China O Brien I & II (1990) The Simple Pleasures of the Straight to Video Years(Review)

Having blazed a trail for non-Hong Kong/Chinese actors in such hi-octane action movies as Yes, Madame (1985), Millionaires Express (1986), Righting Wrongs (1986) and going as far getting her own starring feature in the 1989 action/comedy Lady Reporter (aka The Blonde Fury), the time had come for Cynthia Rothrock to head back home to the good old US of A. Whilst this would signal the end of her Hong Kong movie career it was far from the end of her acting/action career, because upon her return she was old be handed an opportunity to work with a legend of Kung Fu cinema, a man that had given it’s biggest star his brightest moment… that star being Bruce Lee, the film Enter The Dragon, and its director had his eyes set on making yet another star out of Cynthia Rothrock. His name was Robert Clouse.

OK, so that isn’t a name that is instantly synonymous with the greatest and best of Hong Kong action cinema, but having worked as a director on both TV and film, even working on episodes of Ironside, a show that would also feature an up and coming Bruce Lee, his hands were considered safe when it came to directing the co-financed Enter The Dragon (a joint production between Warner Brothers and Raymond Chow’s Golden Harvest), and everyone involved was about to have a colossal hit on their hands and the world of action cinema would never be the same again.

Fast forward to 1990 and the world of cinema had changed dramatically in the past decade, thanks in no small part to a blossoming home video market, which gave many a studio a chance to make cheap, low budget movies with little to no requirements for advertisement, just a space on a shelf in Blockbuster and then perhaps some network syndication and the money would come rolling in. Whilst some would make this the cornerstone of their career (see Charles Band’s Full Moon Features as a prime example), others would see it as a chance to break into the very lucrative US market, and one company that had tried (and failed spectacularly with 1982’s MegaForce) to make its mark in the West before was Golden Harvest, and now they were going to try again, but this time with an actor that had worked alongside the very best that Hong Kong had to offer.

It has to be made very clear that both the China O Brien films were made to go straight to video, so whilst the pedigree behind the films were steeped in Kung Fu cinema pageantry, the productions themselves were not. Clunky dialogue coupled with stiff performances and nonsensical story beats could leave many believing that both of these lacked the panache that similar releases from Eureka Entertainment have warranted in the past, but despite all of the flaws on display (of which there are oh so many), both of the China O Brien films have a charm and a spirit seldom seen in films today, even those that themselves go straight to streaming, because in 1989/90 there was no time for spit and polish, these were down and dirty pictures designed to make a buck as quickly as possible.

The first of the China O Brien films sees our star, Cynthia Rothrock, playing the titular character, someone who’s actions lead to a tragic event and result in her deciding to leave the big city and head back home, but it’s here where her troubles really begin, because the town she loves has been infected with corruption and murder. China O Brien II picks up 3 years after the events of the first film, and whilst the town now knows a level of peace not seen in recent times (er… spoiler for the first film, I guess), trouble is never far away, as an escaped drug baron comes looking for the man that betrayed him and the money he still holds.

Both of the China O Brien films are what I would refer to as Meat and Potato movies, ones that have little in the way of frills (or logic come to that matter) but a desire to entertain in a small screen kind of way. It’s blunt, it’s direct, it has the same plot as such straight to video classics as Rolling Vengeance (1987), but with less monster truck mayhem, it doesn’t pretend to be anything more than what it pertains to be, and whilst this will cause ire in many, for me it gave a warm nostalgic glow and a yearning for a nuts and bolts straight to video action movie that is no longer made, like the ones PM Entertainment used to make.

Eureka Entertainment have once again added a plethora of extras that are probably far greater than the films themselves actually deserve, but as someone that lived in the aisles of video stores, looking for those hidden gems that so few others had heard of, let alone seen, films like China O Brien were my bread and butter, so it’s nice to see a company with such an exalted reputation as Eureka taking what many would see as throw away entertainment as seriously as they do here.

Many will scoff and turn their noses up at these films, and for me it will be their loss, because this is a snapshot of a time long gone and a type of movie that we just don’t see any more, and whilst it was never going to win awards or rave reviews, these films won my heart and formed some of the happiest memories, of simple pleasure and righteous heroes. Movie entertainment in its purest form.

Ben’s Archive – China O Brien (1990)