Jet Li was a huge star before he came to America, but once he arrived he had several moments where he starred alongside some major action stars and had epic fight scenes. Li got his start as an athlete, winning five men’s national championships for the Beijing Wushu Team. This led to his great Asian film success, starting with Shaolin Temple and moving on to massive hits like Once Upon a Time in China and Fist of Legend.
Jet Li got his break in America by signing on to an already famous action movie franchise to co-star with Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 4. From there, Li starred in his own movies as the leading man, and he enjoyed great success. He worked with several major action heroes from the 1980s through the 2000s, proving his Wushu fighting skills could stand alongside Western fighting techniques as he thrilled fans worldwide.
1
Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)
Mel Gibson
- Release Date
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July 10, 1998
- Runtime
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127 minutes
- Writers
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Shane Black, Jonathan Lemkin, Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Channing Gibson
- Producers
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Jim Van Wyck, Joel Silver
The first American action movie that Jet Li appeared in was Lethal Weapon 4. This film saw Li star as the villain, Wah Sing Ku, a member of the Triad, in a story where Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Murtaugh (Danny Glover) began investigating a Chinese immigrant smuggling ring. Li was the greatest threat in the movie, similar to how Gary Busey was the main person that Riggs had to fight in the first Lethal Weapon.
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Jet Li impressed American movie fans with his exceptional fighting skills, proving to be almost more than Mel Gibson’s Riggs could handle. The biggest fight between the two action stars came in the final battle on the pier, and it took a stroke of luck and an assault rifle for Riggs to beat Ku. This was the last movie in the franchise, but that wasn’t because of Li. The martial arts master breathed new life into the franchise after a disappointing third movie.
2
Hero (2002)
Donnie Yen
- Release Date
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October 24, 2002
- Runtime
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120 Minutes
- Director
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Yimou Zhang
- Writers
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Feng Li, Yimou Zhang, Bin Wang
Cast
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Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Matty
In 2002, American movie fans witnessed one of the best Asian martial arts fighting action utilizing Wuxia in Hero. In this movie, Jet Li plays an unnamed assassin setting out to kill the king to prevent the unification of China. The movie had amazing martial arts action, thanks to the appearance of not only Li, but also Tony Leung, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen. The battle between Yi and Yen was a dizzying spectacle that had to be seen to be believed.
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Li used his Wushu fighting skills with the additional aspects of the Wuxia fantasy fighting style. Yen played Long Sky, an accomplished spearman who was the first person Li’s character defeated. The Jet Li and Donnie Yen fight scene starts with a stare-down, which leads to them finally having an incredible battle using wire work that few other Wuxia movies of the time could touch. It helped Hero come close to matching the brilliance of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
3
Cradle 2 The Grave (2003)
Mark Dacascos
Cradle 2 The Grave
- Release Date
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February 28, 2003
- Runtime
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101 minutes
- Director
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Andrzej Bartkowiak
- Writers
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Channing Gibson
Released in 2003, Jet Li took on a more basic American action movie, starring alongside rapper-turned-actor DMX. In the film, DMX starred as a jewel thief named Tony Fait whose recent robbery goes wrong. He ends up in the sights of a crime lord named Ling, played by Mark Dacascos. When Ling kidnaps Tony’s daughter, he teams up with a Taiwanese intelligence officer named Su (Jet Li) to save her.
The fight here is between Jet Li and Mark Dacascos, just two years after Dacascos showed his incredible martial arts talent in the fantasy kung fu monster movie Brotherhood of the Wolf. Dacascos was an underrated yet highly skilled action star from the 1990s who ended up in a one-on-one fight with Li’s Su during the climax, delivering what action movie fans hoped to see between the two real-life martial arts legends.
4
Unleashed (2005)
Scott Adkins
All fans of B-grade action movies know that Scott Adkins is a true legend in the genre. Thanks to his roles in the Undisputed franchise, he became someone who was a highlight in almost every action film he appeared in. He even got a chance to appear in some bigger movies thanks to his fame, with John Wick: Chapter 4 as one of his most recent.
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Adkins, who has been practicing martial arts since he was 13, has mastered several styles, including Jet Li’s beloved Wushu. That made the fact that these two action stars would face off in Unleashed so exciting. In this movie, Li plays Danny the Dog, a man who is a trained killer. Scott Adkins’ character didn’t have a name, but he was there to fight in the swimming pool fight club scene, a battle that was as brutal as any in the movie.
5
War (2007)
Jason Statham
- Release Date
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August 24, 2007
- Runtime
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103 minutes
- Director
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Philip G. Atwell
- Writers
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Gregory J. Bradley
- Producers
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Christopher Petzel, Jim Thompson, Michael Paseornek, Mike Elliott, Peter Block
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Special Agent Jack Crawford
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Jet Li and Jason Statham starred in several movies together throughout their careers. Their first was a sci-fi action film called The One, and while Li and Statham battled in that film, the plot was mostly about Li fighting himself in a tale of the multiverse. However, the two action heroes had their best battle in the 2007 movie War. This had them as former FBI partners now on different sides of the law.
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Jet Li stars as Rogue, a hitman who was a former partner of Statham’s FBI agent John Crawford. When the movie starts, he kills Crawford’s new partner and his family, setting up their eventual final battle. This was a hand-to-hand fight that saw Crawford and Rogue not only in an intense battle, but also in a war of words where the entire story was turned on its head, making the big fight explosive and devastating.
6
The Forbidden Kingdom (2008)
Jackie Chan
The Forbidden Kingdom
- Release Date
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August 29, 2008
- Runtime
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104 minutes
- Director
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Rob Minkoff
It seems almost hard to believe, but Jet Li and Jackie Chan only appeared in one movie together. This was 2008’s The Forbidden Kingdom, a fantasy Wuxia film that sees a teenage boy travel back in time to ancient China and end up in the middle of a war while trying to find his way back home. Chan plays Lu Yan, and Li plays the Monkey King, both mythical Chinese folk heroes.
The film received mixed reviews, but most critics praised the fight scene between Chan and Li. What makes this fight scene between these two iconic action heroes so great is the mixing of their styles. Chan uses his drunken boxing form to battle Li’s Wuxia wire work, delivering a jaw-dropping fight whose only downfall is that it could have been even longer.
7
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
Brendan Fraser & Michelle Yeoh
Anyone who grew up when The Mummy came out knows that Brendan Fraser was a great action hero in the early 2000s. While he has since settled into a more dramatic career in Hollywood, at the time, Rick O’Connell was as famous in action movies as anyone. In 2008, the sequel The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor brought him back and pitted him against Jet Li’s reincarnated Qin Shi Huang.
Seeing Jet Li and Brendan Fraser in the film together was a treat for fans of both the franchise and Li’s fan-favorite American action movie career.
Not only did Rick O’Connell have his hands full in fights with this martial arts legend – and usually not fare very well in battle – but Michelle Yeoh was also on hand to deliver some great fight scenes as well. This wasn’t a critically successful movie, and The Mummy was past its prime by now. However, seeing Jet Li and Brendan Fraser in the film together was a treat for fans of both the franchise and Li’s fan-favorite American action movie career.
8
The Expendables (2010)
Dolph Lundgren
The Expendables franchise did a lot for action movie fans. It brought most of the major action stars from the 1980s onwards together in a giant team-up movie that was a smorgasbord of everything fans loved about the genre. Sylvester Stallone led the way, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis as the other two major 1980s legends. That said, there were so many other great names, including Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren.
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Action movie fighting forms don’t get much different than Li and Lundgren, as Li uses his skilled martial arts skills, and Lundgren is a more power-based fighter, relying on his strength. While they started on the same side, they ended up being enemies in the first film and had two amazing fight scenes, with both men getting in equal amounts of offense. Jet Li and Dolph Lundgren brought out the best in each other.