My admiration for Jet Li goes back to the early '90s, when I first encountered his Shaolin-inspired seriousness of purpose and found it a refreshing change from Jackie Chan's always entertaining but sometimes undignified antics. Li's best Hong Kong films have a grim kill-or-be-killed vibe that's always invigorating, and it's a shame that Hollywood has never quite known what to do with him.

One of his best mid-'90s efforts, The Enforcer, finds Li in that most clichéd of roles: the undercover cop trying to destroy the Triads from within. Kung Wei (Li) is exceptionally good at his job, but he must keep it a secret from his chronically ill wife (Bonnie Fu Yuk Jing) and his adorable eight-year-old son Johnny (Tse Miu), an accomplished kung fu kickass in his own right. They think he's a traveling salesman until the day he is snatched by the cops and tossed in jail for Triad crimes, a setup that will help him get close to gang members behind bars. After staging a pre-arranged escape, Kung Wei and his new Triad buddies are invited by the big boss Bo (Yo Rong Guang) to work on a huge illegal arms deal.

All these machinations leads to a number of dynamic action scenes, many involving female detective Fong (Anita Mui), who ends up protecting Johnny and serving as something of a surrogate mom when his own mother inevitably dies. In the course of proving his street cred to Bo, Kung Wei must at one point beat his own son into unconsciousness, a remarkably disturbing scene, even by Hong Kong's bloody standards. Luckily, he is able to save Johnny later, and once his cover is blown, the two join forces in a final all-hands-on-deck battle that's one of the most entertaining Hong Kong slamfests ever filmed. The sight of Kung using his own pint-sized son as a virtual nunchuck is unforgettable.

In fact, long after you can no longer recall the plot details, you'll remember this little four-foot powerhouse and his own brand of playground foot-fist fury, leveling an entire scrum of juvenile bullies who taunt him because of his father's bad reputation. Tse Miu actually played Li's son in a film a year earlier, but this is the superior effort. (Why he has rarely appeared on film again is a mystery and a shame.)

So add The Enforcer to the list of chopsocky flicks worth your time. With so much Hong Kong mediocrity on the DVD rental shelves, it's good to know that a few of them really do deliver some serious kicks.

Aka Gei ba ba de xin, My Father Is a Hero, Jet Li's The Enforcer.



I will call him... Mini-Li.