LANDING WITH JET: On location for The Warlords.

I’m just flying back from the Shanghai studios where director Peter Chan is shooting his period war epic The Warlords. The film stars Jet Li, in what will undoubtedly be his most demanding acting role to date, alongside Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro. When he first made his name in Hong Kong, Jet made a physically impressive but relatively uncomplicated hero in the Once Upon A Time In China and Fong Sai-yuk films. His American starring roles (Romeo Must Die, Cradle 2 Grave) have been even more one-note, but he’s now definitely intent on deepening and darkening his range. Both Danny The Dog and Fearless saw him play characters who, before their eventual redemption, commit terrible acts. The Warlords takes this a stage further, in that Li’s character is assassinated rather than saved. (The film is based on the same historical event that inspired two Shaw Brothers films, the classic Blood Brothers and the less well-known Oath Of Death.) He is also in negotiations to play the villain in a revived version of the Mummy franchise, to be shot on location in China. Having made his name with comedies and romance, Peter Chan, with whom I enjoyed a lively lunch on the set, seems equally keen to expand his range, having shot his first musical, Perhaps Love, and now his first period epic. Anyway, the production was courteous enough to send a van to pick me up from Shanghai’s Four Seasons hotel, and drive me out to the studio. I thought the driver or someone might actually take me to the set (‘Here he is, folks!’), but he just dropped me at the end of a dirt track and pointed, mutely, to the distance. It was liking walking back in time, past modern buildings, then 1930s constructions and then back to the dynasty of Warlords. The main backlot, with a faux river and stone brides, was familiar from loads of other Chinese films. Mangy extras (actually soldiers from the PLA) were lying everywhere, sleeping, hopefully, rather than dead, clad in period warfare garb. I was ushered into the shell of a period home, in which Peter Chan sat supervising his magnum opus. I was chatting with Peter for at least ten minutes, before I realized that it was Jet Li’s face on the video monitor! Checking out Li’s grungy new ‘look’ on the small screen (he cleans up as the film progresses), I thought back to the remarkable journey of his life. Touring with the Beijing Wu Shu team, performing on the lawn of the Nixon era White House, starring in China’s first martial arts movie, Shaolin Temple. I remember him demonstrating his ‘Wu Shu’ (a term I’d never heard before, he out it on the map the way Carradine did ‘kung fu’ back in the 70s) in London to promote the release of the film. Li proved to be capable of remarkable longevity and adaptability. After starring in two Shaolin Temple sequels in China, he moved to Hong Kong conquered that industry as well, having hits with both contemporary actioners, like Bodyguard From Beijing, and kung fu flicks, like Tai Chi Master (which we’ll release late this year). Many fans felt his Hong Kong films peaked with Gordon Chan’s Fist Of Legend, a radical re-imagining of Bruce Lee’s Fist Of Fury. (To date, this film has only been available in the west in its edited, dubbed form, and Dragon Dynasty will be proud to finally deliver the original to the American DVD market.) Li was originally set to star alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme in the Tsui Hark-directed Knock Off, but instead, perhaps wisely, relocated to Hollywood to play the villain in Lethal Weapon 4. Despite his subsequent success in Hollywood, Li never abandoned his native territory. He was originally scheduled to star in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but pulled out to fulfill a promise made to his wife, former actress Nina Li Chi, that he would be with her during her pregnancy. Instead, he returned to China to star in Zhang Yimou’s Hero, which proved a hit in both east and west, and, several years later, enjoyed a similar level of success with Ronnie Yu’s Fearless. The Warlords sees him return to his native land for a third period epic. As we return to the set, Peter Chan notes that, despite the rigours of the long shoot, they’ve been blessed with the exact weather they’ve needed at every location. Li, a devout Buddhist, is often to be seen sitting to one side of the set, reciting sutras with his prayer beads, and I wonder out loud if he’s in karmic control of the weather. I follow the same faith, and we compare beads. I can report that his are shinier. For a national icon, Jet is remarkably low key. No entourage, no bodyguards. Unusually for a Chinese film, the production does have trailers for key personnel, but these are converted coaches, nothing like the ‘honey wagons’ found on Hollywood sets. When Warlords wraps, Jet goes into prep for the long awaited J and J (Jackie Chan and Jet Li) project. Li and Chan have very different on-set personas. When the mood takes him, the voluble Chan will hold court with tales from his life and career. Li is far more private. My friend Seydina Balde, a French karate champion, fought him in Danny The Dog, and remembers the most Jet ever said to him was “good morning” before they started fighting. I think he saves his energy for the screen. He has indeed darkened his image of late, but he was always a good actor. Check out Tai Chi Master, and his sterling performances in the Once Upon A Time In China films. I head back to the airport, impressed by the energy and commitment evident from everyone on Warlords, and keen to see the finished film, which wraps in a couple of weeks.

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