Matty charts what happened when an enterprising foreign film company hooked up with a martial arts superstar and a talented director.  

In 1990 the Indonesian film industry almost broke a thirteen year old record.

By the year’s end, one hundred and fifteen pictures had been produced, a stat then second to the one-hundred and twenty-seven made in 1977. Sadly, come 1991, the figure dropped dramatically — and by 1993 the number was barely in double digits, with domestically produced movies accounting for less than ten percent of what played across the country’s cinema screens.

Weathering this storm were Rapi Films.

The veteran exploitation peddlers trounced their contemporaries thanks to a canny business plan. Wanting to combat Indonesia’s increasing issue with video piracy, the studio cobbled together a slate of cheap and cheerful action programmers for international audiences, determining that the marquee value of the talent attached would offset the inevitable financial loss incurred by Jakarta’s lucrative black market tape trade.

Their first venture worked a treat. Headlined by Cynthia Rothrock, ‘Triple Cross’ (1990) did well in China — where Rothrock was already a draw due to Yes Madam (1985) and Righting Wrongs (1986) — and was snapped up by Imperial Entertainment for U.S. and U.K. release (as Angel of Fury) in 1992, post the star’s western success with Martial Law (1990) et al.

Rapi stayed in the Rothrock business with their second biff-‘em-up, LADY DRAGON (1992), and hedged their bets by handing David Worth the reins. 

A skilled cinematographer-cum-writer-cum-director who’d cut his teeth on a wealth of XXX and drive-in favourites (the brilliant Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) among them), Worth was no stranger to star-driven chop socky shot on foreign soil. He’d lensed vintage Van Damme vehicle Bloodsport (1988) in Hong Kong and was summarily hired to helm the Muscles From Brussels’ next hard-hitting epic, Kickboxer (1989), over in Thailand. Naturally, both are plundered in Lady Dragon. Several scenes are essentially Rothrock-fronted riffs on Bloodsport/Kickboxer moments, the latter’s training montage getting the most obvious remix. The plot is basically a reheat too. Revenge, fortune cookie wisdom, pantomime bad guys (brought to life by Robert ‘The Exterminator (1980)’ Ginty and frequent Rothrock foil Richard Norton) — a few tweaks and Lady Dragon could have easily been a sequel or spin-off to either movie.

The nitty gritty concerns an ex-CIA agent (Rothrock) and her quest to bring down the arms dealer (Norton) who killed her husband — but, in truth, none of it actually matters. Penned by the mysterious Clifford Mohr — a suspected pseudonym of Worth himself [1] — Lady Dragon’s script is riddled with junky dialogue. However, as the film drifts from scuffle to scrap to melee, anchored by the fantastical lilt of Jim ‘Kimo’ West’s dreamy score [2], it becomes less about what the characters are saying, more the general mood and feeling their scenes elicit. The drama comes from manner and tone rather than the spoken word. You can watch Lady Dragon without sound and, a couple of unnecessary narrative detours aside, still understand what’s going on — or, at least, vibe with the atmosphere Worth constructs amidst the thumpin’.

Indeed, while the copious weirder flourishes are a joy, it is, of course, Rothrock’s martial arts prowess that remains Lady Dragon’s USP. As Bloodsport, Kickboxer, and, even, subsequent action capers Chain of Command (1994) (with Michael Dudikoff) and True Vengeance (1997) (with Daniel Bernhardt) prove, Worth knows how to present his arse-whuppers for maximum effect. Rothrock has conventionally better movies; few, though, afford her an introduction as heroic and as iconic as Worth does in Lady Dragon.

Like ‘Triple Cross’, Lady Dragon was acquired for stateside distribution by Imperial Entertainment. The film landed on British shores on 26th August 1992 via 20:20 Vision/New Age. In a particularly amusing bit of trivia, its debut was preceded by a competition in the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph, whereupon Rothrock savvy readers could snag one of four copies by answering the following question:

What was the name of the Corey Haim film that featured Rothrock as a bank robber?

Hint:

It was Fast Getaway (1991).

[1] Mohr’s sole other credits are Worth’s Lady Dragon 2 (1993) and a 1992 horror novel called Requiem.
[2] Best known as Weird Al Yankovic’s guitarist, West also composed the scores for Rapi’s Lady Dragon 2 and Blood Warriors (1993).