Art of Fighting

Original Title: バトルスピリッツ 龍虎の拳
Romanized: Batoru Supirittsu - Ryouko no Ken
Literal: Battle Spirits - Fists of Two Mighty Warriors

Plot Synopsis

On the mean streets of Southtown, Ryo is a dirt-poor martial artist who's been reduced to hunting for lost pets to make ends meet. His rich playboy buddy Robert has no such worries, but when the two of them witness a man who upset Mr. Big getting offed, they're both in hot water. Things go from bad to worse when the mean men think that the pair are in possession of a diamond they're after, and kidnap pretty young Yuri as collateral. The two street brawlers are going to have to get down and dirty if they want to save the girl, or stay in one piece, for that matter.

Review

Rating: 1.5 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2004-10-28

Art of Fighting: Yet another of those dated-looking, cheesy action flicks from the early '90s. This one has a plot that's so tired they probably had to put it on some kind of stimulants to get it moving, but fortunately, the drugs must have done something to the characters, too, because it's more fun than it should have been.

Art of Fighting manages to rise above its own mediocrity mainly because the two main characters are so far from the slick, ready to take on the world streetfighters that populate most fighting-game-derived anime that you can't help but like them at least a little. Both of them can kick some serious tail in a pinch, but with Ryo being downright pathetic and Robert a complete poser, there's never any danger of anyone taking themselves too seriously. In fact, the two of them never really seem to take any of the production seriously, and since it's so cheesy that the viewer wouldn't have anyway, that works out just fine.

Despite being fighting-game-derived, Art Fighting is more of an action filled buddy flick than a martial arts movie--good call, if you ask me. The result is a complete lack of seriousness (regardless of how serious the bad guys try to be--Robert incessantly asks a chilly female minion for her phone number, for example), some passable action, and some silly predicaments about the level of a Saturday morning cartoon. That all comes together to make a very low quality movie that's kind of fun to watch anyway.

Of course, I can't say much else good about it; it's kind of cartoony (in a bad way), most of the other characters (the weird police Lt. excepted) have zero personality, and the story serves up a total of about two mildly creative moments (OK, that isn't even that bad for a movie like this). In fairness, there's an attempt at some mystery, but there's really nothing else of note.

Case in point: the visuals, which are downright bad. The art has a palette of bright, faded-looking colors and is mediocre at best, the character designs aren't anything to write home about either, and the animation is pretty bad. The backgrounds, although too low on detail, do have a roughly drawn look that works with the run-down locations. Even the action is frantic (in a bad way), poorly choreographed, and generally weak. A bit surprisingly, much of the action isn't brawling and a couple of the more creative scenes even border on cool, which helps a lot since most of the fistfighting doesn't look like much.

The acting is the one other thing that's not entirely bad; the Japanese cast is at least passable despite some slightly stiff acting, although Ryo is kind of flat, and Yuri sounds bad in all of the three or four lines she has. The English version isn't particularly noteworthy either way, though Ryo is an improvement over the Japanese version. The music is similarly so-so--the jazzy score isn't badly done, and the end theme is a passable bit of classic Japanese rock.

In all, Art of Fighting is another mediocre action flick that looks bad, has a tired retread of a plot, weak action, and generally lacks quality in any form. On the bright side, the action isn't entirely boring and the two main characters have an amusing rapport and a complete lack of seriousness that makes watching their exploits kind of fun; I at least enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to. If you enjoy cheesy but good natured action flicks, you might well enjoy Art of Fighting, and it's not a bad one to heckle with some friends. If you want quality of any kind, though, your odds of finding it here would please a casino.

Related Recommendations

Passingly similar to City Hunter and Lupin III in its action with a lack of seriousness, but nowhere near that level of quality.

US DVD Review

The DVD, one of USM's earliest, is minimal to say the least; The video is a little harsh but otherwise decent, and it includes English and Japanese audio tracks plus a poorly translated English dubtitle track. There's also a track index, but no Japanese cast, and no special features at all.

Content Guide

Mildly violent, but too silly to be of much worry to parents. Probably in the 10 and up category, if that.

Violence: 2 - There is one murder, but nothing is graphic or very serious.

Nudity: 1 - Nothing significant.

Sex/Mature Themes: 0 - None.

Language: 1 - Not worth mentioning.

Notes and Trivia

Based on a series of "Ryouko no Ken" video games by SNK, released on a variety of systems between 1991 and 1996.

Availability

Available in the US from US Manga Corps on a hybrid DVD. Was also available on subtitled and dubbed VHS.

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