O Guarda-Costas em Ação

Hong Kong movie was hot in the late '80s, and into the '90s, and this is one of the movies from that era. The casting is unusual, and so is the plot. Jet Li, wasn't all that well known at the time, and this was Miss Chinese International 1992 Christy Chung's first big role ( I actually liked the miss Chinese International 92 runner up more than Christy, and she would have been perfect for this role ).

Jet Li's star was on the rise starting around the time this movie was made, and he starts getting noticed in the US around this time also. Simon Yam was briefly wooing Christy shortly after this movie was made. Simon of course had many other options as he was one of the most eligible bachelor in Hong Kong.

The movie's title is almost verbatim fact as Jet was from China, and Christy was from Canada. The unusual mixture of the two culture shows in the mood of these two actors. The plot is also unusual in that an operative from China protects a rich capitalist girl. The movie's background looks more modern than the present day Hong Kong. Hong Kong seems to have slid backwards in culture since its repatriation. This is evident when you see this movie.

So this is an interesting movie, and the producers at Dimension Film did a really good job of capturing the character of Li, and Chung, and incorporating them into the story. Jet Li is like an unstoppable terminator in this movie, and it correctly highlights his skills, and power.

This is an excellent movie, and is worth a watch if you're a Hong Kong movie fan.

The first thing you will notice about this Hong Kong version of 'The Bodyguard' is the incredibly awful dubbing. I've seen badly dubbed films before, but never anything quite like this. It's so bad, in fact, that it almost seems like someone hired voice actors that were nothing like the actor that they were dubbing out of spite. Maybe the director, or Jet Li annoyed the man in charge of voice actor casting, and he thought he'd get his own back. Perhaps the director requested terrible dubbing to give the film a seemingly unintentional comedy element? Whatever the reason; the dubbing in this film is poor. Very poor indeed.

Incredibly awful dubbing aside (and it is awful, make no mistake), the film does feature some nice moments. The story follows that of a young girl who is one of three witnesses to a murder. The other two have been killed in "accidents", so the girl's rich boyfriend hires her a bodyguard (complete with terrible dubbing) to protect her. Naturally, the two gradually fall in love as the film progresses. As I said, despite it's awful dubbing; the film does feature some nice moments. One of which involves an assassin taking out several guards with a bayonet, another of which involves an awfully dubbed kid exchanging his pretend gun with a police officer's, with hilarious comedy consequences, and naturally for a Jet Li film; there's Kung Fu, and lots of it.

The film has a rather profound element of comedy entwined within it's plot. As you know, there's an unintentional element, which is a result of the undeniably poor dubbing, and there's also an intentional element, which mostly comes from the little kid and the fat police officer. The cast on display here is nothing to write home about, and they're all poorly dubbed too. Jet Li takes the lead role, and he does fine (but nowhere near as good as he would do eight years later in the sublime 'Ying Xiong').

As I said, the dubbing in this movie is awful. Really, really bad and it does go some way to spoiling the entire thing. It's so bad that it's almost farcical, and at times it's hard to keep a straight face; which does the movie no favours in the credibility department. However, luckily for Jet Li and co; this movie is entertaining enough to just beat the awful dubbing. It's not a great film, but it is good and I recommend it to anyone that just wants to be entertained for an hour and a half. Or for anyone that wants to see proof of why subtitles are better than dubbing.

The Bodyguard From Beijing aka The Defender is a solid action classic starring Jet Li and directed by Corey Yuen. Prior to this project, Jet Li had only done period kung fu movies. This is his 1st modern action movie that combines martial arts with gunplay. Jet Li is a bodyguard from mainland China imported to protect a prosecution witness ( the gorgeous Christy Cheung) from harm. Christy Cheung's character initially does not like the elite bodyguard hired to protect her. As she falls into danger, Jet Li keeps her out of harms way, she then finds appreciation for Jet Li and his dedication to his job. A bond and mutual attraction grows between them. Kent Cheng appears in this as well as a cop assigned to work with the bodyguard. Kent, equally adept at drama and comedy is mostly the comic relief for the film. Corey Yuen did a fine job directing here with keeping the right tone, telling the story fluently with the right amount of action and getting good performances from the cast. Corey also is the action choreographer so he is responsible for the quality of the action also, which was done well with a healthy dose of guns, explosion and kung fu. He also works with Jet Li as action choreographer on all of Jet's US films. Overall, TBFB is a solid action flick and when I want to watch a Jet Li movie with guns this is my 2nd choice only to the awesome, incredible action classic Black Mask.

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!!

Bodyguard from Beijing is a HK remake of Hollywood's The Bodyguard starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. But HK's version is quite different and a whole lot better. First of all, the relationship between the two stars of the movie (Jet Li and Christy Chung) has more tension and is more believable. And the action is incomparable. The shopping mall scene and especially the end fighting scene are simply too awesome to describe. You have to see it for yourself. Albeit the fact that there are some melodramatic scenes, this movie is a must for any Jet Li fan or wushu/action fan.