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China Heat (1992) Opinions?


Guest Chinatown Kid

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Guest Chinatown Kid

Saw where this film starring Sibelle Hu was going to be released by Image shortly and was hoping to get some opinions on it. Does it feature nice fight choreography and good action? It looks to take place in the modern day and was made in the early 90's. Is it worth picking up or one to pass on? Any info would be appreciated, thanks!

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Guest contraspirit

This movie is not directed by Godfrey Ho, but by William Chang of DEATH DUEL OF KUNG FU-fame, but it´s an even worse flick than most of Ho´s modern-day-actioners. Lame story, bad actors and badly staged action, watch ANGEL TERMINATORS or PRINCESS MADAM instead.

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Guest Chinatown Kid

Thanks for the warning contra, morgoth I doubt I'll waste my money on this flick from what I've heard so probably need to watch and judge yourself if you dare, sounds like it's pretty crappy.:b If I ever do happen to see it I'll definately let u know how it was though. ;)

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Guest morgoth

I probably won't get this movie. There are too many Image titles that I should probably watch before this. I was thinking about getting it at best Buy today, but the cover looks like it sucks, and I saw Crime Story sitting next to it for the same price. Not exactly a tough choice.

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Morgoth Bauglir

I decided to get this. There are only 3 fights that I liked, and one of those fights is awesome. This girl takes on like 10 guys and there is some really good choreography. Other than that this movie is a complete train wreck. Truly painful to watch.

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China Heat (1992)
aka: Paid in Blood

Starring: Sibelle Hu, Michael Depasquale Jr., Allen Lan, Sherry Hon Wing-Ching, Meng Xiang-Li, cameos by Sophia Crawford and Mark Houghton
Director: William Cheung Kei, Yang Yang
Action Directors: Allen Lan, Lee Chi-Ping, Ku Gaai-Lam, Chui Ji-Kei, Wong Koon-Fat

I remember this being released on VHS by Tai Seng in the late 90s as part of the "China Heat" series, alongside Spider Force and Hard to Die. This is generally placed in the lower end of the Girls n' Guns bell curve, and I can generally see why. I didn't find it particularly inept--save the gunfights, which were terribly staged--but it has no depth to it. There's no heart here. No reason to care for anyone in this movie.

The movie starts off with Sibelle Hu and her female commando team storming a plane held hostage by terrorists and killing all the bad guys...with reckless disregard for the lives of the passengers. Later, Madame Hu and her team of dozens of gun-toting women in military fatigues interrupt a drug deal, which results in a huge firefight. The main drug dealer, Harry (Allen Lan), gets away and flees to the States. There, he becomes part of a crime family led by a German guy. But he's quickly arrested and is to be extradited back to China. 

Madame Hu sends three of her agents--Mandy (Meng Xiang-Li), Yolanda (Sherry Hon), and some guy--to escort Harry back to China. On the way to the airport, the police cars are ambushed by Harry's men and the Chinese police guy is seriously injured. Meanwhile, Madame Hu shows up to give her team support. Chinese police guy and Mandy are both kidnapped, while Madame Hu and American police officer Michael (Despasquale, who played Loren Avedon's brother in King of the Kickboxers) are attacked by German guy's goons. Michael is taken off the case and turns in his badge in defiance.

Yolanda has a warehouse fight with Harry's goons and is captured herself. She escapes, but her two partners don't: nameless guy is killed. Yolanda, Madame Hu, and Michael team up to storm German guy's mansion and find out where Harry's drug deal is going to be. They rescue Mandy and together they storm the port for a final showdown.

There isn't as much fighting as there should be. Most of the fights end before they even begin. The best fight is Sherry Hon's fight at the warehouse. Later, when the three go to rescue Mandy, Mark Houghton and Sophia Crawford show up as guards. Crawford throws down with Sibelle Hu and her stunt double, while Houghton fights Despasquale. There's some decent choreography here, but I expected better. The finale starts off with lots of gunplay that makes you pine for the John Woo-lite that was The Replacement Killers. It then branches off into three fights: the totally useless Meng Xiang-Li against Harry's third-in-command; Sherry Hon vs. Harry's second-in-command; and Despasquale vs. Allen Lan. That last fight isn't bad; there's some good choreography early on, but is broken up by too much running. It's more interesting to see Allen Lan (who helped choreograph such films as The Death Games; Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger; and Flying Swords of Dragon Gate) fighting in front of the camera. He's actually quite good. But there's not enough of the good stuff to warrant a recommendation to anyone beyond the staunchest of HK action completists.

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