China Girl presents a theme prevalent in cheap 80s action movies -- the Chinatown gangs, often with showdowns between the Chinese and the Italians via gang wars. You'll see a lot of this with 80s American martial arts movies, in particular.
China Girl also seems to prevent a tone from director Abel Ferrer which becomes much more evident and much more forceful in his 1996 film, The Funeral, which is a sadly underrated movie about the perpetration of gang life through three mafioso brothers. The dismaying realities of gang life are expressed here, though less sophisticatedly through a Romeo and Juliet gangland story. Though entertaining (for the most part, aside from much of the repetition throughout the movie), you cannot help but remain unconvinced about the tale as one viewer has already commented, because of the extreme lack of chemistry between the two main characters. Yes, the sex scene does seem ridiculous.
Nonetheless, the story is about a teenage Italian-American boy who refuses to participate in the turf wars with his relatives against the Chinese-Americans in Chinatown. Like Vincent Gallo's character realizes in 'The Funeral,' the young man, Tony, likewise cannot see the logic in the continuous fighting, especially once he has fallen in love with the Chinese gang's sister.
Things do tend to get sappy in this movie, and aside from the point about senseless gang violence, there is not much else going on. The writers go slightly overboard in bogging down the audience with this point, that they forgot to put in some filler (unless you're one hundred percent entertained by the fight sequences). It is not a bad movie, and certainly one of the better movies I have seen by Abel Ferrer ('Fear City' in my opinion was his worst, 'The Funeral' was his best). If you're in the mood for 80s action nostalgia, it's a good vice.
China Girl also seems to prevent a tone from director Abel Ferrer which becomes much more evident and much more forceful in his 1996 film, The Funeral, which is a sadly underrated movie about the perpetration of gang life through three mafioso brothers. The dismaying realities of gang life are expressed here, though less sophisticatedly through a Romeo and Juliet gangland story. Though entertaining (for the most part, aside from much of the repetition throughout the movie), you cannot help but remain unconvinced about the tale as one viewer has already commented, because of the extreme lack of chemistry between the two main characters. Yes, the sex scene does seem ridiculous.
Nonetheless, the story is about a teenage Italian-American boy who refuses to participate in the turf wars with his relatives against the Chinese-Americans in Chinatown. Like Vincent Gallo's character realizes in 'The Funeral,' the young man, Tony, likewise cannot see the logic in the continuous fighting, especially once he has fallen in love with the Chinese gang's sister.
Things do tend to get sappy in this movie, and aside from the point about senseless gang violence, there is not much else going on. The writers go slightly overboard in bogging down the audience with this point, that they forgot to put in some filler (unless you're one hundred percent entertained by the fight sequences). It is not a bad movie, and certainly one of the better movies I have seen by Abel Ferrer ('Fear City' in my opinion was his worst, 'The Funeral' was his best). If you're in the mood for 80s action nostalgia, it's a good vice.