Jet Li

Hero

Set in China's past, before the first emperor, the film tells the story of a town magistrate who is summoned by the king of Qin to tell the story of how he defeated those who plotted to kill him.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD

Director Zhang Yimou brings the sumptuous visual style of his previous films (Raise the Red Lantern, Shanghai Triad) to the high-kicking kung fu genre. A nameless warrior (Jet Li, Romeo Must Die, Once Upon a Time in China) arrives at an emperor's palace with three weapons, each belonging to a famous assassin who had sworn to kill the emperor. As the nameless man spins out his story--and the emperor presents his own interpretation of what might really have happened--each episode is drenched in red, blue, white or another dominant color. Hero combines sweeping cinematography and superb performances from the cream of the Hong Kong cinema (Maggie Cheung, Irma Vep, Comrades: Almost a Love Story; Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, In the Mood for Love, Hard Boiled; and Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). The result is stunning, a dazzling action movie with an emotional richness that deepens with every step. --Bret Fetzer

Jet Li's Fearless (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

A moving and inspiring story of redemption and personal triumph in the face of great odds, Jet Li's Fearless is the based-on-facts story of Chinese folk hero Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li). The son of a martial-arts master whose greatest strength was his restraint, Huo grows into an unbeatable fighter whose pride and thoughtlessness lead to a chain of tragic losses. After a classic wanderer-in-the-wilderness penance, Huo reinvents himself as a mature instructor of Wushu, a martial arts system that embraces all forms of fighting without preference or pre-judgement. He also becomes a populist symbol, at the dawn of the 20th century, of China's refusal to entirely capitulate to the boot of Western colonialists. Taking on whatever European, American, or Japanese fighter the outsiders bring in to demoralize the natives, Huo becomes a legend that, in real life, is still revered. Thrillingly directed by Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue), Jet Li's Fearless is a dazzling action movie that transcends its breathless fight sequences with Huo's sportsmanship virtues, i.e., knowing when you've won by example, rather than by the fist. Jet Li is superb in the role. --Tom Keogh

Inspired by the true story of a real-life hero Fearless is a thrilling masterpiece from action superstar Jet Li. When an ill-advised fight destroys the reputation of a renowned martial arts champion (Li) and his family his difficult path to redemption will bring him face-to-face with the most ferocious fighters in the world. Orchestrated by Yuen Wo Ping the legendary choreographer of The Matrix and Kill Bill this sensational riveting epic is being described as "astounding" and "visually stunning with brilliantly executed fight sequences" (Pete Hammond Maxim).System Requirements:Run Time: 103 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SPORTS/GAMES/MIXED MARTIAL ARTS Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 025193168320 Manufacturer No: 62031683

Fist of Legend

Like compatriot Jackie Chan, martial arts champion Jet Li has long been revered in his native country and enjoys a cult following in the States among aficionados of Hong Kong cinema. After two decades, it took his villainous turn in Lethal Weapon 4 to put him on the Hollywood map, paving the way for the release of his earlier films. Fist of Legend is a 1994 production and a remake of The Chinese Connection (also known as Fists of Fury, which starred the greatest martial arts legend of them all, Bruce Lee). This film is set in 1937, when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese and racial tensions were high. Li stars as Chen Zhen, who returns to Shanghai to avenge the death of his master, whom he learns was poisoned. His popular freestyle fighting technique and Japanese girlfriend do not endear him to his former friend, now his master's successor at the martial arts school. If Jackie Chan is inspired by Buster Keaton, Li seems to be channeling Steve McQueen. He speaks softly and carries a big kick. And like Steven Seagal, even when he is under siege by a horde of attackers, no one can lay a finger on this guy. The dialogue and dubbing are atrocious, but the fight sequences are incredible (they were choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, who lent his expertise to The Matrix). Perhaps most memorable is a bout between Chen and his girlfriend's uncle during which the combatants wear blindfolds. This is essential viewing for martial arts buffs and Li's growing legion of fans. --Donald Liebenson

International superstar Jet Li (LETHAL WEAPON 4, BLACK MASK) explodes on the screen in this thrilling martial arts action story about courage, honor ... and revenge! When Chen (Li) discovers that his beloved teacher and mentor has been murdered, he swears to avenge his death! Then, with an unwavering commitment to vengeance, Chen puts everything on the line to settle the score! The must-see modern remake of a Bruce Lee classic, FIST OF LEGEND packs hard-hitting excitement and incredible hand-to-hand combat into one unstoppable adrenaline rush!

The One (Special Edition)

In a stunning dual role international action star Jet Li portrays Gabriel Yulaw a police officer confronted with a sinister duplicate of himself. This evil double is an escapee from an advanced parallel universe with a mission to kill Gabriel. His alter ego's hunt culminates in a fateful battle between good and evil that changes Gabriel's perception of reality and forces him to examine the evil hidden within him.System Requirements:Starring: Jet Li Carla Gugino Delroy Lindo and Jason Statham. Directed By: James Wong. Running Time: 87 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 Columbia TriStar.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396063921 Manufacturer No: 06392

The One sets a martial arts milestone by pitting action star Jet Li against his greatest enemy: himself. This sci-fi thriller establishes a "multiverse" consisting of countless parallel universes, each populated by variants of every individual. Li plays a renegade from the Multiverse Agency, illegally traveling through "quantum tunnels" to eliminate all versions of himself until only two remain, each sharing the cumulative strength of their "parallel universe versions." This mumbo-jumbo inspires a variety of dazzling special effects, and director James Wong (with cowriter and fellow X-Files alumnus Glen Morgan) injects clever humor into the Matrix-derivative premise. Carla Gugino is wasted as the "good" Li's obligatory love interest, but The One will appeal to action fans with its fast-paced pursuit between the evil Li and two agents (Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham) assigned to stop his trans-universal killing spree. It's a one-gimmick movie, best enjoyed with your brain in neutral. --Jeff Shannon

Unleashed (Unrated Widescreen Edition)

Luc Besson wrote and directed the stylish thrillers La Femme Nikita and The Professional; though he didn't direct Unleashed, the script has his trademark fusion of outrageous sentimentality and over-the-top violence. Hong Kong action superstar Jet Li (Romeo Must Die, Hero) stars as Danny, a man raised to be a brutal attack dog by a nasty gangster named Bart (Bob Hoskins, Mona Lisa)--when Bart removes Danny's collar, Danny pulverizes everyone in the room. But a chance encounter with a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman, Million Dollar Baby) reveals to Danny the possibility of a less brutal life, and when a retaliation attack gives him the chance to escape, he does--but Bart won't let him go that easily. The fighting in Unleashed is effectively jolting; Li and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix) have purposefully stripped away the smoothness of most movie combat (especially with a genuine martial artist like Li) with raw, unnerving results, especially when juxtaposed with the sweet and earnest scenes of Li regaining his humanity with Freeman and his step-daughter (Kerry Condon). This freewheeling cocktail of bloody noses and ice-cream cones isn't for everyone, but fans of both Besson and Li will leave satisfied. --Bret Fetzer

A man raised like an animal and trained to be a ruthless killer escapes his master and attempts to lead a normal life.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: UN
Release Date: 17-JAN-2006
Media Type: DVD

Lethal Weapon 4

In the fourth and reportedly final film of the Lethal Weapon series, director Richard Donner reunites with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, who reprise their roles as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh for one last hurrah in a film that is decidedly better than the third and first chapters. This time the pair are pitted against Jet Li, who plays the leader of a Chinese organized crime unit. Li, a veteran of hundreds of Hong Kong action films, more than holds his own against the more established team of Gibson, Glover, Renee Russo, and Joe Pesci with his subtle yet strong portrayal of the quietly irrepressible Wah Sing Ku. As always with the Lethal series, the plot is incredibly simple to follow: someone steals something, someone gets killed, and Murtaugh is reluctantly thrown into the mix while Riggs dives into the case with gleeful aplomb. As with the previous movies, we watch for the sheer action and chemistry alone. The action sequences throughout the fourth installment are exquisite, from the opening scene involving a flamethrower, a burning building, and a half-naked Murtaugh strutting like a chicken (don't ask, just watch), to the climactic showdown that pays genuine tribute to Jet Li's masterful martial art skills. As for chemistry, the bond between these characters is so strong by now that you sometimes feel like you're watching a TV series in its sixth season, such is the warm familiarity between the audience and the personalities on the screen. The humor is more fluid than ever, aided immeasurably by the casting of comedian Chris Rock, who like Li does a great job of making his presence known in some memorable verbal tirades that would bring a smile out of the Farrelly brothers. But it's the verbal and emotional jousting between Glover and Gibson that makes this fourth episode especially appealing; both are in peak form with great physical and verbal timing. One can only hope that if this is indeed the last of the Lethal films, that it won't be the last time we see Glover and Gibson together on screen. --Jeremy Storey

This sequel involves an action packed battle with a Chinese ganglord.

Kiss of the Dragon

Chinese secret agent on vacation in Paris gets caught up in government espionage.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-SEP-2003
Media Type: DVD

Let's face it: No one is usually checking a Jet Li movie for the verbal sparring. In Kiss of the Dragon, Chinese undercover agent Li chops his way through Paris after he's framed in some sketchily defined drug sting operation. The fight sequences are tough and quite brutal, and the over-the-top finale is arguably worth the price of admission, wherein an implacable Li takes on the entire Paris Police Bureau, working his way up toward police chief Tchéky Karyo's office through cops, a pair of peroxide-blond twin henchmen, and a whole class of kung fu cadets. Co-screenwriter Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) should know by now what makes for a nifty genre piece, but the woeful dialogue is a shame, and there aren't nearly enough action sequences to get your blood boiling. Poor Bridget Fonda gives it the old school try in a thankless role as an ex-junkie prostitute from the Midwest whose young daughter is being held captive by duplicitous police chief/drug lord/pimp Karyo (who fairly inhales the scenery). Director Chris Nolan might have pushed further the strangers-in-a-strange-land camaraderie between Li and Fonda, but the script still would've sunk him. --Steve Wiecking

Once Upon a Time in China, Vols. 1-3

Once Upon a Time in China
The first of a popular series (six in all) starring the charismatic and athletically adept Jet Li. Li plays legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hong, a late 19th century southern Chinese healer and kung fu master. The story begins with Western powers (American, British, and French) encroaching on the city of Canton. Wong is asked by the Black Flag army to safeguard the town by creating his own militia of kung fu experts. His assistants include the butcher "Porky" (Kent Cheng), a Chinese-American named Bucktooth So (Jacky Cheung), and his westernized "Auntie" Yee (Rosamund Kwan), a non-blood-related childhood friend for whom he holds a special affection. But the Westerners aren't the only problem in Canton. The Sha Ho gang terrorizes local businesses and has begun dealing with the Americans in exporting Chinese for slave labor and prostitution. A down-on-his-luck kung fu master named Iron Vest Yim (Yan Yee Kwan) has decided he needs to defeat Wong to open a school and Leung Fu (Jackie Chan contemporary Yuen Biao), a traveling opera troupe groupie, just keeps getting in the way. This epic martial-arts film showcases Li's amazing fighting and acrobatic skills and established Tsui Hark as a top-notch action film director. The final fight scene between Wong and Yim entails a dizzying orchestration of kicks and punches while teeter-tottering on ladders. --Shannon Gee

Once Upon a Time in China 2
Actor and martial arts maestro Jet Li and iconoclastic director Tsui Hark revisit historical China and legendary folk hero Wong Fei Hung in the second installment to the wildly popular Once Upon a Time in China film series (or better yet, "serials"). The main players include Li as Wong Fei Hung, Rosamund Kwan as his beloved but Westernized Auntie 13, and their clumsy sidekick Foon (Max Mok). China is in a period of political unrest. Dr. Sun Yat Sen is beginning to gain momentum behind his Nationalist party. A Qing minister (played with intensity by skilled fighter Donnie Yen) firmly carries out his job as police enforcer and a crazed cult called the White Lotus Sect has decided to take matters into their own hands by bullying citizens and destroying everything foreign. Wong and his crew find themselves at odds with the minister and the Sect, who have more in common than they initially let on. It all leads to some high-octane action scenes, including an all-out table-stacking and airborne brawl with the Sect (in which Wong uncharacteristically goes a little berserk himself) and a one-on-one matchup between Li and Yen. Tsui juggles the multilayered plot while Li juggles his opponents in a perfectly serviceable epic that is perhaps not as significant as the first Once Upon a Time in China but is solid kung fu nourishment for fans. --Shannon Gee

Once Upon a Time in China 3
Set in the era when China was just beginning to establish relations with Europe, Once upon a Time in China 3 is a mixture of politics, intrigue, broad comedy, and kung fu action. Charismatic Jet Li stars once again as Wong Fei-hung, a legendary Chinese hero who is a doctor, a pacifist, and an amazingly skilled martial artist. Like many Hong Kong films, this movie has a woefully complicated plot: in summary, a kung fu competition not only sparks a bitter rivalry between different martial arts associations, it also becomes the linchpin in an assassination plot. But this leaves out Wong Fei-hung's increasingly romantic relationship with his aunt (played by Rosamund Kwan), the rehabilitation of one of the villain's henchmen, and the introduction of a steam engine to a Chinese factory, among other subplots! Once upon a Time in China 3 is not the strongest in the series--the subtitling is unusually clumsy, the editing is rough, the plot is confusing, and the melodrama is more crudely played than in the other films--but there's still a clear, raw authority to the storytelling that is a hallmark of director-producer Hark Tsui (Peking Opera Blues, Green Snake). Though it seems to have been made in a rush, Once upon a Time in China 3 will still reward devotees of Hong Kong films, and the frequent and wild fight scenes will appeal to action fans. --Bret Fetzer

Romeo Must Die

Cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, the cameraman behind Speed, Lethal Weapon 4, and The Devil's Advocate, makes his directorial debut with a lively but by-the-numbers film that mixes Hong Kong action pyrotechnics with gritty urban gang drama. Jet Li stars as a jailed cop named Han who hightails it to Oakland, California, to seek revenge for the gang-related murder of his brother. What he finds, though, is a fierce war between his father's syndicate and that of Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo) for control of the city's precious waterfront land, as both groups are trying to make a deal with a corrupt football-team owner to build a new stadium. The political shenanigans are basically just a backdrop for the kick-ass action, and to give Li a number of enemies to lock limbs with. It also provides him with a love interest, Trish (hip-hop star Aaliyah), who's O'Day's daughter and like Han, the only straight arrow in a family of crooked mobsters. Li and Aaliyah have a teasing, gentle chemistry, and when they're onscreen together, the movie lights up and glides along smoothly. Li even finds a way to work Aaliyah into one of his action set pieces, using her arms and legs to fight a female adversary because "I can't hit a girl!" However, when these two aren't onscreen (and that's a fair amount of the time) the movie plods along, despite a stately turn by Lindo and Isaiah Washington and Russell Wong as two family allies who may not be as loyal as they seem. Li's action, though, is still phenomenal as ever, from his prison breakout (as he takes out a platoon of guards--strung upside down by one leg) to a knockdown-dragout fight with the agile and dangerously sexy Wong. And despite the Romeo and Juliet overtones, this is one mighty chaste romance, albeit one with a happy ending for the star-crossed lovers. --Mark Englehart

They've got the guns. They've got the posse. But they've got no chance when a street-fighting ex-cop (Jet Li) takes on both sides of a fierce Oakland turf war, involving "the wildest action scenes since The Matrix!" (Bill Bregoli, Westwood One).

DVD Features:
Documentary:8 Short Documentaries (26:56)
Featurette:Making of Romeo Must Die (15:00) Behind the Scenes (14:03)
Music Video:Aaliyah's "Try Again" video (3:40) Making of Aaliyah's "Try Again" music video (4:11) Aaliyah/DMX "Come Back In One Piece" video (3:42)
Other:Inside the Visual Effects Process (3:52) "Diary of a (Legal) Mad Bomber" (5:07) "Anatomy of a Stunt" (7:12) "The Sound Stage" (1:00)
Theatrical Trailer:Sampler

Jet Li's Fearless (Combo HD DVD and Standard DVD) [HD DVD]

Inspired by the true story of a real-life hero Fearless is a thrilling masterpiece from action superstar Jet Li. When an ill-advised fight destroys the reputation of a renowned martial arts champion (Li) and his family his difficult path to redemption will bring him face-to-face with the most ferocious fighters in the world. Orchestrated by Yuen Wo Ping the legendary choreographer of The Matrix and Kill Bill this sensational riveting epic is being described as "astounding" and "visually stunning with brilliantly executed fight sequences" (Pete Hammond Maxim).BONUS MATERIALS : Deleted Scene A Fearless JourneySystem Requirements:Run Time: 103 minsFormat: DVD HD Genre: SPORTS/GAMES/MIXED MARTIAL ARTS Rating: PG- 13 UPC: 025193028327 Manufacturer No: 62030283

A moving and inspiring story of redemption and personal triumph in the face of great odds, Jet Li's Fearless is the based-on-facts story of Chinese folk hero Huo Yuanjia (Jet Li). The son of a martial-arts master whose greatest strength was his restraint, Huo grows into an unbeatable fighter whose pride and thoughtlessness lead to a chain of tragic losses. After a classic wanderer-in-the-wilderness penance, Huo reinvents himself as a mature instructor of Wushu, a martial arts system that embraces all forms of fighting without preference or pre-judgement. He also becomes a populist symbol, at the dawn of the 20th century, of China's refusal to entirely capitulate to the boot of Western colonialists. Taking on whatever European, American, or Japanese fighter the outsiders bring in to demoralize the natives, Huo becomes a legend that, in real life, is still revered. Thrillingly directed by Ronny Yu (Warriors of Virtue), Jet Li's Fearless is a dazzling action movie that transcends its breathless fight sequences with Huo's sportsmanship virtues, i.e., knowing when you've won by example, rather than by the fist. Jet Li is superb in the role. --Tom Keogh