Outlaw Brothers (1990)

Outlaw Brothers is a 1990 Hong Kong crime/comedy/action flick from director Frankie Chan. Chan plays one of the titular brothers, James, alongside Max Mok as brother Bond (get it?). Also in the cast (and the main reason I sought this out) is Girls with Guns/Chicks with Kicks legend Yukari Oshima. 

James and Bond are high end car thieves who have attracted the attention of the HK police. The cops leave a superintendent’s Porsche as a bait car and are incompetent enough to let the brothers steal it. The brothers’ next car theft is interrupted by overzealous and overskilled security guards who throw down with James in an acrobatic brawl. It doesn’t take this movie long to establish its ass-kicking bona fides with this immediate attention grabber. The fierce but funny fighting, energetic and intricate choreography, and creative use of a broom all reminded me of Jackie Chan fight scenes. Impacts send people sliding across the ground or flying over cars.

Frankie Chan looks like a legit badass, with moves so impressive that I wondered if he might be one of the Seven Little Fortunes that I don't know well. That was the group of Peking Opera-trained performers that came up together including Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, and Corey Yuen. Turns out Frankie Chan was NOT part of that group, although he did work with multiple members. IMDB even has Jackie Chan listed as one of the stunt coordinators on this movie (and further googling showed pictures of him on set working with Oshima). I also noticed the Sammo Hung-directed Prodigal Son (1981) has Frankie Chan fighting Yuen Biao (Righting Wrongs), another one of the Fortunes, so that is going on the watchlist.

The movie takes some time to establish the brothers’ relationship, which is being tested by Bond’s manipulative girlfriend. They also have a sister with an abusive husband. Their thieving skills attract the attention of a crime boss who forces them to work for him. This leads to them eventually crossing dangerous Japanese gangster Miego, played by Michiko Nishiwaki (In the Line of Duty III, Angel Terminators). 

It takes 20+ minutes for Yukari Oshima to show up, but thankfully she plays a major role from that point on. Oshima is the cop who ends up in charge of the increasingly convoluted and mishandled car theft investigation. She is fully in Chicks with Kicks-territory here, as her character doesn’t even want to carry a gun into dangerous situations. Not when her fists and feet will more than suffice! Her badass cop is named Inspector Tequila, and this actually came out two years BEFORE Hard Boiled so she was first! Oshima brawls her way through a number of extensive fight scenes in this movie that really show off her skills. She also gets a lot more than usual to do outside of the fighting. Tequila decides to try and honey trap James into revealing the people giving him orders, but she also has to deal with one of her dumbass cops jealously pursuing her and getting in the way (I couldn't tell how much of a relationship they actually have outside of his affections). Oshima gets to play some comedy, some romance, and some melodrama. She goes from dropping split-kicks on dudes' throats to getting all dolled up for undercover work (and you better believe she still whips ass in her fancy outfit, utilizing her scarf in the scuffle).

This is the most character and range I have seen Oshima work with outside of Angel Terminators 2 (currently my favorite Girls with Guns/Chicks with Kicks movie). I am used to seeing her play cool cruelty or righteous rage, it was great to see her be charming, cute, funny and frustrated here.

Occasionally the plot drags or makes a random leap (bringing together multiple subplots and characters out of nowhere at the end), but it mostly keeps the movie humming along. The gags are frequently actually amusing, unlike plenty of other Hong Kong “comedy” I have endured. There is a heaping helping of misogyny here, sometimes intended to be funny, sometimes intended to be upsetting, sometimes just taken as a fact. Bond’s girlfriend is a ridiculously manipulative money-grubber, but to her credit when she sees a gang go after her man/mark she pulls out a switchblade and goes to his aid. The brothers' sister is mostly a passive punching bag for her abusive husband until she inevitably becomes a hostage. Oshima’s Tequila is confident, cool, and usually the most clever one in the room, which goes a long way to smooth things over. Nishiwaki’s villain Miego is powerful, but the character isn’t even a sketch. She doesn’t get much to do but glower outside of one brief fight, sadly. 

Miego also has an army of white dudes to provide grist for the melee mill, giving James and Tequila a bunch of asses to kick in the climax. The gwailo gang includes a number of recognizable ringers and Hong Kong production jobbers.

watch out, they are either here to do martial arts or ska music!

The Six-String Samurai himself, Jeffrey Falcon is on hand to do some furious fan-fighting. Falcon had a bit part as a kidnapper in She Shoots Straight alongside two of the other guys here, Mark Houghton and Bruce Fontaine. Houghton, Fontaine, and fellow Outlaw Brothers co-star Steve Tartalia were all in the first Angel Terminator. Mark Houghton especially seems to be all over the Girls with Guns genre, also appearing Dreaming the Reality, Killer Angels, and multiple other movies on my watchlist.

This is a fast-paced movie with plenty of frenzied fight scenes and (mostly) enjoyable humor. It was a great introduction to Frankie Chan and I am excited to see more of his work as an actor and director. This also fully satisfied my desire for a dose of deadly diva Yukari Oshima. She appeared in a lot of movies, but the amount of screen time she receives and the quality of movies varies wildly. Here you get a healthy dose of her fucking fools up, plus she gets to do more outside of the fight scenes than usual. I recommend this anyone who enjoys martial arts movie of this vintage, but for my fellow Yukari Oshima fans this is Essential Viewing.

I should add a warning that this is yet another movie with some unnecessary animal cruelty, due to live chickens being literally dropped into the action climax. There are a few shots of chicken carnage people might find upsetting.