Jet Li directs and stars in Born to Defend, a fight-packed martial arts movie set in China shortly after the end of the second world war. Li plays Jet, a soldier returning from the war who begins working with his pal (and ex-lieutenant), Zhang, helping with his rickshaw business. But when his wartime buddy is hospitalised in a fight with an American, and the rickshaw is trashed by a gang of US Navy bullies, Jet seeks revenge…I love the majority Jet Li's movies, so it is a shame to report that this one is a bit of a letdown action-wise, and also extremely xenophobic; every American is portrayed as a drunken, brawling, womanising, murderous thug without any redeeming features whatsoever, whilst the Chinese are (mostly) seen as hard-working and honourable people. I realise that foreigners are often used as bad-guys in this kind of movie, but the 'racism' in Born to Defend is taken to a ridiculous level which is totally unacceptable (and I'm not even an American).The fight action, although plentiful, doesn't live up to the standard that fans have come to expect from a Jet Li movie, and the fact that the hero gets his butt kicked for the majority of the running time makes the film even more disappointing. Jet's incredible martial arts skills take a back seat, with most of the early fights being boxing matches (with only a few kung fu kicks thrown in to occasionally spice things up).The finale sees events improve somewhat with a terrific showdown between Jet and his enemies in a factory, but it is a case of too little, too late.Jet handles the direction well and it is a shame that he hasn't tried helming a movie since; maybe his debut's lack of business at the box-office knocked his confidence—a shame, since he shows promise behind the camera, with an impressive explosive battle at the beginning and some lovely rain drenched scenes later on.Die hard Jet Li fans will probably want to check this out regardless, but casual viewers beware—this is not one of his better efforts.5.5/10 (which I will generously round up to 6 for the IMDb rating).

Jet Li's own and uncredited adaptation of popular HK Manhua/Novel "Zhonghua Yingxiong" by Ma Yingcheng (1983), later brought to us as "A Man Called Hero" with more charismatic Ekin Cheng as leading actor. The original story had great success both in China and Hong Kong, but the little one Jet Li gained with this film -he stopped directing and moved to San Francisco- shows how much it follows the "chinese pride" stuff contained on it. Even disappointing as a simple Jet Li action movie, it proves fighting can't save the party. Jet Li stars as -wow!- Jet, a Chinese soldier back to Tsing Dao after winning against Japanese devils (sic). Our "hero" finds Tsing Dao kind of invaded by American troops, so he inevitably begins kicking some bad guys who are, of course, American. It follows some boxing fighting that would make you laugh thinking what's the story supposed to be about. Stay away if you are looking for more Hua Ying-Xiong. There's none here.

This is not at all a bad film and it is a pity that Jet Li has not directed more because even though the plot is simple and unsurprising the film rattles along in an entertaining way. It looks good, colourful but gritty with the white of the U.S sailor's uniforms intruding everywhere as they do in the film, into Chinese society and into the Jet Li's character's life. Jet stands up to them.This leads to some great fight scenes including a humungous one in a bar (with the rain pouring in through holes in the roof) that ends up with Jet being thrown out of a window. But does it end there? Nope. Jet is great as usual and acts in his intense mode, full of energy and charisma. The rest of the cast are ordinary.The film score is particularly good and, as all scores should, enhances the action as well as the dramatic scenes. It is not one of Jet Li's celebrated films but definitely worth seeing, to see a real star in the making.

It was fun to see Jet in this film because this is during his early stages of his roles. The film wasnt very good, but it did have more fight scenes in it. One thing that i didnt like about his movie was that Jet got beat up more in this movie than other ones I've see.