Born to Defence

Rating:

out of

Directed by:

Jet Li Lian Jie

Cast:

Jet Li Lian Jie

Jet

Zhao Er-Kang

Song Jia

Kurt Roland Pettersson (That's what it says on the box)

Paulo H. P. Tocha

Writing Credits:

Sz Yeung-Ping

Jie Er-Ge

Action Director:

Tsui Siu-Ming

DVD:

I don't remember where I got it.

Zone:

All

Video Signal:

NTSC

The movie takes place right after WW II in a town occupied by the US Navy. All of the bad guys are US sailors who are abusing Chinese. Jet (Jet Li (it sounded to me like Lian Jie in the audio)) had come to stay with his buddy Zhang who owns a rickshaw with which Jet helps. Jet falls for a local prostitute who turns out to be Zhang's daughter. They keep running into the same evil Americans, Bailey and Captain Hans or Hanes. Finally the Americans just go too far and Jet has to kick their butts.

Most of the performances were fine, but the actors who played Bailey and Hanes reminded me of the Actors in Blackadder III, speaking in their special ACTING voices.

I saw this on a World Video DVD. Picture quality and sound were fine. Unfortunately, the edition I have is 4x3. I watched it first thing in the AM, before the rest of the family was up so I got to watch it in peace.

Standout Scenes:

Jet's first fight with Bailey in a boxing ring at a bar. The ref has to keep stopping the fight to tell Jet "no feet", "no elbows", "no throws".

Another one I enjoyed was Zhang dragging Jet down the street dressed in a sheet while they yelled at each other.

There are also a couple of truly gross scenes. One has Jet selling his blood to pay Zhang's medical bills and he sells a pint and a half. Also he peels an enormous hunk (at least an inch across) of dead skin off his foot, which was way too much verisimilitude for me.

Random Remarks:

The guy who plays Hanes is at least 8" and maybe a foot taller than Li so all of their fights look goofy until they've beaten each other into a pulp. At one point Jet throws him out of the ring. It was pretty impressive.

There are the obligatory peeing scenes and that thing with the wet cloth bending the jail bars but Jet doesn't pee on his shirt to do it.