Born to Defense (1986)
"Zhong hua ying xiong" (original title)

Jet, a young soldier at the end of the second world war must overcome some abusive Americans who are bullying him as well as the Chinese people.

Director:

Jet Li

Writers:

Jia Er-Ge, Yeung-Ping Sze

Stars:

Jet Li, Dean Harrington, Mark King

Cast

Credited cast:
Jet Li	...	Jet
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dean Harrington	...	US Marine
Mark King	...	GI Blue
Kurt Roland Petersson	...	Captain Hans
Jia Song	...	Na
Paulo Tocha	...	Bailey
Erkang Zhao	...	Zhang

Storyline

Jet, a young soldier at the end of the second world war must overcome some abusive Americans who are bullying him as well as the Chinese people.

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Plot Keywords:

battle | warrior | kung fu master | war violence | punching | 

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Genres:

Action | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and some language

Details

Country:

Hong Kong China

Language:

English Cantonese

Release Date:

2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Born to Defense

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

120 min 120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Jet Li broke his nose after being hit in one of the boxing scenes. On every movie after this one you can see a small scar on his nose.

User Reviews

Intense fight scenes help a not-especially-interesting early Jet Li film

If you want to see a movie with intense, hard-hitting fight scenes, then "Born To Defend" has what you're looking for. It's interesting to see a young Jet Li acting well and incorporating a kick-boxing style into his fighting, and the main villain is a worthy opponent for him. However, there are two major problems with this film: 1) It's poorly lit, 2) It's poorly plotted. Problem #1 may of course be just the fault of my version, a DVD in Chinese with (generally awful) English subtitles. The lighting is at times so bad that it's hard to see what's going on - and that includes the climactic moments of the film! Problem #2, however, will appear in ANY version. The whole plot of the film is: Jet Li and friends are harassed by stereotypically scummy Americans, until Jet decides to harass them back. It's literally no more complicated than that. But if you can just concentrate on the fighting, then I suppose the film is worth a watch, especially for Jet Li fans. (**)