丨This article was first published in the Pippi movie
Pippi Movies / A great movie recommendation every day
Jackie Chan and Jet Li are well-deserved leading figures in Chinese kung fu movies, and the two have been secretly competing from the 80s to the new century.
Jackie Chan's style is biased towards "all-rounder", many works will be labeled as "Jackie Chan works", while Jet Li has never been willing to play too many roles in movies, and even martial arts instructors are reluctant to touch.
But when Jet Li was 24 years old, he personally directed an action movie, which was the only time in his acting career to direct a film, and this experience was also described as "a nightmare" in his acting career.
Today, Pi Ge will talk with you about this "very special" movie that Jet Li has from his film career - "Chinese Hero".
"Chinese Heroes" 丨1988
Born to Defend
Director: Jet Li
Starring: Jet Li / Zhao Erkang / Song Jia / Kurt Roland Petersson / Paulo Tocha
Before introducing this film, we must first answer a question: Why did Jet Li, who concentrated on being an actor, personally direct this film?
In fact, after Jet Li starred in "North and South Shaolin" in the 80s, he had the idea of quitting the film circle because of the various unsatisfactory experiences in the process of filming.
At that time, the Great Wall Film Company, which had worked with Jet Li on "Shaolin Temple" and "Shaolin Kid", had merged with Phoenix Pictures and Xinlian Pictures to form Yindu Agency Co., Ltd., and had invited him to continue to star in films, and when the producers learned of his ideas, they proposed that he direct the film himself.
Jet Li, who was only 24 years old at the time, thought that he might be able to express his ideas in a movie way, so he happily agreed, so he had this "Chinese Hero" written by Tergo and Shi Yangping and directed and starred by Jet Li, which was called "Invincible Boy" at the time, and was released in 1988.
The film takes place in Qingdao, Shandong Province, in 1945, just after world war II.
When the war was won and the Chinese and American armies returned to Qingdao together, their treatment was very different.
The U.S. military was regarded as a hero of the War of Resistance and was welcomed by the middle road; the Nationalist army was treated coldly, which made the Chinese soldiers dissatisfied and also caused contradictions between the Nationalist army and the US military.
Xiao Jie, played by Jet Li, is one of the soldiers who have returned from a triumphant victory, and he has come to Qingdao to find Zhang Platoon Commander, who has been discharged from the army due to injury.
Because he mistakenly recognized the address, he mistakenly entered the home of a young woman, and veteran Hong Kong film fans should be able to see that the funny plot that Jet Li deliberately added was actually a tribute to the movie "Raptors Across the River" starring Bruce Lee.
After retiring from the army, Zhang Platoon Commander returned to Qingdao and bought a rickshaw to earn money by pulling rickshaws on the street.
Xiao Jie found The platoon leader and stayed at his house, preparing to pull a rickshaw as well.
The next day, he went to hang out on the street, but encountered American soldiers driving cars on the street, and Jet Li was hit on the roof of the car.
The Nationalist troops on the street joined forces to stop the car, and the American officer Hans rushed out of the car and fought with Xiao Jie.
Due to the large number of soldiers in the country, Hans had to leave under the escort of the police who arrived, and the car he left behind was burned by angry citizens and soldiers.
Xiao Jie and the nationalist brothers went to the bar to drink, and saw that there were many girls in the bar who accompanied the drinking, and there were also American soldiers playing boxing in the ring.
While drinking, the Nationalist army and the Us army moved again because of the quarrel, and the American soldier Bailey challenged Xiao Jie, who was knocked down by Xiao Jie, making him hold a grudge.
Back this Bailey clashed with Zhang Platoon Leader because he was riding in the rickshaw of Zhang Platoon Leader, and beat him to serious injury and was hospitalized.
In order to take care of Zhang Platoon Leader and pay for his medical expenses, Xiao Jie also pulled up a rickshaw.
One day, I met Bailey's gang again, and Jay's rickshaw was dragged by Bailey's car and broken.
Jay ran to the bar where Bailey often went to try to find him to lose money, and the owner of the bar learned of his situation and took the initiative to give Xiao Jie a rickshaw repair.
Xiao Jie is simple-minded, and in order to repay the bar owner, he wants to stay in the bar to help the boss work for a few days.
The boss said that the bar could not find a boxing target for American soldiers to practice boxing, and asked him if he would like to do it.
So Xiao Jie gritted his teeth and made a day of boxing targets in the bar, and was beaten up by Bailey who came to the bar.
It turned out that Bailey and the bar owner colluded to beat up Jay.
Zhang Platoon Leader's daughter Xiao Rui was a girl in the bar, saw all this, and turned around and told Xiao Jie the truth.
Officer Hans also saw bailey's doing, and he thought it was contrary to the style of a soldier, so he approached Bailey and taught him a lesson.
The next day Jay returned to the bar, this time trying to teach Bailey a hard lesson, but it was Hans who got into the ring.
In order to save the face of the American soldiers, Hans wanted to personally deal with the challenge of Xiao Jie.
Although Hans is tall and powerful, Xiao Jie is flexible and changeable, and the two are evenly matched.
It was raining heavily outside, the roof of the bar was leaking, and the entire ring was wet with heavy rain.
Hans and Xiao Jie fought in the ring for several rounds, still winning or losing.
Pico interjected here that the Paterson, who plays Hans, made many mistakes in the process of filming this ring battle, and once beat Jet Li to a coma.
Paterson felt very sorry and almost wanted to quit, but under the strong persuasion of Jet Li, he stayed and continued shooting.
The fight was fought from inside the bar to outside the bar, and the soldiers pulling rickshaws outside also poured into the bar, and the scene was in chaos, and the National Army and the US Army fought together.
Finally alarmed the police, a large number of police forces to control the people in the bar, arrest a large number of people, to stop a fight.
Xiao Rui escaped from the bar with Xiao Jie and took Xiao Jie to his home to recuperate.
Zhang Platoon Commander has refused to recognize Xiao Rui because she was a girl during the war.
After Xiao Jie was healed, he tried his best to match the two fathers and daughters and reconcile them.
However, the happiness of the father and daughter is very short-lived, and Bailey kidnaps Xiao Rui on the street in order to get revenge on Xiao Jie.
Bailey and his gang take Xiao Rui to the roof of an old building, Xiao Jie and Zhang Platoon Leader rush to rescue Xiao Rui, and downstairs Xiao Jie fights with Hans again.
Zhang Platoon Commander ran to the roof to rescue Xiao Rui, but was surrounded by Bailey's gang, Bailey did not distinguish between the weight, and finally threw the father and daughter downstairs and fell to their deaths.
Hans originally wanted to fight with Jay again, and was very surprised to see the two being killed by Bailey.
In fact, the movie story is a bit out of control when it advances here, Bailey and his gang capture Xiao Rui in order to attract Xiao Rui, but it is very unnecessary to kill Zhang Platoon Commander and Xiao Rui father and daughter.
The police arrived again and arrested Hans, Bailey and XiaoJie back to the police station.
But Hans and they were soon released again, leaving only Jay in the police station.
Xiao Jie took off his pants, bent the iron railing of the cell where he was locked, and escaped.
One night Hans and Bailey came out drinking and were ambushed by Jay as they passed a factory, and the car they were driving was burned by a Molotov cocktail that Jay threw.
Bailey and the three of them were also killed by Xiao Jie.
Jay and Hans come to the factory to start a life-and-death battle, this time very different from in the ring, both sides are armed, and the fight is more dangerous.
In the end, Hans is defeated by Xiao Jie, but Xiao Jie does not kill him, because Hans, although hateful, does not lead to death.
The action design of the film is obviously better than Jet Li's previous three films, no longer those gorgeous traditional martial arts moves, but closer to actual combat, and much more difficult.
Among them, there are several extremely difficult flip-heel fighting moves, Jet Li used Cao Rong and other dragon and tiger martial artists as stand-ins, but most of the dangerous actions were completed by himself, which shows his importance to this movie.
Unfortunately, after the release of the film, it only recovered about 11 million box office, ranking 38th in the annual box office list, and was called "jet Li's worst loss".
Many years later, Jet Li recalled the film, and he confessed that because he was young, he wanted to use the film to express some of his dissatisfaction with the unequal environment at that time, but the story was not told well, and in the end, only a fierce fight was left, lacking depth.
Jet Li attributed these shortcomings to the fact that he was not a director, so after "Invincible Boy", he has not directed movies so far, but is serious about being a good actor.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
© Original 丨 Article Copyright: Ppdianying
Please do not reprint in any form without authorization