Romeo Must Die (2000)

2 out of 4

Starring: Jet Li, Aaliyah, Delroy Lindo, Isaiah Washington, Russell Wong, Henry O, D.B. Woodside

Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak

Time: 115 mins

Jet Li is taking the same tentative steps that fellow Asian action superstar Jackie Chan did in attempting to scale the heights of competitive Hollywood. Both have been highly successful martial arts actors in Asia during the last ten to fifteen years, and while Jackie was probably more popular with his brand of stunts and physical comedy, Jet certainly had his legion of fans. Films like the Once Upon a Time in China series, The Bodyguard from Beijing, My Father is a Hero, and Fist of Legend are much revered in Asian cinema, so it will be interesting to see how he fares across the Pacific. His first American role, as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4, made critics take notice with his steely eyed charisma and lightning reflexes, even though he was overshadowed by the antics of Mel Gibson, Danny Glover and the rest of the cast. That film's producer, Joel Silver, promised Jet a starring role for his next film, and so here he is, in Romeo Must Die, a modern day adaptation of Romeo and Juliet set in Oakland, California. Jet is OK, and there is some chemistry between him and Aaliyah (who plays the Juliet character), but the film suffers from the same choreography problems that afflict most Western martial arts pictures: it just isn't as good! When you've seen something like Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2 (recently released in North America as The Legend of Drunken Master), you realise that all the Van Dammes, Seagals, and other films with martial arts just don't cut it.

Which is all the pity, given that Corey Yuen, a colleague of Jackie Chan and a renowned action director in his own right, oversaw the fight scenes. It's almost as if a blistering one-on-one is not enough - we need some style thrown in as well. This was evident in The Matrix, which pioneered a computer-assisted type of martial arts that has been adopted in several subsequent films. It may have been innovative initially, but when even the upcoming movie version of Charlie's Angels resorts to this, and the description used is "Matrix-style martial arts", you know it's become a cliche. Jet Li is a brilliant and capable on-screen fighter, but in Romeo Must Die, he's not given much chance to show it. Instead, director Bartkowiak inserts the usual impossible flip-through-mid-air-and-kick type manouevring that distinguished The Matrix, and adds a few (admittedly cool) x-ray scenes of bones breaking and organs being pierced, etc. With the accompaniment of a thumping rap and R&B soundtrack, Romeo Must Die aims to drown you in its style, but just ends up drowning.

Jet plays Han Sing, a former Hong Kong policeman who's currently in prison because he helped his father and brother escape to America. When he hears his brother has been murdered, he breaks out and flies to Oakland. It appears there is a waterfront turf war between a group of Chinese, headed by Han's father, Ch'u (Henry O), and a consortium run by Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo). Han, meanwhile, runs into O'Day's daughter, Trish (Aaliyah), and they strike up a friendship. When Trish's brother Colin (D.B. Woodside) is murdered in apparent retaliation, Han and Trish must find out who's behind the killings.

Romeo Must Die is too long by at least twenty minutes, so the pace drags a bit between the action sequences. While the story is fine, inspired as it is by one of Shakespeare's famous tragedies, not much is made of the fact that the children of two warring families are friendly with each other (as for love, well, I suppose the filmmakers just didn't want to explore that avenue too deeply). The martial arts sequences are not as exciting as those in Jet's Hong Kong flicks, drenched as they are in that Hollywood style (with the help of cinematographer-turned-director Bartkowiak), and is not helped by the overly pervasive soundtrack. I understand the participation of singer Aaliyah pretty much guarantees a bunch of songs, but did there have to be so many?

Aaliyah herself is one of the best things about the movie. For a debutante, she's natural and effectively conveys the few emotions she's required to show during the film. She works well opposite Jet - indeed, the best scenes in the film are with her and Jet. Jet is his charismatic self, though he's still a bit tentative with his English (he wasn't required to say too much in Lethal Weapon 4). Delroy Lindo is as imposing as always, and seems to have just as much screen time as the two leads.

While Romeo Must Die will expose Jet Li to more and more Americans, it's not a great vehicle for showing what he can do. For those who want more than this meagre sample, check out a film like Once Upon a Time in China or My Father is a Hero instead.

(c) Joe Wong (11 November 2000)