go back and find the original if it still exists and remake THAT movie.
Sam Sloan