Jet Li: A Biography - Softcover

Parish, James Robert

3.89

18 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1560253762 ISBN 13: 9781560253761

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2002

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Jet Li is part of a crew of new Asian stars taking Hollywood by storm. Along with Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Jackie Chan, and Maggie Cheung, Jet Li has kicked and punched his way out of the cult-film underground and into mainstream superstardom. With his performance in The One, Li becomes the first to prove his power as the top-billed draw. Jet Li, the first book published in English about the thirty-eight year-old "Gene Kelly of the action film," follows him from his days in Hong Kong as an extraordinarily successful actor in classics like Once Upon a Time in China and his overlooked work as a director and producer. Special attention is given to his Hollywood debut alongside Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 4; his recent star turns in the gangland fable Romeo Must Die and the sci-fi blockbuster The One. Jet Li looks at the actor's fiercely protected private life and explains the broad appeal of Hollywood's new Bruce Lee to fans of all ages—from Hong Kong chop-socky cultists to Blockbuster families, to the new Hollywood that has eagerly embraced him. A complete filmography of Jet Li's screen work in Hollywood and Asia as well as 30 never before published color and black-and-white photographs are included.

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About the Author:

JAMES ROBERT PARISH, a former entertainment reporter, publicist, and book series editor, is the author of many published major biographies and reference books on the entertainment industry including Whitney Houston: We Will Always Love You; The Hollywood Book of Extravagance; It’s Good to Be the King: The Seriously Funny Life of Mel Brooks; The Hollywood Book of Breakups; Fiascos: Hollywood’s Iconic Flops; The Hollywood Book of Scandals; The Hollywood Book of Love; Hollywood Divas; Jet Li; Hollywood Bad Boys; The Encyclopedia of Ethnic Groups in Hollywood; The Hollywood Book of Death; Gus Van Sant; Whoopi Goldberg; Rosie O’Donnell’s Story; The Unofficial “Murder, She Wrote” Casebook; Today’s Black Hollywood; Let’s Talk! America’s Favorite TV Talk Show Hosts; Prison Pictures from Hollywood; Prostitution in Hollywood Films; The Great Cop Pictures; Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films; Pirates and Seafaring Swashbucklers on the Hollywood Screen; Gays and Lesbians in Mainstream Cinema; Hollywood’s Great Love Teams; and The Fox Girls. Mr. Parish is a frequent oncamera interviewee on cable and network TV for documentaries on the performing arts. The author resides in Studio City, California.

From Booklist:

Following the trail Jackie Chan blazed, Jet Li is poised to become the next Chinese action star to achieve American success. At 17 Li, a martial-arts child prodigy, starred in his first film, Shaolin Temple (1982). In more than two-dozen subsequent Hong Kong features, especially the Once upon a Time in China series about nineteenth-century folk hero Wong Fei Hung, he became an Asian superstar and a cult star elsewhere, even before his U.S. debut as the villain in Lethal Weapon 4 (1998). Unfortunately, his Hollywood films since have been genre potboilers, lacking the sense of fun and the extended fight sequences that distinguish his Hong Kong movies; and, despite similarly remarkable physical abilities, Li lacks the personality and humor that made Chan a global superstar. Parrish cobbled this book together from 70-odd other published sources, and while it is sloppy, it affectionately informs Li's newer fans about his earlier career. Longtime Li aficionados, however, may find it as lacking as Li's Hollywood flickers have been. Gordon Flagg
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