Zhong Nan Hai bao biao

This film is pretty entertaining. But this film has about 3 action scenes were "Jet Li" shoots people with a gun. And he killed like a 100 people!! There's also a brief fight and a classic fight scene at the end of the film. The story is also good. But this isn't your usual Jet Li film because it contains less action then any other of his films. But this film is really good to watch for a good story with a action twist. If you like Jet Li you will probably like this film. So go rent this film now!!

John Chang is sent from Bejing to protect the only witness to a murder, Michelle Yeung. However, as the two get in deeper and deeper into the fight for survival, they start to get feelings that could spell doom for the both of them.

Jet Li was some 4 years away from becoming a world star as opposed to his standing in Asia, his pre American efforts are a highly mixed bunch. Here with The Defender we find Li oozing cool and delighting in the art of chop sockery and intricate gun play, but strip away the action and we are left with a pretty empty film. It's a standard fable of bodyguard protects pretty girl (the delicious Christy Chung) and after the initial resentments subside, we find our duo falling in too deep and putting all at risk within their world. However, the action (the point of these pictures as we know) delivers royally, particularly in the last quarter where the ante goes thru the roof and the testo level follows it, it's here where Li and the rest of the grafters earn their respective corn. The finale sequences alone make this picture worth your while, whilst you will rarely see a skateboard and a torch be so intricately and funnily used at the same time!

Instantly forgettable outside of the action set pieces, it still manages to be an entertaining watch for the action junkies amongst us. 5.5/10

BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING is, surprise, surprise, a Chinese remake of the Kevin Costner-starring Hollywood hit THE BODYGUARD. I had the misfortune to watch the Americanised version of this, entitled THE DEFENDER, which substitutes the original dialogue with some really bad dubbing, but nevertheless I enjoyed the film as an efficient action thriller of the kind popular during the 1990s in Hong Kong. This one mixes the kind of gunplay familiar from John Woo and Chow Yun-Fat movies with more traditional martial arts mayhem courtesy of Jet Li. The plot is lightweight and slim and the romantic scenes are more annoying than touching, but nevertheless this is a film that delivers in the action stakes, providing solid, reliable fare.

Director Corey Yuen is a dab hand at crafting beautiful action sequences and the choreography is top-notch here as usual. There's a massive shoot-out in a shopping mall at around the halfway mark which doesn't disappoint and an excellent climax using all kinds of props in a gas-filled house that does well to avoid the usual clichés. Some dodgy looking wirework pops up here and there but doesn't spoil the otherwise engaging action. I also liked the hard edge in the fights; Li disposes of his enemies in a violent way and yet that violence is never gratuitous or dwelt upon too much.

In the titular role, Li is as fine as ever, still looking as young as he did in THE MASTER and playing the kind of ruthless, incorruptible figure that crops up time and again in his career. He's a tour de force in the fight scenes and good in the acting stakes too. Unfortunately, Christy Chung is intensely irritating as his ungrateful charge, but support from the likes of Kent Cheng (CRIME STORY) and Collin Chou (FLASH POINT) help to soften her presence and to be fair she does get less annoying as the film progresses. I wouldn't call BODYGUARD FROM BEIJING a masterpiece, but it is a dependable thriller that ably does what it sets out to do: entertain.

If you like Corey Yuen's balletic gunfighting, more recently demonstrated in 2002's "So Close," then you will enjoy the earlier "Bodyguard from Beijing." This film is fun to watch, and manages to produce some surprises despite the formulaic bodyguard-and-rich-bratty-girl plot. The schmaltzy sequence with the song is the only part where the movie drags. However, given Yuen's preference for gunplay, Jet Li fans are apt to be disappointed, since Li has less opportunity to showcase his kung fu skills. Christy Cheung gets the job done in the damsel-in-distress role, and to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, she plays the range of emotions from A to B.

an exciting love story with everything going for it. the humor, the action, the romance, all great. could have used some more of the great action, though. Jet Li is terrific as the bodyguard from Bejing. The last fight, the faucet fight, is really cool. check this one out.