The Perfect Weapon (Blu-Ray) Review

For those of us who love movies, we tend to have films that have a deep place in our heart that many other people do not. Pictures that many movie goers (especially those under a certain age) have even heard of, never mind enjoy. We explored one of those movies earlier this year in Red Corner which holds a special place solely for the fact that I was able to bond with my then college roommate who was something of a stranger up to that point. Another such film is the one we are looking at today, The Perfect Weapon. I first saw this movie during my teenage years and probably have watched it about a dozen times by this point. It came down to something as simple as I was looking for a martial arts film (at that point I was mostly unaware of foreign films) that wasn’t Steven Seagal or Jean-Claude Van Damme that I could sink my teeth into. Enter Jeff Speakman. Let’s take a look.

Life is not exactly easy for Jeff Sanders (played by Jeff Speakman). In the dusty town of Santa Fe, he spends his days as a construction worker and at night he practices his martial art, Kenpo to the tune of The Power by Snap!

Somewhere in downtown Los Angeles, a shopkeeper, Kim Kwan (played by Mako) is being accosted by the Golden Fists who have ties to the Korean mafia who run this area. They want his shop to be a front for drugs but Kim wants no part of it. Suddenly the phone rings, and it happens to be Jeff who is old friends with Kim. The Kenpo master is able to hear the conversation in the background and asks what is going on.

Kim dismisses Jeff and tells him it’s nothing as the businessman from the Golden Fists rips out the phone cord from the wall. He then yells at Kim that this isn’t over and throws his business card at the shop keeper before leaving. Jeff decides it’s time to take a trip back to his hometown.

While Jeff takes a very long trip back to his hometown, he decides to reminisce about his life growing up which was apparently a mix of emotions, with most not being so good. Jeff’s mother died when he was young, and his distraught father, Carl Sanders (played by Beau Starr) tended to be tough on the boy who was finding it hard coming to grasp with his own emotions. Kim, who was a friend of the family suggested that Jeff learn Kenpo, a martial art that would teach him to control his emotions.

Kim takes Jeff to a Kenpo school that is run by Master Lo (played by Seth Sakai). Jeff takes quite well to this particular style of martial art, ascending up the ranks to a black belt. But with that great strength and skills comes a heavy responsibility. One day, a high school football player harasses both Jeff and his brother, Adam. It goes to the point where the player strikes Adam bloodying him. Standing up for his brother, Jeff takes out the player with some fierce kicks to the head, knocking the player out and sending him right to the hospital.

However, Captain Sanders is not happy with Jeff’s antics and orders him to leave their house and don’t come back (despite him sticking up for his brother). Jeff also leaves the Kenpo dojo with a final lesson involving the relationship between the tiger and the dragon. We are back to the present day with Jeff finally being back in his hometown. Is Jeff going to be able to channel his emotions correctly and is he going to be able to fight back the Golden Fists and restore peace to this area of people and also within himself? We’ll soon find out.

The rest of the film is Jeff taking on the Golden Fists and tracking down the bad guys. He also runs into his brother, Adam (played by John Dye) who is now a Los Angeles cop investigating a murder as well as his father. The martial art of Kenpo is on full display and is a complete joy to watch. But beyond all of the punches, kicks and stick fighting is a fun and very packed story. There is intrigue, mis-direction and character growth. I’m sure some will chuckle at that notion but there are numerous reasons I still enjoy this film after all of these years.

In addition to the martial-arts and the Kenpo, one of the things that is interesting about this movie is the wealth of recognizable supporting characters. James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China, Kung Fu Panda series), Professor Toru Tanaka (An Eye for an Eye, Running Man and primarily 70’s wrestling fame), and Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat, Showdown in Little Tokyo) all noticeable names in martial art films play key members of the Golden Fists. Many will also recognize Dante Basco who plays Jimmy Ho in this film from Hook (The leader of the Lost Boys) and has a done a ton of work as a voice actor. I’ll even throw out a more random name, Branscombe Richmond (of tv series, Renegade fame) plays a bartender in the film. These all help to solidify the supporting performances in this film.

If I had to criticize the movie, I would say the biggest fault is the run time. This is a very short movie, and while it is packed from start to finish, there is absolutely no room for this movie to breathe. As we can tell from the deleted scenes later in the extras, there is a chunk of story left out of the final cut. Even with only that built back into the film, that would be sufficient to give this movie the breath it is looking for. Outside of that, this film certainly fits into what I would consider the top ten of American martial-art films of all time.

Video

The video is in 1.85:1 widescreen. This is actually a new 4k scan prepared by Paramount (I would ask where my 4k disc is but I will digress), and for the most part it certainly looks better than past efforts. Detail appears more defined in many places and nighttime scenes do receive a great deal of benefit. There seem to be some liberty here taken with the overall color of the film with a teal shift, but it’s far from oppressive. Furthermore, the only way this is getting any better is a 4k disc.

As a point of comparison with the Olive release in 2012 and then later with the Spanish release in 2016 (sorry, don’t have a copy of the German release though it does have some awesome cover art), the Olive release almost feels like a DVD release and the presentation which many thought was fairly decent back then seems to pale in comparison to the new scan. The detail is not as prevalent and the grain is overbearing at times. The Spanish release fares much better and some might feel the need to keep this particular release because of the slight color timing.

Audio

The audio for this one is 2.0 DTS-HD English. Subtitles are provided in English SDH. The sound is a pretty excellent stereo mix with lots of pulse and thunderous action. Dialog is also quite clear, and there is almost no issue here hearing anyone despite any of the accents or busy environment. There are no obvious problems with the disc that I could detect and the subtitles seemed to read correctly.

Going back to the previous two discs again we see a much smaller difference. All three discs come with a 2.0 DTS-HD English track and honestly I’m struggling to see any noticeable change in that regard. Again, the Olive disc doesn’t offer anything extra (and doesn’t have subtitles either). The Spanish disc might be kept for the PCM Spanish track or the extra subtitle options in Spanish and Portuguese but as far as quality there is nothing to be had.

NOTE: While most people fixate on the song The Power by SNAP! when it comes to this movie, there is another track worth mentioning and that’s On the Prowl performed by Machun and written by Gary Chang. It is readily available on YouTube and other similar platforms but if anyone has seen a physical release (because I can’t find one), please let me know.

Special Features

Audio Commentary with Director Mark DiSalle and Action Film Historian Mike Leeder: This commentary does a really good job of learning Mark’s approach to this film as well as how it was to work with Jeff Speakman. The only negative here is how jarring the conversation is between the director and Mike Leeder. Mike is obviously on a phone and not in the same room with the director and therefore it causes a slight delay between the two participants. Maybe I am the only one, I would do it for the cost of a plane ticket to be in a room with Mark DiSalle to talk The Perfect Weapon. It certainly would add to a more pleasing commentary.
Street Speed: Interview with Star Jeff Speakman 23:34: This brand new interview with Speakman who is now in his 60’s is an awesome and in-depth chat with this hero of my youth. He talks about the movie, the stunt work and also his history of how he learned under Kenpo master Ed Parker who unfortunately died before this movie came out. From someone who loved every Jeff Speakman movie he came in contact with, this was such a joy to watch.
Deleted and Extended Scenes 8:54: Since this movie runs at only 84 minutes, I always knew there were scenes cut and removed. There are six here to digest and the most important thing about the scenes is the reemergence of the character, Jennifer (played by Mariska Hargitay) who is a fellow Kenpo student and love interest of Jeff. This is also one of those rare situations where every single extended cut and deleted scene shown here should have been placed back into the movie.
Trailers: The Perfect Weapon, A Force of One, Revenge of the Ninja, Avenging Force, Catch the Heat, Code of Silence, Blind Fury, and Sudden Death.
NOTE: Neither the Spanish release nor the Olive release have any extras as both were bare bones.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to American martial-art films of the late 80’s and early to mid 90’s, a lot of focus is on something like Bloodsport, Above the Law or Rapid Fire. The Perfect Weapon is also mentioned after the first half dozen typically, but most casual admirers will have trouble remembering the name of Jeff Speakman. After this film, Jeff went on to star in other high octane martial art films like Street Knight and The Expert but pretty much after the 90’s he disappeared back into his dojo (though he did a few films in the 2000’s) to continue his Kenpo training. Even in his interview on this disc, he is fitted in his gear, apparently taking out a half hour between teaching class.

During high school and college, I carried around a VHS tape that had The Perfect Weapon, Street Knight and The Expert all recorded on it (recorded off cable nevertheless) for the simple reason that the latter two films did not have suitable copies and still don’t until this very day. The only other Jeff Speakman led-film I’ve seen on disc (DVD) is Running Red or Hot Boyz (which Jeff is more of a supporting actor). Street Knight received a German DVD release in 2021 but that’s pushing the term “suitable release.” The point is we need more Jeff Speakman on disc. Supposedly from what I’ve read, Street Knight would be in the hands of Warner Bros supposedly, but maybe a Warner Archive release isn’t out of the question. The Expert is something that Kino might be able to get their hands on (I believe it was part of MGM but I’m not sure) and I would fully support even a bare bones blu-ray release (or even a two-fer with something like Deadly Outbreak if Kino or an MVD can get it). Despite Jeff’s main focus on his martial arts, the interview recorded for this movie would at least lead me to believe that he does look back fondly on his old movies and wouldn’t mind participating in some of these releases should they ever come to fruition.

This release of The Perfect Weapon is the best one to date. In addition to a fantastic 4k scan, there is a plethora of extras including extremely important deleted scenes, a commentary with the director, and Jeff Speakman himself spending almost half an hour talking about the film. It’s what this Jeff Speakman fan has wanted for years, and much like the first dvd release over a decade ago, I want and hope for more Speakman movies on disc in the near future. This Kino release gets a very high recommendation and should be grabbed immediately by all action and martial art fans alike. Enjoy.

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