Undefeatable (1994)

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Undefeatable (1994)

From the team behind Honor and Glory, this follow up isn’t quite as kitsch but still equally abysmal. Don Niam plays a sadistic mullet-wearing psycho killer who gauges out the eyes of his female victims, possibly because of some vague relationship breakdown with an overbearing mother, but more clearly connected to a runaway girlfriend. He completely flips out and leaves Eagle Claw marks on his victims. Miller plays the kung fu cop piecing it all together alongside Rothrock as a leather-clad street brawler who “could do better”. She teams up with the cops and straightens up after her sister gets whacked. The …

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Honor and Glory (1993)

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Honor and Glory (1993)

Even by Rothrock’s standards, this is pretty bad, due in part to ham-fisted, incompetent directing from HK’s king of schlock, Godfrey Ho, who seemingly spends most of his budget on spandex and shoulder pads. The film’s saving grace – as with most of Rothrock’s films – is its unintentional hilarity. The film is quite embarrassing at times, making it a paramount guilty pleasure. The acting is so bad you can almost hear the strain (at times, lines are actually flunked) adding to the film’s car crash quality. Cynthia barely breaks a sweat as a chirpy FBI agent returning from Hong …

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City Cops (1989)

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City Cops (1989)

A typically dodgy Hong Kong cop affair with FBI agent Rothrock travelling to the Far East to investigate the disappearance of a key witness withholding incriminating evidence against the Japanese mafia and its hoard of gweilo minions. A couple of crass CID officers (played by Kirk Miu and Shing Fui-on) get involved and unfortunately end up dominating the film, tagging the informant’s sister to gather more evidence in true Stakeout rip-off style. Broad and occasionally coarse humour seems to be the order of the day, and things get really bad when the police twits start to fall for the two …

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Prince of the Sun (1990)

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Prince of the Sun (1990)

Crass fantasy adventure which steals heavily from The Golden Child incorporating elements of dodgy HK comedy. Rothrock stars as a Caucasian Buddhist sent to retrieve a little boy who is said to be the living incarnation of Buddha. The boy winds up in Hong Kong, kept under close surveillance by new-age scoundrels Conan Lee and Sheila Chan who resist threats from the ‘Four Lamas’, sent by the Dark Lord to kidnap the child. Rothrock supplies nearly all the action in a film which is ridiculously hampered by long sections of trashy slapstick mostly revolving around the conflicting relationship between the …

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Righting Wrongs (1986)

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Righting Wrongs (1986)

Unabashed Golden Harvest fun teaming Yuen Biao with blonde fury Cynthia Rothrock as mismatched cops on opposite sides of the law. Biao’s a chain-smoking, train-loving renegade tracking a case involving twisted police chief Melvin Wong and his clan of gweilo assassins. Meanwhile, Cyn is Melvin’s trusted import assigned to bring Biao to justice, unaware of her employer’s double crossing. The action speaks volumes with Yuen Biao on uniformly top form. He is truly kicking ass in a climactic warehouse showdown with Melvin Wong which results in Biao clinging to a rope descending from a speeding aeroplane which ultimately, and breathtakingly, …

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The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)

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The Inspector Wears Skirts (1988)

A top squad of female commandos are ruthlessly trained by superior policewoman Sibelle Hu in true Hong Kong slapstick style. Awful comedy routines are the driving force behind what is essentially a HK version of Police Academy, only – if you can believe this – even more tedious. Cynthia Rothrock makes it into about a quarter of the film, playing Hu’s police chum sent from Europe to assist in the training programme, strutting her stuff in a tacked-on terrorism finale against Jeff Falcon for the want of something better to do. The minimal action sequences are great, but all too …

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Sci-Fighter (2004)

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Sci-Fighter (2004)

A turgid, demoralising mess which starts off innocent enough (Don Wilson’s single parenting nightmare with insular kung fu son), then goes a little off track (father and son get themselves stuck in Granddad’s virtual reality simulator), before settling on a succession of lazy, tired fight sequences.

Camacho’s gimmick of an all-star fighting cast (their competitive titles are listed not only on the opening credits but also at the end) greatly overwhelms the procession of battles as each ‘Master’ gets to strut their stuff one after the other. None of them are particularly impressive on screen, lining up to be beaten (somehow) …

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China O’Brien II (1991)

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China O’Brien II (1991)

Sensationally awful sequel to a film which never deserved a follow up. This time China and the boys help out a frightened witness whose evil boss has escaped from prison and vowed to take revenge. This is as cheap and amateur as before, maybe a bit worse.

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China O’Brien (1990)

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China O’Brien (1990)

From the makers of Enter the Dragon (producers Fred Weintraub and Raymond Chow, and director Robert Clouse), one might be right to expect more from this B-movie, but the best is certainly made of a bad situation. Designed as a vehicle for its petite star Cynthia Rothrock (her first fully fledged US offering), the film is enthusiastically handled even if her acting is a little overstretched at times. Her lethal limbs kick up a storm as super-cop China O’Brien, who gives up her LAPD badge and returns to her hometown to find her Sheriff father dead, the Senator an asshole, …

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Profile: Michelle Yeoh Chu-kheng

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Profile: Michelle Yeoh Chu-kheng

Other names: Michelle Khan

Date of birth: 6 August, 1962 (Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia)

Occupation: Actor, producer, dancer

Style: Ballet

Biography: Born in Malaysia to a Chinese family – a politician and lawyer’s daughter – Michelle Yeoh trained in ballet from the age of four. At 15, she moved to England to attend boarding school, studying ballet at the Royal Academy of Dance in London. Achieving a BA in Creative Arts and Drama, she was prevented from a professional career in ballet because of a spinal injury. At 21, she won the Miss Malaysia beauty pageant and went on to take part in the 1983 Miss …

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