Interesting facts and excerpts from a review of the film Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter

27.02.2013EvilDollaR

Note: The article was written on behalf of the author and translated with his approval

I can’t even believe that I waited for the film for so long – 5 fucking years! Finally I got the chance to watch Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter. A special “thank you” to Ivan from Ukraine, one of the readers of the BZFilm website, who pushed me in the right direction. I didn’t even know that the film had come out after all.

To tell the truth, for two years or so I was searching, questioning and collecting information on the film, but I abandoned this activity because I was almost 100% sure that it would never see the light of day. But he did come out. In order not to publish a review in a “pure” form, I will share some information that I collected on this film.

• In August 2009, I spoke to Jalal Merhi, who starred in the movie Close Combat, and asked him why it took so long for this damn thing to be released. Then he seemed to refuse to say anything specific, but said this: “I beg your pardon. I can't answer why it takes so long. I finished my work on this film a long time ago, and I don’t want to speak negatively about it now.”
• Merhi helped with the recruitment of actors in Canada, and admitted to me that it was he who invited him to the film Bolo Yenga. This is what he said: “Yes, I invited Bolo to play in this film. Even though he doesn’t have any fight scenes.”
• It seems to me that thanks to Merhi, several more actors were involved in the production, for example, David Carradine (with whom he was friends, which he told me about in an exclusive interview) and another actor Lazar Rockwood (Merhi, Rockwood and Yeung starred together in the action movie “The Fearless Tiger” in 1991). So, as you can see, for the most part everything is connected.

THEY ALL WORKED WITH EACH OTHER. Yes, “Close Combat” would win the award for the most people who have previously worked with each other and starred in the same film. It's incredible how they all intersect.

Here, take a look:

• Jalal Merkhi, Lazar Rockwood and Bolo Yeung starred in the film Fearless Tiger (1991).
• Olivier Gruner, Jalal Merhi and David Carradine starred in the film “Live Goods” (2002).
• Martin Kove, George Cheung and Bolo Yeung starred in the film Hardest Strike: Fight to the Death (1992).
• Neils Allen Stewart, Martin Kove and Olivier Gruner starred in The Mercenary (1997).
• Jalal Merhi and Bolo Yeung starred in the film Cop 2000 (1993).
• Olivier Gruner, Martin Cove and Gary Busey starred in the film “Easy Target” (2006).
• Gary Busey and Victor Rivers starred in the film Chain (1996).
• Olivier Gruner, Martin Kove and Aki Alyun starred in the film “Lost Warrior: Left Behind” (2008).
• Martin Cove and Aki Alyun starred in the film “Chinese's Chance” (2006).
• Julia Nixon and Nils Allen Stewart starred in Double Dragon (1994).

I'm sure I missed something, but you'll forgive me, won't you?..

To be honest, I did a quick search, wanting to know what people were saying about the film, and to my surprise, everyone was trashing the film, saying something like “the worst,” or something like that. Needless to say, with so many familiar actors in one film, I had to see for myself. That's what I did...

"Close Combat" it is a US/Kazakhstan co-production with a budget of $4 million, and IMDb states that filming took place in Russia (locations with fake Kazakhstan), the US and Canada.

The script cannot boast of anything, since it offers us another “unobtrusive” story about a fighter “forced to fight for something out there,” and everything else is also at a relatively low level - the acting is mediocre at best, completely disgusting editing, and although I can still somehow come to terms with patriotism (of which the film is full), I simply cannot stand the shitty fights in a film whose title contains the phrase “perfect fighter”. Unfortunately, this is exactly the case, since the battles are poorly choreographed and filmed even worse.

"Close Combat" – not a complete failure, because what a “true fan” can appreciate is the actors themselves. Familiar faces are present in almost every episode, and the film runs for 1 hour. 45m.! Bolo Yeung dominates all scenes with her participation. I'm personally grateful Jalalu Merhi for inviting Bolo, because the 60-year-old (in 2006) master Tai Tzu proves that it is too early to discount him.

The same can be said about Richard Chavez, whom I personally have not seen since his participation in "Predator" late 80s. Kung Le (who later withdrew from Van Damme в “Eye of the Dragon”) did not shine here, although he played the main role, but we can forgive him - he is, after all, a professional fighter.

A little more information...

- I heard that the producers spent $10 to find Bolo Yeung and invite him to the film. In 000, while interviewing Oleg Taktarov, I asked him about the film, and he said the following: “This is a good, high-quality film of category “B.” Somewhat similar to those that people often watched in the early 2010s, with Van Damme, for example. I agreed to star in it because the producer was my friend Erken Yalgashev, one of those first Kazakh producers who were really able to achieve something abroad. Another thing is that in Kazakhstan sometimes even financing can be of a political nature, he will not be able to complete work on the film, and problems may arise if he “takes money” from the wrong place. The film itself is very patriotic; the Kazakh authorities made a lot of efforts to ensure that the film was completed.

• It seems to me that the director of “Close Combat” Erken Yalgashev made two films with the same actors (Cove, Gruner, Aleong, Chavez). The first was “Close Combat”, and the second, a little later, was “Lost Warrior: Left Behind”, which is also considered a “lost” film - I looked for it along with “Close Combat”, but nothing could be found.
• I spent some time “editing” the information on “Melee” posted on IMDb, since some of the actors were not even listed in the credits (for example, Victor Rivers and Julia Nixon), while others had either incorrect names or no names at all.
• “Close combat” translated into English means “Close combat”. Even though it was a joint production, I can’t understand why they decided to make one part of the title in Russian and the other in English.

The biggest mistake here was made in the battles - some people wanted to watch the film precisely because of them. And while Cung Le wasted his strength and energy fighting strangers, Tagawa, Roberts and Busey were given screen time and paid.

While I like them, in this particular film, it may not have been a great move - instead of investing in them, it probably would have been wiser to hire more famous fighters, or put more money into the action or fight choreography .

In short, if you are familiar with at least a few of the actors I mentioned, watch the film. If you are a fan of martial arts, you might as well not watch “Close Combat”, since it is not even close to the same, for example, “Undisputed 2”.

You can also watch the film if you want to take a look at how cool Kazakhstan is, as it is represented by actors from Vietnam (Cung Le), China (Bolo Yeung) and America (Martin Kove).

The film did not live up to my expectations, as they were perhaps too high, but I would be lying if I said that I was not at all interested in it...

Author: T.Teymur
Source: BZFilm
Translation: EvilDollaR and T.Teymur
Thanks to Ivan, my friend, and special thanks to Mr. T. Teymur for so kindly providing exclusive data.

Home » Movie News » Interesting facts and excerpts from a review of the film Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter
Tags: Aki Aleong, Blizhniy Boy: The Ultimate Fighter, Bolo Yen, Victor Rivers, Gary Busey, Jalal Merkhi, Julia Nixon, David Carradine, Kung Le, Lazar Rockwood, Martin Cove, Olivier Gruner, Erken Yalgashev

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