China Heat (1992)
morgoth | omaha, NE | 12/10/2007
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I was warned not to get this movie by a few people, and I should have listened. Just about every scene is painful to watch. The story is about a cop played by Sibelle Hu (from Twinkle Twinkle Lucky Stars), 2 other female cops, and Michael Depasquale Jr (King of the Kickboxers) looking for a killer. The story is not worth going over, so I may as well talk about the fight scenes. To my surprise, there is some good fighting in this train wreck of a movie.
The first major fight has the villain taking on a few people. I have never seen this guy before, but I thought he looked good. Some good moves, and overall an above average fight scene. I did some research on hkcinemagic and the villain's name is Allen Lan Lai Han. It turns out he was the director of a great fighting movie called Death Games (starring Fan Siu Wong, Collin Chou and Billy Chow), an assistant action director on Kung Fu Hustle, and he directed the action in China Heat.
Next fight has one of the female cops taking on about 10 guys. Great choreography and a very nice fight scene. This woman blew me away with her skills. If there were a couple more scenes like this, the movie probably would have gotten a 3 star rating.
Next major fight has Mark Houghton (Skinny Tiger, Fatty Dragon) vs Michael Depasquale Jr. At the same time Sibelle Hu and the other female cop fight Sophia Crawford (US SEALS 2). There is some good kickboxing choreography with Mark Houghton and Michael Depasquale Jr, but the Sophia Crawford fight is only average at best. Sibelle Hu is doubled for almost every move she makes and Sophia Crawford doesn't really get to show off. Too bad, because Crawford has amazing skills.
The final fight is Michael Depasquale Jr vs the villain Allen Lan. Sadly, they barely fight, and it is mostly a bad chase scene. Horrible way to finish the movie.
There are a lot of other little fights, but I only went over the ones I felt were worth talking about.
1/5
The picture quality on the Image Entertainment DVD has been remastered and it looks great."