Which 7-year-old came up with that tagline again?
China Heat is a 1992 action movie starring Sibelle Hu, one of the many, many Girls with Guns action films starring Hu during the peak of her career in the early 90s.
Sibelle Hu stars as Captain Tie-hua of the mainland Chinese army. After thwarting a hijacking attempt, she is assigned to hunt down international drug lord Hong Gang, who had fled to New York and had allied himself with the Mafia. Tie-hua had to find her contact, Yolanda, in the States, to track and arrest Hong Gang, but she ends up crossing paths with NYPD officer Michael who is determined to interfere with her investigations, whether she wants it or not.
This is notably Sibelle Hu's only film which is set largely in the States.
China Heat contains the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Tie-hua, a mainland Chinese police captain played by asskicker badass-babe Sibelle Hu.
- Big Applesauce: Much of the movie is set in New York, including a lengthy shootout scene on Brooklyn Bridge. There are various sweeping shots of the World Trade Center too.
- Boom, Headshot!: More than one faceless mook suffers this fate. Hong Gang also dispose of a fleeing underling in this method from behind, although for some reason this results in his target's entire head exploding.
- Chase Fight: The finale had the Power Trio taking on enemy leaders, chasing and fighting them simultaneously. Tie-hua against Hng Gang's number two, Yolanda against the rival triad leader, and Michael against Hong Gang.
- Flipping the Bird: During the fight between Michael and Tony, Michael intimidates his opponent with a Bring It gesture... with his middle finger.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The bespectacled Big Bad, Hong Gang, although he only wears glasses in his first scene.
- Girls with Guns : Both Tie-hua and Yolanda gets to fire away at mooks in multiple shootout scenes.
- Guns Akimbo:
- Tie-hua wields double pistols during the airplane shootout against hijackers.
- In the docks shootout, Tie-hua, Yolanda and Michael uses double guns against Tony and Hong Gang's mooks.
- Laser-Guided Karma: In the final battle, after a series of lengthy brawls and smackdowns, Hong Gang eventually ends up defeated by Tie-hua and taken alive by the authorities. Michael, hurled into the sea from a high railing by Hong Gang earlier, scrambled up the docks, having survived his fall... and promptly dashed towards Hong Gang, then handcuffed and led away by cops, to kick him a few more times.
- Leap and Fire: Common in the many shootouts in the film. The beach shootout notably had Michael jumping while firing a machine-gun taking down a bunch of mafia goons at the same time.
- Mêlée à Trois: The final shootout and brawl at the docks between Tie-hua, Yolanda and Michael, against Hong Gang and his mooks, and the New York mafia. Initially only the latter two gangs are duking it out, before getting interrupted by the Power Trio's arrival, but the battle quickly develops into Tie-hua, Yolanda and Michael simply shooting at everyone except themselves, while the two opposing sides are still trying to kill every member on each other's gang.
- Railing Kill:
- Michael dispose of the foreign mob boss, Tony in this manner. Complete with Blood from the Mouth confirming Tony's death.
- Subverted when Hong Gang managed to throw Michael off a tall platform from a set of railings. Michael survives.
- Ramp Jump: Tie-hua in her Action Prologue does this while on a motorcycle, to infiltrate the hijacked plane without being spotted by the terrorists inside. She lands on top of the plane and keeps driving forward before sneaking into an opened hatch, somehow without alerting the terrorists inside the plane.
- Sean Connery Is About to Shoot You: Michael Depasquale Jr. is about to blow your face off with a Hand Cannon.
- Soft Water: The very lengthy oil rig battle between Michael and Hong Gang ends with Hong Gang throwing Michael off a tall platform, falling hundred of meters into the sea. But in a much later scene, Michael swims to shore alive.
- The Squadette: Tie-hua, a millitary Colonel, who spends much of the first half of the film in military fatigues, And training her very own unit of squadettes!
- Shout-Out: The opening hijack rescue is a rather blatant one to the Chuck Norris flick The Delta Force.
- Staircase Tumble: During the oil rig battle between Hong Gang and Michael, the former ends up falling down a tall flight of metal stairs from being kicked by the latter. He appears to be dead, but when Michael gets close, Hong Gang reveals he's still alive and gets the drop on Michael.
- Training Montage: Michael had a rather lengthy one halfway into the film, complete with blaring, inspiring music playing in the background, practicing his punches on a beach in California.
- Unwilling Suspension
- Jian-fei, after being captured alive in the hospital scene, ends up being suspended from his wrists by Tony's goons.
- Meng-li in the climatic docks finale, hanging from her ankles upside down from a tall platform on an oil rig while Tie-hua and Yolanda had to rescue her.
