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Reviewnalysis: China O’Brien II (1990)

*SPOILERS AHEAD* Sequels aren't as common in martial arts cinema as other genres (at least not for U.S. fare), and ones within the direct-to-video realm are similarly rare. While China O’Brien II was shot simultaneously with its predecessor and therefore a guaranteed release, the original’s success assured that a sequel would indeed be in demand. Sadly, this is an instance where embarrassing stereotypes about sequels indeed apply. While the original China O'Brien was a simple but endearing adventure that established Cynthia Rothrock in America's martial arts movie scene, China O'Brien II rings hollwer. The circumstances behind its creation ensure that its production values and action content are as strong as its predecessor's, but an uneven story and an unambitious screenplay go a long way in making this the inferior flick.

The film opens at night with a low-key soundtrack and a convoy of cars making its way through a forested area. Things pick up soon, as the convoy divulges a slew of police officers who’re hunting the story's villain. Escaped convict C.Z. Baskin (Harlow Marks) - ex-Special Forces operative and drug smuggler - shoots several officers before turning up at a hideout with his sizeable gang of Vietnam veterans. He lays out his goals in a straightforward way: he wants to kill the judge, prosector, and detective responsible for sending him to prison, along with a former teammate who betrayed and stole $5 million from him. Barely five minutes into the movie and we already have enough information to determine that the hero-villain dynamics have flipped: whereas the first film featured our heroes attempting to topple a villain who’d entrenched himself in the system, this one casts the heroes as the establishment and the villains as outsiders. We'll see soon enough that such a reversal actually renders our protagonists more vulnerable than before. Baskin succeeds in having his personnel eliminate their first three targets in short order, treating us to a convoluted scene where the judge is murdered while participating in a magic act. The final victim, Frank Atkins (Frank Magner), is living under the Witness Protection Program in the same town where Lori "China" O'Brien (Rothrock) is receiving a commendation for ridding the place of organized crime. Also present are her returning cohorts Matt Conroy (Richard Norton) and Dakota (Keith Cooke), and we see that their collective problems have become significantly less drastic in recent times: while Dakota beats up a couple of men harassing a woman (one of them's future Mortal Kombat star Chris Casamassa), China and Matt drive off to arrest a bumbling mountain man called Chester (J.R. Glover) who made a mess of a local bar. The trio seems to have everything under control.

This impression continues even as the plot begins to move along and several of Baskin's men arrive to kidnap Frank and his wife Annie (Tricia Quai) during the July 4th celebration. Despite an ominous soundtrack, our heroes thoroughly kick the crud out of these guys. The would-be kidnappers flee, and China gets the cagey Frank to tell her about the situation...though he leaves out the bit about the stolen money. An unproductive call from his FBI keeper gets Frank into an uproar, but China shuts him down and forbids him from leaving town. Frank doesn’t like this. Unlike its predecessor, this film has almost nothing to say on gender roles or feminism, but there's a glorious moment where the impotent Frank whines "I bet you like beatin' up on men, don't you?!" It’s a not-so-subtle reminder that China is a subverter of norms and that men of questionable character can’t come to terms with this. Dakota is dating Frank’s stepdaughter Jill (Tiffany Soter), which is a little uncomfortable when you remember that Dakota is old enough to be in college but Jill appears to go to school with students in their mid-teens. He picks her up from the campus on his bike and brings her home, where Baskin and his men are lying in wait. Dakota puts up a fight, but he’s kidnapped along with Jill and Annie. Ironically, Baskin’s attempt to thus press Frank to surrender himself and the money almost goes wrong: Frank is in the process of skipping town when China happens upon him and finds out what’s going on. (Frank’s shame at being shown up by a woman is complete when he threatens her with a gun and she takes him down from the other side of a door.) She calls in Matt and her deputy Russell (Michael Anthony), and they hatch a plan to retrieve the hostages with Frank’s (forced?) cooperation. The next day, it’s put into effect: Frank meets with Baskin at a rock-crushing plant while China & Co. Sneak up , and following a massive fight scene that parallels the first film’s sawmill brawl, all the good guys escape. Baskin, who gets quickly taken out by China early in the fight, vows revenge. This fight scene, in which Dakota doesn’t actively participate, is a demonstration of how he’s become estranged from the other lead protagonists. While neither his screen time nor his contribution to the action content has been reduced, he shares very few scenes with China or Matt and has no one-on-one time with them at all. What’s more, he’s become almost facetious to the story. While the original movie featured his quest for revenge as a major plot point and gave him moments wherein he at least helped China out of a jam, here he’s little more than a flashy side character. The importance of his kidnapping is diminished by China already being prepared to put herself on the line for Jill and Annie, and probably the most significant thing he does throughout the picture is rescue Jill from molestation by one of Baskin’s men (Douglas Caputo). I’ve heard that Keith Cooke was very discerning about only accepting roles that highlighted his onscreen presence; if this is true, then Dakota being indepdent of China and Matt probably appealed to Cooke, but the result is that the film could’ve largely been made without his character. The things he does and the things that happen to him don’t affect the plot much, and that’s disappointing.

Baskin effectively isolates the town by cutting phone lines, scrambling radio airwaves, and setting up roadblocks. The next day, his crew rolls in to flush out China and her allies, and the rest of the movie consists mainly of China, Matt, and Dakota taking out opponents throughout town. It’s a cool collection of fight scenes, including ones with a trio of specialty fighters (Billy Blanks, a whip-wielding Indiana Jones wannabe, and Toshihiro Obata wearing a pair of Freddy Krueger claws), but the whole affair is one-sided with our heroes rarely losing the upper hand. Things are a little more perilous for the characters who aren’t martial artists: Russell is shot to death trying to get help, China’s dispatcher Lucille (Cindy Clark) is killed when the police station is shot up, ol’ Chester is killed just shortly after being sprung from jail, and even Frank is gunned down by Baskin as his family and he try to escape with the money. Baskin grabs the suitcase of dough, ignoring the women, and is subsequently killed by Annie after she grabs Frank’s rifle. It’s surprising, a little disappointing, but also apt that the antagonist is taken down by a character who even the audience is meant to consider beneath notice. C.Z. Baskin is a more threatening and able villain than Edwin Sommers was, but in the end, they’re both eliminated by a former victim of their greed. TRIVIA: Filming had already wrapped when director Robert Clouse was told that the runtime had to be increased. Some additional action scenes were shot, including the one featuring Billy Blanks, who was cast at short notice. The film ends on a downer, with China and Matt leaving Frank’s funeral and mourning the loss of Lucille and Russell. Dakota’s there, but he doesn’t leave with his friends. Looking back at the whole picture, I get the impression that the filmmakers were intending for this to be a grittier and more perilous movie than the original – you get hints at a darker tone throughout via the soundtrack – but they failed to achieve the effect by reserving all of the more depressing stuff for the final 15 minutes. Sure, the movie collectively lacks the original’s upbeat tone, but it’d be comparable to shooting The Empire Strikes Back without the heroes facing any setbacks prior to Luke Skywalker losing his hand. It just feels uneven.

China O’Brien II is a typically inferior sequel in many ways, but its production circumstances make the situation a little weirder. The films were shot at the same time with much of the same crew and supporting cast, so their look and design are identical. That’s what makes it so disorienting that China O’Brien should be such an engaging romp while its follow-up is a distant exhibition. I don’t know nearly enough about the production to say more, but it goes to show just how delicate of a process it is to create a cult classic. It’s difficult to capture lightning twice, even when the bottles are standing right next to each other. Nevertheless, as technically the more mature film of the two, the sequel manages to make at least one narrative point about change and adaptation. The most obvious example of this is China’s relationship with firearms, which was laid down in the original film and even reinforced, here. China never uses a gun, even opting to use a hunting bow when in need of a long-range weapon, but she reluctantly approves of her allies using them. Russell uses a machine gun during the brawl at the plant and there’s a meaningful shot of China entrusting a gun to Frank, and even Matt takes control of a rifle at one point. (There’s also a recycled shot of Dakota riding his motorcycle with an M-16 strapped to his back.) The good guys kill people with these weapons – a signifier for lack of control and a major no-no in the past, but now an apparent necessity. There’s much to be said about taking a realistic look at self-defense and firearms, but in the context of the film, this underscores the effectiveness of the villains: they’re apparently so dangerous that they drive our heroes to desperation and put a dent in China’s ideals. In the aftermath, Sheriff O’Brien probably reflects on her worldview and how she intends to protect her town. It’s impossible to imagine her deputizing schoolchildren anymore.

The relationship Matt and China share with Dakota also comes under the header of change. The former two are now a couple, but Dakota is noticeably estranged. They still share friendly gestures and show concern for each other, but there are hints that the trio may be in the process of breaking up. Dakota’s status as a deputy is strictly voluntary, and after seeing him spend more time with Jill than his cohorts and not joining them after the funeral, I’m left with the impression that their dynamic is coming apart. Dakota doesn’t hint at his plans and I don’t want to make unfounded predictions, but as China admits that she’ll miss her fallen friends, perhaps the unspoken message is that she’ll also miss Dakota, now that he’s beyond her inner circle. One aspect that I wish had been taken greater advantage of is the rest of the town’s involvement in defending itself. The movie starts off with the place feeling as organic as before, but as the film progresses, we see less and less of the citizens. By the time the big finale occurs, the streets are empty. The film’s trailer promises us that “This time, [China] will need to have the whole town cooking,” but the most we see of this is an out-of-the-blue scene where a couple of Baskin’s thugs are thwarted by two chefs armed with cleavers. Perhaps that bit was inserted to pad out the runtime, but seriously – where have all of the extras gone? I can see China advising the townspeople to stay in their homes off-screen, but the impression this makes is that, despite their successful rallying of the community in the past, China and her friends are eventually on their own when it comes to facing danger. Despite its drawbacks, I still recommend China O’Brien II – not to just anybody, but probably to general martial arts fans and definitely to Cynthia Rothrock devotees. The fight scenes are top-notch, and there are enough entertaining moments to make it worth your while. The movie has plenty of problems, but it avoids the most common sin of sequels by not merely rehashing the last flick. This one’s yet to be released digitally or on DVD, and while it may not be worth buying a VCR for, it’s definitely worth digging an old model out of the basement.

China O’Brien II (1990) Directed by Robert Clouse Written by Robert Clouse, Craig Clyde (The Wild Stallion), James Hennessy (Wind Dancer). Sandra Weintraub receives a “based on a story by” credit, but it’s unclear whether this just refers to her work on the previous film. Starring Cynthia Rothrock, Richard Norton, Keith Cooke, and Frank Magner – all of who appeared in the original China O’Brien. Cool costars: Chris Casamassa, Billy Blanks (The King of the Kickboxers), Toshihiro Obata (Rage and Honor). Donre Sampson plays one of the more noticeable henchmen, and while not particularly distinguished, he did appear in the super cool Revenge of the Ninja and therefore merits a mention. Title refers to: Cynthia Rothrock’s character. Content warning: Violence against women, group violence, kidnapping Copyright Pan-Pacific Productions, Inc. / Imperial Entertainment Corp.