Born to Defense

ce film et vraiment super

Born to Defense was the fourth movie Jet Li starred in, and the first one he directed. It's his first movie after the Shaolin Temple trilogy which rocketed him into instant fame. This movie is pretty awesome, I must say. Jet did a good job directing, and it's sad he hasn't directed more movies. I kind of like his directing preferences. The main reason people will probably hate this movie is because of it's dark atmosphere. There are hardly any happy moments in the film, and the tone is constantly kept serious. However, I think the dark tone is perfect for the setting of the movie. The movie is about Jet returning home to China after World War 2 and finding out the American sailors are oppressing his home and his people. The plot was carried out well, as were the subplots. Due to the injuries Jet received while filming, this was the last movie where he did pretty much all of his own stunts. It's also one of the last movies where Jet pulls out all of the stops in his fight scenes. He pulled off a good combo of kick-boxing, Kungfu, and grappling. There's also plenty of super flashy and aerobatic kicks in this movie. The scene in the final fight where Jet uses the chain in a WuShu type of technique could easily be a classic part of Jet's best action scenes. Action of this caliber and quality would not be seen by Jet again for about eight years until he made Fist of Legend. The majority of the fights are one-on-one, and they involve American sailors. One thing Jet Li fans may dislike about the action though is that Jet is not invincible at all. He receives several beatings in a lot of his fights. Personally, I love this movie, but I can see why so many have hated it. This is one of those love or hate it type movies. I give it a 10/10. I highly recommend it to Jet Li fans or action fans.

Born To Defence, directed by and starring Jet Li before he got really famous, is a low-budget and shoddily acted but nonetheless serious movie. It takes place at the end of World War II, with the defeat of the Japanese. Jet Li and his buddies were soldiers in the war, fighting bitterly for China against Japan. As they return, they find the Americans made out to be the only war heroes, and present in such force that the situation is akin to occupation. The U.S. soldiers behave very insensitively, and Jet soon becomes entangled with them. After they destroy his best friend's rickshaw, which was his livelihood, he attacks them but is thrown in jail. He seethes with anger and escapes from his cell, only to find that the American soldiers have abducted his girlfriend (the best friend's daughter). Her father pursues them, but ends up being thrown off a roof. The girl is so distressed that she jumps off, too. In the old factory nearby, Jet makes his final stand against the soldiers (esp. their captain, who is a big strong fighter, and also a relatively honorable man, which fact is however lost in translation, as Jet can't understand English). Compared to the bad action movies that prospered in the rental video market in the '80ies, Jet Li's Born To Defence is not bad. It is indeed dominated by terrible acting (though mostly by the Americans), and contains plenty of senselessly brutal violence. But it is saved by a serious and intense story about the tragedies that can come from inter-cultural lack of understanding. 6 out of 10.

This is probably the most dramatical movie made by Jet Li. In this movie, he surpased any other movie focus in martial arts, and remember some first movies of John Woo. I checked the way Jet Li uses to direct himself. Even considering that one expert composed and directed the action sequences, Jet Li gives to the stars the chance to show some dramatical situations, and some smell anti American is floating around all the movie. Jet Li show how to be beaten in your movie, and watching the movie I remembered Rocky Balboa. Jet Li has some debt with Stallone. Good plot. I liked. You remain with stress all the movie. You can't trust in nobody, thats the message in the movie. Only your friends can save you, and also the prostitutes. Good fights. I recommended this picture for anyone who likes action, drama, and Jet Li.

Jet Li stars and directs a tale of a Chinese rickshaw-man who offers to be a human punch-bag for American soldiers in post-WWII China. Jet does deliver good direction but the script is rather weak and most fight sequences seem to be rather dull. The finale is an all out Hong Kong cinema fight fest where Jet takes on Yanks in a factory (a fight sequence in which Jet sustained a serious injury and was out of filming for almost 3-4 years). I actually think this movie can be ranked as one of his worse efforts (including 'The Master' and 'The One'). Die hard fans should check it out, but beware: not that great. **/*****

It was fun to see Jet in this film because this is during his early stages of his roles. The film wasnt very good, but it did have more fight scenes in it. One thing that i didnt like about his movie was that Jet got beat up more in this movie than other ones I've see.

whats with that? it was made after this movie so would that mean that it stole its soundtrack from this movie? and if so, i'm amazed as the nrns2 soundtrack is my favorite ever. apart from that i thought the movie was pretty cool. nothing too amazing. jet li is a pretty short martial artist and therefore very quick but i don't think he has the screen presence of a loren avedon or mathias hues. check it out but pay careful attention to the great soundtrack. My vote - 6\10 GREAT SOUNDTRACK!

I am extremely disappointed in this movie being a huge Jet Li fan. The anti-Americanism was atrocious in this picture. The dialog used for the Americans was something out of a really bad 80's after-school special. My favorite line just may be "You can't do this to me, I'm in the US Navyyyyyyy!" as Jet Li burns the evil American Sailor. Horrible movie. I have to say next to all of his American movies (except Lethal Weapon 4), this is definitely one of his worse ones. If you are going to rent any Jet Li movies, rent "Black Mask". "Fists of Legend", "Twin Warriors", and "The Legend of the Red Dragon" are excellent Jet Li movies as well.

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. (**)

Jet Li's own and uncredited adaptation of popular HK Manhua/Novel "Zhonghua Yingxiong" by Ma Yingcheng (1983), later brought to us as "A Man Called Hero" with more charismatic Ekin Cheng as leading actor. The original story had great success both in China and Hong Kong, but the little one Jet Li gained with this film -he stopped directing and moved to San Francisco- shows how much it follows the "chinese pride" stuff contained on it. Even disappointing as a simple Jet Li action movie, it proves fighting can't save the party. Jet Li stars as -wow!- Jet, a Chinese soldier back to Tsing Dao after winning against Japanese devils (sic). Our "hero" finds Tsing Dao kind of invaded by American troops, so he inevitably begins kicking some bad guys who are, of course, American. It follows some boxing fighting that would make you laugh thinking what's the story supposed to be about. Stay away if you are looking for more Hua Ying-Xiong. There's none here.