Born to Defense

et Li directs and stars in Born to Defend, a fight-packed martial arts movie set in China shortly after the end of the second world war. Li plays Jet, a soldier returning from the war who begins working with his pal (and ex-lieutenant), Zhang, helping with his rickshaw business. But when his wartime buddy is hospitalised in a fight with an American, and the rickshaw is trashed by a gang of US Navy bullies, Jet seeks revenge…

I love the majority Jet Li's movies, so it is a shame to report that this one is a bit of a letdown action-wise, and also extremely xenophobic; every American is portrayed as a drunken, brawling, womanising, murderous thug without any redeeming features whatsoever, whilst the Chinese are (mostly) seen as hard-working and honourable people. I realise that foreigners are often used as bad-guys in this kind of movie, but the 'racism' in Born to Defend is taken to a ridiculous level which is totally unacceptable (and I'm not even an American).

The fight action, although plentiful, doesn't live up to the standard that fans have come to expect from a Jet Li movie, and the fact that the hero gets his butt kicked for the majority of the running time makes the film even more disappointing. Jet's incredible martial arts skills take a back seat, with most of the early fights being boxing matches (with only a few kung fu kicks thrown in to occasionally spice things up).

The finale sees events improve somewhat with a terrific showdown between Jet and his enemies in a factory, but it is a case of too little, too late. Jet handles the direction well and it is a shame that he hasn't tried helming a movie since; maybe his debut's lack of business at the box-office knocked his confidence—a shame, since he shows promise behind the camera, with an impressive explosive battle at the beginning and some lovely rain drenched scenes later on.

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.