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Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
Released on: June 25th, 2024.
Director: Robert Clouse
Cast: Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Keith Cooke
Year: 1990
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China O’Brien 1 & 2 – Movie Review:
Vinegar Syndrome pairs up the two movies that Cynthia Rothrock made for western audiences after becoming a pretty big star in the Hong Kong action movie scene of the eighties – China O’Brien and its sequel, China O’Brien 2, both directed by Robert Clouse of Enter The Dragon fame, presented here in all their acid washed glory.
China O’Brien:
In the first film, we meet Lori ‘China’ O'Brien, a no-nonsense cop keeping the streets of the big city where she serves save from crime. When she isn’t kicking ass on the streets, she’s instructing her fellow law enforcement officials in the martial arts in which she is clearly so skilled. One of her students challenges her to a fight out in a nearby alley and things quickly go south when some gangs show up and she winds up having to shoot someone.
Upset and disgraced by what happened, even if it wasn’t really her fault, China heads back to the small town of Beaver Creek, Utah where she was raised. It isn’t long after China’s return to Beaver Creek that she learns the quaint and wholesome town where she grew up has been taken over by criminals with some help from corrupt officials, led by the sinister Edwin Sommers (Steven Kerby). Soon enough, her father (David Blackwell), the town Sheriff, and fellow officer named Ross Tyler (Chad Walker), are killed when a car bomb takes their lives. This despicable act causes China to put in a run for Sheriff herself, vowing to replace him and see that justice is served and the town is cleaned up. She’s going to have to run against Sommers man, Marty Lickner (Patrick Adamson), and the campaign won’t be easy – or without danger!
China won’t be doing this alone, however, as she’ll wind up getting some help from Matt Conroy (Richard Norton), her ex-boyfriend, and Dakota (Keith Cooke), a motorcycle riding Native America with a mysterious past.
China O’Brien 2:
Made back to back with the first film, this second entry sees China once again forced to take down some bad guys in Beaver Creek when Charlie Baskin (Harlow Marks), a notorious drug dealer, busts his way out of prison and, after putting together a team of criminal pals, decides that he wants to get revenge against those who had him locked up in the first place. That man is Frank Atkins (Frank Manger) and Baskin and his cronies decide to pay him back by kidnapping his wife Jill (Tiffany Soter) and daughter Annie (Tricia Quai).
With no one else to turn to, Frank enlists the aid of China O’Brien who, of course, once again brings in pals Matt and Dakota to help her get Frank’s family back in one piece and get rid of Baskin and his gang of ne’er-do-wells. Bonus points for throwing in a bad guy who attacks China with not one, but two razor sharp fright gloves!
Both of the China O’Brien films are solid, B-level action entertainment but neither is going to set your world on fire. Robert Clouse, the man who directed Enter The Dragon, keeps things moving at a good pace but neither story feels especially unique or original. The rekindling of feelings between China and Matt is obvious and while the films hit all the right notes, you won’t find your jaw dropping to the floor or anything like that.
Still, Rothrock has charisma and if she’s never as fearsome or intimidating in these two movies as she is in the better-made Hong Kong action films that launched her film career, she does excel at kicking the shit out of bad guys, something that she’s given ample opportunity to do in both films. She’s got plenty of impressive technique on display and she moves with grace and style, simultaneously hitting hard and never pulling her punches. She has a decent chemistry with Richard Norton, himself a pretty formidable fighter, and they make a pretty fun team, even if more character development would have gone a long way.
Production values are decent across the board. There’s some impressive stunt work here and the cinematography is pretty good. The scores for both films suit the tone of the movies and those with an affinity for garish late-eighties fashions will find plenty to appreciate in the wardrobe choices. Again, neither film is going to leave you gasping for air, but they’re solid and enjoyable time killers.
China O’Brien 1 & 2 – UHD/Blu-ray Review:
The HEVC encoded 2160p transfers, both framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and featuring HDR10, look excellent. With each movie presented on its own separate UHD, the presentations for each film look remarkably similar. Taken from masters provided by Fortune Star newly scanned and restored in 4k from their original 35mm negatives, there’s lots of impressive detail here to take in and nice depth to the transfers as well. Colors look really nice, very lifelike and accurate, while black levels are inky and deep. Texture is frequently very impressive, especially in close up shots, and both movies look very clean and clear, showing no real print damage at all while retaining the natural film grain you’d hope they would. Compression artifacts, edge enhancement and noise reduction are never an issue, everything always looks like film. No complaints here!
The English language 24-bit DTS-HD Mono audio, which comes with subtitles in English SDH, French and Spanish, sounds very good. Audio is clean, clear and nicely balanced and there’s good depth as far as the soundtrack is concerned.
Vinegar Syndrome provides new commentary tracks for each film by martial arts film experts Frank Djeng and John Charles, who go over in loads of detail the biographical details of pretty much every cast and crew member associated with the productions. There is, of course, an emphasis on exploring Rothrock’s career and where it was at during this period but also information about the supporting cast members, the different crew members that worked on the picture, Robert Clouse, Golden Harvest’s role in all of this, the film’s distribution and lots more, as well as insight into the music used in the films, the effectiveness of the action and stunt work and how they feel about the two films in the collection.
There are also a load of featurettes here, starting with the nineteen minute Cynthia Rothrock Is China O'Brien which interviews the film’s leading lady. She talks about her work with Golden Harvest and how the company, which had her under contract, thought she'd be their ticket to breaking into the North American market. She also discusses her thoughts on the scripts, shooting the two movies back to back, shooting on location in Utah, how a crew member wound up getting killed during the shoot, working with Clouse, how her time in Hong Kong differed from the American productions she worked on and more.
A Worthwhile Journey: The Martial Artists Of China O'Brien is a thirty-three minute featurette with actors Richard Norton, Keith Cooke and Chris Casamassa. They discuss how they got into martial arts training and movies as well, what it was like working with Rothrock on the movie and how much they enjoyed it, thoughts on producer Fred Weintraub and director Robert Clouse, memories of shooting specific action set pieces, stunt work and other details relating to their work on the movies.
Melanie Good Is Stripper Assassin spends eleven minutes with actress Melanie Good where she talks about how she landed her role in the movie, some modeling work that she did, learning as she went on the set and taking the role without any actual acting experience, how one of the crew members got injured during one of her scenes and other recollections from her time spent on set.
Casting China, which also runs eleven minutes, interviews casting director Catrine McGregor who talks about she had just had a child before starting work on the film, how she first came to work as a casting director, what she was responsible for on both movies, having to balance decisions between prospects that could handle the martial arts scenes and prospects that could handle the actual acting required and what made her go with some of the choices that she made.
Composers David Wheatley and Paul Antonelli are up next in the eleven minute Composing China where they speak about their background and training, how they got into music, how they made the shift into scoring for film productions, how and why they first started working together, how they came to work on the China O'Brien movies and their thoughts on the productions overall.
The disc also includes a forty minute archival featurette titled The Making Of A Martial Arts Movie that is a vintage behind the scene piece from 1993 made up of plenty of on set footage (a lot of which, understandably, focuses on the action set pieces) as well as some fairly superfluous cast and crew interviews.
Courtesy of the @CynthiaRothrockChannel on YouTube comes a twenty-six minute video interview with Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton. That same channel provides a twelve minute video interview with Rothrock herself. Both pieces see Rothrock, and in the first pieced Norton as well, look back on the making of the O'Brien movies, answering questions about the work done on both movies.
Trailers for each film are also included.
This release also comes with a full color, forty-page book containing a wealth of archival photos as well as an essay titled Legacy Of (Blonde) Rage by Peter Giagowski, a second essay titled Black Belts & Ballots: Robert Clouse’s China O’Brien by Paul Corupe and a third essay titled A Star Isn’t Born: How To Film Industries Failed the Queen Of Action by Danielle Burgos. The limited edition of this release, available from the Vinegar Syndrome website, also comes with hard slipcase/slipcover combo designed by Robert Sammelin and limited to 7,000 units.
China O’Brien 1 & 2 - The Final Word:
The Rothrock devotees will certainly appreciate the care and attention that’s gone into Vinegar Syndrome’s UHD/Blu-ray releases of China O’Brien 1 & 2, as the films look and sound very nice and there’s a great selection of extra features included here. The movies themselves don’t quite rise to the level of essential cinema, but they’re fun time killers, particularly for those who can appreciate some of the charms inherent in B-grade action films from this era.