Director : Corey Yuen/Kazuya Konaka
Cast : Jet Li, Christy Chung, Kent Cheng and Collin Chou

Synopsis
Jet Li is a bodyguard from Beijing, assigned to protect an eye-witness (Christie Chung) of a mass murder case. In the process, Christie Chung tends to fall in love with Jet Li….

Review
by Edward Tang

Jet Li and Corey Yuen have made a few films together including one of my favorite films in “Fong Sai Yuk” and others that are horrible. But the apply titled “Defender” or “Bodyguard from Beijing is a loose remake of the Whitney Houston bore fest. I’m impressed for the most part with this film because it has some great action sequences, but totally gets bogged down in the typical fare. You’ve got the bumbling fat sidekick, the fiends bad guy, the typically useless girl, the little kid who gets in the way, and the hero who accomplishes all of his goals. This film is good for the action, but it seemed to try and build a romance that just didn’t feel good with us at the end.

Jet Li stars as a commando hired to protect a woman who witnessed a murder. The entire first half consists of the woman’s dislike with Li, until he saves her from a maul confrontation with a bunch of hit men. She falls in love with him, but not before a ruthless killer goes toe to toe with Li to prove his worth.

The story seems all but basic, and is. The three sequences that I felt to be the most enjoyable were this. The first of course, belonged to Li and Cheung escaping the mall as a hoard of killers try to take her out. This scene is fun and shows the best that “gun-fu” has to offer. The second belongs to Collin Chou and his grabbing of his brother’s body from the morgue. It easily shows his power and complete disregard for anything. The final of course, belongs to the scene in which Chou breaks into the house, and Li fights him off in a great scene. The scene is great, the desperation of breathing, and unveils a good weapon to showcase rather than the gun.

These three things are all worth the crust that lives within. The film seems to be thrown together with Li and Cheung’s “romantic notice” in a very unbelieving way. The other thing I disliked was the constant state of how this story just didn’t move around, and we saw scenes of Jet Li looking around. The story isn’t the best action film of all time, but surely isn’t the worst, and has scenes that make up for it’s typical and boring story.

See it if you want a good enough action film for the night, or if you want to discover some of Jet Li’s past films. You can do better if you wish, but it deserves a rental because it wastes time in an entertaining way.

Rating
Plot : 2/5
Acting : 2/5
Entertainment : 3/5
Overall : 3/5

Notable Scenes
- Jet Li and Christy Cheung escaping the mall
- Collin Chou freeing his brother from the morgue
- Final showdown between Li and Chou inside the house

Buy this movie at  YesAsia - Bodyguard From Beijing

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Last Modified : August 21st, 2007 Filed under : Hong Kong, Movies Navigate : Previous post / Next post