China Salesman is a Chinese production staring Dong-Xue Li as an engineer for a Chinese telecom company that's looking to win a contract to be the cell service provider for a burgeoning African nation. Unfortunately those pesky Westerners are at their old tricks: the competing European telecom company is actually represented by a French spy who's using the telecom bidding as a front for his attempt to foment civil war in the country in order to exploit their natural resources. Now not only does Dong-Xue need to overcome the Westerner's sneakiness in trying to win the contract, but he also needs to save this nation from another civil war.
In the opening credits, the production company "Golden God" is written as "Gloden God." Red flag number 2, right? And it turns out I was right to be concerned with red flag number 1, the runtime. At about the 1:15-1:20 mark, the film hits a natural end point: Dong-Xue saves the country, wins the contract, and it looks like everyone but the baddies will live happily ever after. Not so fast cowboy. Instead there's this whole other storyline about how the European telecom is now suing the Chinese one, led by the nefarious French spy, and this drags on for another half-hour that we didn't need. I don't know that I would have said this was a great movie at the shorter runtime, because it still had its "Gloden God" flaws, but at the very least, it couldn't afford that tacked-on extra thirty minutes, which was unfortunate.
Our man Seagal isn't in this for a huge amount, but the fight scene he has with Tyson is pretty good. When you think of an extreme, aggressive boxer like Tyson versus an Aikido master like Seagal, it had all of the one redirecting the aggression and momentum of the other. The problem was they were substituting Seagal with a stunt double, which made it disjointed. Beyond that, Seagal was this local smuggler character who was, I guess, a good guy, or maybe a guy with no allegiances, but the role was down on the totem pole, and probably didn't warrant him being featured so prominently on the cover. I read on imdb that casting him was a huge chunk of their budget, so I guess having him on the cover and featured in the trailer was their way of making sure they got their money's worth, but that doesn't mean we did.
While Seagal wasn't in this much, Mike Tyson's character had a pretty sizable role. He's the representative of a displaced people in Africa looking to take the country back--being manipulated by the French spy to be a baddie of course. Based on how good his fight scene with Seagal was, I would have liked more of that, as opposed to him in a tank yelling "fire!" There are some other films he's done recently, like one of the Kickboxer sequels, so I think it'll be good to see him in one of those, as I have a feeling they'll do more with his fighting skills.
I list the hero, Dong-Xue, down here, as opposed to near the top, because this film billed him third, despite the fact that he was the film's hero. He represented more than simply the protagonist, he also represented China vis-a-vis the Western world, especially when it comes to developing parts of the world like Africa. There's one scene where he and some of the other characters need to get past a hostile checkpoint so they can fix a cell tower, but they don't have a UN or Red Cross flag to show that they're not a belligerent player. Dong-Xue finds a Chinese flag and waves it patriotically as their caravan rides past the checkpoint unharmed. It smacked of our " 'Murica" movies, and in a way was refreshing to see done by another country. The reality is the West doesn't have a great reputation in Africa in particular, and as a result, China can position themselves as perhaps a more palatable alternative as some of these nations look to develop their infrastructure. Also, the title, "China Salesman," is a reference to the stereotype that the Chinese people takeover the economies that they move into and are always looking to sell people things. Dong-Xue having to prove that he's more than just a "China Salesman" is a metaphor for China itself challenging the global economy. I think the message would have gotten across better with the last 30 minutes dumped, but even so, is a low-budget actioner from "Gloden God" the right vehicle for messages like this anyway?
Our friend Will over at Exploding Helicopter has been celebrating the helicopter explosion in films for years, and as you can imagine, his work is very extensive. It's almost like Chekhov's Gun, right? When we see a helicopter in a movie, it's gotta go down at some point, it's just a matter of how creative the filmmaker will be in doing the job. China Salesman though strikes a blow for the helicopter here, for the first time ever in any movie I've ever seen. A UN helicopter appears as our hero is under fire while trying to fix a cell tower. At the same time, Mike Tyson picks up a rocket launcher and trains it on the whirlybird. I see this, and I'm thinking "here it comes;" but it didn't, he missed. Okay, it got lucky, we're just delaying the inevitable, right? Of course, Iron Mike is loading up for his next shot, now we'll get that exploding helicopter. But the helicopter did something I'd never seen when faced with a missile flying in its direction: it dodged it. And then, on top of that, it fired a missile of it's own, blasting Tyson off the ledge he was on and incapacitating him. It was a amazing, like the Washington Generals finally beating the Harlem Globetrotters.
Okay, time to wrap this baby up. You can currently stream China Salesman on Netflix, and I feel like the best bet is to stream it and watch the fight between Seagal and Tyson, because it's pretty good. (Also if you go to the 70-minute mark to see the helicopter striking a blow for all helicopters.) Beyond that, I think this movie tried and had a message worth giving, but it ultimately failed in the execution. Many have suffered the hubris in trying to defeat the 88-minute rule, and this unfortunately was another casualty.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6015706/
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