Jean-Claude Van Damme films with Hong Kong roots, from Bloodsport to Knock Off

Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme has made a number of films either filmed in or linked closely to Hong Kong. Here are four

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Jean-Claude Van Damme (right) and Bolo Yeung in a still from Bloodsport (1988), which was shot entirely in Hong Kong and is populated with local talent Photo: Warner Bros

Published: 7:15pm, 19 Oct 2025

Belgian action hero Jean-Claude Van Damme has always had a close association with Hong Kong.

Besides appearing in John Woo Yu-sum’s Hollywood debut Hard Target and numerous films by Ringo Lam Ling-tung, the actor sometimes used the city as a de facto base for his Asian shoots.

Here are four of his films with deep and sometimes surprising Hong Kong roots.

No Retreat, No Surrender (1986)

While he had a short scene as a gay karate expert in 1984’s Monaco Forever, Van Damme landed his first prominent role in No Retreat, No Surrender, playing the hulking Russian fighter Ivan the Russian.

Though only a supporting part in a story about a young martial artist (Kurt McKinney) taught by the ghost of Bruce Lee, it was his true breakout.

Although the film is set in the US with a non-Asian cast – except for Korean Kim Tae-jeong, who plays the ghost of Bruce Lee – it is a wholly Hong Kong production, produced by Ng See-yuen’s Seasonal Films, directed by the late Corey Yuen Kwai, and with action choreography by the veteran Mang Hoi.

Yuen and Ng chose Van Damme at an open audition, impressed by his physique and his martial arts skills. During the shoot, he was coached on set to deliver his lines in English.

According to screenwriter Keith Strandberg, the shoot offered an early glimpse of Van Damme’s notorious on-set intensity.

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