George Clarke
I really enjoyed Romeo Must Die on the big screen. It was crazy, wild, funny, and featured some ridiculous over the top wire-work that seems to have been hailed by many as a wow factor!Personally, I thought the wire-work was a mess.As a huge fan of both Jet Li and Corey Yuen Kwai, with over 3000 DVDs in my Hong Kong collection, I felt that the action in RMD was created by studio pressure to go wild which resulted in a complete shambles that made said fights look unprofessional and wrong.I have been watching much better work, even from 70's Hong Kong cinema, and while the action still had its moments, felt let down by it all.Anyways, with my gripe out of the way, I did actually enjoy the film. It was funny, Jet Li looked great and there was nice chemistry between him and Aliyah. In fact, I think I went to see it a few times!Then I got it again on DVD last week and gave it a watch for the first time in 10 years...And yes, it still entertained! Its hard to believe its already 15 years old, but regardless, it still does the job. Far far far from perfect, but entertaining and action packed.Mindless popcorn fun! Enjoy!
FlashCallahan
The death of Han Sing's brother catapults him out of a Hong Kong jail to the San Francisco waterfront, where he vows to find his brother's killers. It lands him in the middle of a three way deal between "businessmen" who will stop at nothing to create a new money making stadium. Han finds help from Trish, a woman with close connections to the mob, and together they work to find their brothers' killers.....One thing that I really can't understand is that this movie was Li's big Hollywood breakout movie, and whilst it's not the worst action movie out there, the Director and star have made some astonishingly good movies since (and in Li's case, before) you really cannot believe that Hollywood gave them this vehicle, its a little disrespectful.And it's down purely to Joel Silver. Now this chap has produced some brilliant movies, he produced my favourite movie of all time, Die Hard. But after the phenomenal success of The Matrix, he became a sell out, and thought that this was what the people wanted.For an athlete like Li, its cringe inducing to see the wire work, it's really bad, and wreaks of Matrix cash in, and the inclusion of the Hip Hop soundtrack disrupts the flow of the narrative.But, it's not a bad film. Li is a brilliant screen presence, and Aaliyah shows that she could have been a huge star. The rest of the cast are good, but you just can't get that after taste of making a quick buck from The Matrix out of your head when watching this.
niamhloftus-gti
'Romeo Must Die', where Romeo swaps swords for martial arts. This action, martial arts film was released in 2000, where Andrey Bartkowiak made his debut as a director. It stars Jet Li and Aaliyah, who play Han Sing and Trish O'Day, respectively. The storyline focuses on Han, who seeks to avenge the killing of his brother. On his journey to finding out the killer, he falls for the daughter of a businessman, who is carrying out a major money deal with his father. As the film is categorised in the genre of action, you may think that it is not for everyone. However this would be a wrong assumption to make. The film does have a lot of scenes, which showcase the amazing martial art moves of Jet Li, but there are also other scenes which show emotional sides to the characters, which is why I really like this film. There are underlying themes in the movie, concentrated around the emotion of Love. The first, is the romantic love between Jet Li's character Hans and Aaliyah's character, Trish O'Day. This brings me to the title of the film, 'Romeo Must Die'. The name 'Romeo' has connotations with the character of Romeo in William Shakespeare's, 'Romeo and Juliet'. There are parallels between the character of Romeo in the play, and Hans in this film. When Romeo meets Juliet, he is instantly in love with her, this is the same with Hans and Trish, after their first meeting, he seems smitten by her. Trish comes across as a strong, determined woman, who does not always see eye to eye with her father. This is like Juliet, who acts rebellious towards her father, when he arranges that she is to marry Paris. In the film, it appears that Mac, who is Mr. O'Day's right hand man, is similar to the character of Paris and seems to think he has a chance with Trish. The most interesting similarity between the play and the film, is that Han's family are at war with Trish's family. This war between families adds another dimension to the film, which is not expected in this genre. This dimension is that of being human, which makes the film realistic to the viewer. Action films often concentrate solely on the action, with a bit of a storyline, where the main characters survive anything that is thrown at them. It is almost as if they are indestructible. However in this film, it combines these fight scenes, with a main storyline containing emotional scenes as well. These scenes of emotions, are at the core of the second type of Love, which is family love. This is mostly demonstrated through the father- son relationships in the movie. The relationship Isaac O'Day and his son, Colin have is one of love and protection. This is in contrast to Hans and his father, Ch'u Sing, where there seems to be tension and resentment, over the reasons why Hans went went to prison . These family dynamics also centre around the term loyalty. It is clear from the beginning where loyalty lies within the two families. However, as certain events occur, you begin to question the loyalty of some characters. It is worth mentioning, that as it is mostly an action film, there are some disturbing scenes, which the viewer may find distressing. I would like to mention that I thought the way the director showed these graphic scenes, was unique, as I never seen that been done before in film. So what else can the viewer expect, well there are car chases, fighting, guns and shooting. As some of the content in the film, is quite heavy at times, it is balanced out with the emotional scenes, and also some comical scenes. These comical scenes come mostly in the form of the character of Maurice, played by Anthony Anderson. One is where he is in a music store, with headphones on. He gets so into the music, that he ends up knocking records of the wall. In conclusion, the film does have everything that you would want in any film, a hint of romance , comedy and a lot of action, martial arts. If there was one critique to this movie, it would have to be that unlike Romeo and Juliet, we do not see the passionate scenes between Hans and Trish, but it could also be argued that a relationship is not just based on the passion. In this way, the director may want the viewers to enjoy the growing chemistry between Hans and Trish, with a view to the audience believing that by the end of the film, there is a happy ever after for the two characters. This critique aside, I would definitely recommend this film. The best way to watch this film is to have an open mind when viewing it, as you will enjoy it. It is not one of those films, where you have figured out what's happening next, there are a lot of shocks and surprises along the way. I would also go on to say, that after watching the film, it has made me see Jet Li as more than just a martial arts professional, but an actor. This is down to the main reason that the film is not just about fighting, but love, family and loyalty.
