My kung-hop is mightier than your hip-fu

>> The new Jet Li vehicle Romeo Must Die is Shakespeare in the amusement park

By RUPERT BOTTENBERG

At some point, someone somewhere in the cultural isolation tank of Hollywood realized that black kids were digging kung fu, and Asian kids were down with hip hop. This blinding revelation led to petri-dish fusion, resulting initially in some strangely deformed offspring. Recall, if you will, Jackie Chan high-fiving brothers with a "Whussup, nigga?" in Rush Hour, or Marky Mark busting firearm-fu in a b-boy style amid the racial hysteria of the John Woo-produced The Big Hit.

Romeo Must Die, showcasing Chinese action star Jet Li in his first American lead role, is perhaps the healthiest whelp of the litter. Healthy, if not exactly eloquent--despite the Romeo and Juliet reference material, Shakespeare it's not.

Armed with a deadly Aaliyah

"This is the first time I've really used English in an American movie," says Li, on the honker from L.A. "A lot more, of course, than Lethal Weapon 4. I like the movie, it's got story and characters. If you only see the martial arts, why not just see a martial arts demonstration? I don't like movies that are only fighting from beginning to end. Sometimes there's no reason, just fight, fight, fight, fight! The most important thing is the story."

Which is this: black and Chinese crime families are at war over Oakland waterfront turf. The Chinese don's son gets offed, word gets back to Hong Kong and Li's character Han pulls a jailbreak in order to right the wrongs in the new world. He promptly hooks up with Trish (R&B ingenue Aaliyah), daughter of black gang lord Isaak O'Day, thereby stirring up a hornet's nest of hassles.

Like I said, Shakespeare it's not, but it's enough storyline to permit Li to flex his thespian muscles a bit--and then do what he does best. "If the audience enjoys the story and likes your character, then they can, through your point of view, see the bad guys and what kind of situation you need to stop them. One situation is, you don't want to hurt a girl, even if she's the bad girl. That's why I decided to use Aaliyah's body, her physical body, to fight with another girl."

That's not clumsy English on Li's part. He really does use co-lead Aaliyah as an oversized, cooperative nunchuck in that scene, where the pair take on Hong Kong action babe Francoise Yip (Black Mask). Li speaks highly of Aaliyah, who makes her screen debut here. "It's her first time acting, but she's very talented. The audiences really like her. Also, she had dancing classes before, so she knows how to control her body. I worked with her for four or five days, and she could do the martial arts pretty well."

Getting the hang of it

In spite of Li's insistence on substance over spectacle, the gist of Romeo is, of course, the fight scenes. Drama alone would never carry this flick, given the glaring lack of mystery as to who the covert bad guys are. Everything's painted in broad strokes (Timbaland beats precede the black gangstas, likewise gongs and erhus for the Chinese) and the actors largely sleepwalk through their roles--even the usually outstanding Delroy Lindo and Joy Luck Club's Russell Wong. The only actor to really shine might be Anthony Anderson, chipping in comedy relief as Aaliyah's big, fat, incompetent bodyguard.

But that's not the point, is it. Although rather sparse by Hong Kong standards, when the hand-to-hand kicks in, it delivers the goods. Choreographed by Corey Yuen, who's been working with Li since the early days, the fights score big in wow factor. "We tried to do things we'd never done in Hong Kong," says Li. "Hanging upside-down, I'd never done that, and mixing martial with American football playing."

One early scene has Li enduring a visit to a "beating room" in a Hong Kong prison. "That one, I think, was the hardest one. We saw a lot of movies with a 'beating room,' so we decided to do it with me hanging upside-down. When we started shooting, the two-day schedule got delayed to five days, 12-hour shoots every day. Hanging upside-down for so long, I was getting headaches. The blood comes down to your head and your focus gets a little bit foggy."

Blink and you'll miss the "money shots," so to speak. Several times during Romeo's fisticuffs we're treated to psychedelic flashgun X-ray views of the internal damage perpetrated by Li's fists-'n'-feets-of-fury. Audience applause is the litmus test with such things, and these little chestnuts certainly registered with the preview crowd.

Return to Shaolin

Poised to overshadow the clownish Jackie Chan, who doesn't benefit from babyfaced good looks, Li has the chops to impress the boys and the cute mug the girls just love. Already he and Romeo producer Joel Silver (the major importer of H.K. talent these days--witness Yuen Woo Ping's wire work in The Matrix) are talking about their next project. Tentatively titled First King, it's a return of sorts for Li: a historical drama, a swords-and-silk affair about ancient Chinese stuff. In other words, the kind of material with which Li first established himself on Hong Kong screens.

Now living in L.A., Li is happy to be seeing how Hollywood works, different as it is from the reckless, low-budget, on-the-fly world of HK cinema. "Some things are the same, though," he laughs. "I work seven days a week! First unit, second unit and third unit, because I do a lot of action by myself. L.A. is a big city, much bigger than crowded Hong Kong. Here there's a lot more space. And it's very hot! It's okay, though, because if I want to continue working in Hollywood, I need to live here."

Music is an integral part of Romeo--not only does Aaliyah pitch a few tunes in, but the soundtrack boasts Mack 10, Destiny's Child and DMX, who cameos as a club owner. Li states that his own musical tastes are pretty flexible. "Depends on my mood! If I'm working on a set and I miss my family, my wife, or I'm under pressure, unhappy, I listen to soft, romantic songs. If you're really happy, with a lot of people around, hip hop and rap music are very good!"

On that subject, I have to query Li about the Wu-tang Clan, the hip hop crew who take their moniker from the traditional sworn enemies of the Shaolin school, with which Li is often associated. "My first movie was Shaolin Temple, so a lot of people think I'm a student of Shaolin. But I've learned a lot of different styles of martial arts, not only Shaolin. I also learned some Wu-tang. Tai chi is Wu-tang! So I learned both. When my friend told me there is a band called Wu-tang, I said, 'Oh! So interesting!'" :

Romeo Must Die is in theatres now