Fangirl Tinet's Jet Li Film reviews

Huo Yuan Jia/Fearless (2006)

2008-07-13T21:07:00.024+02:00

It was about time I watched this film. It is definitely one of the very best films with Jet Li, as its main, and very serious, point is not the fight scenes, but the spirit behind the martial arts, and how it should be a spirit of respect. Like Danny the Dog, this is an anti-violent martial arts film.

Fearless is also a piece of Kung Fu mythology and history. It tells the story of Huo Yuan Jia (1869-1910), the founder of the Jing Wu school. His father was a martial arts master who refused to teach his son any martial arts. The young bullied Yuan Jia couldn't understand why. He learned Kung Fu by himself and swore never to be beaten by anyone.

He keeps his oath, but the more opponents he defeats in his ruthless matches, the more empty he becomes.

Eventually he has beaten every man in his home region Tianjin, except one master Qin. One day he hears that this master Qin has beaten up one of his disciples for no reason, and goes off to fight him. The fight ends with Yuan Jia killing master Qin at a point when he is already barely conscious. As has always been their habit, Yuan Jia and his disciples celebrate the victory by drinking themselves to oblivion.

The next morning Yuan Jia returns to his home and finds his mother and daughter murdered. It is master Qin's stepson who has avenged his stepfather's death. Furthermore, it now comes to light that master Qin actually had a reson for beating up Yuan Jia's disciple - the disciple was having an affair with master Qin's daughter.

Devastated with guilt Yuan Jia wanders off without aim. He is ready to die, but on the verge of death he is saved by some villagers who nurse him back to health. As he gets better, he gets used to the peaceful and hard-working village life and spends a few years there.

At some point he feels the urge to go back to his home town and pay respect to his dead family members. The city surely has changed while he was gone - there are foreigners from colonial powers all over the place, Chinese dressed in Western attire, children in rags begging on the streets, and even camels ...

The times have become troubled. Yuan Jia is a changed man, as well. He no longer feels the need to defeat everyone and prove himself better than the rest. But still, the only thing he knows is to fight. How can he make a difference and call for peace, understanding and friendship among opponents - both individuals and nations - when China seems so weak in face of the increasing pressure from the great colonial powers?

Yuan Jia decides to participate in matches against foreign champions, promoting "friendship through competition". One day, representatives of the main colonial powers present in China plan a great match with Yuan Jia, alone, against four great fighters - one each from Britain, Germany, Japan and what appears to be Spain (though according to history, shouldn't that be France or Russia?) ... How will this end? How can Yuan Jia communicate his message of respect and compassion despite such an unfair set-up?

This is a good film in many ways. It has considerably more sense than any average kung fu flick, and Jet Li's acting is the best and most varied that I've ever seen. And he hasn't been known as a great actor, so this was quite unexpected, even after his performance in Danny the Dog.

One funny thing, though, is all the nationalism it, in a way, propagates. As in many other films depicting this period of foreign intervention in China, it deals with how the Chinese can tackle this problem. The premise is that the foreign interests come with bad intentions, and it's up to the Chinese hero to convince them that friendship and cooperation is the right way.

The foreigners are all - with the exception of Japan's Anno (Shido Nakamura) - depicted as either some kind of inarticulate brutes of raw power (they don't speak mandarin, so they communicate solely with growls and snarls ...), or cunning, evil scheming capitalists with no respect for human life and moral values.

The most extreme case of the former might be O'Brien from the USA:

The USA (Nathan Jones - not a very unsuitable impersonification of that nation, if you ask me ;o) ... vs. China (Jet Li).

While it is Yuan Jia's aim to advocate for friendship and respect, this is, from all I can see, not the kind of friendship where different nationalities adapt to each other and loosen up the boundaries between their nations, but the kind where they respect each others' nations and do not interfere with them, while taking great pride in their own nation. For instance, when Anno scolds his associate Mita (Masato Harada), he calls him "a disgrace to the Japanese" - not "to humankind" or something more universal like that.
(In Fist of Legend, however, this is the other way around. There, the message is that you should "be fluent and adapt".)

As mentioned, Anno's character is an interesting exception among the foreigners. He is the only one with whom Yuan Jia can actually communicate using words, since he does speak Mandarin. Anno is in China, and he respects Chinese culture and is open to what he can learn from it.
Considering what clashes there have been lately between China and Japan, and what atrocities towards Chinese the Japanese army has been responsible for in relatively recent history, I think it is a pretty soothing move in the film to have a Japanese character be the most sympathetic of all the foreigners.

On a more personal note, what touched me the most in the film was Yuan Jia's coming to terms with his heavy conscience regarding the deaths of his mother and daughter, whom he had been careless with while they were still alive, and whose deaths he had caused.

I watched the film on a day when I was having pangs of bad conscience for perhaps not having taken good enough care of a very special person when she was still alive, so I could understand all too well what he was feeling ...

Martial arts:

There are many fighting scenes in this film, but it's not like in those easy Kung Fu flicks where the plot is only there to tie the fighting scenes together. The fighting scenes in this film all bear meaning and each of them carries the plot forward.

Once again, Yuen Woo Ping has choreographed some truly amazing martial arts scenes. Yuan Jia's character is very much expressed by his Kung Fu, and this is shown quite well in the fighting scenes.

In Yuan Jia's defiant younger years, his fighting style is very angry, hard, ruthless and aggressive.

But when he is older and wiser, his martial arts have become soft, respectful, and 'flowing'. (Though it's kind of hard to catch on screencaps ...)

Misogyny:
The main misogyny of this film seems to have occurred off the record, and the perpetrator was the actress Betty Sun, in the role of Moon, the blind girl Yuan Jia meets in the remote village. As told by the trivia section at imdb.com:
"Betty Sun was scared by the leeches in the rice paddy. She originally tried to wrap her feet in cellophane, but it showed on camera. Director had to order her to take it off."
Talk about disgrace to womanhood ...

And so do leeches.

Otherwise, the film isn't misogynous at all. One could object to how women and children in a way become symbols for the 'positive' values in life, in opposition to the harsh fighting world of men, but this isn't very obvious, and it could, actually, also be interpreted as depicting and even ciriticizing the society of the time.

Hunk factor:
Jet Li's character is one you (or, at least, I) would identify with, rather than wish you could be with. But there is one very hot guy in the film - the Japanese martial arts master Anno (Shido Nakamura, also known from the heart-wrenching doggie film Inu no eiga) ...

Anno Tanaka - the hottest kendo master on film 2006.

Yuan Jia's mum taught him that, but it's only now, long after she died, that he has understood what she meant.

Awww ... "tea appreciation" ...

Ooh, some chest ... These traditional Japanese V-neck jackets are definately teh hottest.

Great scene:
I just had to take this out. Yuan Jia and the German Hans (Brandon Rhea) are fighting with spears.

Yuan Jia has a bigger one than Hans!

Hans is not at all happy about this. He'd always thought Asians would have really small ones.

(Actually, Hans intentionally broke off his spear at one point. He wanted to be able to use it in combat of closer range, I think.)

The Last Hero in China/Claws of Steel/Iron Rooster vs. the Centipede (1993)

2008-07-13T20:55:00.020+02:00

This humorous Wong Fei Hung story (not part of the Once Upon a Time in China series) tells of how the legendary physician and martial arts master (Jet Li) moves to Canton with his school, and ends up in a house next to a brothel. When the prude Wong Fei Hung realises who his neighbours are, he is deeply concerned with how the school will be able to maintain face and how his students will be able to concentrate on their training.

Of course, the students soon get friendly with the neighbours, and they can't understand why their master doesn't want to have anything to do with these nice girls. The madam makes a bet with them that Wong Fei Hung will not be able to resist two of the girls, but it turns out that his interests are of a different kind ... When Wong Fei Hung realises the two patients who've come to see him are actually from next door, and not ill at all, he seizes the opportunity to engage in a bit of BDSM.

No wonder that Master Wong will only be enthralled by a woman with whom he can engage in endless steamy kung fu sparring sessions: Yin-Er (Man Cheung) and her father have disguised themselves as vagabond martial artists performing in the streets, while they are looking for Yin-Er's sister, who has been kidnapped. One day, when a man in the audience to his own misfortune makes shameful comments at their performance, and Yin-Er kicks his sorry ass, Wong Fei Hung introduces himself and offers them his help.

It turns out that Yin-Er's sister was kidnapped by heretic perverted Shaolin monks. Wong Fei Hung, his students, the girls next door and the pimp, who desperately wants master Wong to accept him as his student, help Yin-Er and her dad in their quest to crush the perverted monks and save the women.

Meanwhile, there is the obligatory assassination/kidnapping scheme of a foreign official, in which a certain madly laughing Legate Officer Lui (Gnong Kau Chai) is involved. He also leads a team of centipede dancers, and during a lion dancing show, the lions of Wong Fei Hung's school are suddenly attacked by Lui's centipede, who defeats them and catches the bait.

Wong Fei Hung has tried some ear medicine on himself, resulting in him becoming deaf, and after the rampage of the centipede he goes away to Yin-Er and her dad in the countryside in order to heal his hearing and figure out a way to win over the centipede. When he sees how a rooster kills a centipede, he has a sudden revelation ...

... and returns to Canton, just in time before the attempt on the foreign official is carried out at a centipede dancing show, with a new kung fu style -

- the rooster style! A hilarious fight between the rooster and the Amazing Somersaulting Centipede ensues ...

This is a quite funny and high-paced film with lots and lots of amazing martial arts scenes. Unfortunately, the rather complicated plot gets a bit lost in between the prolonged fight scenes.

Martial arts:
Besides the aforementioned rooster style, the film shows many different kung fu styles and techniques, ranging from Wong Fei Hung's drunken style kung fu to him fighting a convict, whom Legate Officer Lui has unleashed on him, while sitting in a chair during the whole fight.

The martial arts and action scenes were choreographed by Yuen Woo-Ping, and that is also in this film a guarantee for very good quality.

Misogyny:
As opposed to Cousin Yi, Wong Fei Hung's love interest in the Once Upon a Time in China films, Yi-Er is really cool and kicks major ass.

As for the conservative views of Wong Fei Hung on the prostitutes, I suppose that if there had been a little bit more focus on the plot, he might have come to the conclusion that they were good people just like himself and his students. ... Or maybe that's just wishful thinking on my part?

Hunk factor:
I fully agree with the reviewer blazing_1 at imdb.com: "... do not forget to see Jet's rooster style. C'mon, you know Jet Li is the man if he can do that scene and still look hardcore."

Legend of the Red Dragon (1994)

2008-07-13T20:43:00.014+02:00

- Thanks for washing my underwear. But you tore them.
- I'm sorry.
- That's okay. I made a smaller pair out of them - for you.
- Thanks, dad.
- ...
- Does that mean you're not wearing any underpants?
- I don't mind. It's cooler.

I almost laughed myself to death watching this movie. It's a Lone Wolf and Cub rip-off or parody (it's hard to decide which) in the beginning, and it incorporates a bit too many elements of the infinitely better movie Fong Sai-Yuk to be all that comfortable. But it's also very funny, silly, and - not least - stupid in its own unique way.

Dad (Jet Li) and his baby child are the only surviving inhabitants of a village that has been eradicated due to the villagers having rebelled against the government. Dad vows revenge. Then he finds out that one other person has actually survived - the one who betrayed them to the government for money. In a dashing fight with his flashing expandable spear and a baby bouncing on his back (hopefully not getting too serious brain damage) dad kills off the treacherous villager ... Or at least he thinks he does!

Some years later, dad and son (Miu Tse) are travelling through the country. They barely have enough money to buy food. Still, son throws away a pear his dad bought him with his last two cents, just because it got a bit mashed when he was in a fight. Perhaps he is anticipating that their luck turns at the next instant: a rich man (Sung Young Chen) hires dad as his bodyguard.

The rich man's young son is actually a disciple of the Shaolin monastery, and he is one of the five boys who have gotten a piece each of the top secret Shaolin treasure map tattooed onto their backs. Of course, the government wants to get hold of this map. Meanwhile, a mother & daughter con team has nestled themselves into the rich man's home: the daughter pretends she wants to marry him, while they are actually about to rob him of all his valuables.

And as if this wasn't enough commotion, the treacherous villager back from the beginning of the film has returned. A witch has "made his body invincible", and he is now a fire-damaged corrosive beast driving around in some kind of weird-ass go-kart.

Martial arts:
This film has lots of hilarious kung fu acrobatics. And never mind that real people couldn't lift a burning log with one hand. After all, that's what movies are for: making your wildest dreams real!!

As mentioned, dad's (and also son's) weapon of choice is an expandable spear. It's very flexible, it can be broken into sections, and the head can be taken off and used as a dagger or dart. Pretty cool.

Son is, of course, subject to rigorous training, such as jumping around on two fingers, defying gravity.

Misogyny:
Not much at all, really. As in Fong Sai-Yuk, the women are the real heroes, with lots of brains and superior kung fu skills. And, as opposed to Fong Sai-Yuk, the love-interest (con-daughter Ms. Redbean) is actually one of them. When she does use her 'feminine charm', it's just as a weapon to fool men. Her mum, for that matter, is probably the coolest person in the film (and her voice actor was the only one in the American English dubbing who actually had a bit of character).

In pre-school, the teachers always used to tell us that "love starts with fighting" if two kids who were fighting happened to be of opposite sexes. This might not really have been true of the kids in my class, but it is true of dad and Ms. Redbean, who are fighting, using as a weapon first cloth, then thread ...

Hunk factor:
Naah ... Jet Li's character - one of the weakest performances in the film - is not really real enough to be hunky.

Romeo Must Die (2000)

2008-07-13T20:34:00.010+02:00

I actually watched this movie in the first place because I saw that Grace Park, of Battlestar Galactica fame, was in it. Was I ever disappointed when I realised that her entire role consisted in just dancing in a perverted way with another girl while Jet Li's character's brother was watching, not long before he would be killed ...

Anyway, Romeo Must Die is the story of the former Hong Kong policeman Han Sing (Jet Li), who set himself up and went to prison in the place of his father, letting him escape to the USA together with his brother. While he has been sitting in prison, dad has quickly risen as the leader of one of the most influential gangs in Oakland, California (played by Vancouver, British Columbia).

One day, word gets to Han that his brother has been killed, and he instantly breaks out of prison and goes to Oakland to pursue the killers. He soon finds himself in the middle of a three-way deal between Chinese, black and white mobsters who will stop at nothing in order to make more money for themselves.

By chance he meets Trisha (Aaliyah), the daughter of the black gang's boss, who helps him find the killers, and there is even a bit of romantic development between them ... (It stays platonic, though. I think two different versions of the last scene were filmed, one with a kiss, one without. Eventually, the one without kiss was chosen ... Maybe their kissing turned out a bit awquard?)

The film is stylish, has some good kung fu scenes, and Delroy Lindo, as Trisha's dad, delivers a good performance. Otherwise, it's kind of shallow and at times really silly, as in the scene where the homeboys teach Han how to play American Football and he ends up kicking their asses, while the little kids watching the game cheer excitedly. (I guess this film is one of the reasons why Jet Li decided to make Danny the Dog - to teach young people that kicking ass is actually NOT cool ...)

The Romeo and Juliet connection is not so very strong, besides the thing with Han and Trish coming from two rivalling gangs, and Han climbing up to Trisha's balcony in one scene ...

To sum it up, it's a nice enough film for a rainy afternoon. And, yeah, the US film industry surely could use some more 'interracial' romance, so that's a plus for Romeo Must Die.

Martial arts:
There are some pretty cool fighting scenes, but at times there is a bit too much 'entertainment' in them. It's a hard thing, trying to keep the balance between the fact that people really can get disabled for life and die when you kick their ass (in this film eerily illustrated by x-ray-style clips of their bones breaking and hearts exploding), and coreographing kung fu into a beautiful dance of death. It can easily become tasteless cult of violence, and in this film that's what happens now and then.

Beauty ...

... and lack of taste? (Han is trying to flirt with Trisha, but apparently the only way he knows how to do it is by kicking people's asses.)

Misogyny:
Not much, because Trisha is a cool girl (there aren't that many women in the film besides her). Of course, there is the dancing scene mentioned at the beginning, and there's also ...

Han Sing: I can't hit a girl.
Trish: Look, I don't know how it is in China, but in America, if a girl is kicking your ass, you do not have to be a gentleman.

So, yeah, at one point Han and Trisha are pursued by a bunch of people on motorbikes with lethal intent. When the helmet of one of them comes off, it's - gasp! - a WOMAN!!! Suddenly, Han can't hit back anymore, because, according to his principles, you should never, ever, hit a girl. It's silly, but also kind of adorable.

But how does he solve this problematic situation? Well, of course he uses Trisha's fists and feet, instead ...

Hunk factor:
Jet Li is always cute when he speaks English. And he and Aaliyah make a sweet couple. (Except for in the pretty awquard club scene ... but maybe I just had such a negative impression of that scene because Han was chewing gum, and I happen to have a pretty strong aversion against chewing gum. *shudder*)

Born to Defend (1986)

2008-07-13T20:20:00.006+02:00

After surviving WWII, Jet (Jet Li) and the other soldiers in his unit return home only to be pushed around and spat upon while the US navy is celebrated as "the real heroes" of the war.
The country is in ruins and money is the only power recognised - children try to sell themselves as slaves, women turn to prostitution, men try to get by pulling rickshaws, while everyone in the US navy is just having a good time bullying and abusing the local population.

Those nasty US soldiers block Jet's way when he's bringing a woman who is in labour to hospital.

If you don't like the US navy and do like excessive violence and superhuman beings that are able to survive getting thrashed in a way that would kill a normal human being (regardless of how skilled he/she is in martial arts) many times over, this is your bet. (It's meant to be a somewhat realistic and serious story, not a historical or humourous kung fu fantasy, otherwise I wouldn't be complaining.)
Also, if you wonder what Jet Li looks like without his shirt on, this is also for you ... ;o) (Yeah, that's the main reason why I watched the film, apart from my hopes that I might get to see some skillful boxing - but the latter hopes were not quite fulfilled.)

It's a very basic and cliché martial arts movie story, that comes down to the goodhearted protagonist being provoked to the point where he can't take it anymore and has to kill all the bad guys in imaginative ways. It's not a *terribly* bad film (for its genre), but it could have been, you know ... better.

Martial arts:
Superhuman beings are being thrashed in a really ugly way and survive thousands of deaths. Well, the bad guys get killed in the end, of course. Some good guys, too, so Jet will have a somewhat plausible reason to thrash and be thrashed.

Misogyny:
A major element in the plot is how Jet's uncle first denies his daughter because of the 'shame' she has brought upon him by working as a prostitute. But in the end, Jet, who has fallen in love with her, helps him accept her and see that no matter what she does, she's still his daughter. This is one of the more sympathetic sides to this film.

Hunk factor:
As mentioned, Jet Li spends a lot of his screen time running around without his shirt. This is actually quite unusual - in most films he always keeps his clothes on. In a reply to a fan letter he explains this, on one hand, with the fact that he's so short, and doesn't think his muscles look all that good (awwww, the humbleness!), and, on the other hand, with the fact that the power in martial arts comes from the inside, not from the appearance, so wearing clothes or not is irrelevant. (But that's not really an excuse to never take off your shirt, is it ...?)

Fong Sai-Yuk (1993)

2008-07-13T20:16:00.005+02:00

This film has everything - comedy, romance, tragedy and martial arts. And none of it seems too silly or unsuitable. Yes, this is really the best Jet Li film I've seen so far!

One day, carefree student Fong Sai-Yuk (Jet Li) saves a pretty girl (Michelle Reis) from a bunch of bullies on the fairground. The following day he hears about a rich merchant called Tiger Lui (Sung Young Chen), who has just moved to Canton and will let the man who defeats his wife in kung fu marry his daughter. Always up to a fun competition, Sai-Yuk enters. But at the very end, he sees what the bride-to-be looks like, and quickly loses on purpose, because she's ... hrm ... not quite his type. What he doesn't know is that the bride is Ting-Ting, the pretty girl he met at the fair! (She ran away in the middle of the competition, and was quickly replaced with a maid.)

When Sai-Yuk's mother hears about his defeat, she is outraged - how can any member of the Fong family LOSE?! So, she disguises herself as a man, and enters the competition herself, posing as the older Fong brother. She not only wins, but also makes Tiger Lui's wife (Sibelle Hu) fall in love with her. And Tiger Lui, who is tired of potential sons-in-law running away, wants to force her to marry his daughter ...

Meanwhile, Sai-Yuk's dad is secretly involved in the Red Lotus Flower Society, which wants to overthrow the Manchu emperor. A governor (Man Cheuk Chiu) has been sent to get their list of members, and the society is threatened with extinction.

When mum and son Fong find out about this, they team up to help dad. But it won't be any easy struggle ...

Martial arts:
The fight scenes are quite spectacular and imaginative (though the sound effects seem to be made with firecrackers sometimes). Of course, they involve a lot of humanly impossible tricks aided by wirework, but in this film, that's not the least disturbing, since it only fits with the general mood in this not always too serious story.

Speaking of wirework, in one scene Sai-Yuk's pigtail looks like it's held up by a wire, too.

(The bullies at the fair have challenged him to form a team and compete with them in an athletics championship, and when they play 400 meters relay, Sai-Yuk has to make up for the fact that Ting-Ting runs like a three-year-old, and run *really* fast - so fast that some spectators shout: "How amazing is the pigtail!!!" - "Yes, straightened pigtail!!" ... Whether it really was worth the wire just to illustrate this conversation seems to be lost in translation.)

Misogyny:
The film portrays traditional Chinese patriarchy insofar that fathers are distant, cool characters that don't have very close relationships with their family, and have to act tough in front of other people to 'save face'. (For instance, dad Fong beats up his wife and son in front of other people to 'save face'.)
But the Fongs are able to break this pattern a bit, and at the end of the film, dad Fong actually smiles for the first time!!!!!
While the patriarchs are stiff and distant, the mothers are the true stars, superior in kung fu and always saving their husbands' asses.
Then again, Ting-Ting is really passive and silly, and, as mentioned, she runs like a three-year-old ...

Hunk factor:
Fong Sai-Yuk is like a cute and funny little pig, whom you just want to squeeze to death!!!!
The Manchu governor is also quite handsome and charismatic, in a slightly evil way ...

The One (2001)

2008-07-13T19:18:00.002+02:00

(Screenshot courtesy hkfanatic.com)

Jet Li vs. Jet Li - can it get any better?

This is a sci-fi flick, dealing with the mystery of parallel universes. Parallel universes exist, and so, if you have the technology, you can actually travel to another parallel universe and visit yourself (and since all the yous have similar names, they will be easy to locate). But what happens if you kill the other you?

Yu Law, formerly a policeman in the force guarding the highly restricted travel between the universes in one of the more advanced universes, has found out that if he kills his other selves, he will get stronger, because when one dies, his strength, smartness, etc. is evenly distributed among the ones remaining.

But what eventually happens when you've killed all the others, and you're the only one left? Some say it will wreck the balance in the multiverse and destroy it. But Yu Law thinks he will become God. So, he ruthlessly kills all the other Laws in the multiverse one after one - including the blond Sven Law (!?). But the last one he has to kill, Gabriel Law, won't give up so easily, because, somehow, Yu Law has gotten all the evilness and Gabe Law has gotten all the goodness in the distribution of the strength of the parallel Laws!

It probably won't be any too terrible spoiler if I share the ending with you. Basically, evil Yu Law is eventually sent to the Stygian penalty colony in the Hades universe, where he will get to do the kung fu with the other inmates for the rest of his life. Good Gabe Law gets to escape the mess in his own universe and is sent to a fairytale LA where everyone is nice and eveything is bright and candy-like, and, most importantly, where his wife's parallel alter ego is still alive. Good for him: Gabe won't have any competition from the other Law, because Yu Law already killed him. But what we don't know is whether there will be any legal repercussions for Gabe Law in this other universe due to the fact that a guy who looked just like him was recently killed by another guy who looked just like him ...

But I wonder if it wouldn't have been better if they'd have mixed up the Laws, after all. Gabe, with his goodness and sweetness, could have made the Stygian colony a much better and friendlier place, while Yu could have learned to be nicer again after getting some of all the love and sweetness in the candy and balloons universe.

Martial arts:
Though only one Jet Li at the time really is Jet Li (the other is a stunt with jet Li's face glued onto him), the kung fu of the grand finale is quite interesting. What to do when your opponent has exactly the same strength and ability as you? Gabe Law tries using a completely different style ...
As mentioned in the trivia section of imdb.com:
"For the martial arts aficionados: Jet Li uses two distinct kung fu styles when portraying Gabe and Yulaw. The evil Yulaw uses Xingyi Quan, or "Mind-Form Fist" (loosely translated). As can be seen when he is training, it is a very linear, offensive style. Gabe on the other hand practices Bagua Zhang, or the "Eight Trigrams Palm". It is characterized by open palm fighting, with circular footwork. Both styles are two of the three main "internal" styles of Chinese kung fu - the third being Taiji Quan (Tai Chi)."

(Screenshot courtesy jiggscasey.com)

Misogyny:
Heh, well, for one thing, the only women who ever appear are the girlfriends/wives of the two remaining Law guys.
In the beginning of the film, Yu Law escapes from deportation with the help of a racy redhead in a corset dress, who has smuggled a detonating mouse in her heel into the premises (yes, much like when death sentences are carried out in the US, people can come watch when someone is deported to a penal colony in this universe). But what does she get out of it (not to mention the poor mouse)? We don't know, because she is completely ignored in the rest of the movie.
Gabe Law's wife T.K. is the ideal type of woman you turn into a suicidal maniac for when she is killed by your evil alter ego. She is kind, nurturing, a vet, and has even learned some Chinese for you. She is also rather dumb in combat situations, getting not only herself, but also other people killed by the evil guy who claims to be her husband.

Hunk factor:
I can't decide which Law I should like less. The evil one, at least, has a sympathetic taste in music (and thanks to him, the movie's soundtrack is quite enjoyable). But the good one is not just nice and good-hearted in the usual Jet Li way, but he's so sugar-coatedly sweet that it's dangerous for your teeth, and you can't help but secretly hope that Yu Law will win in the grand spark, steam and acid special effects specked finale in the factory, after all.
Instead, Funsch (Jason Statham), the rookie of the two multiverse agents chasing Yu Law, seems to be a much more interesting character ...

The Enforcer/My Father is a Hero (1995)

2008-07-13T19:09:00.008+02:00

Jet Li is Wei Kong, an undercover cop in mainland China. Despite his demanding job he tries to be a good husband to his severely ill wife, and a good father to his son (Miu Tse), who wants to be just as good a kung fu master as daddy. And so, they train 'dragon breathing' (holding your breath, so you have a better chance at surviving being strangled) every morning after brushing their teeth:

Since this is described so closely, we can expect Junior to be choked many times during the film ...

Wei Kong's latest job is to infiltrate the gang of wiseguy Po Kwong (the exquisitely overacting Rongguang Yu) in Hong Kong. Inspector Fong of the Hong Kong police (Anita Mui) investigates the gang's activities, and she eventually goes to Wei Kong's hometown Beijing to find out more about him. There, she comes across his dying wife, his kid, and the fact that he's a copper. She brings Junior along with her to Hong Kong, and the three of them team up to bring down the criminals together.

Martial arts:
Of course, there is a great showdown, with, not least, an exciting tonfa fight (everybody against Jet Li, as usual).

The most delightful part, however, might be boss Po Kwong's 'coat fighting style'.

Now you see it, now you don't ...

Our hero blocks an attack by grabbing wiseguy's wrists ...

Oops, but those are just the sleeves he's holding on to! Where did the hands go?

Wham! They're right here!!

Inspector Fong also kicks ass, as does Junior. But be warned against when father and son team up near the end, and dad ties up son on a rope and whirls and yo-yoes him around to kick at the opponents in a way that actually wouldn't be humanly possible even for Jet Li and Miu Tse ...

Misogyny:
Argh, where can I even begin on this topic ...?! Wei Kong's wife is the classical case of a quiet, sweet-natured doormat woman, who on her deathbed sees the great opportunity to appoint the policewoman who came to investigate her husband to take her place as a mother and wife.
Now, Inspector Fong herself has been waiting an amazing *five years* for her spineless boyfriend (also in the police force) to make up his mind about whether he will leave his wife or not (like so many other idiots in this world, he prefers the benefits of having it both ways). During the film Fong comes to realise what a jerk he is, and even after he eventually does divorce his wife and asks her to marry him, she declines. So, wow, has she finally gained some respect for herself? - No, she has just found her place as the replacement wife and mother of Wei Kong and Junior.

For Inspector Fong, being taken hostage was the beginning of a great new romance and family life.

Hunk factor:
Jet Li is a quite convincing "dad", so I guess the 'hunk factor' in this film only applies to people who are old enough to find dads attractive. But his character is a sweet guy, so that shouldn't be any problem ...

Fist of Legend (1994)

2008-07-13T18:58:00.007+02:00

(This film is based on the Bruce Lee film Chinese Connection/Fist of Fury, and maybe I should really watch the original before saying anything about the remake. Oh well:)

In the year 1931, during the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, Chen Zhen (Jet Li) is studying in Japan. One day he hears that his master in the legendary kung fu school Jing Wu has suddenly died in a match. He immediately goes back home, and it seems that his master was, in fact, poisoned ...

Is it a tale of sweet Chinese fighting against evil Japanese colonialist oppression? No, hang on, it's not all that black and white. Chen Zhen not only studies in Japan, but he has a Japanese girlfriend called Mitsuko. And all Japanese, except the insane toad-like General Fujita (Billy Chow), are portrayed as normal human beings, many of them even very nice human beings. At the same time, many Chinese are portrayed unfavourably, not least as being unfairly biased against all Japanese.

The film's message is "if you learn to be fluent, to adapt, you'll always be unbeatable". This, of course, not only applies to martial arts, but to life in general.

A good martial arts film is much like a good porn film - there shouldn't be too much 'fill-out' time between the actual action scenes, as the reason you watch it isn't the story, but the Kung Fu. At the same time, the 'fill-out' time should tie the film together and make for a coherent plot. In this sense, Fist of Legend is perfect. Not one minute is wasted, and the plot is actually not too silly.

Martial arts:
The martial arts in this film are the best I've seen so far in any film. A number of different styles, and mixtures of them, are shown here. They are beautifully filmed, not least the 'sparring' with Mitsuko's uncle, without being *too* artificial. There's some whipping fun to be had at the big showdown with the general, too ...

Misogyny:
The women in Jing Wu, strangely, can't fight, and the male members have to protect them. That's really stupid. The main love interest Mitsuko is afraid of mice, but then, she is gutsy and has plenty of self-esteem, and she saves her loverboy's ass many times.

Mitsuko is afraid of mice ...

Hunk factor:
With all the Japanese guys in handsome hakama, it might not be so easy for Jet Li to keep up. To make it worse, he has a slightly silly haircut. But since his character always seems able to keep his suits and shirts clean and wrinkle-free, he is still a feast to the eye.

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

2008-07-13T18:55:00.001+02:00

(Screenshot courtesy hkfanatic.com)

Jet Li plays the legendary Wong Fei-Hung, who with his Kung Fu school is struggling against the imperialist oppression in late 19th century Guangzhou, at a time when many Chinese were lured away to do slave labour in America. With only kung fu to match the imperialist guns, how will the Chinese culture survive the age of aggressive colonialism?

The film is quite complex (for a martial arts film), but suffers from a few tedious stereotypes, mainly in the form of some of the villains and, not least, the love interest cousin Yi.

Martial arts:
Plenty of amazing Kung Fu here. The ladder scene has become legendary, and the intro with the training session on the beach is truly beautiful.

Misogyny:
Without cousin Yi, this could actually be a quite good film. But as Wong Fei-Hung's love interest, she is a very, very stereotypical character, who has to be saved from the classic sexual assault several times.

Hunk factor:
Jet Li's righteous and non-violent character makes him very sympathetic.

Hitman (1998)

2008-07-13T18:53:00.003+02:00

(Courtesy hkfanatic.com)

Jet Li plays the poor Chinese country boy Fu who has come to Hong Kong to make some money, so he can take care of his mother. It turns out he has supreme fighting skills, and an out-of-luck con man (Eric Tsang) takes him under his wing and gets him jobs as a hitman, hoping to cash in.

Despite his cynical trade, Fu never lets go of his principles (never hit a woman, be nice to children, never kill a good guy, etc.) ... He's just such a nice guy!

The storyline is really kind of silly, but if you're in the right mood, it can be *adorably* silly.

Martial arts:
It's more about guns in this film, but at the great showdown Jet Li gets to fight a guy with a weird ring ...

Misogyny:
There is, of course, a woman involved - the daughter of Jet Li's boss. Jet Li helps them get on better terms with each other. Nothing really misogynic happens, and the daughter's role as a love interest is relatively marginal - it all stays platonic.

Hunk factor:
Jet Li's character is such a sweet guy that you just want to squeeze him to death!!

Kiss of the Dragon (2001)

2008-07-13T18:49:00.002+02:00

Jet Li is a Chinese cop who is sent to help the French police, but is set up as a murderer by his psychopathic French boss (Tchéky Karyo). The story also includes Bridget Fonda as a former pig-farmer’s daughter from North Dakota and nowadays hooker in Paris (some Frenchie lied to her that he would make her rich and happy, and now she is in the claws of this very psychopath copper). So, Jet Li saves her and her young daughter (+ they set free the poor turtle that the psycho cop kept in a drawer), and brings them back to a better life in Motherland China ... Well, it's pretty predictable, stereotypical and silly, but it's still a nice film, with good Kung Fu scenes and interesting acupuncture tricks. The film looks good, too.

Martial arts:
At the great showdown, Jet Li fights his way through a large building full of people who know martial arts. The match against the giant aryan twins is particularly memorable. Overall, the martial arts in this film (and many other films reviewed here) has more of dancing than real violence - in a good way.

(Both screenshots courtesy JL2H)

Misogyny:
It's a bit sad that, once again, a prostitute has to be ‘saved’ by some guy, and doesn’t get to fight and get free, herself. Well, it’s more bearable when this saviour is Jet Li, and not Richard Gere or something equally awful, but it’s still a really male chauvinist way to see things. (Oh well, I’ll just have to write more stories myself about girls with guns and kicks who save themselves, or who save some helpless guys ...)
On the plus side, there are no stereotypical 'save love interest from sexual assault' scenes in this film ... If that would have been the case, I guess Jet Li would have had too much to do.

Hunk factor:
Jet Li is a bit more sweet than cool this time. His haircut looks particularly cute.

Hero (2002)

2008-07-13T18:44:00.003+02:00

Hero is one of the films that have become something like the 'new wave' of Kung Fu movies - intelligent plot, beautifully filmed, breathtaking martial arts, astonishing special effects, women who kick major ass (which is something that has been far too rare in much of this genre), and - last but not least - cinema distribution here in Europe.

Hero has a plot that twists and turns in a most intriguing way, and I won't say anything more about it than that it's about an assassination plot on the king of an agressor state. (If you've seen the film already and are interested in what I have to say about the ending, click here.)

Martial arts:
There are no adjectives that would do it justice. That is, unless you prefer your martial arts to be at least a *little* bit realistic. There is plenty of serious Kung Fu magic, not least in the lake scene.

Misogyny:
None. The two female characters are in no way stereotypical. Flying Snow (Maggie Cheung) kicks just as much ass as Nameless (Jet Li), Broken Sword (Tony Leung), and Sky (Donnie Yen). Moon (Zhang Ziyi) is young and no match to the older four, but she still kicks ass.

Hunk factor:
Nameless is übercool and almost emotionless, as he has devoted his whole existence to his cause. At the king's palace, the guards take off his clothes to check him for weapons and stuff - 'nuff said ...

Danny the Dog/Unleashed (2005)

2008-07-13T18:13:00.000+02:00

(Courtesy tvspielfilm.de)

After The One, I had actually almost vowed not to see another 'modern' Jet Li film for a while. But then I came across Danny the Dog, which is very different from your average Jet Li flick, whether modern or 'classical'. It aims at being more than just another action movie -as Jet Li himself put it in an answer to a fan letter on his website: "I hope to use this character to tell young audiences that no matter what skills you develop, you need to understand the value of life. Life, love, friends, family -- these are what is really important and cool. Not violence or 'kicking someone's ass'."

(Can't remember where this screenshot came from ...)

Since he was a little boy, Danny (Jet Li) has been trained by the Glasgow gangster boss Bart (Bob Hoskins) to become a psychologically mutilated killing machine, a tool for his master for collecting 'protection money', killing everything in his way if his collar is taken off.

(Screenshot courtesy jetlionline.com)

One day, Bart is offered to have Danny fight in an underground club, where gladiator games are fought to the death for loads of money. But on the way back from the first gig, they are suddenly ambushed, and Danny staggers away from the wrecked car alone.

He then meets a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman) and his young step-daughter (Kerry Condon), who take him into their home and treat him like a family member. Gradually, as Danny gets exposed to nice things like music, cooking and love, he learns to become more balanced and conscious, and also starts wondering about where he really comes from, and what his blurry memories of his mother were all about.

(Screenshot courtesy hongkongaction.free.fr)

But his master has survived the ambush, and wants to take back what he regards as his property ...

Unfortunately, Luc Besson, Louis Leterrier & Co. have made one big mistake. There is something quite essential missing between the last scene and the next-to-last scene.

The way it is now, it seems too much like some kind of dream. It really is a highly symbolic film about concepts like 'good' and 'bad', but it's also trying to be rather realistic. That way, you'd expect to know how things are actually sorted out - what becomes of Bart, what becomes of the other gangsters, how the mess in the whole apartment building is cleaned up afterwards, what the Glasgow police has to say about the whole business, etc.

Oh well. If you just pretend there is a scene or two accidentally missing at the end, it's a good film. If not, you might feel a bit disappointed or confused ...

Martial arts:
The martial arts, coreographed by the famed Yuen Woo-Ping, are very realistic, in the sense that it makes you feel horrible watching it, and you feel sorry for Danny's 'victims', because they really don't have anything to put up against him.

It becomes a bit more technically interesting when Bart hires a highly skilled wannabe fighter monk in flowing white silk to take out Danny ...

(Screenshot courtesy jetlionline.com)

Misogyny:
A surprisingly big point is made of Bart telling Danny that his mother was a whore, and how terrible this seems to him. It eventually turns out that he was lying, and that she was actually a piano virtuoso studying at a Glasgow conservatory, albeit with financial problems that got her somehow involved with Bart's gangsters.

But so what if she would have been trying to alleviate her financial problems by working as a prostitute? Would that have made her a less lovable mother? I can't see why.

(Besides, the couple of prostitutes that appear in the film (their services bought by Bart) seem to be pretty decent people, who walk away in horror when they happen to see Danny in the small cellar beneath the office.)

Hunk factor:
Danny is a very sweet person deep within, who might rather appeal to your motherly instincts if you're in that kind of mood. He also behaves much like a little doggie, if you should happen to have that kind of fetish ... ^_^ (in preparation for his role, Jet Li says he spent a lot of time observing and playing with dogs).

Danny sharing a brief moment of bonding with a bull terrier. (Screenshot courtesy allocine.fr)

A note on speciesism:
One might be tempted to think that Danny is "treated like a dog", as if it would be normal for dogs to be treated like this. Or, one might be tempted to think that Danny is "like a dog" before he learns to become "human".

There certainly are far too many dogs who are trained with very cruel methods to become psychologically mutilated killing machines, in much the same way as Danny. But it doesn't mean that it's normal or, to say the least, okay to treat any dog like that.

And, actually, many other animals, besides humans, know and live out concepts like love, friendship, mutual help, etc. Not least animals who live in packs, such as dogs.