It can be argued that martial arts owe a large part of their popularity to fascinating and spectacular films on this topic. A prominent place among the performers of the roles of this genre is occupied by Jet Li, a famous Chinese martial artist. He has won many sports titles and has appeared in films released in China, Hong Kong and Hollywood.
The famous actor was born in 1963 under the name of Li Lanze. It happened in Beijing, in a poor family, where Li was the youngest of five children. Their financial situation became very difficult when their father died in 1965. Lee recalled that his main entertainment was going to the cinema, and the films he saw first were old Soviet films about Lenin. Lee went to school a year later than his peers.
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During the first summer holidays, the whole class was sent to a sports camp, where the boy got acquainted with wushu. After the end of the camp shift, of all the children, he was the only one recommended to continue classes. Persistent training gave excellent results.
In 1972, Li Liangze won the ‘Best Master’ award at the National Wushu Championship. After that, the boy stopped studying at a regular school and started training even harder. In 1974, he was selected for the national wushu team heading to the United States. The performances of Chinese athletes, and especially Li Liangjie, were highly appreciated by President Nixon, and the young athlete himself, in turn, was shocked by the American level and lifestyle. In the same year, he won first place in the all-around and exercises with a sword at the national youth wushu championship.
At the age of 12 came the victory in the qualifying tournament for the Third National Wushu Championship among adults, and then four first places won on it. This was the beginning of the victorious path of Li Liangjie, who often went on trips abroad, confidently won national competitions at various levels. Not only martial arts masters, but also filmmakers began to pay attention to the success of the young athlete.
In 1981, Lee received an invitation to shoot the film ‘Shaolin Temple’, after participating in which he received the nickname ‘jet’, that is, Jet, which became his name. Together with Li, his teammate Huang Qun, his future wife, also participated in the filming. The picture was a huge success not only in China, but also abroad, especially in the USSR, where its demonstration became the impetus for a massive passion for martial arts, which continues to this day.
In 1983 and 1986 the continuation of the cycle about Shaolin came out on the screen. But on the set of the third film, there was a conflict between Lee and the director, after which the athlete decided that he himself could shoot pictures no worse. However, released in 1987, his film ‘Born to Protect’ was not a success with the audience, and Lee himself was seriously injured on the set. At this time, he made unsuccessful attempts to move to the United States, then starred in the films ‘Dragons of the East’ (1988) and ‘Battle of the Dragons’ (1989). While filming the second of these films, Jet Li met Hong Kong actress Nina Li Chi. After 10 years, she became his wife and gave birth to a daughter, Jane (2000) and a son, Jaju (2003).
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The big event in Jet Li’s life was the acquaintance with the famous director Tsui Hark and the main role in the historical film ‘Once Upon a Time in China’, which was included in the list of the best Hong Kong films. The continuation of the story of the healer and kung fu master Won Feihong, played by Jet Li, was shown in subsequent films of this series, released in 1992 and 1993. In parallel with these works, Jet Li starred in the films ‘The Legend of the Swordsman’ (1992), the first and second pictures of ‘The Legend of Fon Sai Yuk’ (1993), in ‘Red Dragon’ (1994) and others.
In 1998, a talented actor and a brilliant athlete received an invitation from Hollywood. After a lot of goodies, he was to play the villain Wang Xing Koo in the fourth issue of ‘Lethal Weapon’ (1998).
Jet Li’s Hollywood period was very successful, he starred in such films as ‘Romeo Must Die’ (2000), ‘Kiss of the Dragon’ (2001), ‘From the Cradle to the Grave’ (2003). Jet Li was invited to the casting of such a cult film as ‘The Matrix’, but the actor did not want to take part in the computerized filming. As for the famous “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, Jet refused to shoot in it, because he wanted to be close to his wife, who was expecting a child. In 2004, the actor and his family vacationed in the Maldives. When the infamous tsunami hit there, information about the death of Jet Li appeared on the network, which, fortunately, turned out to be incorrect.
The wushu master’s subsequent Hollywood period included Danny the Watchdog (2005), War (2007), the sequel to The Mummy (2008), and The Forbidden Kingdom (2008), where Jackie Chan acted as his partner. At the same time, Lee starred in the Hong Kong films ‘Fearless’ (2006) and ‘Generals’ (2007), where his performance as General Pang Qi Yong was awarded the Hong Kong Film Academy Award.
Jet Li became a citizen of Singapore in 2009. The list of his works, where he starred with Hollywood celebrities, was replenished with a series of paintings ‘The Expendables’ (2010, 2012, 2014). A departure from Jet’s usual fighting role was the film ‘Ocean of Heaven’ (2010), where he played the father of a child with autism and never demonstrated fighting techniques (and received practically no remuneration for filming).
The film ‘The Wizard and the White Snake’ (2011), filmed by Hong Kong director Cheng Xiaodong based on Chinese legends, aroused great interest among viewers around the world. Jet Li’s latest work to date has been the third film in the ‘Three X’ series, titled ‘The Return of Xander Kange’, where Vin Diesel stars with him. The release of this work is scheduled for 2017. Interestingly, Jet Li himself considers wushu art more as a philosophical concept, a way of knowing the world and achieving inner harmony, than as self-defense skills.