We haven’t covered a Don “The Dragon” Wilson movie for a while, so to make up for this travesty today we’re covering 3 of them by looking back at his Ring of Fire Trilogy from PM Entertainment.
Ring of Fire (1991)
Plot: L.A.’s Chinatown is disrupted by the cross-town rivalry between two kickboxing clubs, as the competitive sport is catapulted from the ring of a gymnasium to a ring of fire.
Ring of Fire was always a strange one for Don Wilson as it is at its core a love story; he doesn’t even have any fight scenes until the very end but thankfully there are still plenty of other beatdowns featuring the likes of Vince Murdocco, Eric Lee, Gary Daniels, Ron Yuan and Steven Vincent Leigh.
The story revolves around a doctor called Johnny Woo (Wilson) who meets a girl called Julie (Maria Ford) in a restaurant and the pair fall in love nearly immediately. Unfortunately Julie is already engaged to a douche called Chuck (Vince Murdocco) who isn’t about to give her up easily. The majority of Wilson’s scenes involve him courting Julie and the film was allegedly inspired by Romeo & Juliet and written in about two weeks which explains why it feels familiar.
There are still regular fights that are sadly interrupted by scenes of romance but it’s nice to see Wilson play a romantic lead rather than just a guy who can beat up lots of goons… not that there’s anything wrong with that. One thing I love about the old-school Don Wilson films is how he usually cast real life fighters which makes the action so much better. Keep your eyes open for Ian Jacklin and Art Camacho who show up briefly as gang members.
This may be the only film that Gary Daniels gets peed on and he probably doesn’t need reminded of it and yet here we are (sorry Gary). He always made for an entertaining bad guy and although it’s not a huge role he still gets to show off his incredible martial arts skills remaining one of my all-time on-screen fighters.
It’s nice to see Steven Vincent Leigh playing a good guy as he played a few villains back in the day but here he’s Don Wilson’s cousin who takes part in underground fights against various opponents.
Dale Jacoby is certainly hateful as Brad who is Julie’s protective (and racist) brother; he is against her getting together with Johnny and is loyal to his friend Chuck.
Racism is another major factor in the story including a prejudiced detective who just sees Johnny and his family as nothing but trouble.
Overall, Ring of Fire doesn’t have enough of Don Wilson fight scenes but it’s a different kind of role for him and we still get plenty of other beatdowns featuring genuinely skilled martial artists. Whether you can be bothered with the romantic storyline is up to you but I still have a soft spot for this one.
Ring of Fire II: Blood and Steel (1993)
Plot: A martial-arts fighter battles murderous gang members and the henchmen of an evil underground fighting champion to save his girlfriend.
Now, this is how you do a sequel that’s bigger and better than the original in every way. Where the first movie barely had any Don “The Dragon” Wilson fight scenes Ring of Fire 2: Blood and Steel more than makes up for it almost feeling like the best Final Fight movie we’ll never see. The events of this follow up after the first with Johnny (Wilson) wanting to marry Julie (Maria Ford) but while out shopping for a ring robbers assault the jewelry store and Julie gets shot in the process. She isn’t majorly injured but during the showdown Johnny kills the main villain Kalin’s (Ian Jacklin) brother. He vows revenge and ends up kidnapping Julie and taking her to his underground lair.
Johnny takes it upon himself to go after her and save his wife to be. He won’t be alone however, as former opponents Chuck and Brad are now on Johnny’s side and follow him to save Julie with Ron Yuan and Eric Lee in tow.
I like how Ian Jacklin had a blink or you miss it role in the first film but this time he’s the main villain and he’s a total psychopath but we also get the added bonus of PM regular Evan Lurie who plays his henchman and is equally as evil. The rest of the cast return from the first movie too which is a welcome piece of continuity as I always hate when characters are recast in sequels.
There are awesome fight scenes every few minutes in this movie and it doesn’t waste time with silly moments of romance; this time we get straight to the face punching and Wilson is at his badass best here. There is a scene where Johnny faces off against a gang of neon covered villains known as Shadow Warriors and I wonder if it was Don’s idea to return to that concept with his role in Batman Forever…
Overall, Ring of Fire 2 is perfectly paced and packed with action making this a superior sequel in every way; it has better villains and if anyone was to ever adapt Final Fight into a movie I would do it like this.
Ring of Fire 3: Lion Strike (1994)
Plot: A holiday vacation for Dr. Johnny Wu, his young son Bobby, and a beautiful forest ranger turns into a nightmare when they are thrown headfirst into a whirling maelstrom of violence involving a new breed of evil; the Global Mafia.
What I especially enjoy about this franchise is how different the three films are; the first one is more of a romantic tale filled with fight scenes, the second is like Final Fight and the third film entitled Lion Strike once again has Don Wilson returning as Doctor Johnny Wu, this time in the wilderness being chased by mafia hoods.
Johnny definitely works in arguably the most exciting hospital around as he has regular brawls with gang members and other goons on a near daily basis. I liked how the detective who was kind of a dick towards Johnny in the first film has become one of his closest allies and he quickly realized that Johnny is a good man who just seems to be a bit of a shit magnet.
The most welcome addition to the cast is Bobbie Phillips (Back in Action/TC-2000) who plays park ranger Kelly; she teams up with Johnny to take down the bad guys and prevent them getting their hands on a disc which in the wrong hands could lead to nuclear disaster. Not only is Kelly utterly gorgeous but she’s a total badass at the same time who gets several fight scenes and I would have loved a TV series with these two taking out the trash every week.
Art Camacho has a brief spoken role in the movie but he also co-wrote the script; I wish he’d had a larger part and gave us a fight between him and Don but sadly it didn’t happen… at least not in this film. Sadly, the rest of the cast of the previous movies don’t appear here, so no Ron Yuan or Eric Lee and their presence is missed.
Lion Strike makes for an easy watch with plenty of fight scenes, cool explosions and shoot-outs keeping things well-paced and never dull. Don Wilson never disappoints with his fight scenes and he makes Johnny such an appealing character that we are always 100% behind him. He’s the kind of hero we rarely see these days and I would love to see Don return to the franchise; he still has the moves, but it will likely never happen.
Overall, Ring of Fire 3: Lion Strike is another fun addition to the franchise with plenty of action and Bobbie Phillips is awesome as Kelly. I think Part 2 had better characters and the best villain of the franchise, but this is still a enjoyable actioner that delivers the goods.
If I were to rank the films I would say Part 2 is my favourite followed by 3 then the first film. I watch the second film the most as it’s just constant action feeling like Final Fight meets The Warriors, but you can’t go wrong settling in for the weekend and watching Don Wilson beat up bad guys with ease.
