The Bodyguard from Beijing
by Corey Yuen
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Christy Chung, Jet Li, Kent ChengDirector: Corey Yuen
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
DVD Release Date: 2000-11-14
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Beverly Wilshire
Movie Reviews of The Bodyguard from Beijing
Movie Review: HK take on Hollywood's The Bodyguard pleases
Summary: 5 Stars
Jet Li portrays John Chang, a mainland Chinese bodyguard trained by the military to be the best and latest word in protection. After using a controversial technique in a training exercise, he is diverted from taking a coveted assignment with his comrades. Instead he is sent to Hong Kong to protect a young woman, Michelle, who is the only surviving witness to a murder. Michelle is the mistress of a wealthy man, who spares no expense at protecting her life after two other witnesses are murdered by the triad leader suspect's gang.Li's John Chang is all business, a repressed, grim faced young man who has one objective: to protect his client, even at the cost of his own life. His vibrant charge soon finds his protective restrictions stifling and she sets about making life as difficult as possible for the man charged to protect her. It is not until an attempt is made upon her life in a shopping mall she has stubbornly insisted on visiting, that she begins to appreciate her no nonsense guardian.
Soon, appreciation leads to infatuation, and Michelle turns the full force of her romantic charms on the unsuspecting and emotionally ill-equipped Chang. She buys him fancy clothes, an expensive watch, finding herself increasingly dissatisfied and impatient with her rich but milquetoast boyfriend. The romantic tension is almost too much for Chang, who finds himself uncharacteristically unable to concentrate on his work as her protector.
The gang charged with her annihilation is now led by the brother of one of the gang killed at the shopping mall shootout. He is intent on revenging his brother by killing John. Taking advantage of Chang's distraction, he and his crew launch an attack on Michelles seemingly impregnable home which initiates the film's final showdown.
Jet Li's martial arts skills take a back seat to gunplay and suspense until the climax of the film. Li's wushu talents are on full display as he engages in hand to hand combat with his foe. Intent on not repeating his mistake from the opening training exercise, Chang must now show a willingness to die for his client.
Highly entertaining and ultimately more satisfying than Hollywood's The Bodyguard, Jet uses his screen appeal to good advantage in the film. The supporting players are excellent, especially Kent Cheng as one of two policemen that aid John in protecting Michelle. An excellent viewing choice for those who may not be fans of Li's period wushu pieces, the film will probably disappoint those who crave fight-laden martial arts films.
Summary of The Bodyguard from Beijing
Hong Kong martial arts master Jet Li plays a bodyguard from the Beijing secret police, sent to Hong Kong to protect a beautiful young witness to a mob killing, played by Christy Chung. Li turns her home into a high-security prison, complete with video cameras surveying every room, even her bedroom. Furious, Chung resists his efforts to protect her--until the threat to her life is made abundantly clear in a spectacular shopping mall shootout. As is natural under such circumstances, romance begins to bloom, much to the dismay of Chung's lawyer boyfriend, who hired Li in the first place. Made in the last few years before the British province of Hong Kong was returned to the rule of mainland China, The Bodyguard from Beijing makes many (possibly anxious) jokes about the differences between the austere Communist bodyguard and the lackadaisical H.K. police. Li's character is so consistently stone-faced that his usual boyish charm is repressed, and the movie emphasizes gunplay over acrobatic kung fu action, but there are still kicks galore and the usual Hong Kong combination of spectacular violence and outrageous sentimentality--all captured in stylish, glossy cinematography. And how often do you get to see venetian blinds used as an offensive weapon? --Bret Fetzer
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