My Father Is A Hero (1994)
Country: Hong Kong
AKA: Letter To Daddy, The Enforcer
Director: Corey Yuen
Producer: Wong Jing
Writer: Sandy Shaw, Wong Jing
Action Director: Corey Yuen
Cast: Jet Li, Anita Mui, Tse Miu, Yu Rong-Guang, Damian Lau, Ken Lo
Running Time: 105 min.
Plot: China’s special agent Kung Wei (Jet Li) goes undercover to infiltrate a notorious Triad gang based in Hong Kong. As part of the plan, Wei is deliberately arrested by the Chinese police in front of his home for all to see (including his sick wife and now very confused son) and engineers a phony escape with an oblivious Triad thug. Of course, now a “brother,” he is easily introduced to the underworld. Anita Mui plays the tough but sensitive policewoman, Fong. Her investigation and growing friendship with Wei’s son (Xie Miao, a miniature martial arts dynamo in his own right) leads her to believe that Wei is an undercover agent, but if only her boss (who happens to be her ex-lover) would believe her story…A modern-day martial arts/action adventure.
A big-budget Jet Li movie that was generally panned, but ends up being quite sweet. We watched this in a Hong Kong theatre at midnight with peanut shells on the floor and a few suspicious characters sitting a few rows ahead of us. We loved it! It’s a Wong Ching Jing production, with director Cory Yuen staging some super wild fights. There are indeed wild fights although most of them pair Jet with a little kid who is supposed to be his son. Whether this wholly works or not is debatable.
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Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 54% of 13 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 5.3/10.[1] Joey O’Bryan of The Austin Chronicle rated it 2.5/5 stars and wrote of Li and Tse that “there is an unevenness at work here that keeps the film from reaching the delirious heights of this dynamic duo’s previous collaborations”.[2] Bill Gibron of PopMatters rated it 8/10 stars and wrote, “In fact, it’s the thrills and character interaction that makes The Enforcer much more than a stereotypical trip through the Asian underworld.”[3] Earl Cressey of DVD Talk rated it 4/5 stars and wrote that it “combines some fantastic martial arts action and a decent story with great results”.[4] David Johnson of DVD Verdict called it a “disappointing action movie” and wrote that he could not accept a child who fights against adult henchmen. [Source: Wikipedia.org]
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