Old skool Jet Li! I really enjoyed this movie.
Jet Li plays Jet (coincidence?), a young and slightly dorky Chinese fella who’s arrived in the United States to visit his master. But when Jet arrives at his Master’s shop, the place is boarded up and his Master is missing.
Jet’s Master is layed up in a caravan injured, while a young girl takes care of him. He had a run in with Johnny, a mega 80’s bad guy with a super blond spiked mullet who has incredible martial arts power and skill.
So without knowing any of this, Jet hits the town to find his master, while a group of illegal immigrants in a gang follow him around, wanting him to teach them Kung Fu (after he thwarted their robbery attempt). Along the way he runs into a few fights and trouble before eventually finding his master.
Naturally Mullet Man Johnny catches up with them and they must fight him off as he does his best to kill Jet’s Master.
Good old fashioned fun!
This movie is a classic about a dorky outsider coming over to the big smoke of the US.
The crime and large scale of the city seem hard for Jet to figure out as he doesn’t speak English, and even runs into other Chinese people and can’t communicate since they don’t know Cantonese.
So seeing him do his best to find his master in an unknown town and culture, whilst getting into trouble with police and gangs gives a sense of difficulty to his character’s goal, but he seems confident the entire time.
The whole film has a good balance of serious obstacles and light hearted humor and atmosphere – something Jet Li does quite well.
I love the fact that we’ve got probably the most outstanding mullet in the history of Martial Arts movies in this film by way of the villain, Johnny. I’m sure at the time of release he would have appeared to be a bit tough guy, but these days his presence is a bit more ridiculous “80’s villain” as he fits a perfect, hilarious, stereotype.
Obviously, we’re not really expecting or getting much depth from this film, it’s just a bit of fun.
It’s fun to watch as Jet wins over these policeman and gang members showing off what he knows by way of kung fu or Chinese medicine, and it shows real value in his character and makes the story entertaining to watch. But like all of these movies, the story really is second the action it sets up.
The Action & Martial Arts
It’s fast and hard hitting in that 80’s style (since this was made in ’89).
Jet fronts up with the big jacket, back pack and funny looking little hat, resembling a preschool kid who goes ahead and quite easily bashes his opponents the second they step toward him.
What he does is truly impressive as he shows off a great deal of acrobatic Wushu skills in his fights, which seem to be nicely spread throughout out the film.
Overall it’s a fun movie to watch and a great chapter in Jet Li’s early career. It’s a bit cheap looking and obviously had a low budget, but it all works. Check it out for some cheap old skool movie fun!
Yes! Finally something about martial arts.