In the original he he a murderer but also a rappist he use the girl as hostage and leverage so kurt doesnt fight at full force.
In this one sure he kill eric but then let kurt live after the murder attempt and later on accept the challenge.
I LIKE that they over did the evil thing in the original this was better. You know what would have been EVEN BETTER? There is a proverb that you should treat others as you would want to be treated. My idea is this: Tong po is afraid of death but only certain TYPES of death. He is afraid of dying of disease or old age or some silly accident but he WANTS to die a warrior's death and he kills his opponents in the arena because he WANTS them to kill him. In my alternate (and in my opinion more creative) idea for the story had I directed it is that he believes that the most honorable way a person can die is in battle as a warrior so he in his twisted mind believes he is honoring his opponents by killing them. Unlike the original Tong Po he ONLY kills in the arena however.
And when he is finally beaten into submission by Kurt Sloane he has a weak smile on his battered face and tells Kurt to kill him as he killed Kurt's brother so that he may have a "warrior's death" and Kurt refuses, walking away and denying Tong Po the warrior's death he most wanted and leaving him in disgrace. That would have been a much better revenge than the generic movie revenge of killing him.
Talking about honor and warrior s death, in this one i hated theses were underground illegal fights, so technicaly tong po is champion of nothing.
In the original, even if hes a way worse and evil character, he still is a real champion the real mu thai league of Thailand.
I really appreciate that the end fight was a REAL FIGHT unlike the original where he was blackmailed into throwing the fight and Tong Po did not do sleazy crap like rape his girlfriend.
But what did you think of my alternate ending idea? Not killing him and depriving him of the warrior's death he wanted as his revenge, realizing disgracing him is a better revenge?
The strong point of your altrrnate take on this is that it open the door for a sequel. One where Tong po would really have fallen from grace, where his shame turn him a in areal uber dirt bag he then turn to sleazy tactics to lure kurt in a revenge match or something.
shareMaybe that is why the writers made sure he got killed in this one unlike the original because they wanted to make sure that the viewers did not expect to see him again in the sequels.
However, maybe he could become a better person and return as a good guy helping Kurt in some way. It is rare but sometimes villains in martial arts movies return as heroes in sequels,maybe not the main hero but an aid to the main hero. For example DeHan was the villain in the movie BEST OF THE BEST and then a good guy who helped the hero in the sequel BEST OF THE BEST 2. Maybe it is a tad of a stretch since DeHan's killing of Tommy Lee's brother was kind of an accident, he hit his opponent too hard and the human body (even if you are tough) is delicate and that is not quite the same thing as the "execution" of breaking a helpless person's neck. Uri Boyka from Undisputed 2 went from villain to hero in Undisputed 3 and 4 but I think the only people he killed were 2 scum bags with no honor who kind of deserved it anyway so he was morally redeemable. It is even possible that Dave Butista had too many other acting jobs on his plate and insisted his character be killed just so nobody would expect him to be in a sequel. Harrison Ford did not feel like doing Han Solo anymore and only agreed to do it in Star Wars Episode 7 if they killed his character so he would not be expected to appear again so that does happen sometimes.
You know in the original Tong Po raped Kurt's girlfriend and in this nothing like that happened, this Tong Po was much less evil than the original was, especially if you count the sequels as canon. This Tong Po was a gladiator who would kill an opponent in the arena but he would never go after someone with a gun on the street. However, a GREAT way to have made him more evil would have been still to have a rape but have KURT be the rape victim! Instead of just insulting him and letting him go after the failed murder attempt he could have man raped him like they do in prison to show dominance. In the original Kickboxer Kurt was avenging 2 things, the crippling of his brother AND the rape of his girlfriend. In this he could be avenging the death of his brother and his own rape.
Tong po in this one was a redeemable character, one we could accept has redeemable has viewers.
The original tong po on the other hand wasnt, the raping and blackmail was to much.
There is a proverb that there is some good in everyone (that might not apply to the original Tong Po). Maybe he showed mercy and just beat up (but did no permanent damage) Kurt and called the cops on him instead of killing him because he felt a mild degree of sympathy for him since he was trying to avenge his brother. Or maybe he was a warrior who felt that the only kind of killing fitting for a warrior was in the arena. Or maybe he was HOPING Kurt would at some point challenge him to a fight in the arena (which did happen) so that he could kill him in front of hundreds of witnesses instead of that room with no witnesses in his home.
His not killing Kurt kind of made it hard to hate Tong Po, the original Tong Po was much easier to hate.
Sometimes when remakes or sequels are done a phenomenon called "upping the ante" happens where the stakes get EVEN HIGHER than in earlier versions. In the original his brother was crippled but in this killed. Maybe a way to "up the ante" to the rape of his girlfriend in the original would be for Tong Po to rape HIM. Imagine how badly he would want revenge if Tong Po did one of those "prison rape" things to Kurt? Tong Po is not gay hell he sleeps with 2 female prostitutes at the same time but rape between men is more about the power than the sex. Something I never really understood, I would NEVER want to do that to another man DISGUSTING, I will find some other way to 'dominate'.