The Bodyguard from Beijing

Infobox Film
name = The Bodyguard from Beijing


director = Corey Yuen
producer = Jet Li
writers = Chan Kin-Chung
Gordon Chan
narrator =
starring = Jet Li
Christy Chung
Kent Cheng
Collin Chou
music = William Hu
editing = Angie Lam
distributor = flagicon|Hong Kong Golden Harvest
flagicon|USA Dimension Films
released = flagicon|Hong Kong July 28, 1994
runtime = 89 Mins approx
country = flagicon|Hong Kong Hong Kong
language = Cantonese Mandarin
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id =
imdb_id = 0111835

"The Bodyguard from Beijing" (zh-tp|t=中南海保鑣|p="Zhong Nan Hai bao biao"), also known as "The Defender" in the United States and the United Kingdom, is a 1994 Hong Kong action film directed by action choreographer Corey Yuen, and starring Jet Li, Christy Chung, Collin Chou, and Kent Cheng.

Plot

Known by few, there exists an elite corp of international bodyguards based in China. Allan Hui Ching-yeung (John Chang in American releases) is one their most promising members, known for his highly unorthedox methods, such as pointing a gun at a client's head. Although his methods are anti-trust building, his decisions are usually right.

When a wealthy man's (Wai-Kwok Ng) girlfriend, Michelle Yeung (Christy Chung) becomes the only surviving (of three)witness of a mob murder, Allan (Jet Li) is hired to deal with the many attempts on her life. After isolating her completely in her penthouse with her young nephew and two Hong Kong policemen, Charlie Leung Kam-Po (Sergeant Lau in American releases) and Ken(Kent Cheng and Wing-Chung Leung), he has to deal with her anger at being sequestered.

Meantime the mob boss becomes desperate to off this last witness to her murder before his upcoming court date. He hires a deadly Chinese assassin (Collin Chou) and calls in sick to postpone the court date. All the while Michelle goes berserk, as she is not allowed any freedoms, including going to the mall, with Allan being equally fed up at not being able to join the Chinese Premier's bodyguard detail in Southern China. Michelle eventually storms out of the estate. This turns ugly as the mall is crawling with mob assassins dressed as mall clerks, custodians, patrons, and police officers.

After a massive shoot out inside the mall killing all would be assassins, they manage to get out to the car. However an assassin posing as a police officer comes to shoot her with a pistol in his jacket pocket. But before he can, Charlie stops him and is shot twice in his bulletproof vest. In response Allan fires several shots from the car killing the "officer."

The plot gets ugly as the "police officer" turns out to be the assassin's younger brother, who helped save him from a bullet while they were both serving in the Chinese People's Liberation Army. He abducts the body from the police morgue killing three forensic experts with a tribladed bayonet. Burying the body and tossing paper money into the flames, he swears vengeance against the bodyguard.

Meanwhile back at the penthouse, Michelle finally begins to understand her bodyguards care of her. After apologizing to Allan, she finds that she is falling for him and tries to seduce him.

Finally, things come to a climax when the a group of assassins and the Vietnamese assassin storm the house. Fighting in the house, Allan holds the advantage of being familiar with the house's layout. He takes out most of the assaillants leaving only the assassin standing but not before they severely wound the two policemen.

With no one left to stop them, the assassin and bodyguard engage in a long hand to hand fight trashing most of the house. During the mellee the boyfriend enters the house just as the assassin recovers his gun. Michelle breaks cover to hold up a stumbling Allan who had been bayoneted in the left lung.

The assassin points the gun at all three of them asking her to choose who should die first. The boyfriend makes an offer for her life which the assassin refuses but then adds "Perhaps you could pay someone to take the bullet for her?". Allan steps forward as the assassin fires a shot at Michelle.

The shot hits Allan in the chest causing him to fall back into Michelle's arms. "One more bullet then." The assassin says and fires again. Impossibly Michelle tries to shield Allan with her body only to have him struggle up pushing her away. The bullet hits him in the back spinning him around. As he spins toward the assassin, he uses the last of his strength to pull the bayonet from his chest and throw it into the assassin's neck. The scene ends with Michelle holding the convulsing Allan and crying inconsolably.

With the danger over and the court concluded we see Michelle and her boyfriend driving to the Chinese/Hong Kong border. The boyfriend, James, was given a note by Allan stating that needs to be there for her. At the border they try to get Allan to stay in Hong Kong with them. However it is refused.

With his wishes, two items were left for them in Hong Kong. The first was the trunk full of money paid by James to Allan which he wills to the police chief. In it is a note, that the money is for his son's education and that the chief shouldn't gamble anymore. Lastly there was a small box for Michelle. As is customary for Communism, the box had his watch which were usually swapped between persons as mementos of the person. Michelle remembers and cries 'Allan' as his car drives away from the border checkpoint back into China.

Characters

*Allan Hui Ching-yeung/John Chang - Trained Bodyguard Sent From Beijing To Protect
*Michelle Yeung - Girlfriend Of A Wealthy Businessman

Cast

*Jet Li - Allan Hui Ching-yeung/ John Chang, a bodyguard
*Christy Chung - Michelle Yeung, a vulnerable witness
*Collin Chou - Wong, the main assassin and antagonist of the movie.

ee also

*List of Hong Kong films

External links

*imdb title|id=0111835|title=The Defender