Born to Defence

cover

AKA: Born to Defense, Born to Defend

Year of release: 1988

Genre: martial arts

Director: Jet Li

Action director: Tsui Siu-Ming

Producer: Fu Qi

Writers: Si Yeung-Ping, Chit Yi-Gwoh

Cinematography: Cho Him

Editors: Lee Yuk-Waai, Koo Chi-Wai

Music: Hou De-Jian, Gui Siu-Chun

Stars: Jet Li, Kurt Pettersson, Song Jia, Biu Law Do, Zhao Er-Kang, Yuen Fai, Paulo Tocha, Mark King

Not rated; contains IIB-level violence

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1988's Born to Defence, Jet Li's directorial debut, offers up some great gimmick-free action. But unfortunately, there's not quite enough of it, and the movie's obvious propagandistic overtones and lack of any real style or panache in the technical department take things down a couple of notches.

In the film, Jet plays a soldier named Jet -- this should show you how deep and inventive the story and script are. Anyway, he's headed home after serving during World War II. His village has been occupied by the American Navy, who are running roughshod over the townspeople because the local government is unwilling to help because they want to keep making money off of the Yanks. After being humiliated one too many times by the Americans, Jet decides to fight once more, this time to get revenge for his friends.

Mainland Chinese productions are known for their heavy jingoistic messages, and Born to Defence is no exception. All of the American characters are portrayed as crude buffoons who resort to violence at the drop of the hat. Racial and societal archetypes are to be expected in martial arts pictures, but the level at which Born to Defence tries to mash the message of Chinese superiority into its' audience gets a bit ridiculous at times.

This is very clear during the finale, where Jet (who is not coincidentally wearing the uniform of an ordinary factory worker) single-handedly defeats the noticeably multi-racial Americans. Don't get me wrong; I was in no way really offended by any of this. But it would have been a benefit to the production as a whole if the film-makers acted with at least some sense of subtlety in the methods of getting their message across to the audience.

Despite these problems, Born to Defence does deliver in the area many viewers would be checking this out for in the first place: namely, the action. This is Jet Li in his young prime, a ball of speed and fury that would rival any on-screen performer before or since. Even the movie's simpler stunts and fights are made more vivid by Jet's skill in these aspects. Though ultimately the action can't overcome and overshadow Born to Defence's deficiencies, Jet Li fans will still find this to be a release worthy of their time.

RATING: 6.5