Kickboxer (Kickboxer: Kana Kan)

Kickboxer, a 1989 American martial arts film, follows Kurt Sloane, who accompanies his older brother Eric, a kickboxing champion, to Thailand. There Eric is savagely beaten in the ring by the feared Thai fighter Tong Po and left paralyzed. Bent on revenge, Kurt convinces a reclusive elderly master to train him in the punishing discipline of Muay Thai. After an arduous regimen, he enters the ring against Tong Po to restore his brother's honor and to stand up to the criminal elements propping up the champion. Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Kurt, with former world kickboxing champion Dennis Alexio as Eric and Van Damme's childhood friend Michel Qissi as the villain. Directed by Mark DiSalle and David Worth, the picture turned a small budget into a major box-office return, is widely credited as the first film to introduce Muay Thai to a global audience, and spawned a long series of sequels and later remakes, cementing its place as one of the defining works of Van Damme's career.