Van Damme's breakout film was "Bloodsport", which opened on 26 February 1988, based on the alleged true story of Frank Dux. It was shot on a $1.5-million budget for Cannon. The film is about U.S. Army Captain Frank Dux (played by Van Damme), trained from his youth in the ways of ninjutsu by Senzo Tanaka, who honors his mentor by taking the place of Tanaka's deceased son Shingo in the illegal martial-arts tournament Kumite in Hong Kong. It became a U.S. box-office hit in the spring of 1988. Producer Mark Di Salle said he was looking for "a new martial arts star who was a ladies' man, Van Damme appeals to both men and women. He's an American hero who fights for justice the American way and kicks the stuffing out of the bad guys." This success would establish Van Damme as a film star and becoming a regular action star for The Cannon Group alongside Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson, Sho Kosugi, and Michael Dudikoff. Also in 1988, Van Damme played another Russian villain, in "Black Eagle", opposite Sho Kosugi. In the film, Sho Kosugi is a martial artist and special operative for the U.S. government codenamed "Black Eagle", and summoned by his superiors after an F-111 carrying an experimental black ops laser tracking device was shot down over Malta by Russian forces.