1997: China retakes control of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong is the home of some of the greatest action stars and directors in the world. Stars like Chow Yun Fat, John Woo, Jackie Chan, Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark, Sammo Hung and others called Hong Kong home. Even some of Cynthia Rothrock's best work was in Hong Kong cinema. In 1997, that was all about to change. Communist China was about to regain control of the island. The artists of Hong Kong had a to make a decision. Either leave their beloved homeland and continue thier work overseas, or stay and try to fight an uphill battle against a government not known for being very tolerant. Most decided to come to the U.S.

What does this have to do with Sworn to Justice? I'm getting there, trust me.

The major U.S. movie studios were aware of the mass creative exodus from Hong Kong and prepared for the onslaught of talent. But there was a problem. Action movies, especially Martial Arts action movies were waning at the box office. Segal, Van Damme, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, etc. were not popping out blockbuster after blockbuster like they did in the past. Maybe this was because of lackluster films, or maybe it was because of a glut in the market. Either way, the studios decided to take action. They stopped making action films. Sure, they still made disaster flicks like Titanic and Twister. But as far as good old martial arts action films, they were as good as gone...for a while at least. The studios dropped the supply of martial arts films in order to raise demand for the forthcoming big budget, Hong Kong transplants.

Soon the public had forgotten what a 'real' action film was supposed to be. Movies like 'Men in Black' and 'Independance Day' are good in their own right, but they're more special effects than old school action. So when the HK style was finally let loose on mainstream Hollywood by performers like Jackie Chan, and Jet Li, the audience ate it up. The popularity of 'The Matrix', and 'Rush Hour' signaled that the rebirth of the Martial Arts film was underway. But what about the 'little guys', aka Home Video.?

Hang in there, I'm getting to the good stuff.

The theatre drought of MA films usually wouldn't have been a problem. There was always the 'straight to video' market. Jeff Speakman, Gary Daniels, Don Wilson, Cynthia Rothrock, etc.  were always ready and waiting with something new at the local Video Mart. But not anymore. You see, Straight to Video films are made by small studios or independent filmmakers. To get these movies to the streets, they need to find a distributer willing to sell their movie to the 1000's of rental stores across the country. But this suddenly became much more of a hurdle than it was in the past. The distributers began 'consolidating'. In other words, the big distributers bought up most of the smaller distributers. So instead of having 1000 different companies to try to sell their movie to, filmmakers now only had a few dozen to choose from. Independent filmmakers had less of a chance when they tried to get their movies out to the public, especially if the movie had a lot of kicks and palm thrusts. And since the major studios controlled many of the distributers, the policy of blocking martial arts films spilled over into the video market.

This is where Sworn To Justice comes in.

Sworn to Justice had been completed for a while. When the filmmakers went to find a US distributer, the factors discussed above made the attempt more than a little difficult. Sure, there were companies that would distribute it, but only at a rate that was laughable. It would have been easy for the producers to pawn off the film on a third rate company and codemn a great movie to a bad shelf life. Instead, they decided to go another route. Sworn to Justice was released by 20th Century Fox to non-US markets first. Overseas, there wasn't the the problem of the studio's lockdown on action movies. Needless to say, the film was a hit. Sworn to Justice was the first movie of it's kind shown at film festivals all across the world. Soon the major distrubuters took notice. With MA themed movies like Charlie's Angels, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Romeo Must Die recharging the genre, the time was right to put more good titles on the shelves. Because of its success overseas, Sworn to Justice quickly found distributers willing to give it the attention it deserves. In late Summer of 2001, the VHS and DVD of Sworn to Justice will be released into the U.S. market by MTI Home Video.

So now you know why it's taken so long for one of  CR's best movies to come to the US. Blame China. Blame the movie studios. Blame the distributors. And then go back and blame the studios again. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of Sworn To Justice. You wont regret it.