a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A corrupt businessman commits a murder and the only witness is the girlfriend of another businessman with close connections to the Chinese government, so a bodyguard from Beijing is dispatched to help two Hong Kong cops protect the witness.There is not much to this film that anyone with common sense couldn't figure out. The romantic angle, the plot twists... this is a very by-the-numbers story. But while that may not make for a great script, it makes the film fun to follow.And the comedy relief is not bad. The overweight bodyguard is rather amusing. This is amplified by the English dubbing, which seems to make him even more of a clown than the original language (Cantonese?). As much as I prefer subtitles to dubbing, it works great this time.

The first thing you will notice about this Hong Kong version of 'The Bodyguard' is the incredibly awful dubbing. I've seen badly dubbed films before, but never anything quite like this. It's so bad, in fact, that it almost seems like someone hired voice actors that were nothing like the actor that they were dubbing out of spite. Maybe the director, or Jet Li annoyed the man in charge of voice actor casting, and he thought he'd get his own back. Perhaps the director requested terrible dubbing to give the film a seemingly unintentional comedy element? Whatever the reason; the dubbing in this film is poor. Very poor indeed. Incredibly awful dubbing aside (and it is awful, make no mistake), the film does feature some nice moments. The story follows that of a young girl who is one of three witnesses to a murder. The other two have been killed in "accidents", so the girl's rich boyfriend hires her a bodyguard (complete with terrible dubbing) to protect her. Naturally, the two gradually fall in love as the film progresses. As I said, despite it's awful dubbing; the film does feature some nice moments. One of which involves an assassin taking out several guards with a bayonet, another of which involves an awfully dubbed kid exchanging his pretend gun with a police officer's, with hilarious comedy consequences, and naturally for a Jet Li film; there's Kung Fu, and lots of it.The film has a rather profound element of comedy entwined within it's plot. As you know, there's an unintentional element, which is a result of the undeniably poor dubbing, and there's also an intentional element, which mostly comes from the little kid and the fat police officer. The cast on display here is nothing to write home about, and they're all poorly dubbed too. Jet Li takes the lead role, and he does fine (but nowhere near as good as he would do eight years later in the sublime 'Ying Xiong').As I said, the dubbing in this movie is awful. Really, really bad and it does go some way to spoiling the entire thing. It's so bad that it's almost farcical, and at times it's hard to keep a straight face; which does the movie no favours in the credibility department. However, luckily for Jet Li and co; this movie is entertaining enough to just beat the awful dubbing. It's not a great film, but it is good and I recommend it to anyone that just wants to be entertained for an hour and a half. Or for anyone that wants to see proof of why subtitles are better than dubbing.

What is it w/ Bodyguard movies where the female always has to hate the bodyguard but ultimately falls in love with him? She was utterly annoying, and I'm surprised his character falls for her, but ... good enough excuse for cool fight scenes. Jet Li excels at playing these tough cops/soldiers, devoted only to the mission and his code of honor. His hand to hand combat is great stuff to watch and I love how calm and still he is until it's time to unleash his fighting ability. It's fun seeing this same tough guy turn into a nervous wreck when he finds himself falling for his assignment, but even better to see him kicking ass in the mall, or the house, or... wherever. If only his female costar could have a bit more spine and brains!

Considering that I felt like picking up a new Jet Li film to see some but kicking and brainless hand to hand fighting, I grabbed this title.Unfortunatly, this movie contains more gun battles (ala Chow Yun Fat but nowhere near as good), than Jet Li and company's acrobatic fighting. Thus it was a let down.The faucet fighting was interesting and even funny, considering this was something totaly unexpected in a Jet Li film for me, more on the line of say Jackie Chan.But alas I'd recommend Fist of Legend, Tai Chi Master, or even the Enforcer over this dissapointment.Rating 4 for martial arts Rating 3 for overall movie score