China O'Brien (1990)

This week’s selection for the Fridays of Fury Action Club was China O’Brien (1990). It was produced by Golden Harvest to try and sell star Cynthia Rothrock to American audiences after she found success in their Hong Kong films. It was directed by Robert Clouse, who seemed like an obvious choice as he directed Bruce Lee’s big break in America, Enter the Dragon (1973). Of course, Clouse had also failed to sell Jackie Chan to American audiences in The Big Brawl (1980). He is also the man who directed the legendarily goofy Gymkata (1985). Hmmm, maybe he wasn’t the obvious choice after all. 

I definitely felt a lack of energy in his shooting, staging, and editing of fights in China O’Brien. I didn’t expect it to compare to Rothrock’s Hong Kong flicks at all, but it often feels old-fashioned and stodgy even compared to some of its American contemporaries. Making the plot/setting of the movie feel like a modern Western is cool, shooting martial arts fights like an old Western bar brawl not so much. There are still fun moves and moments but the action scenes never feel like they really take off. Sometimes in the modern action era we fetishize long takes and wide shots, but here they frequently make the fights feel slower and clunkier than they already would with their simple choreography. It really makes me appreciate the use of close-ups, camera movements, and cuts to give speed and power to moves. Fortunately, the plot and character stuff is often pretty fun in a goofily earnest way. 

Rothrock plays China O’Briiiiiiien (I can’t help but hear it in the voice of Conan O’Brien’s announcer), a cop and martial arts instructor. It opens with a weirdly contrived scenario starting with an argument between O’Brien and a student. He says her martial arts moves don’t work in the streets. She says it is an art form and she (a cop!) is against violence, so she agrees to fight him and four other guys in an alley later that night. Huh? I was reminded of the cognitive dissonance at the end of the delightfully daffy Miami Connection, where after our heroes murder the shit out of their enemies until a stream RUNS RED WITH THEIR BLOOD the movie later flashes the message “Only through the elimination of violence can we achieve world peace.” before the credits roll. China ends up encountering some real criminals in the alley, resulting in shenanigans that feel straight out of a 1970s American martial arts B-movie. O’Brien ends up shooting a kid holding a gun on her student. 

In a shocking turn of events, she chooses to turn in her gun and badge because she is so upset by the shooting. This is so against the norm for movies of this type, usually the cop gets their badge and gun TAKEN from them and they go find bigger guns to kill MORE people to do the job the law won’t or whatever.  Instead of becoming a loner urban vigilante, O’Brien goes back to reconnect with her roots in her hometown of Beaver Creek, Utah (accompanied by a song recorded by a pre-fame Tori Amos for $150 in 1988!) Her dad is the town sheriff, and she reconnects with highschool sweetheart and fellow karate-enthusiast Matt (Australian Richard Norton struggling and failing to maintain an American accent). Sheriff O’Brien is losing ground to local crime boss Sommer. Sommer controls the local judge and O'Brien's Deputy Lickner (Patrick Adamson, looking exceptionally pock-marked and greasy).

don't raise your eyebrows like that at Cynthia you fucking creep

That is another change of pace from other movies of this vintage, instead of blaming the entire justice system or lawyers and their clients’ damn “civil rights,” small scale corruption and evil bastards with too much money are the threat.

Things escalate and Sheriff O’Brien and his honest deputy are killed by car bombs. China runs for sheriff to take her father’s place. She hands out flyers, gives speeches decked out in denim, even has a parade that culminates in driving around a bonfire.

end denim tariffs now! vote no on the Canadian Tuxedo Tax!

It's all adorably wholesome (if questionable fire/auto safety), until Sommer sends in a firetruck and goons to try and quash the rally. China and Friends (coming to Saturday mornings this 1992 fall season!) kick the shit out of them. Attempted vote tampering at the local school gym results in weight throwing, stick fighting, and warranty-voiding use of workout equipment. I feel like part of the problem in our current political process might be the lack of roundhouse kicks being delivered to assholes acting in obvious bad faith. To be fair, it doesn’t fix things and another person close to China dies in a drive-by shooting. China and Friends (™) force the judge to swear her in and sign warrants (to be delivered via kicks of course).

Probably my favorite part of the movie is the supporting character Dakota. The “Native American” biker is played by Keith Cooke (Reptile in Mortal Kombat [1995], upgraded to Sub Zero in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation [1997]), sometimes credited with his actual last name Hirabayashi. Cooke is of German, Scottish, English and Japanese descent. So not great for Indigenous representation, but great for entertainment value because Cooke has kicks! There are some awesomely ridiculous shots of Dakota hitting three dudes with the same jump kick or doing a proto-Scott Adkins triple kick between two guys.

hell yeah

Dakota also has a mangled hand and seems to have various attachments he uses to play video games or steer his dirt-bike. For a long chunk of the movie he has no dialogue and follows China around without any introduction. Eventually he gets some backstory and a revenge motivation. As was the case with a lot of the movie, Dakota felt like a character created by a child (complimentary). I would have totally collected Dakota figures with different “action attachments” for his hand. I can see it now, Grappling Hook Dakota, Harpoon Dakota (in scuba suit), Cookout Dakota (with chef hat and spatula hand). Of course, if it was anything like the Sarah Conner-less Terminator 2 toy line, they would never try to sell a female character as a “boys” action figure. So China O’Brien herself would instead have a larger Barbie-like doll “with removable REAL denim jacket!” This movie was supposed to be putting Cynthia Rothrock over, so it is weird how much shine they put on the supporting character. 

All Action Club reviews for this movie here