Martial arts instructor Y.K. Kim admits he knew nothing about making movies and nearly lost everything he owned to produce the 1987 action film "Miami Connection," but renewed interest in the campy flick has made it all worthwhile.

"I told my students, 'I will make the best action movie in history, and I will show it in the theaters,'" said Kim.

Best in history? Maybe not. Memorable? Absolutely.

"Miami Connection," which has developed a cult following as a midnight movie, will once again be a laughing stock Thursday night as the creative minds behind the comedy website RiffTrax broadcast the film and make fun it before audiences in nearly 700 movie theaters across the U.S. Seven theaters in Central Florida will be among them.

What's so appealing about "Miami Connection?" RiffTrax's Kevin Murphy describes the film as "combining martial arts with mullet haircuts, new-wave music, and an odd gang-fighting thing."
Miami Connection: Movie trailer

Miami Connection: Movie trailer

"It just hits so many different genres at the same time, it's mind boggling," he said.

The attention the film is generating is a vindication of sorts for Kim, who produced, directed and starred in "Miami Connection."

Kim is a Tae Kwon Do icon who currently oversees eight karate schools around Central Florida and does consulting work for more than 1,000 schools across the U.S. and Canada. He left his home in South Korea in 1976 and ended up moving to Orlando, where he opened his first school in 1978. It became so popular it operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and Kim started to expand with more locations. He was approached in the mid 1980's by "Miami Connection" co-director Richard Parks to help produce the film and said yes without really considering how difficult it would be.
Pictures: Movies filmed in Orlando

These movies had scenes shot in Central Florida.

Not only did Kim not watch many movies, he didn't know the first thing about making them. He didn't have a script and only a limited budget, but Kim did have support from thousands of his students as volunteers and wide-reaching support from the Central Florida community, he said.

Friends who knew Kim at the time, including former Orlando Sentinel columnist Charley Reese, told him not to produce the film because he was asking for bankruptcy. Turned out, they were right.

"So when I started, right way, all the money ... gone," said Kim.

His original budget of a couple hundred thousand dollars grew to around $1 million, which adjusted for inflation would be more than $2.2 million today.

His debt caused him to lose his home and his original karate school, and nightmares kept him up so often he nearly drove off the road one night after filming.

It was at his lowest point when he claims to have seen a vision of his late mother who encouraged him to finish the film.

"So I told myself 'Y.K. Kim, you don't have bankruptcy anymore, and I die or I finish it,'" he said.

"Miami Connection" was finished in 1987, but when Kim took it to film studios in Hollywood no one wanted to distribute it. He rented a theater at the Cannes Film Festival in France to screen the movie, but it bombed. A one-time showing in eight Central Florida theaters, funded by Kim, was also a dismal failure.

After all his trials and tribulations, Kim felt disappointed with the response and gave up on filmmaking.

More than 20 years later, something unusual happened. The movie was rediscovered in 2009 when an original copy of the film was purchased for $50 on eBay by Zack Carlson, a programmer at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Texas. After several popular showings, Drafthouse acquired the rights to distribute the cheesy '80s flick in theaters, and it eventually ending up playing across the U.S., including theaters in New York and L.A.

The film that was called by the Orlando Sentinel "the worst movie of the year" when it was first shown, was now being called "the best midnight movie of the year" by audience members when it was re-released to theaters in 2012, said Kim.

Tonight's showing with RiffTrax gives the film its biggest exposure to date — appearing in theaters from Anchorage to Miami.

But the one-time action movie is now considered a comedy. RiffTrax was founded nine years ago by the same group of comedians who produced 10 seasons of the cult-hit television show "Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (MST3K)." They started doing RiffTrax to rip on classic B-movies like "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and newer blockbuster titles like "Transformers" and "Twilight."

RiffTrax's live showing of "Miami Connections" will be at 8 p.m. with a re-broadcast in theaters on Oct. 6.

As for Kim, he's fine with people making fun of him and his film.

"I don't mind ... not one little bit, so as long as I'm making people laugh," he said. "I love it."

"Miami Connection" in area theaters

Cinemark Festival Bay

Waterford Lakes Stadium 20

Downtown Disney 24

Universal Cineplex 20

Pointe Orlando

Winter Park Stadium 20

Pavilion Stadium 14, Port Orange

For more information, go to fathomevents.com.