The Bodyguard from Beijing (1994)

Wonderful character development!

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Hong Kong movie was hot in the late '80s, and into the '90s, and this is one of the movies from that era. The casting is unusual, and so is the plot. Jet Li, wasn't all that well known at the time, and this was Miss Chinese International 1992 Christy Chung's first big role ( I actually liked the miss Chinese International 92 runner up more than Christy, and she would have been perfect for this role ). Jet Li's star was on the rise starting around the time this movie was made, and he starts getting noticed in the US around this time also. Simon Yam was briefly wooing Christy shortly after this movie was made. Simon of course had many other options as he was one of the most eligible bachelor in Hong Kong.The movie's title is almost verbatim fact as Jet was from China, and Christy was from Canada. The unusual mixture of the two culture shows in the mood of these two actors. The plot is also unusual in that an operative from China protects a rich capitalist girl. The movie's background looks more modern than the present day Hong Kong. Hong Kong seems to have slid backwards in culture since its repatriation. This is evident when you see this movie.So this is an interesting movie, and the producers at Dimension Film did a really good job of capturing the character of Li, and Chung, and incorporating them into the story. Jet Li is like an unstoppable terminator in this movie, and it correctly highlights his skills, and power.This is an excellent movie, and is worth a watch if you're a Hong Kong movie fan.

This is the Hong Kong version of The Bodyguard. Hong Kong cinema seems to take existing American movies and rewrite them in a way that they should have been. This has been done with Witches of Eastwick, coming out as Erotic Ghost Story; Fast Times at Ridgemont High, coming out as Yesteryou, Yesterme, and Yesterday; and Die Hard, coming out as High Risk. In some cases they come out much better, as with High Risk, other times they are just ordinary, as with Bodyguard from Beijing.A school teacher, along with two others, witnesses the murder of an accountant. The other two are killed but the police manage to get to the teacher in time and protect her. The teacher's boyfriend is very rich and hires a professional bodyguard from China to protect her. It begins with the woman hating the bodyguard because he is invading her privacy and treating her like a prisoner, but this changes after he saves her life she falls in love with him.The interesting thing about this movie is that the bodyguard (Jet Lee) is not interested in a romance, and what makes this movie much better than the American counterpart, is that he does not change at the last minute and come an professes his love to her. This is one thing that makes a superb movie, and that is consistency of characters. Her character changes, namely because he has saved her life in a very obvious way.The Hong Kong tendency to go overboard is not that prevalent in this movie. This is somewhat more American as it tries to have a realistic plot. It is true that the plot is somewhat more realistic than an American movie, but it does fall down in scenes such as the shopping mall. There are a couple of characters which make the film interesting, and that is Fat Po and Billy. Fat Po is a police officer that is fat and addicted to gambling. Billy is the nephew of the school teacher and these two characters bounce off of each other quite effectively. Fat Po is an incompetent police officer that bumbles through life while Billy is an eager child who wants to look good in front of his peers.This movie is more suspenseful than High Risk. It is not really an action movie, though it has some reasonable scenes. Most of this time it is waiting for the enemy to attempt to kill the teacher because she is the witness. There and are some other suspenseful moments and the movie delivers it quite well.Bodyguard from Beijing is a rather average movie, but enjoyable if you like the Hong Kong cinema.

If you like Corey Yuen's balletic gunfighting, more recently demonstrated in 2002's "So Close," then you will enjoy the earlier "Bodyguard from Beijing." This film is fun to watch, and manages to produce some surprises despite the formulaic bodyguard-and-rich-bratty-girl plot. The schmaltzy sequence with the song is the only part where the movie drags. However, given Yuen's preference for gunplay, Jet Li fans are apt to be disappointed, since Li has less opportunity to showcase his kung fu skills. Christy Cheung gets the job done in the damsel-in-distress role, and to paraphrase Dorothy Parker, she plays the range of emotions from A to B.

an exciting love story with everything going for it. the humor, the action, the romance, all great. could have used some more of the great action, though. Jet Li is terrific as the bodyguard from Bejing. The last fight, the faucet fight, is really cool. check this one out.