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Recognizing Jet Li's rising popularity in the United States--popularity spurred on by his roles in Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die--Dimension Home Video has released four of his Hong Kong films as a package. The weakest of them is The Defender, in which Li plays a crack bodyguard from mainland China who is appointed to protect a witness to a killing in Hong Kong. Though the movie has its share of action, Li's dour character gives him little room to display the buoyant charisma that's made him such an international star. Fortunately, the other three films more than make up for it. In The Defender, Li is a cop who goes deep undercover, becoming a noted criminal and distressing his young son, who doesn't know that his father is on a mission. This movie is a prime example of how Hong Kong movies can fuse over-the-top sentimentality with jaw-dropping kung-fu spectacle--the climactic fight scene, in which father and son work together to defeat a cadre of villains, is both hilariously absurd and dazzlingly acrobatic.Twin Warriors is also an amazing compendium of kung-fu action, also featuring the skills of Michelle Yeoh (sometimes known as Michelle Khan, costar of Jackie Chan's Supercop and the James Bond flick Tomorrow Never Dies). This epic culminates in the development of the discipline of Tai Chi, but it's far from a history lesson--Li's character develops this new martial art to defeat his oldest friend, who's become a corrupt warlord. Finally, there's Fist of Legend, another historical epic and one of Li's best movies. A superior script and direction support an intense performance from Li, who plays the head of a martial arts school caught up in political intrigue with the Japanese. But having a stronger plot doesn't mean the movie skimps on action; on the contrary, the fight scenes have a greater emotional impact. All in all, an excellent introduction to Jet Li, one of the world's most admired action heroes. --Bret Fetzer
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