Eighties and nineties American action cinema were peak for me growing up. Characteristic of some of these films were their emphasis on style: Jean-Claude Van Damme had the “big legs and karate” to bolster his Hollywood appeal in Kickboxer and Death Warrant. Steven Seagal proliferated the shit out of aikido in films like Above The Law and Hard To Kill. Chuck Norris carried his commanding screen presence with evolutions of Tang Soo Do and Chun Kuk Do in films like Lone Wolf McQuade and the Missing In Action films…
I consumed plenty of early JCVD in my heyday, and little did I know that his filmography would familiarize me with the name of Mark DiSalle who would work on a handful of films as actor, writer and even producer. His only directing credit to date, however, Paramount Pictures’s 1991 release of The Perfect Weapon, is the one that stands out, and for reasons two-fold: It was a careermaker for Jeff Speakman, and it gave the actor the biggest space ever to bring Kenpo to the big screen much like his predecessors and their respective styles and specialties.
At a crisp eighty minutes and some change, you get exactly what you crave from a modern American martial arts film: a star who is lightning fast on film and competent as both an actor and screenfighter, and a compelling story driven by a duality that places our hero at the cusp of choosing vengeance or redemption. The martial arts fanboy in me loved the message growing up in its use of Tiger and Dragon rings to embody the philosophical anchor that keeps our protagonist moving forward, faced with Koreatown’s heaviest hitters before squaring off with the man who killed his best friend and father figure, Kim, played by the late great Mako.
The action is fantastic and fun to watch with Speakman absolutely in his prime, which is a bit of a shame that his trajectory took him into the direct-to-video market. In my view, Speakman should have been a contender, and I’m certain I’m not alone in that colloquy. I would pop in the VHS my parents recorded from its cable syndication, and I would always, always start mimicking Speakman right as “The Power” started playing. No, it didn’t make me a kenpo expert, but that was my workout routine and I’m sure my parents appreciated how physically active I was. I even took off my shirt before doing it because, well, reasons!
I come off of these thoughts having recently bought The Perfect Weapon from Kino Lorber on Blu-Ray, and seeing Speakman’s interview on the disc in which he talks about how he landed the role, the production process and personal stories from the set. It especially touched me how he talked about working with American Kenpo founder Ed Parker who was one of Speakman’s instructors, in addition to consulting on the film’s martial arts element alongside stunt coordinator Rick Avery. You can tell there was a special sense of closeness to Parker that Speakman cherished, before, and even years after Parker’s passing, and hearing how it makes it difficult for the actor to watch this amazing film is quite gut punch. You get why, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less.
I love that even after Speakman left movies and focused on his career and martial arts, how he battled throat cancer and won, and is still pursuing his martial arts career to this day – or as he would put it “living in Happyland”. To that end, while I would love to see a genuine article like Speakman back on the set in a major way, I’m glad that a film like The Perfect Weapon has stood the test of time, and that I get to re-live some of that magic, including the intro, sans me shirtless and mimicking what’s on screen like I did when I was nine… I’ll leave that to the man himself!
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