Jet Li (also
Jet Lee) is a
male martial arts master and
actor of
Chinese origin, born in 1963. In
China he is the
national martial arts
champion. He is also a practictioner of
wushu, and a
keen proponent of eliminating the
misconceptions of kung-fu. At age 9 he won the first chinese martial arts youth competition since the
Cultural Revolution, and continued to consecutively win the adult bracket from 1974 to 1979.
He is most well known for his acting career, having been in a number of chop suey martial arts videos from Hong Kong, among them (in no particular order) the Once Upon A Time in China series (1, 2 and 3), Tai Chi Master, the Fong Sai Yuk series (1, 2 and 3), Dr Wai in the Scripture With No Words, The Bodyguard from Beijing, Black Mask, The Master, Hitman, Fist of Legend, My Father is a Hero, and a plentitude of others.
Generally Jet's popularity in the Western World has been limited to a cult following, however his recent Western movie debut as bad guy/supporting role in Lethal Weapon 4, served to make him extremely popular. Regrettably, he turned down the lead role as Li Mu Bai in the megahit Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon to star instead in the early-2000 Romeo must die - in hindsight it appears to be a very bad choice, and a great disappointment to many of his fans. He is also reported to be starring in a sequel to The Matrix. This is a good thing - if you thought the Matrix fight scenes were good, Jet Li will own you. He is the one.
Regrettably, in a defining element in his movies is that generally they have pathetic storylines but enough action to blow any multimillion dollar western production through the roof. The sad thing is for many fight scenes are few and far between. The fact that he doesn't speak english isn't a help. On that note I recommend you to The Bodyguard from Beijing, Black Mask, and Fist of Legend.
Jet's style of fighting is outstanding - fluid, fast, sharp, gravity defying, unreal. He is an exponential mix of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. I cannot stress how cool he looks fighting. If you watch anime and appreciate the cool moves of the characters, Jet Li can do this for real. Well, some of them. I suggest you see it for yourself .
Surprisingly, he began his martial arts training by sheer luck. It turns out that when in primary school he was selected to take part in the martial arts extracurricular activity to fill the quota. Today, he has residences in the United States, China and Hong Kong.