Review for China O'Brien I & II

Introduction

It’s funny how perspectives change with the passage of time. Right now, I have the sense that my memories of the eighties and the nineties are beginning to blur together. If you had seen the China O’Brien movies when first released, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they were horribly outdated. Dating from 1990, they look and feel five years older than they actually are. But now, 35 years down the line, the pastels and the mullets of China O’Brien don’t feel too far out of place.


The Hong Kong film industry always had ambitions to crack the Western market, and there were plenty of attempts to introduce Hong Kong action stars to the US, following the tragically short breakthrough of Bruce Lee in the seventies. It took US filmmakers to grow up with Hong Kong cinema before they could make a space for Jackie Chan in films like Rush Hour. Prior to that, films like Battle Creek Brawl and Rumble in the Bronx were misguided attempts at best. But of Golden Harvest’s attempts to crack the US, perhaps the China O’Brien movies were their best chance. After all, they were introducing Western action actors to Western audiences, Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton, and Hong Kong action was tempered with Hollywood action movie sensibilities. I’ve only ever seen the first China O’Brien movie, and that so long ago, I can barely recall it. But Eureka are bringing the films to the UK on Blu-ray and on 4k UHD. I’m looking at the Blu-ray discs.

The initial release will come with a 28-page booklet for both films with writing from Eddie Falvey and James Oliver.

Introduction

China O’Brien is an adept city cop who is better suited to using her fists than a gun. But a confrontation at the dojo where she teaches martial arts gets out of hand after hours, and she winds up shooting an armed boy in the line of duty. It’s enough to get her quitting the force, and going back home to re-evaluate her life. It doesn’t hurt that the father she idolises is the sheriff of that small town. But the town has changed since she left for the big city, and there is a corrupt businessman writing the law now. China O’Brien will wind up running for town sheriff herself, but this is going to be anything but a fair election.

The Disc

China O’Brien gets a 1.85:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on this disc, quite obviously from a 4k restoration given the UHD release, with a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono English track, with optional SDH English subtitles. It’s an excellent transfer, clear and sharp, with strong, consistent colours; a little too strong for some of those eighties fashions. Detail levels are good, and there is a subtle and organic level of film grain. The action comes across well, and the only drawback of such a good transfer is the obvious stunt double usage. The audio is fine, rich and warm, the dialogue clear throughout.

Extras

The disc boots to a static menu, and you’ll find the following extras.

Audio Commentary with Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Select Scene Commentary with Cynthia Rothrock (9:17)
Cynthia Rothrock Interview (22:17)
Richard Norton Interview (49:51)
Leon Hunt on China O’Brien (21:52)
Trailer (2:20)

Conclusion

How many Westerns have you seen, where a small town in nowhere USA is being terrorised by a wannabe mafia, and a hero comes to town and winds up cleaning out the trash with a pair of six-shooters and a white hat? It’s a basic staple of the medium, and pretty much describes every second episode of The A-Team. And it describes China O’Brien too, with the hero’s guns replaced by fists and feet. That should be enough to clue you in to what China O’Brien is all about. But it’s a very entertaining, and effective action movie, blending Hollywood sensibilities with Hong Kong style kung-fu action, all handled well by the director of Enter The Dragon, Robert Clouse.


China O’Brien follows the reluctant hero trope, with her confidence undone following a shooting during a confrontation that got out of hand. She goes home to figure out her life, and seeks the comfort of her father, her mentor. He’s the local sheriff, but now in a town that is going to the dogs. With a crooked businessman throwing his weight around, the sheriff’s authority is waning. China doesn’t want to fight, but when looking for her father, she walks into the local bar filled with a bunch of lascivious goons, she winds up pulled into a fight regardless. Although she does find an unlikely ally, a biker with one hand named Dakota. She also runs into a childhood friend named Matt, who’s grown up into a badass kung-fu high schoolteacher.


As is usual for these movies, that initial confrontation kicks off a cycle of escalation between the good guys and the bad guys, with the intimidation and the violence getting worse and worse. It gets to the point where China is finally convinced of what her path should be, and she decides to stand for sheriff in her own right, with the villains willing to do whatever it takes to stop her, leading to the explosive finale.


It really is a modern-day kung-fu western. Golden Harvest quality fight sequences are apparent, especially the inventive action of the Jackie Chan era, albeit quick-cut Hollywood style. But in the Hong Kong fashion, the villains are so irredeemably evil, that you wind up screaming at the screen whenever one of the heroes leaves their foes alive following a fight. These people will only stab you in the back. They don’t deserve mercy.


It’s a quality transfer with a nice selection of extra features, and the movie is a whole lot of fun. If I had seen it when originally released, I might have complained about it looking and feeling outdated, but with the passage of time, that doesn’t mean much at this point. Besides, it’s a kick seeing perennial Hong Kong movie villain, Richard Norton playing a hero.

8/10

Introduction

It’s been a couple of years, and Sheriff China O’Brien is being recognised for her efforts in cleaning up what was once a lawless town. But elsewhere, drug-runner Charles Baskin has escaped from custody, killing several cops in the process. He’s sworn revenge on all those who locked him up, and those that betrayed him. And China doesn’t know that the Fed’s Witness Protection program has placed one of Baskin’s targets in her town.

The Disc

China O’Brien II gets a 1.85:1 widescreen transfer on this disc, with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo English, with optional SDH English subtitles. Given that both this and the original film were shot back to back, there is very little to differentiate the two discs in this collection in terms of visuals (indeed some footage from the first film is recycled in the sequel), although the stereo audio for the sequel is a nice upgrade. The image is clear and sharp, colours are consistent and grain is palpable.

Extras

The disc boots to a static menu, and you’ll find the following extras.

Audio commentary with Mike Leeder & Arne Venema
Audio commentary with Frank Djeng
Select Scene Commentary with Cynthia Rothrock (13:35)
Keith Cooke Interview (27:50)
James Mudge on China O’Brien (16:13)
Trailer (2:10)

Conclusion

You often see how sequels fail to match the quality of the original film, as box office receipts come in, success exceeds expectations, and off-the-cuff producers commission a sequel to try and recapture that magic, twelve to fifteen months down the line. The thing is that both China O’Brien films were shot back to back, with cast and crew remaining consistent between them. They should achieve the same kind of quality. But it still seems like China O’Brien II is a shadow of the first film, with a story that is 20% dumber, acting which is 20% cheesier, and dialogue which is unimaginably more excruciating. The first film has that bad but good vibe that informs most of the eighties movies I cherish. The second film doesn’t achieve that.


Once again, the Hong Kong penchant for villains so reprehensible that they induce bilious hatred in the audience leads to a thoroughly obnoxious bad guy in China O’Brien II, but in the process creates a plot hole so egregious that it makes the film feel even more comical. The bad guy escapes from prison, and in the process kills several policemen, and then goes on a vengeance spree against the investigators and justices who imprisoned him in the first place. In the real world, an escaping prisoner killing a cop would unleash a manhunt so overwhelming that the whole country would be shut down. But here, Baskin gets a free hand to go back to his nefarious business, and track down his next target unimpeded.


Of course, you’re not really here for the story, you’re here for the action, which is solid, and entertaining enough, if not quite as inventive as in the first film, which itself had more than a few nods to Jackie Chan movies. Here the fight sequences are a bit more straightforward, even if the heroes are outnumbered. The second film takes a while to get going, which is ironic given it’s shorter than the first, but once you get dialled into the quality of the performances, it gets more watchable, and it certainly delivers on action by the end credits.

6/10

In Summary

I didn’t quite click with China O’Brien the first time I watched it; I guess I was expecting something a little more Hong Kong from Golden Harvest, but this time around I found a lot more to appreciate. These are urban Westerns with kung fu instead of pistols (for the good guys at any rate), and in that vein these are really quite enjoyable, even if the second film fails to match the first in terms of quality. China O’Brien and its sequel are available on Blu-ray and on 4k UHD direct from Eureka Entertainment, from Terracotta, and from mainstream retailers.