Chinatown Connection has Lee Majors II as a cop on the edge who needs a partner, and Bruce Ly as a cop who never uses his piece and is training potential cops on the edge to use martial arts instead of killing people--one of whom is Mr. Camacho. Majors II and Ly are on the case after a series of cocaine poisonings. Who could be doing this? Ly suspects the local heroin kingpin, even after said kingpin professes his innocence. Turns out he might be right, because the kingpin could take advantage of the poisoning to sell his own coke. Corporate takeovers are rough in any situation. Will our heroes be able to stop this?
This is 90 minutes of pure fun. It's like this movie was made with us in mind. First off, it has some great action. Bruce Ly has some great scenes, Lee Majors II is a solid cop on the edge, and then the supporting cast, including Art Camacho, do great in their smaller roles. But then you have the fun. Like when Majors II visits Bruce Ly, whose character is married to Brinke Stevens, and she asks him if he wants something for dinner. Instead of saying "that would be nice, what are you having?" or "no thank you, I've already eaten," he's like "I'm a meat and potatoes guy," as if whatever Asian inspired meal he thought they were making would be beneath him. She tells him she's making hamburgers, which of course he's into. What does any of that mean? Should we like Ly more because he eats American food? Are we supposed to sympathize with Majors II and be like "yeah man, I'd hate to be in that situation myself, who knows what she'd serve me!"? And then someone from the police lab shows up, accepts Stevens's offer of a beer, then doesn't drink it, nor does Majors II finish his burger, so Stevens is just making food and pouring beers for people who don't end up having them. The thing is, none of it matters, it all just adds to the charm. And that's ultimately what you have here, a lot of charm with some solid DTV action.
The DTVC 50 Club, a club with only two other members, but Camacho is unique because, as I mentioned above, he's here primarily for his work behind the camera. I must confess that I didn't know who he was before I started this site, but as I was watching more and more of these movies for reviews, I noticed his name coming up more and more. As a result of that, I may not have tagged him in all the films we've reviewed that he had a part in. With Dolph at 70, and Gary Daniels knocking on the door to the 60 Club with 58, it feels like Camacho could be a ways off from catching them, but the thing is, between his work with PM and my aim to get as many of those up in the near future, and the current work he's doing with big names like Michael Jai White, his tags could come in bunches. In 1990 he was still coming into his own, and I think as an actor here he does a good enough job and it's cool to see him in something like this, but it's really the stuff he did in stunt work, stunt choreography, second unit directing, and as primary director that made him someone where you can say, 90s action wouldn't exist as we know it without his contributions. If there's anything you can glean from his performance in this that would give us an idea of what was to come with him, I think it's the sense that he was willing to do anything it took to be a part of this business, and I think that work ethic pushed him to give us the great stuff he's given us. He always says on his Instagram how blessed he is, but we too are blessed to be able to have the hours of enjoyment his contributions have given us.
Our leads were played by Bruce Ly and Lee Majors II. They were supposed to be giving us an East meets West mash-up kind of thing, which I think was where the "I'm a meat and potatoes guy," was supposed to be taking us, but they didn't explore that enough, and I was okay with that. The fact that they only had 90 minutes, and decided to spend more time with Ly infiltrating a cheese warehouse and finding coke in one of the cheese wheels, which meant skipping the perfunctory scene of Ly and Majors II at a Chinese restaurant and Majors II struggling to use chopsticks, was a solid decision in my mind, and helped make this thing a more solid actioner. I hadn't seen much of Ly before this, as I'm not as up on the Bruce Lee clones, but it looks like according to IMDb this was one of two films he made here in the States, the other being 1989's Open Fire with David Carradine. I don't know what happened after this to cause that to stop, but that was it, he went back to Hong Kong to work. Majors II is one we've actually seen on here before, in Ice Cream Man, the Clint Howard cult classic, which was also one of Art Camacho's 50 tags, as he was the stunt coordinator in that. According to IMDb, that was it for him, as he hasn't done anything since.
Look at that beautifulness down below. Bruce Ly, leaning against a wall, with that hairdo, a red Members Only jacket and tie. I was trying to think from a sartorial standpoint where that ranks on the all-time outfit list. Maybe it's something I should put together and start ranking. I mean, it definitely kills Sasha Mitchell's pants in Kickboxer III, and David Bradley's fanny pack doesn't even come close. I'd have to go back through the old posts and see, but this might be the best ever. I mean, I dig the simplicity of a good Richard Norton Canadian tuxedo, but do you really want to take the Pepsi Challenge with that against what Ly is rockin' below? I didn't think so. I was only 11 at that time, so I wasn't anywhere cool enough to wear something so sublime, but I think even being 11 I still count in the rule that says when a look come back around, you shouldn't wear it if you were around when it was first popular. So I was too young in 1990, and now it's lost to me forever, I can never wear something so fantastic, I can only look on in both awe and envy, as Mr. Ly wows us with his sartorial acumen.
Finally (as if there could be a finally after that paragraph), I think it's good to give Art Camacho a second paragraph since this post is in honor of him entering the 50 Club. I was trying to get a sense of how many potential tags he could have left, to see if he could potentially pass Dolph for most all-time. As best as I can tell, it would be close based on what he has out there now, and of that what I'd be able to get my hands on; but the thing is, he's still working, so his total is only going to go up. By the same token, Dolph is still working too, so he could put some space between him and Camacho. One thing I think I'll try to do is focus more on his directorial work and see if we can get that as complete as possible--some of his films aren't available, so we'll probably never be able to make it complete. By my count we have 11 of the films he's directed, which puts him 7th all-time, but Fred Olen Ray's 15 is second all-time, so he's not as far off from moving up that list. His next one, Ruthless with new DTVC favorite Dermot Mulroney, is supposed to be out soon, so I can't wait to check that one out.
And with that, let's wrap this up. As far as I can tell, YouTube here in the States is the best way to go, unless you can find it on VHS. This is the late 80s/early 90s DTV action you came for, so it's a shame it's not available in more places. And a final congratulations to Art Camacho for becoming the third member of the 50 Club. For the kind of hard worker he is, and for the great work he's given us over the years, it's more than deserved.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099261
And my newest novel, Don's House in the Mountains, is available now on Amazon! Click the image to buy.
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