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Jet Li aka Jet Lee

Jet Li in action in the movie: Hero
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Jet Li

Introduction

Biography of Jet Li

JET LI BIOGRAPHY

Where: Beijing, China
Awards: No Major Awards
Height: 5' 6"

Making his Hollywood breakthrough as the sinister Triad boss Wah Sing Ku in Lethal Weapon 4, Jet Li is set fair to follow in the footsteps of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Indeed, given his outrageous flair, his inspired melding of many martial arts and, above all, his genuine acting ability, he's near-certain to outdo them both.

Born in Beijing on April 26th, 1963, Li Lian Jie (his Mandarin name - in Cantonese it's Li Nin Kit) has two brothers and two sisters. His father died when he was only two, and he was consequently heavily influenced by his teachers, becoming a devoted and disciplined student. By the time he was 8, his PE teacher at the Changqiao Primary School noted his extraordinary agility and grace, and recommended he be sent to Beijing's Amateur Sports School for formal training in Wushu, the Chinese national sport and a kind of martial arts performance style, rather than a mode of fighting. Here he fell under the tutelage of Wu Bin, studying academics by day and, by night, practising bends, presses, somersaults, all the tools of the prospective Wushu master.

Wu Bin quickly spotted the boy's determination and ambition, and gave him extra training. Yet still there was no power in Jet's kicks or blows. Studying his pupil's diet, the teacher discovered a fatal deficiency. Years before, Jet's grandmother had fallen ill through eating meat and had been advised by her doctor to give it up. The whole family had followed suit, partly for health reasons, partly because they were so poor. In order to boost Jet's protein intake, Wu Bin would deliver food to the family for years. His star pupil strength quickly increased.

After three years of schooling, Jet had made massive bounds. At 11, he won gold at the Chinese national championships, a feat he would perform on five consecutive occasions. He was taken on to Beijing's professional Wushu team and, over the next five years, performed in 40 countries across the globe, one of his early shows being before President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger on the White House lawn. The martial arts cognoscenti appreciated his intelligent combination of many styles - monkey boxing, chanquan, taichiquan, gun boxing, tongbeiquan. He was superb with both sword and spear.

Jet himself is quick to point out that this mastery did not come easily - he HATES to be called a prodigy, believing the term ignores his years of toil. Wu Bin, he recalls, was kind to his team-mates, allowing them rest when they needed it, but extremely harsh with Jet himself, pushing him to ever-greater extremes. Wu Bin has admitted as much. Recognising Jet's ability and ambition, he followed the stone-hearted adage "a resounding drum must be struck with a heavy hammer", forcing Jet to undergo three times as many exercises as his peers. Many times Jet wavered, nearly gave up like so many of his schoolmates, only for Wu Bin to drive him forward again.

Beyond the training, there was constant research and philosophical study. Jet would seek out and question all the old masters gathered in Beijing, also gleaning information from opera actors and dancers. Like Bruce Lee before him, he would take from any style and was very conscious that, once a new move or routine was performed, it was inevitably copied. The need for constant change and improvement was paramount.

While still in his teens, Jet became national Wushu coach. He also turned his eye towards the cinema, and caused an immediate sensation. Shaolin Temple had been a hit back in 1976. Now, in 1982, it was remade, with Jet in the role of the youngster who, his father killed, learns kung fu and both revenges himself and saves the Emperor. The film was partly shot at the real-life Shaolin monastery in the Song mountains of Henan province and, with Jet already a national hero due to his Wushu exploits, it was a nationwide smash, causing a new martial arts craze in China. Two immensely popular sequels followed, the first involving Jet being pushed to marry the supposedly lesbian daughter of a rival family.

Despite this initial filmic success, the mid-Eighties proved a difficult time for Jet Li. His directorial debut, Born To Defend was a failure and his other pictures were fairly unsophisticated efforts. Furthermore, his marriage to Huang Qui-Yan, a fellow member of the Beijing Wushu team who bore him two daughters, fell apart. Rumours flew that a third party had been involved, and Jet was said to be involved with buxom actress Nina Li Chi, his co-star in the San Francisco-set romp Dragon Fight. Nina had been Miss Asia Pacific in 1986, and later starred as a sexy spook in A Chinese Ghost Story 3, as a nubile menaced by a 7-foot Komodo dragon in Stone Age Warriors, as an evil witch in A Kid From Tibet and as a very confused girlfriend in Jackie Chan's Twin Dragons (a parody of Jean-Claude Van Damme's Double Impact). She would retire from movies in 1992 then, having reportedly lost $10 million in property deals, would reappear in 1999, as Jet Li's new wife. The couple had clearly enjoyed a long relationship but, perhaps due to Jet not wishing to taint his heroic reputation, had seldom been seen together. They now have a daughter, named Jane.

Rocky Law's Dragons Of The Orient kept Jet in the spotlight, being an informative documentary that showed him as an 11-year-old on the White House lawn, as well as revealing some of his innovative training techniques, including one exercise where he hangs numerous footballs from a tree then wheels and spins to strike each as it swings towards him. But Jet needed another hit movie and, having moved into the burgeoning Hong Kong industry, he found one in Tsui Hark's Once Upon A Time In China. This was a retelling of the story of Wong Fei-Hong, perhaps China's most famous martial arts exponent, a kind of fighter-scholar who, by exhibiting deep calm and consideration for the oppressed, had come to embody the very spirit of kung fu. As one national hero portraying another, Jet Li wrote himself into the annals of film history. His action sequences were astounding, his spirit palpable and, as an ascetic monk falling for his young Westernised "auntie" (played by Rosamund Kwan), his comic timing was excellent. OUATIC was another mighty hit, Jet starring in the first two sequels that followed.

Now Jet Li was hot property. Swordsman 2 was another smash and everyone was after his signature. So vicious was the competition - and the Hong Kong industry is notoriously rough - that when Jet's personal manager was shot down in Kowloon, it was said to be because he'd refused to sign Jet over to the Triads. Instead, Jet formed his own production company, and scored again, this time with The Legend.

For a couple of years, Jet kept on the same path, generally playing Chinese folk heroes (indeed, Lethal Weapon 4 would be the first time he'd ever played a villain). In The Legend and its follow-up, he was involved in revolution against the wicked Manchu dynasty. In Tai Chi Master, starring alongside Bond girl Michelle Yeoh, he was a disgraced Shaolin monk seeking redemption. He also, in homage, remade Bruce Lee's Fist Of Fury, as Fist Of Legend, once more covering the 1937 struggle of a Shanghai martial arts school against the invading Japanese. He also released a pseudo-biopic, called Shaolin Kung Fu, that revealed yet more of his training techniques, including how to stand on one finger and how to work your neck so a spear can't penetrate it. A handy trick should NATO ever run out of Cruise missiles.

Jet Li was now extremely prolific in the Hong Kong industry, but his sights were set on world domination. With Bodyguard From Beijing, he remade Kevin Costner's The Bodyguard, protecting and falling for a beautiful murder witness and thus widening his appeal. In The Enforcer, he went further, with drama taking over from martial arts exploits as Jet starred as an undercover cop battling big-time gangsters. There were still some incredible set-pieces though, particularly when he ties a rope round his Wushu champion son's neck and swings him at his enemies, turning him into a flailing yo-yo of death.

Now came three more hits, each showing Jet to be a far deeper actor than Jackie Chan. Like his other action peer, Chow Yun-Fat, he's more thoughtful, often tortured by life and profoundly disturbed by his own violence. First came Scripture With No Words where he flipped between the life of a troubled writer and the Indiana Jones-style adventures of the hero he writes about. Black Mask saw him survive a dodgy project aimed at creating supersoldiers, seek peace as a librarian, then have to fight it out with his evil ex-buddies. Then came another installment of Tsui Hark's series, Once Upon A Time In China And America, where Jet played a master called in to help Chinese workers having a hard time on the US railroads of yore.

Then came Lethal Weapon where Jet rose above some pretty cheap stereotyping to steal scene after scene. So impressed was producer Joel Silver that he had Jet star in one of his upcoming projects, Romeo Must Die. This, a carefree take on Shakespeare, saw the Chinese mafia take on black gangsters, with Jet falling for the entirely unsuitable Aaliyah (the R&B star soon to die tragically in a plane crash - Jet appeared in her video for Try Again).

It could have been even better. Jet was asked to star in Ang Lee's mega-hit, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but turned it down as he'd promised not to work while Nina was pregnant. Eventually, it will make no difference. The pre-eminent martial arts star of his generation, now befriended by the likes of Joel Silver and Mel Gibson, Jet Li will have mega-hits of his own. Having studied English for four hours a day for years, he will doubtless appeal to the Western market more and more - without having to stick, like Jackie Chan, to comedy blockbusters. As his PE teacher noticed 30 years ago, the man has amazing ability. And grace.

Filmography of Jet Li

Photo gallery of Jet Li

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Last Modified: 10-Jul-2011 12:24