China O’Brien / China O’Brien 2, 1990
Directed by Robert Clouse.
Starring Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Keith Cooke, Cindy Clark, Tiffany Soter, Nijel, Billy Blanks.
SYNOPSIS:
4K UHD box set featuring both Cynthia Rothrock-led martial arts action classics from the VHS era.
In a genre where the underdog is constantly being championed and many prize fighters get sent to the bargain bin, some of whom make a comeback when their movies reach cult status, 1990s China O’Brien (and its sequel from the same year) are often overlooked in favour of the dull American Ninja sequels (post-part 2, obviously), Best of the Best rehashes or Kickboxer reimaginings that lose their appeal if JCVD does not appear in them.
And this is a shame because China O’Brien is a more entertaining movie than anything in those franchises after their original instalments (American Ninja 2 notwithstanding) and should have put star Cynthia Rothrock in the bigger leagues during the 1990s, which would make her a great candidate for an Expendables movie around about now (or perhaps not, given the state of that franchise). A staple of video stores back in the hazy days of 1990, Eureka Entertainment have pulled the two movies from the brink of obscurity, given them a 4K UHD polish and bundled them into a fetching box set, which was nice of them.
In the first movie, Rothrock stars as Lori ‘China’ O’Brien, nicknamed so because of her martial arts abilities. O’Brien is a cop who, after accepting a challenge to fight a gang in a dirty back alley, ends up shooting a kid who pulls a gun on one of her students. Cleared of any wrongdoing, O’Brien quits the force and returns to her hometown of Beaver Creek, where her father is the local sheriff, but the town has come under the control of vicious crime lord who murders her father and sets China on the road for revenge as she applies for her father’s old job to decide who really runs Beaver Creek.
A simple plot, the sort of thing you used to see in episodes of The A-Team, and to be honest that is the vibe throughout China O’Brien as good ol’ boys tool up in the dusty backwater town of Beaver Creek and the citizens choose which side to be on, only the action here is a little more violent than the sort Hannibal Smith and crew dealt out on Saturday evening television. Cynthia Rothrock is a joy to watch as she high-kicks and punches her way through several waves of goons, assisted by her old friend Matt (Richard Norton) and stranger-in-town Dakota (Keith Cooke), who has his own reasons for wanting to take out the gang. Yes, the acting isn’t the best you’ll ever see but the chemistry between the three leads is enough to carry it, and their characters are the sort you’d want to follow in a sequel.
Which is good because China O’Brien 2 came along the same year, being filmed back-to-back with the original. Rothrock, Norton and Cooke return as we catch up with China now fully established as the law enforcement in town, but all the peace and harmony she created gets destroyed when a gang of drug-dealing ex-Vietnam soldiers come to town to find the person who ratted them out to the authorities. Cue our gang of heroes as they take down the latest threat to their quiet life.
Again, it’s a plot straight out of an A-Team episode – or a classic western, if you like, because that’s where The A-Team got most of their ideas – only the characters in this movie do fall over and die when they get shot. Rothrock is still great fun to watch but Keith Cooke gets a little more to do here, which is needed as action movie C-lister Billy Blanks pops up as one of the drug-dealing thugs, adding a bit more edge to the violence. However, the thin plot is a little too undercooked to run for a whole feature length, and the second half of the movie becomes a string of shoot-outs and fight sequences that are impressively shot and choreographed, but don’t add very much to what we have seen already, making China O’Brien 2 not as consistently entertaining as its predecessor.
Nevertheless, with both movies directed by Robert ‘Enter the Dragon’ Clouse and made by legendary Hong Kong production house Golden Harvest, there is a lot of martial arts credibility that comes with them, and with Cynthia Rothrock they had an American female action star who wasn’t just an actor but came with a bunch of championship titles under her (black) belt and was the real deal as far as martial artists go.
Both movies come with an audio commentary by action cinema experts Mike Leeder and Arne Venema, as well as China O’Brien 2 coming with a commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng, and there are interviews with Cynthia Rothrock, Keith Cooke and various martial arts academics and experts to provide context. Eureka have also included a double-sided poster, collector’s booklet and limited edition O-ring packaging, just to make this set a bit more special, and although both moves have had the 4K UHD upgrade, it is really the 1990s fashions that benefit the most as some of the colours of those shell suits pop out of the screen to the point of nearly blinding you. Not that the rest of the visuals are shabby, but these are low budget action movies shot on cheap film during a time when a lot of these movies looked fairly bland and flat in comparison to glossier, more expensive studio pictures, but they’ve cleaned up nicely compared to previous releases.
Overall, this is a great set to own if you are a fan of action movies from this era. The movies don’t quite sit up on the top tier with the likes of Bloodsport, Marked For Death or Road House from this era, but sometimes being top of division two is a better place to be than bottom of division one, and in Cynthia Rothrock China O’Brien paved the way for action movies to feature female actors in lead roles more prominently, so from that perspective they are more important than the usual Van Damme/Seagal/Lundgren testosterone-fuelled model that was popular at the time. Entertaining, fun and progressive, all packaged up nicely with a few bonus goodies thrown in – what more could you ask for?
Flickering Myth Rating – China O’Brien – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Flickering Myth Rating – China O’Brien 2 – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
Originally published April 27, 2024. Updated April 28, 2024.
