Jet Li to retire from Action movies
 

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Jet Li Says 'Fearless' Is His Last Martial Arts Film

SHANGHAI, China (Dec. 6) - Jet Li says the upcoming movie "Fearless," the story of Chinese martial arts pioneer Huo Yuanjia, will be his last martial arts film.

The 42-year-old actor told students at Fudan University that he wants to make more philosophical, family oriented movies, the Youth Daily newspaper reported Monday.

Li said he started taking a greater interest in spiritual matters in his mid-30s, when he realized "it wasn't enough to have a strong body, you had to have a strong soul."

A practicing Buddhist, Li said he now divides his time between charity work and show business.

He said future projects could include another collaboration with French filmmaker Luc Besson, who wrote Li's 2001 hit, "Kiss of the Dragon."

However, Li added, he has been in talks with more than 20 Hollywood productions and will "shoot whichever one comes to fruition first."

Li's screen credits also include roles in "Lethal Weapon 4," "Romeo Must Die" and "Cradle 2 the Grave."


12/06/05 10:59 EST

Interesting. My dad doesn't really like the style Li and Chan do martial arts. He's a Bruce Lee fan. But he's happy that there has been a bunch of king fu movies lately so he doesn't have to go to SF's chinatown to see it.

Does he really have the acting chops to handle a non-action movie? I still haven't seen Unleashed so I'm not sure how he was in that movie, but I just can't picture him being a big draw outside the Kung Fu genre.

Lame, thats like Jim Carey retiring from comedy....

Lame-O. he'll be lucky to find any projects in Hollywood in the future if this is the case. Why the heck would anyone want to work with Jet Li on non-action movies? He's in his young 40's and probably has a good 4-6 years of action movies left in him. He should do them while he can. If he's concerned about limiting himself then he should pursue more diverse projects ON TOP of action movies, not instead of them. It's like saying Jackie Chan retires from action comedies or Arnold stops making action movies. Puhlease.

Jet Li had actually clarified this somewhat recently. What he meant to say is that this will be the last martial art combat film he makes that focuses strictly on fighting; he *WILL* continue doing action and wuxia films.

After trying to watch HERO, I'm glad he came to that conclusion. That movie was so boring I only watched the first half. Unleashed was just ok. He was good in LW 4, but that really wasn't a very big role. The One is still my favorite of his movies.

Nobody gets genuinely old until they hit the age of 58 or 65. Jet Li is only 42 and he looks fit enough to do action roles well into his 60s. Pierce Brosnan was in his early 50s when he did Die Another Day, plus Klint Eastwood and Sean Connery could still do action roles when they hit old age.

What does your dad think of Tony Jaa's films? Not since Bruce Lee have I really, really liked a martial arts film. Has he seen Tom Yum Goong yet? I picked up the VCD in SF chinatown last week. It was awesome.

As for Jet quitting---I seriously doubt.

should do one with Chan before coming to any decisions (one can hope, right?)

It would be wise for him to stick with Besson. Kiss of the Dragon and Unleashed are his best non Oriental movies yet.

Dumbest shit in the world. I know I want to run out and see Jet Li in a lighthearted comedy or taking a dramatic role Tom Hanks turns down.....not.

For his sake he better not try musicals.

Between this and Jackie Chan wanting to do non-action dramatic roles I don't know what the world is coming too. Oh well, at least we have that little guy from Ong Bak.

Well this is a mistake, why do martial artists try this? Jean Claude Van Dam tried it and his movies sucked.

I mean really, Jackie Chan is a much better actor and speaks better english yet he still has to do fighting in his movies. He can't run from it, he won't get roles unless he does fighting

Wong Fei-Hung retiring? Sad news.

Chan has a very slapstick niche for himself though, he doesn't have to fight, he just has to get hurt and people will pay to see it.

The trailer for Fearless (which looks great, btw) has the comments "The final martial arts epic from Jet Li" in it's opening. I guess it just means no more Once Upon a Time in China or Fearless type movies and more shitfests like Cradle 2 the Grave and Romeo Must Die. I was never a big Li fan, but OUaTiC, Hero, and a few others were quite good.

It is a shame though, if Sammo Hung can still put himself out there and do some pretty good stunt/Martial arts work (SPL (2005, Hung was like 250lbs and 53 years old)) then so can Li.

Li is a skilled martial artist, but very bad at picking projects. Fist of Legend, for example, is a martial arts classic, even though it seems like we'll never get an uncut, subtitled DVD. :( The R1 DVD doesn't even compare.

It's not that he's quiting action films. It's more that he wants to do films that, although featuring action, deal with more than him kicking ass. I believe Hero and Danny The Dog (Unleashed) are good examples of what he's going for. At least that's what I understood when I first read about this in his website.

Yes, and I feel that both Klint and Sean's martial arts skills are as good as when they were in their 30's.

Clint's bumbling German brother?