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Jet Li

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Jet Li
Jet Li
The latest news on Jet Li, Chinese-born Singaporean martial artist and actor, including celebrity news and updates.<br />
Born
26 Apr 1963
Industry
Entertainment, Film
Job Title
Actor
last updated:
4 December, 2024
Sammo Hung at an interview with the Post in Hong Kong, in March. The martial arts film icon reflected on his glittering career, which he spent “guessing what would become successful”. Photo: Xiaomei Chen. Hair: Perry @ GHD Styling Team. Makeup: Guerlain Makeup Team
From our archives

Recap | Sammo Hung honoured, Bruce Lee’s legacy, Jackie Chan’s breakthrough and more

Explore the legacies of martial arts legends Sammo Hung, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and their impact on Hollywood and Hong Kong cinema.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Was remaking classics like Police Story, A Better Tomorrow a good idea?

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John Lee policy address 2024

Opinion | Hong Kong must own its martial arts and action film cultural heritage

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

All 10 Once Upon a Time in China movies and rip-offs rated

Tsui Hark’s film series that originally starred Jet Li as martial arts legend Wong Fei-hung spawned several knock-offs, such as Kickboxer.

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Jet Li as Cantonese martial arts legend Wong Fei-hung in a still from Once Upon a Time in China 2 (1992), directed by Tsui Hark. Photo: Golden Harvest
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

3 Jet Li action movies fusing guns and kung fu – before he went to Hollywood

Jet Li reinvented himself in the 1990s from a period kung fu movie star to a modern action hero. We look at three of his gun fu films fusing firearms and fighting, before he left Hong Kong for the US.

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American cinema

Why Jet Li’s Danny the dog role in Unleashed didn’t help him crack Hollywood

Jet Li received praise for his role as Danny the dog in Luc Besson’s gritty 2005 action movie. While he shone among co-stars such as Morgan Freeman, it didn’t help the martial arts actor crack Hollywood.

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From our archives

Hello Kitty murder, Jet Li’s manager shot: archive stories most read in 2023

Crime, crime and more crime: these were the stories from Post archives that most interested readers in 2023, from the grisly Hello Kitty murder case to the underworld assassination of Jet Li’s manager.

The murder and dismemberment in Hong Kong of a woman kidnapped and tortured for weeks, and whose head was found stuffed in a Hello Kitty soft toy (above), was among the most read stories from the Post’s archives that we presented in 2023. Photo: SCMP
Hong Kong

Opinion | Happy day for Hong Kong cinemas could have been showcase of local films

The offer of HK$30 movie tickets will boost the cinema business, but the campaign should have done more for the local film industry. Not only are classic Hong Kong films far from forgotten, recent releases depicting local issues show that the industry is worthy of support.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Explainer | From Jet Li to Wong Kar-wai, the 1990s: last golden age of Hong Kong cinema

The 1990s was the last golden age of Hong Kong cinema, with a slew of groundbreaking films that produced new stars such as martial arts actor Jet Li and art-house darling Wong Kar-wai.

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

The stellar movie career of Michelle Reis, ‘nice girl who can play nasty’

The Julia Roberts of Hong Kong was the Post’s early verdict on Michelle Reis, who had no acting training but excelled opposite Jet Li, Leon Lai and Stephen Chow in a string of 1990s hits.

Michelle Reis poses during an interview with the Post in October 1993. The model and beauty pageant winner turned actress was ever-present on Hong Kong screens in the 1990s. Photo: SCMP
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Explainer | King Hu, Chang Cheh, Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan: a martial arts cinema history

From the film that changed everything to fighting with fists instead of swords, girl power and the birth of a legend, milestones in the development of Hong Kong martial arts cinema.

Bruce Lee in a still from The Big Boss . The 1971 film broke Hong Kong box office records and changed martial arts movie history. Photo: Criterion Collection
American cinema

How Jackie Chan’s The Forbidden Kingdom became a ‘Crouching Tiger for kids’

With Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Li Bingbing in the cast, and a crew including legendary fight choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, The Forbidden Kingdom should have been a better film.

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American cinema

How the China-set second sequel to The Mummy buried the popular franchise

Despite co-starring Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, and having some stunning locations, this US-China film fell totally flat, with one-dimensional characters, awful dialogue and terrible CGI.

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American cinema

How 2012’s The Expendables 2 short-changed Chinese viewers

The Expendables 2 had been planned as a China-US co-production and was meant to star Donnie Yen Ji-dan alongside Sylvester Stallone. Hasty changes had to be made to the script when that fell through.

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Sylvester Stallone in a still from The Expendables 2.
Asian cinema

The 25 best Asian martial arts movies of the 21st century ranked

Asia is famous for its martial arts films, and here is our pick of the 25 best from the past two decades, for their slick fight choreography and drama.

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Donnie Yen (left) and Wu Jing in a still from SPL, one of our 25 best martial arts films of the 21st century.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Maggie Cheung had ‘no interest’ in martial arts films – but did them anyway

The In the Mood for Love actress didn’t go looking for roles in martial arts films, but when she did take them she excelled, notably in Hero with Jet Li and Tony Leung Chiu-wai and in Wong Kar-wai’s Ashes of Time.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Jet Li’s The One, Jackie Chan’s Police Story: favourite martial arts tales

From Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Zhang Ziyi in Wong Kar-wai’s The Grandmaster to Jackie Chan in Police Story and Gordon Liu in Dirty Ho, a look back at some of the great Hong Kong martial arts movies.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Hollywood didn’t get the best out of martial arts star Jet Li at first

In Lethal Weapon 4 and Romeo Must Die, Jet Li got his Hollywood career off to a steady start. But neither film fully showcased the Chinese martial arts star’s unique talents.

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In his first major Hollywood movie, Jet Li played an evil villain in director Richard Donner’s Lethal Weapon 4.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

They risked their lives so stars like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan didn’t have to

Featuring interviews with stars including Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung, new film Kung Fu Stuntmen is a tribute to the brave, unsung heroes of Hong Kong action movies.

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Fame and celebrity

Which celebrities renounced their Chinese citizenships?

Mulan star Liu Yifei moved to the US with her mother at the age of 10, becoming a naturalised American citizen, while Jet Li and Gong Li both adopted Singaporean passports

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Once Upon a Time in China II and III: what worked and what didn’t

The film series made Jet Li a star, and while Once Upon a Time in China II was a match for the first movie, the third instalment was a relative flop.

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Jet Li in a still from Once Upon a Time in China II (2012).
Fame and celebrity

5 Chinese celebrities with foreign citizenships … but which 2 gave them up?

When you’re an ethnically Chinese star who works in mainland China, what passport you hold can become a controversial topic among local fans and netizens, as Gong Li and Nicholas Tse discovered …

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Chinese celebrities, from left, Nicholas Tse, Gong Li and Jet Li, all have foreign citizenship, attracting varying degrees of criticism on social media. Photos: @nicholastsefansclub, @officialgongli, @jetli/Instagram
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Transsexual theme and bravura fight scenes made Swordsman II a hit

Tsui Hark production based on a Louis Cha wuxia novel turned the eunuch, a typical villain of modern martial arts stories, into a transsexual sorceress – played by Brigitte Lin, whose career it transformed.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Why Peter Chan’s first martial arts film shoot didn’t go smoothly

The Warlords, starring Jet Li, was meant to be a remake of Chang Cheh’s movie The Blood Brothers, but the director changed the storyline and wanted the fight scenes to look nothing like a wuxia film.

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Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Explainer | Who was Wong Fei-hung, martial arts legend played by Jet Li?

The subject of 100 films, as well as pulp novels and radio plays, Wong Fei-hung was born in the mid-19th century in Guangdong, southern China. Taught kung fu by his father, he is reputed never to have lost a fight in his life.

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Jet Li as Wong Fei-hung in Once Upon a Time in China 2 (1992), directed by Tsui Hark.
Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

Jet Li in Hollywood, from Lethal Weapon 4 to The One

Superstar martial arts actor joined other top Hong Kong movie talent such as Jackie Chan, John Woo and Chow Yun-fat in Hollywood, but never got to show his full potential there as a martial artist or as an actor.

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Jet Li in a still from Romeo Must Die (2000)
Bruce Lee

Opinion | Does Bruce Lee’s legacy have a dark side?

The martial arts icon has been hailed as the world’s first Asian superstar – but can his hyper-violent, highly fetishised image be blamed for Hollywood typecasting?

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Martial arts

Tai chi granted heritage status by Unesco after years of not making the cut

Bruce Lee was a fan, as are Jackie Chan and Jet Li. So, too, are supermodel Gisele Bundchen, and an army of Chinese grannies and grandads. Now tai chi has been added to Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage.

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