Kickfighter

Born to Defend isn't a good movie by any means. The villains are crazily exaggerated, and the Chinese were just too victimized. I know the American military has done a crapload of bad stuff, but there's only so much a viewer can take. I'd be alright if the movie portrayed them as evil people rather than Satan spawn. candy's supposed to be sweet, that's why we like it, but it can be sickening if it's too sweet. Most movies have a villain, and it generally helps the movie, but if that character is taken overboard, it just gets redundant and disgusting.

A Chinese person watching this movie must be some sort of masochist. I wouldn't want to see how terribly any foreigners victimized me. An American watching this movie must be a bit horrified, and a bit annoyed at how evil the navy is. Overall, it's not entertaining.

What i'm conflicted about is this: Why is it that such interesting action sequences are put in such a bad movie? I will say that while it is not edited well, and it's not of the highest quality in terms of lighting and camera work, The action scenes in "Born to Defend" are some of the best in any Jet Li movie. It's fast paced, contact is hard, and Jet Li moves like never before. The characters actually have very dramatic reactions to blows. The display of pain is well done. The characters also get winded when hit hard; that's something you don't see much in a movie. I'm not saying the fight scenes are realistic, no, far from it, but it's more dramatic with the sense of mortality it gives the characters.

A lot of people say Fist of Legend has Jet's best work. I believe this movie to be superior in terms of action. Jet Li is far too stiff in fist of legend, and he doesn't really seem to get hurt, even after being hit 30 times by a guy who can break bricks. Born to Defend features a very fluid Jet Li who's clearly very fragile, as any human is anyway. The fight scenes are also not over the top. You won't 2 people simultaneously jumping 10 feet into the air and then kicking each other both in the face.

While i can't bear the movie, many of the action scenes completely avoids my peeves with the genre.

If you want to see a movie with intense, hard-hitting fight scenes, then "Born To Defend" has what you're looking for. It's interesting to see a young Jet Li acting well and incorporating a kick-boxing style into his fighting, and the main villain is a worthy opponent for him. However, there are two major problems with this film: 1) It's poorly lit, 2) It's poorly plotted. Problem #1 may of course be just the fault of my version, a DVD in Chinese with (generally awful) English subtitles. The lighting is at times so bad that it's hard to see what's going on - and that includes the climactic moments of the film! Problem #2, however, will appear in ANY version. The whole plot of the film is: Jet Li and friends are harassed by stereotypically scummy Americans, until Jet decides to harass them back. It's literally no more complicated than that. But if you can just concentrate on the fighting, then I suppose the film is worth a watch, especially for Jet Li fans. (**)

I stumbled onto this film being shown 5/14/2006 on Spike TV. The stunning production work caught my eye in the opening battle scene. The color photography throughout this film is first rate. The film is entertaining from beginning to end. According to IMDb, this is the only film Jet Li has directed. His direction is first rate. This is a Chinese version of a film of soldiers fighting and coming home from the war, in this case World War 2. The film primarily focuses on the exploits of one soldier returning to a town where his buddy, a lieutenant in the marines, lives. He becomes involved in the life of his friend, the friend's daughter and the goings on in their town. The town is occupied by some American sailors who like to run roughshod over the Chinese occupants. Conflicks take hold. There is a style in this movie of words that I cannot find, but it is entertaining and at a very high level than the few pictures that I have seen out of China. There is a wonderful "gritiness" throughout the movie. Two scenes that demonstrate this is the group of Chinese soldiers playing their little wind instruments marching down the street and the fight scene in the driving rainstorm in the bar. Great movie!(added 05/15/2006-The style of this film for some reason reminds me of GUNGA DIN).

`Apart from using his advanced Kung-fu skills, Jet Li demonstrates an incredible US boxing style, a completely different fighting style in this movie.'

The above is a direct quote from the back of the DVD box of `Born to Defence'. It is also a bold faced lie. The closest Jet Li gets to American boxing in this film is when he puts on a pair of boxing gloves and steps into a boxing ring in the middle of a seedy bar. All similarities between American boxing and Jet Li's style end there. The closest you'll see to a boxing style is Jet Li kickboxing, which is much more of a Thai style than an American one.

With the hype the DVD box gave to Jet Li using an American boxing style this was a bit of a letdown. For fans of Jet Li wanting to see him stick, jab, and shuffle, I highly suggest the movie `Fist of Legend', as there's a scene in that movie where Jet Li actually DOES show off a good flyweight style of boxing. `Fist of Legend' also happens to be the best Jet Li movie I've seen to date; and outclasses and outshines `Born to Defence' in just about every aspect of filmmaking.

`Born to Defence' was the directorial debut for Jet Li. It also marks the last time he directed a film. I found it interesting that this film was in Cantonese as opposed to Mandarin. If you watch this movie on DVD I highly recommend watching it in the Original Cantonese with English subtitles as both the Mandarin and English dubbing on the DVD are really, really bad! So bad at times the dubbers completely miss dubbing in lines of dialogue as you're watching the actors lips move in complete silence. As a director Jet Li keeps this film simple, it's Jet Li's character (ironically named Jet in the English dubbing) against the evil bullies of the U.S. Navy. `Jet Li vs. The U.S. Navy Bullies' would be a very apt title for this movie indeed.

The martial arts in this movie are poor as compared to other Jet Li films I've seen. The film also lacked a certain cohesion as well. Several key fight scenes are interrupted by very poor editing. In no fewer than 2 fight scenes the camera cuts away from Jet Li at a critical point in the fight. When the camera cuts back to Jet, we join the fight already in progress; the action picks up in real time, instead of picking up where the cut left off. In a martial arts film, the spotlight should be on your superstar, and any cuts to background actions should not result in the audience missing out on what could have been a great fight scene. For the lack of cohesion in the fight scenes, and my disappointment with the alleged boxing style this movie fails to deliver, I give it 4/10 stars.

This is not at all a bad film and it is a pity that Jet Li has not directed more because even though the plot is simple and unsurprising the film rattles along in an entertaining way. It looks good, colourful but gritty with the white of the U.S sailor's uniforms intruding everywhere as they do in the film, into Chinese society and into the Jet Li's character's life. Jet stands up to them.

This leads to some great fight scenes including a humungous one in a bar (with the rain pouring in through holes in the roof) that ends up with Jet being thrown out of a window. But does it end there? Nope. Jet is great as usual and acts in his intense mode, full of energy and charisma. The rest of the cast are ordinary.

The film score is particularly good and, as all scores should, enhances the action as well as the dramatic scenes. It is not one of Jet Li's celebrated films but definitely worth seeing, to see a real star in the making.