Looking Forward To Love Hurts? Check Out This Old Ke Huy Quan Movie

Ke Huy Quan is returning for more action-packed fun in the martial arts comedy romp Love Hurts, and fans of Quan’s would do well to revisit one of his older movies before its release. After a two-decade long retirement from acting, Ke Huy Quan made one of the amazing Hollywood comeback stories with his big-screen return in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. With multiple accolades stemming from his role in the multiverse martial arts comedy, including an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Quan is back in the game like never before, which makes a renaissance for his 1992 martial arts film Breathing Fire long overdue.

Made during the period between Quan’s breakout as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and his acting break, Breathing Fire is very much a straight-to-video martial arts actioner back when such a distinction largely drew only niche attention from action fans. However, the likes of Scott Adkins, Michael Jai White, and Marko Zaror, among others, have long since made the straight-to-video action scene the cool kids table for action aficionados. Between that, Quan’s epic comeback with Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the involvement of the 87Eleven crew in Love Hurts, there’s never been a better time to revisit Breathing Fire with Love Hurts right around the corner.

Breathing Fire Is A Fun Martial Arts B-Movie With Ke Huy Quan

Breathing Fire sees Ke Huy Quan (credited as Jonathan Ke Quan) in the role of Charlie Moore, the adoptive son of Michael Moore (Jerry Trimble), who brought Charlie home after his tour of duty in Vietnam. Unbeknownst to Charlie, Michael ruthlessly killed Charlie’s mother during a raid in Vietnam, and was fully prepared to leave the infant Charlie behind. Only at the insistence of Charlie’s brother David (Ed Neil) did Michael agree to raise Charlie as his own son.

While Charlie and his adoptive brother Tony (Eddie Saavedra) are preparing for an upcoming Taekwondo tournament, they find themselves protecting a young woman named Annie (Laure Hamilton) after her parents are killed by a gang of bank robbers. The gang is pursuing a slice of plastic pizza that was used to create a key mold for the vault their stolen haul is stashed in, with Charlie, Tony, and David completely unaware that Michael is the leader of the gang. Breathing Fire follows the action-packed journey of Charlie and Tony as they use their martial arts skills to fight off the pursuing gang and also train under the injured David in his extensive knowledge of martial arts.

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Breathing Fire Is One Of Ke Huy Quan’s Most Overlooked Movies

Over three decades after its release, Breathing Fire remains a cult favorite among martial arts fans, but despite Ke Huy Quan’s remarkable comeback with Everything Everywhere All At Once, it remains perhaps his most forgotten movie on a mainstream level before his return. Part of the charm of Breathing Fire is the movie’s combination of a light-hearted coming-of-age story of two teenage martial artists with genuine live-and-death stakes. Sure, there’s some silliness to be found in Breathing Fire, including multiple instances in which crash mats are clearly visible when characters take falls. However, these moments are easily forgiven in the action-packed fun of Breathing Fire‘s parallel tournament and crime stories.

Ke Huy Quan is a highly skilled Taekwondo practitioner in real life, and Breathing Fire is by far the finest showcase of his skills before his return in Everything Everywhere All At Once. He’s not alone as a high-level martial artist in Breathing Fire, with movie’s cast being full of many skilled martial arts practitioners and real-world champions. Jerry Trimble was a real-life kickboxing champion who starred in many low budget martial arts films of the early ’90s, and who even had the honor of fighting opposite Jet Li in 1989’s The Master. With Power Rangers veteran Ed Neil, Eddie Saavedra, and the legendary Bolo Yeung also on board, Breathing Fire is full of phenomenal martial arts fights and training sequences. Those elements make Breathing Fire a perfect lead-in to seeing Everything Everywhere All At Once for the first time, but just as much before Love Hurts.

Why Breathing Fire Is Perfect To Revisit Before Love Hurts

Part of what made Ke Huy Quan’s comeback in Everything Everywhere All At Once so impactful was just how out of the blue his return the spotlight was, coupled with the endearing persona and fighting skill he brought to his role as Waymond Wang. The movie’s acclaim and that of Quan’s award-winning performance was proof positive that it’s never too late for any former star to make a comeback or that one’s overall dreams of success are never out of reach (a point Quan himself tearfully made in his numerous awards acceptance speeches.) With Breathing Fire, audiences can see the talent he drew upon for Everything Everywhere All At Once as a likeable action movie lead is both innate and severely underutilized.

While Quan’s martial arts skills were put to work in his role as Short Round, Breathing Fire is also one of the few major instances of Quan as a martial arts movie leading man prior to Love Hurts. Working with the 87Eleven crew, well known for launching the John Wick franchise and other modern action hits, Love Hurts displays Quan’s talent in fight scenes combined with Jackie Chan-style physical comedy is as strong as ever. Both are also integral elements of his role in Breathing Fire, in which Quan is a marvel in the movie’s abundant fight sequences while bringing much levity to his performance as Charlie.

The one-two punch of Everything Everywhere All At Once and Love Hurts has effectively made Ke Huy Quan into both an Academy Award-winning leading man and a modern day martial arts movie star. Breathing Fire, meanwhile, demonstrates that Quan was already well on his way towards achieving that second distinction in the early ’90s before his two-decade hiatus. With Love Hurts set to bring plenty of action-packed martial arts movie fun and comedy to Valentine’s Day, martial arts fans and general audiences enamored with Quan’s historic comeback could give themselves an even bigger treat in pulling up Breathing Fire before going to see Ke Huy Quan in action again in Love Hurts.

Love Hurts will be released in theaters on February 7.