Charlotte Chong, Assassination
Similarities aside, the above image is not, obviously, Jan Gan Boyd. Fittingly, no such picture exists anywhere in cyberspace, making her brief flirtation with 80Âs action that much more mysterious. In the course of her time in the sun, she played a Wong, a Cheng, a lab tech, and a waitress. Here, in the Charles Bronson vehicle Assassination, she is all Chong. Charlotte ÂCharlie Chong, if you must know, and few could have done it better. None but the proud would have had the stomach for it. For not only does she stand toe-to-toe with the decadeÂs most stoic warrior, she trades quips and sexual barbs without breaking a sweat. To hell with pleasing her man; sheÂs in this for herself. SheÂs a sidekick, a Pal Joey, a mascot; and all she wants to do is fuck the mustache right off BronsonÂs face. Though shuffling through a sad career shorter than a ChinamanÂs chopstick, she did so with feet decidedly unbound. NobodyÂs fool, her refusal to bow and bend like the stereotypically demure Asian of old allowed her to take the best of the Orient, channeling both that regionÂs primitive lust for bodily fluids and its perverse, dark sexuality, and emerge not only whole, but high-heeled and horny to boot. SheÂd have ChuckÂs Polish sausage, even if she had to set the nationÂs capital aflame to get it.
Her hunger, as restless and desperate as any random peasant during the Great Leap Forward, permeates the film like a thick, bordello stank; the First Lady might be in danger, but her safety is a solid second to Ms. ChongÂs frenzied need to clamp her Commie thighs firmly on ChuckÂs grizzled, cigar store Indian of a mug. Strange, too, that she has more on-screen chemistry with the legendary badass than he ever had with his own wife, Jill Ireland. Still, her heroism stems not only from an independent streak a mile wide, but also her steadfast repudiation of anything remotely naked or dead. For once in CharlieÂs cinematic life, someone else is in charge. And, in a truly novel turn, not once does she try to murder her lover in the sack. Instead, at the peak of her career inside the White House, she thinks of little else but the bump and grind with a man at least 53 years her senior. An older, mustier man for its own sake, not as a means to move up the company ladder or inspire more sinister deeds. A black chick would have been too sassy, a white woman too ordinary, and a Latina simply unbelievable in a job not involving deep fryers and drive-up windows. No, it took an Asian to win CharlieÂs loins. HeÂs intrigued, but too flummoxed to commit.
ThereÂs much to the theory that BoydÂs career stalled because she was the lone Bronson love interest who survived to live another day, or at least put head to pillow without being raped. At one point, Chuck cries, in response to her request to move in, ÂI donÂt want to die of a terminal orgasm. These are bold words indeed, impossible to imagine in any of the Death Wish films. Why continue when youÂve forced such a man to his knees in resignation? As an actor, he never was the same again, displaying a suffocating indifference until he faded away into dementia and death. In her own right, the performing bug was cured for good by 1991. What of her legacy? At a time when Asian girls stripped bare simply to spend long shoots as dumpster meat or ÂWhore #2, she was a cocky renegade who not only didnÂt service G.I.Âs or ronery businessmen, but managed to push for lovemaking within the confines of a committed relationship. Not only was she dressed, but dressed sharply, and she spoke not with a forked tongue, but the KingÂs English, albeit laced with grade school innuendo. SheÂs the one who got away. But not without a fight.