Police
officers Chan and Houston couldn't be more different. While Houston is
typically gung ho and trigger happy, often breaking the rules to get the
job done, Chan is a more considerate and thoughtful man, spearheading a
martial arts program to help officers fight without the use of
firearms. Houston ends up forcibly partnered with Chan after a shootout
in a church, and together the unlikely duo investigate a rash of
poisoned cocaine, leading to Chinatown...
The
Chinatown Connection is a neat DTV action flick. It starts off with
plenty of setup. Some might say too much, but I say if you're a
direct-to-video martial arts film and your crime is having too much
effort put in, I find it hard to begrudge that, even if it can go askew.
In the case of Chinatown Connection, it does it well to begin with,
informing the motivations of its lead characters, and providing a couple
of interesting plot threads-The kung fu cops program, and the mystery
of the poisoned drugs.
Where
things start to hit a snag though is the halfway point. We focus plenty
on the main duo and their case, which is good, but you begin to realise
'Hey, wasn't there another guy here?'. Estes! The poor dude gets a
promisingly juicy story, then disappears for a solid half hour. He does
return for the finale, and makes up a little for his absence.
The
themes in this movie are quite surprising, in that they question the
overly gung-ho 'shoot first, ask questions later' style of cop, as well
as the American overreliance on guns, and acceptable police tactics. It
also delivers them in a mature way, without resorting to "All cops are
bad", or "All cops are angels!" It puts its money where its mouth is and
shows us a great alternative for American cops to do instead of toting
around guns all the time.
The
ending is probably the least interesting part of the film. It gets
across the bare minimum of what it needs to, but nothing more. We don't
even get a denouement. Chan just says a pithy comeback after the
villain's defeat, then the movie cuts away to some Dragnet style text
cards telling us a couple of the characters got promoted, and that's it!
The
characters are a decently fleshed out bunch. Chan is a good cop and
wise mentor, and his interracial home life is neat! Houston is a good
guy, but must've seen Dirty Harry one too many times, which is taken to
ridiculous extremes when we see just how many self-defence guns are in
his house!
Estes
is a decent character, with a strong characterisation at the beginning,
but this never really goes anywhere, and he's pretty unnecessary.
Houston already fills his character role and arc, so we have two
trigger-happy cops being suspended and forced to join the kung fu cops,
and learn the same lesson. He plays a good part in the climax though.
Others don't fare much better, and when one of them dies near the end,
it feels like such an afterthought that they may as well not even be
dead (we never even see anyone find out or react to it).
The
villains are a cool bunch too. Hong, alias The Taipan, is a polite
businessman, wno naturally only conducts legitimate enterprises, and is
all too happy to talk with police over a cup of tea. But he knows Chan
sees right through him, maintaining a friendly antagonism. His partner
Tony North meanwhile is a wild card. A musclebound psycho who takes a
little too much of the Taipan's operation into his own hands, and makes
for a good physical match against Chan. He's arrogant and presumptuous
too, which has a fantastic payoff midway through, when he tries branding
Chan, only to receive a taste of his own medicine. Ouch!
The
direction here is good, with plenty of well framed scenes, and decently
choreographed action. The lighting in some scenes can detract a little
though. Many action moments are darkly lit, having the effect of muting
otherwise decent fight scenes, or making already dull scenes of people
just sitting around doing nothing all the more tedious. The effects are
pretty good, although the make-up team seems to have gone a little
overboard with the blood on one guy's face.
The
acting here is good all round. In the lead role is perhaps the
strangest thing about this film-Bruce Ly! This is just a typical
American police flick with a dash of kung fu/martial arts, and yet it
has a 'Brucesploitation' actor in it, still going by that fake name
decades after that subgenre died out. He does well, with his softly
spoken voice contrasting well with his co-star. I'm sure that to most
people, Lee Majors II's biggest claim to fame is being Lee Majors' son.
Art
Camacho is good in his role, giving some good Latino representation.
William Ghent does well as the villain. Prim and proper, but also
furious at times. Making for a great counterpoint is Fitz Houston as his
homicidal right hand man. John M. Jackson is funny as the drug-addled
informant PC Pete. At first I thought he was the guy who plays the loony
cannibal Gus Pratt in 1989's Dr. Caligari, but nope. Uncanny
resemblance and mannerisms, I've gotta say!
The
music is another highlight for this movie, with its offbeat and
sometimes freaky (in a good way), synth Oriental arrangements.
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