Zhong Nan Hai bao biao

an exciting love story with everything going for it. the humor, the action, the romance, all great. could have used some more of the great action, though. Jet Li is terrific as the bodyguard from Bejing. The last fight, the faucet fight, is really cool. check this one out.

If you like Corey Yuen's balletic gunfighting, more recently demonstrated in 2002's "So Close," then you will enjoy the earlier "Bodyguard from Beijing." This film is fun to watch, and manages to produce some surprises despite the formulaic bodyguard-and-rich-bratty-girl plot. The schmaltzy sequence with the song is the only part where the movie drags. However, given Yuen's preference for gunplay, Jet Li fans are apt to be disappointed, since Li has less opportunity to showcase his kung fu skills. Christy Cheung gets the job done in the damsel-in-distress role, and to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, she plays the range of emotions from A to B.

This is most commonly noted to be a HK version of 'THe bodyguard' by Kevin Costner, so generally the plot is the same, bodyguard protects rich missus. I think what makes this more entertaining has to be Jet Li himself, who I am a personal fan of. Here he exudes silent charm and charisma that makes his character very 'cool

and aloof at the same time. In the first half of the show, Christy's character hates him, not surprisingly since he is such a pain in her a**. But later on we see the softer side of him when he begins to like Christy's character too. He's character is very shy and uncertain when it comes to dealing with romance, a far cry from the confident and arrogant nature when it comes to his job. Jet Li plays the contrasting natures of the character with ease, you almost feel quite tickled watching Christy's character flirt with him. Overall, not a brilliant show, plot not original at all, but with the entertaining supporting casts as well as Jet Li's presence, makes the show a highly enjoyable one.

John Chang is sent from Bejing to protect the only witness to a murder, Michelle Yeung. However, as the two get in deeper and deeper into the fight for survival, they start to get feelings that could spell doom for the both of them.

Jet Li was some 4 years away from becoming a world star as opposed to his standing in Asia, his pre American efforts are a highly mixed bunch. Here with The Defender we find Li oozing cool and delighting in the art of chop sockery and intricate gun play, but strip away the action and we are left with a pretty empty film. It's a standard fable of bodyguard protects pretty girl (the delicious Christy Chung) and after the initial resentments subside, we find our duo falling in too deep and putting all at risk within their world. However, the action (the point of these pictures as we know) delivers royally, particularly in the last quarter where the ante goes thru the roof and the testo level follows it, it's here where Li and the rest of the grafters earn their respective corn. The finale sequences alone make this picture worth your while, whilst you will rarely see a skateboard and a torch be so intricately and funnily used at the same time!

Instantly forgettable outside of the action set pieces, it still manages to be an entertaining watch for the action junkies amongst us. 5.5/10

The Bodyguard From Beijing aka The Defender is a solid action classic starring Jet Li and directed by Corey Yuen. Prior to this project, Jet Li had only done period kung fu movies. This is his 1st modern action movie that combines martial arts with gunplay. Jet Li is a bodyguard from mainland China imported to protect a prosecution witness ( the gorgeous Christy Cheung) from harm. Christy Cheung's character initially does not like the elite bodyguard hired to protect her. As she falls into danger, Jet Li keeps her out of harms way, she then finds appreciation for Jet Li and his dedication to his job. A bond and mutual attraction grows between them. Kent Cheng appears in this as well as a cop assigned to work with the bodyguard. Kent, equally adept at drama and comedy is mostly the comic relief for the film. Corey Yuen did a fine job directing here with keeping the right tone, telling the story fluently with the right amount of action and getting good performances from the cast. Corey also is the action choreographer so he is responsible for the quality of the action also, which was done well with a healthy dose of guns, explosion and kung fu. He also works with Jet Li as action choreographer on all of Jet's US films. Overall, TBFB is a solid action flick and when I want to watch a Jet Li movie with guns this is my 2nd choice only to the awesome, incredible action classic Black Mask.