After Lethal Weapon 4 revealed Jet Li to the Western audience as the charismatic villain, the Warner Bros. takes the risk to promote him to the leading actor rank with Romeo must die… This is the first American movie having Jet as the main star, at the time when Chinese actors such as Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh are also trying to conquer the American market. The big challenge is to introduce Jet as the star like they would introduce any American star.

Romeo must die is supposed to be a modern version of Romeo and Juliet, a romance between two young people from two traditional and rival families. At the beginning of the story, Han Sing is being incarcerated in Hong-Kong, and as soon as he is informed of the murder of his brother, he escapes from prison to fly over to the States in purpose to discover the truth. While he investigates, he meets Trish, the daughter of the chief of a Black clan, traditional enemies of his own father's...

As we easily guess, the similarities with Romeo and Juliet do not go further than the main romantic plot since the purpose of the movie is mainly to make the audience enjoy the action and comedy. Let's be clear, the story is not the strong point of the movie, but though the characters do not mean to be complex, they work well, and the rhythm and the general atmosphere of the movie make it be a good moment of pure entertainment.

As soon as the movie begins, the target is clear : the young urban audience. The movie opens with a song by DMX (a big star of rap music in America) while the camera follows a car through the city. The first look immediately reminds rap video-clips, through its aesthetic kind (dark, with contrasts) and the way the shots are adapted to the tempo of the song. Besides they did a good work on the arrival of the names, alternatively in Chinese characters and English. This opening obviously shows the tone of the movie : the music is one of the principal narrative elements and takes a big part to rhythm the movie, as well as it is one of its main commercial argument…

But despite Romeo must die has all the characteristics of a movie opportunely made to be fashionable and fit current audience expectations, it reveals itself as quite original and refreshing. The association between hip-hop and kung-fu is not really new since lots of hip-hop or rap singers tries to kick in their video-clips, and the use of the music is stereotyped. Even the characters are typecasts, like Trish, a sexy and independent girl but of course taking care of children, or even Maurice (Anthony Anderson), the buffoon of the movie… But the whole has something unique, a dynamism and a very fresh tone, since it does not mean to be taken seriously.

In Romeo must die, Jet is not the only star. His leading actress is a young hip-hop singer who just starts in cinema, perfect choice to promote the hip-hop/kung-fu style but still a beginner as an actress.

However, despite her constant fashionable look (which can sometimes appear as inappropriate), she is one of the good surprises of the movie. Her acting is natural and she finally has a good chemistry with Jet, though their duo seemed unexpected. Their romance looks rather like a teenage flirt and gives rise to some cute scenes, delicious moments for every female fan of Jet's…

One other good surprise is to discover that Han is not the typical cliché of the Asian man we are used to in American movies. On the contrary of his character in Lethal Weapon 4, who was wearing traditional cloths and keeping a threatening attitude in the whole movie (where Chinese people where either members of the Triads, or poor victims), Han Sing has much more a "modern" and nice look : he is dressed like any American young people, speaks English (with a charming accent!) and easily picks up how things work in America. This way to show the Chinese man as very adaptable is quite new in a Western movie, where usually Chinese people are shown as locked up in their traditions, unable to understand and be understood by Westerners, and quite unfriendly whether they are good or bad guys… Here, Han is a very adaptable person : since he arrives in the country, he is like an observer. We see him making a few mistakes at the beginning, like misunderstanding the taxi-driver, or driving "like shit" the first time he tries a car, but he quickly adapts to the situation. He also appears as open to the American culture (like the football game, the hip-hop attitude), and gets familiar with people's way to talk and to behave very quickly. He gets integrated very easily, with Trish as his accomplice, and even imitates American people's attitude, which lead us to see charming but surrealistic scenes for all of those who knew Jet in his legendary interpretations of Chinese traditional heroes…

In Lethal Weapon 4, Jet's character was using his kung-fu to kill people, which is not really in harmony with Martial arts spirit… In Romeo must die, Han avoids as much as possible to kill people and most of the time doesn't really mean to harm them if his life is not in threatened. Thus some action scenes appear more like comedy (like the one near Trish's flat, or like the Football scene), showing Han mainly neutralizing his opponents. The only ones he kills are Kai (Russell Wong, The Joy luck club, China girl) who had killed his brother, and the Chinese female fighter (Françoise Yip, Black mask), both had tried to kill him. Han also appears as a very human character, especially in the scenes between him and his father. In fact we could almost say that these moments are the only ones really allowing Jet to show his acting abilities : in the whole movie, when he doesn't fight he looks like an observer and acts like a tourist who would tried new experiences (playing football, dancing in a discotheque…) to integrate the country. Jet's tone of acting is quite detached with even sometimes an amused look in his eyes... But in those scenes, both him and Henry O succeed in creating a furtive but powerful dramatic intensity. The soberness of the scenes, which are only dialogues mainly in Mandarin, enhances the acting of the two actors who really maintain a emotional tension. Jet's acting is genuine and poignant, discreet and deep at the same time, and makes us regret not to hear him more often acting in his native language…

One of the challenges of the movie was the action. Since a few years, Western movies had started to introduce Hong-Kong action style to the audience, with movies such as Tomorrow never dies, Lethal weapon 4, and Rush Hour… However, those movies kept being typical American movies with a few HK-style scenes and didn't really dare to impose Martial arts choreography as the action style of the whole movie. Having experimented this concept with Western actors in The Matrix (with Yuen Woo Ping as the action director), which was new for the American audience, Producer Joel Silver (also producer of the Lethal Weapon's serie) entrusts to the great choreographer and director Corey Yuen Kwai (Fong Sai Yuk, My father is a hero) the directing of Romeo must die's action scenes...

The action style does not mean to be realistic, each scene is a show, which purpose is to show Jet's great fighting abilities and among other things to experiment new effects. Far from being pure Martial arts scenes, the fights use wire-fu a lot, without being inappropriate since the movie's general tone is quite humorous.

The only reproach we could make is the addition of a some digital effects which unfortunately spoil a few shots, like this absurd and unaesthetic one where Jet starts beautifully with a "no shadow kick" and suddenly accelerates like a video-game character, breaking the whole rhythm of the movement. This kind of effects might be relevant in a futurist atmosphere, but not in the context Romeo must die is happening…

However, though it's difficult not to be disappointed for those who expect to see Jet's true Martial arts skills, we can still see his grace and the fluidity of his moves through those scenes, where we can even appreciate a few aesthetic shots (like this moment when he use the hose in the warehouse). Moreover, the general tone of the action keeps being the fun one, bringing humor in the fight through some original moves while implicating the spectator with close and very dynamic shots. The final result is that the fights are quite exalting though they are short, and marked by the choreographer's style, using elements of the setting and every object that could be a potential weapon in the fight. Each character's style is adapted to his/her personality through the movie, like Maurice who ends like a cartoon character, or even like Trish whose partnership with Jet in the fight looks like a dance, in a very graceful scene - one of the best of the movie, in pure Hong-Kong style - evoking their romance in the story… The only "serious" action scene is probably the last one, implicating Jet's and Russell Wong's characters, and characterized by an unexpected rage and violence, concluding on their conflicting relationship of competition and concretizing Han's avenging desire.

In conclusion, we can assert that the purpose is reached, since Jet appears as the main interest of the movie, and probably the one who made its success, and imposes him as one of the hottest raising action star in Hollywood. As for the audience's point of view, if we don't expect to see more than an entertainment movie, the contract is fulfilled. Romeo must die is certainly not the best of Jet Li, but sure it is a very good moment of refreshing fun.

By ELODIE