Left to right, Bond, James, and Tequila. Yes, that's really their names.
Outlaw Brothers is a 1990 Hong Kong Action comedy Martial Arts Movie directed and starring Frankie Chan, also featuring Yukari Oshima (Rogan from Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky) as police officer Inspector Tequila.
James (Frankie Chan) and Bond (Max Mok) are a pair of car thieves, who inadvertently stumbles into a drug bust headed by supercop Inspector Tequila (Yukari Oshima) who had the two detained for questioning. James inevitably falls for Tequila, but just as the duo are cleared of their names, James discovers that his younger sister is involved in the drug business, forcing him to assist Tequila to take down the drug ring.
This movie comes out two years before Hard Boiled, by the way. John Woo is probably a fan of this film.
This movie contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Inspector Tequila, played by Yukari Oshima, who delivers asskickings in spades.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: James and Tequila when fighting hordes of mooks.
- BFS: One of Miego’s Co-Dragons uses a giant Chinese dao as his weapon.
- Big Bad: Miego, played by Oshima’s fellow Japanese 90s Action Girl icon and frequent asskicker, Michiko Nishiwaki.
- Big Brother Instinct: James, who stalks and threatens to beat up his brother-in-law when realizing his little sister is a victim of domestic abuse.
- Bound and Gagged: Miego’s eventual fate after being defeated and arrested by the police. Tequila forgot to bring her handcuffs.
- Broomstick Quarterstaff: In the final brawl, James uses a broom to defend himself against the BFS-wielding henchman. And wins!
- Combat Hand Fan: Miego’s dragon uses a metal fan as his weapon. In his final confrontation with Tequila, she managed to hijack this weapon and use it to stab his own throat instead.
- Cowboy Cop: A rare female example with Inspector Tequila.
- Genre Mashup: There's action, comedy, romance and drama, all rolled in one in a film called Outlaw Brothers.
- Hate Sink: James’ unnamed brother-in-law, a lousy, pathetic scum of a person. He is a racecar driver who neglects and abuses his wife/James' sister, and threatens her not to tell anyone about it, which James finds out when realizing his little sister have bruises on her face. Being an irresponsible husband and pretty much The Millstone, this asshole willingly loans his vehicle for drug trafficking for a quick profit, while keeping all his illegal activities a secret, and when he failed to deliver the drugs as promised, he instead tried making a run for it, causing his poor wife to become the scapegoat when gangsters after him ends up abducting her instead. While far from the Big Bad, he is unquestionably the character easiest to hate in the film.
- I Have Your Wife: More like I Have Your Sister. When James’ younger sister (no thanks to her husband, the aforementioned human-shaped piece of filth above) ends up being abducted by Miego and her mooks, its up to James and Tequila to go on a Roaring Rampage of Rescue.
- Ladder Tipping: Briefly in the final fight. Tequila, on a higher platform, kicks over a ladder that a thug is using to climb towards her, knocking out said thug.
- Master of Unlocking: James, who unlocks a door at one point using a safety pin and screwdriver combo.
- Punny Name: James and Bond? *insert Bond theme here*
- Rule of Pool: Initially averted during the mansion fight, where there is a swimming pool in the courtyard where Tequila and James are fighting off mooks. But quickly played straight after the fight, when James accidentally caused Tequila to end up in the pool.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Tequila, who looks absolutely stunning in a low-cleavage long dress when not in ass-kicking mode.
- Skewed Priorities: In the middle of an intense fight against a bunch of machete-wielding mooks, Tequila and James ends up stumbling into each other… and Tequila briefly scolds James for accidentally touching her boobs.
- Slap-Slap-Kiss: Happens constantly between Tequila and James, but eventually at the beach scene James pretty much stopped retaliating and let Tequila use him as a punching bag.
- Waif-Fu: Tequila and Miego both uses this style in their fight scenes.
- Workout Fanservice: Yukari Oshima in sports bra, yoga pants and covered in sweat
◊. Aw yeah!- In fact a later Yukari Oshima movie, Framed , would also feature her in this sort of attire. These Hong Kong action movies really knows how to entertain an audience…
