Lady Dragon
                                                      
Director: David Worth
Year: 1992
Rating: 5.0
In a sense Cynthia Rothrock and Richard Norton are the Astaire and Rogers of martial arts films. And like those two, they first met as junior players on Millionaire's Express. All together they have crossed kicks in some ten films but in real life are good friends. Norton and his Aussie accent are nearly always the villain with Rothrock on the side of the law or on the side of revenge. In the two China O'Brien films that he appears in, he is a friend of hers. Their fights are well choreographed and they trust one another not to kick them in the face. Still, you sure wish they could have called up one of their choreographer buddies from Hong Kong and asked him to come over to choreograph their fight. This takes place in Indonesia so it would be a short trip. This is directed by David Worth who was just coming off Kickboxer with Jean-Claude Van Damme. He was actually cinematographer on two Clint Eastwood films, Billy Bronco and Any Which Way You Can.




For the most part this is a pretty standard American B action film but the fight with Norton and a terrific motorcycle chase raises it up a notch or two. Both of those take place in the last 15 minutes, so you need to be patient. Think of this as a martial arts version of Bride in Black.  Kathy (Rothrock) has just gotten married and is on the steps of the church in white when a gunman assassinates her husband. She is CIA and swears vengeance on Ludwig (Norton). A villain named Ludwig? She is not a great planner though - hopefully that wasn't her job at the CIA. She walks into his disco and confronts him. She gets captured by his many thugs, raped and tossed out of the car on the outskirts of Jakarta. Fortunately, she is found and nursed back to health both physically and spiritually by an old man and his grandson. He also toughens her up and shows her a few things. And back she goes. To get captured again. Come on girl. You need a plan. She is better at avoiding machine gun fire. On two occasions, she has four guys with machine guns shooting at her and somehow missing.  Norton is a great creep - "exquisite pain. What dreams are made of" is his favorite expression. Great pick-up line.