Jet Li

Jet Li

Now, this guy has skills and usually he gives it all in his movies. Sins I saw him in the excellent "Tai Chi Master" and the comical "Fong Sai Yuk" he has been one of my faves and though new wave movies are not my faves (old school are) I still love his movies, but It's a shame he hasn't done to many old school style films like the "Shaolin Temple" series. He has worked with directors and actors like Sammo Hung, Liu Chia Hui, Lo Wei, Tsui Hark, Yuen Biao, Leung Kar Yan etc. He owes much of his amazing skills to the famous Peking Wu Shu Academy where he started to take up classes at the age of seven. He was so gifted that at eleven years old he won five gold medals at the National Wu Shu hampionships and that's not all, under the 70ties he became Chinas National Wu Shu coach which is a honourable title to have. Nowdays he keeps in shape by training eight hours a day.
He also is an excellent actor, still he has never gon to acting school. His first starring role was in the amazing 1981 classic "The Shaolin Temple" which made him an overnight star. After making the two secuels he directed and starred in Born to Defend, but the this one may be one of his worst films. His own favourite is Fist of Legend which is a remake of the Bruce Lee classic Fist of Fury (Chinese Connection) from 1972.
His year of success was 1993 when he set up his own production company Jing Tung and produced and starred in the new wave comedy flick Fong Sai Yuk. Jet claimed that he had never played a character that was so close to himself.
Jet has lots of fans worldwide and in 1996 he made his first public UK appearance and the fans had the chance to ask him questions they've always wanted to ask him. There he encouraged people to train martial arts not for the sake of fighting, but for health.
Jet is one of the biggest Chinese stars in the world (the other being Jackie Chan) and an American movie was anticipated. And it came in 1998, in the form of Lethal Weapon 4 which had him playing a Chinese triad villain to great effect and proved that he could play bad guys too.
Currently Jet made Hollywood movie "Romeo Must Die" which doesn't attract me much as I don't like american martial arts movies and all that Hollywood stuff. He and "Lethal Weapon" star Mel Gibson also have plans on making a Wu Shu TV serial by the name of "Invincible" possible to be done at 2001.
Real name: Li Lian Jie
Aka: Jet Lee
Date of birth: April 16th, 1963
Place of birth: Beijing, China
Style/School: Wu Shu - Beijing Wu Shu Academy
SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY:

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