Film Review – Heroes & Villains Blu-ray Review

To say that Jet Li is action royalty is an understatement. There is only one man who could star in a remake of an iconic Bruce Lee film and have it rival the original, this can only be described as a huge achievement. Jet Li’s filmography is vast and wide-spanning wuxia classics like Once Upon a Time in China, to his American outputs like The One and The Expendables. Jet Li titles on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK containing a true showcase of Li’s filmography. The 3 titles are The Enforcer, Dr Wai in the Scripture of No Words and Hitman.

The Enforcer originally known as My Father is a Hero was originally released in 1995 and stars Jet Li as Kung Wei an undercover police officer who must leave his ill wife and young child to do a mission in Hong Kong. Directed and action directed by Corey Yuen who is most famous for directing Righting Wrongs and being the action director on Eastern Condors comes an action film that is simply a fun goofy and dramatic film that features truly incredible emotional and physical performances. The true scene stealer in this film however is child actor Tsu Miu who when the film was made was around 8 years old. His performance is utterly gripping and grabs you in with how terrific his performance is. There are many fight scenes where it is Tsu Miu performing the choreography and I was just blown away with how much he did at such a young age. The rest of the cast is also top-notch. The late great Anita Mui is perfect as Hong Kong police officer Anne Fong and Jet Li is a great leading man as always with his smooth charisma and lightning-fast fists. Speaking of fists, the action is nothing short of kinetic. Blending gunplay with the martial arts we come to expect from Jet Li. The Enforcer contains some incredible action seat pieces, from a scene at a glasshouse restaurant that includes clear and focused gunplay that is enhanced by effective wire work to great moments that while impossible have you jumping out of your seat with excitement. To a fight scene on a dock that features impressive martial arts choreography that uses the environment and double-team moves to great effect. With everything combined The Enforcer is up there as one of my favourite Jet Li films.

I wish I could say the same about Hitman, a film that starts on the wrong foot. I love the premise that is initially given to us during the info cards at the beginning of the film but then it has a line of dialogue that felt so unwarranted that it made me audible and physically shiver with sheer cringe. While I will not repeat what was said it felt like a line written by someone to solely justify why they are bad by describing a horrific crime like it is just a morning stroll. The film follows Jet Li as Tai Feng a young up-and-coming assassin who crosses paths with a rivered hitman with a bounty on their head the latest target of said hitman had a fund aside solely created to reward the person who killed him. The biggest issue is solely its first 15-20 minutes. Compared to the rest of the film the opening sticks out like a sore thumb and dampers the mood as once we get ed those opening minutes, the film soars and becomes a fun action romp. The film’s action is heavily inspired and at times mocking John Woo’s style with over-the-top gun fights feeling very much like what in the modern day would call Gun-fu. While there is still some fun martial artwork, I feel the main attraction in the action scenes is the guns. ing Li in this film are incredible actors Eric Tsang and Simon Yam who while not giving career-defining performances are still great and bounce off Jet Li well. There was also a nice romance subplot that I found to be genuinely quite sweet and did not feel overly forced. When the film ended, I left having a really good time, but I wanted the film to be more than that.

But I didn’t realise that the last film I would be watching would also be the weirdest. In theory, the concept behind Dr Wai in The Scripture of No Words is interesting following a struggling serial adventure writer who has personal problems in his life and takes inspiration from his real life when writing his most recent story. It leads to an interesting narrative idea where the action-adventure scenes that play out are a visual depiction of the adventure novel being written by the cast, but they also explore and showcase the feelings of serial adventure writers. However, while it’s cool in theory its execution is deeply flawed. When it switches between the cast writing the story to the depiction of the adventure narrative it gives me sheer whiplash every time it switches between the 2 narratives. One moment we have Jet Li using a literal fountain pen to block bullets the next it’s a film showcasing a failing marriage. This is the closest I have seen Jet Li star in a film that reminded me of Project A. But it is like Project A on steroids containing fire swords, mutant rats and pure moments of punches going so fast that it feels like a live-action Saturday morning cartoon. While all the acting is solid, I was never blown away by anyone and I might be wrong but It sounded like Jet Li or the normal dub actor was used on the Cantonese audio track. This is the weakest film in the collection but It is still a good time as something mind-numbingly bananas will happen and you cannot help but laugh at the absurdity.

This collection is amazing value for money. The film’s picture quality is utterly impressive. There is so much detail that you can even see the very thin wires that were used, and the audio tracks are great, and the audio tracks are well-mixed when watching with a Dolby Atmos soundbar. The collection is also filled with many archival interviews with the cast of their respective films. The interviews are informative and give good insight into the films in this collection. My favourite interview was with Tse Miu as since the interview was conducted years after the film’s release it was fascinating to see an adult Tse Miu look back on a film that defined his acting career as a child. The collection also features additional presentations for Dr Wai in The Scripture of No Words and Hitman. Allowing you to see both the international versions and the Hong Kong versions of the titles to curate the most complete release of these titles. There is also so much more from commentary tracks to trailers to a featurette. It is packed with a variety of bonus features to create a collection that can only be described as definitive. If I had to be critical, I wish there was some behind-the-scenes making of features. I love seeing the making of the process so that would have been the cherry on top of this great package.

This collection is worth it solely for The Enforcer, the film is utterly incredible and worth the Blu-ray’s asking price. While the other 2 films in the collection are flawed, they are worth a watch. This set is worth every penny and should be in everyone’s collection not just Jet Li fans or Hong Kong action cinema fans.

★★★★1/2