Comparison between the censored UK DVD (BBFC 18) by Universal and the uncensored Australian DVD (M15+) by Force Video.

- 8 cuts
- Runtime difference: 1124.8 sec (= 18:45 min)

 

With No Retreat, No Surrender 2 - Raging Thunder the fun started. Originally, both Jean-Claude van Damme and Kurt McKinney were supposed to be back, but the marginal security precautions for filming in Cambodia were a deterrent. It was better that way, because thanks to these circumstances Loren Avedon, who was also present in both sequels, could enter the field. Together with Cynthia Rothrock, he's a more than adequate replacement. Both of their martial arts skills also fit much better into the typically wild Hong Kong production of Ng See-Yuen and Seasonal Films. On the other side, Hwang Jang-Lee is another Asia heavyweight to be seen. No Retreat, No Surrender 2 - Raging Thunder is a highly entertaining non-stop action firework in the jungle, as you hardly ever saw it after the 80s. Genre fans are left with only a few other choices, such as the similarly uninhibited follow-up movies No Retreat, No Surrender 3: Blood Brothers and No Retreat, No Surrender 4: The King of the Kickboxers with Loren Avedon.

Annoyingly, the film is generally only poorly available in terms of quality, but also in terms of the available releases. The German version is censored by 13.5 minutes in pretty much all action scenes. Only one Australian DVD is uncut, but the British DVD is probably the most affordable one for those interested. This one is complete in violence and action, only one scene with animal violence had to be removed for the BBFC's sake. So the snake blood is drunk, but the killing of the animal was removed. Basically a version which most prospective customers can arrange themselves with.

Note: On VHS, a version tightened by more than 15 minutes of plot scenes was released in the US and also Great Britain, so that quasi really only one fight scene follows after the next. And of course, the British miss out on a bit more, like the killing of the snake. This curious "action-only" version gets a separate comparison from us.

Runtimes are ordered as follows: British DVD in PAL / Australian DVD in PAL

The words of the Vietnamese general are only subtitled in the UK VHS. By the way, here you can already see the strongly darkened picture in any night scene.

The title fade in a minute later was completely rebuilt on a black background - but you wouldn't have seen much more outside the brightening flashes.

Shortly thereafter (as with the German version) the picture is mirrored in the street shot.

British VHS	Australian DVD

All other foreign language scenes are also subtitled here. Here are a few more examples. Some of these scenes, like those in the 30th/43th and the 60th/77th minute (see last two comparison pictures) are synchronized anyway, e.g. in the German version.

British VHS	Australian DVD

07:34 / 07:34-17:14

After the training with Terry, a huge scene block is missing, here we suddenly continue with the bed scene and the complete introduction of Scott's girlfriend Su Lin is missing.

Terry can be seen a bit longer, then you see Scott marching through the city. He arrives at his hotel, a rather simple dosshouse. A man in the hallway tries to talk him into buying a woman, after he has already been besieged by others. As he arrives in the room, the bed collapses under him. Scott calls the Wing residence and asks for Su Lin. The pimp tries again to get him to buy a prostitute, whereupon Scott gets rid of him again and Su Lin teases him with an accent on the phone at first. He arranges a dinner with her and the man arrives with another prostitute at the same time.

Scott finally makes it out and is taken to the table in a restaurant. Everything has been prepared especially well for him. At the table there is a lot of joking dialogue and all kinds of exotic food are handed out. At first, Scott confuses the monkey brain with something else and then spits it out in disgust. Towards the end you can see that they are being watched by a man.

Now Scott arrives at his hotel with Su Lin. Of course, she is not too enthusiastic about the cheap dosshouse, but with the light switched off in the room, the two kiss each other deeply. It comes to the sensual sex.

Finally, Su Lin's father gets a call at night and hears that someone was murdered. The caller quickly hangs up and Mr. Nguyen leaves the house.

580 sec total (= 9:40 min)