Corey Yuen is a Hong Kong action director, film director, producer and action choreographer known for doing the fight scenes for movies like Lethal Weapon 4, X-Men and plenty of Jet Li's American films like Romeo Must Die, The One and The Expendables. He's also directed Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan in Dragons Forever and helped start the careers of Cynthia Rothrock and Michelle Yeoh.

For his first movie in the United States, he worked with Ng See-yuen as a producer (he was behind the Once Upon a Time In the West series and Drunken Master) and story writer.

Scriptwriter Keith W. Strandberg became interested in martial arts films when he lived in Taiwan. After taking a job in China as a tour director, he would visit Hong Kong and try to get into the movies. After being turned down by nearly everyone, he met with the Seasonal Film Corporation and studio head Ng See-yuen. Ng wanted to make an American film and asked if Strandberg knew anything about screenplays. Despite never even seeing a screenplay before, he said yes.

Jason Stillwell (Kurt McKinney) is a young karate student at his father Tom's dojo in Sherman Oaks. One night after a training session, the mob visits. They're shaking down all of the independent dojos in the country and taking them over. Tom refuses and gets his leg broken quick by Ivan Kraschinsky (Jean-Claude Van Damme, making his American debut).

The Stillwell family runs and hides - I mean, relocates - to Seattle. There, he becomes the friend and protector of R.J. Madison and reunites with an old girlfriend, Kelly, whose brother Ian is also a martial arts fan.

After getting beaten up and humiliated by a fat kid named Scott and a karate kid named Dean at Kelly's birthday party, Jason visits the grave of Bruce Lee and begs him for help. His father has given up on martial arts completely and destroys most of his son's Bruce Lee memorabilia. What Jason can save, he moves to an abandoned house.

That night, Bruce Lee (Kim Tai-chung, who played Lee's character Bobby Lo in Snuff Bottle Connection and Game of Death II) appears to Jason and begins transforming him into a real martial artist. He even saves his father from another beating by the mob.

It all ends up with Jason, Tom and R.J. attending the annual full-contact kickboxing tournament with teams from both Seattle and New York. The mob bosses show up in force and make a bet that none of Seattle's fighters can defeat Ivan. Van Damme becomes the greatest heel in the history of forever here, just annihilating everyone in his path. It's actually shocking what a great good guy he became in movies after seeing the way he decimates everyone in his path, including Kelly's brother Ian. He even shrugs off her attempts to hit him with a stool and bumps her off the apron. I lost my mind in sheer glee, seeing JCVD brutalize young kids who just love martial arts.

Jason ends up defeating Ivan and no one thinks, "Perhaps we should call the police on all these mob bosses. Didn't this Russian guy potentially kill three people, attack a referee and grab the hair of an innocent young girl? Oh well - time to go to the ring and celebrate!"

Supposedly, Van Damme was either method acting or really was a bully, because he kicked Pete "Sugarfoot" Cunningham - Canadian 7-time World ChampionHall of Famekickboxer - so hard that he knocked him out. There have been several stories that Van Damme had to be continually warned to not make full contact with other actors and stuntmen, but he did so anyway. That's been disputed by others on the set and could just be sour grapes.

This movie came up in court when two members of the cast appeared as character witnesses in the court case brought against Van Damme by Jackson "Rock" Pinckney, who claimed that the Muscles from Brussels partially blinded him in the left eye and caused him to get discharged from the Army after filming Cyborg. Timothy D. Baker - who played the dad - claimed that Van Damme was "dangerous to work with and possessed inadequate control of his movements for a martial artist", whereas Ron Pohnel - who played Ian and really had a long fight sequence with Van Damme claimed that the actor "did in fact possess adequate control and could perform a fight scene without complaint."

Maybe Timothy was still upset that when Van Damme's kicks were supposed to hit his upper chest region, he kept repeatedly nailing him in the face, knee and throat.

This is one of the wackier American kung fu movies I've seen and one of the few that embraces that wackiness of Hong Kong films in an organic way. I laughed out loud several times and the final fights are so good, you'll be doing spin kicks all over your living room. Just watch the television set with that kung fu!

Jason Stillwell, a Bruce Lee fan, is beaten numerous times by some really badly dressed people, and trains with the ghost of Lee.....

Jason then must use his newly acquired skills to save Seattle from a crime syndicate, whose top martial artist is the deadly Ivan T. Russian, played by Van Damme, who is easily the best thing about this movie.

This film is basically Rocky IV, meets Breakin', with a little bit of Ghost meets The Karate Kid, and its as bonkers as it sounds.

The acting is hideous, even making Van Damme seen sincere, but its a good laugh while it lasts.

Their are so many troupes in this, you could write an essay on how many there are, and how its scarred so many action movies since.

The soundtrack is brilliant, the fight scenes are a little cheesy, and the bad guys are fitted into two categories, high school bad guys fighting for the affection of a badly cast love interest, and the gangster side, where everyone dresses as Roger Moore circa 1975.

It's w love it or hate it film, I like it because I loved these types of films, but I'm giving it a realistic rating.

But it is the best film ever made about a boy giving a girl a rabbit for her birthday..

Although Jean-Claude Van Damme's image takes prominence on the cover of the DVD (front and back), the Belgian martial arts star only shows up briefly at the very beginning of the film, and for the entertaining finalé; the real 'star' of No Retreat, No Surrender is the lesser known Kurt McKinney, who plays young, headstrong karate student Jason, who, with a little help from break-dancer RJ (J.W. Fails) and Bruce Lee's ghost (Tai Chung Kim), helps defeat the New York gangsters who have been seizing control of the country's dojos for use as fronts for their criminal activities.

While the lack of Van Damage in the majority of the film could be off-putting for some, anyone who enjoys a large dollop of 80s cheeze should definitely stay on board...

Directed by Cory Yuen, No Retreat, No Surrender only proves mildly satisfying as a martial arts movie, with just a few unmemorable fights between Jason and local bullies before his inevitable showdown with hired heavy Ivan Kraschinsky (Van Damme). However, when the feet and fists aren't flying, the film is side-splittingly funny, with lousy performances (McKinney is much better at kicking than acting), a dumb plot (clearly inspired by The Karate Kid), ridiculous characters, the silly supernatural element, and hilarious 80s music and fashion unintentionally making this a lot more enjoyable than it really has any right to be.

The film's dumbest, and therefore most entertaining moments include a hilarious nightclub scene that sees RJ busting some moves in full Michael Jackson regalia, and the unforgettable sight of Jason training with RJ perched on his lap (their friendship clearly being taken to the next level).