Romeo Must Die

Han's Dad (played by Henry O, known in Asia as Xi Reng Jiang) is running the Chinese Mafia in Oakland California. The Chinese are sharing the proceeds of crime with the blacks led by Isaak O'Day (the always good Delroy Lindo) but someone has killed Mr Sing's son Po (Jon Kit Lee), threatening to break open a race and gang war.

Han Sing is told of his brother's murder, breaks spectacularly out of jail and next thing you know he's in Oakland searching for the killer of his brother. His brother by the way looks to have been a spoilt, dangerous pig of a man, and hardly a worthwhile cause for a mission of revenge.

But as you can see most of the usual ingredients for 'action' films are there. We get an early glimpse during the jailbreak of Han's prowess at the old biffo, Asian style, and Romeo Must Die settles into doing all it can manage to do - set up the next brawl. There's a bit of a nod towards racial tension but that's carefully skirted. Han for example falls for Trish (singer Aaliyah), the daughter of the head of the black gang, but that's never taken anywhere. A Chinese man with a black woman in an American film? Not likely.

The title is pretty pretentious, at least for this sort of movie, but any hope of anything like a reference to the Bard is fruitless. The 'star crossed lovers theme' never becomes important.

And as can be expected sexism as well as racism is only a punch away in this martial arts film.. The good oriental Han can't bring himself to strike a woman in a particularly demeaning scene (for women!), but he's encouraged to do so by another woman in modern U.S. A..

No, Romeo Must Die can only be judged on the brawls, but they're not too good either. Jet Li has been in Lethal Weapon 4 and dozens of Chinese martial arts films. He's impish enough to have something of the aura of Jackie Chan and a there was a fairly successful attempt to build a fair bit of Chan style martial arts humour into the movie.

For example there's a particularly silly grid iron segment where clever Han turns the tables on a bunch of silly American Negroes.

But in general the fighting was spoilt by digital enhancements and by the use of harnesses by Li in the brawls.

When Jackie Chan jumps through a ladder you know that he's doing it for real. It's obvious that Li isn't. This fantasy brawling stuff should be left for martial arts spoofs.