Product Details

• Actors: Jet Li, Anita Mui, Miu Tse, Rongguang Yu, Collin Chou
• Directors: Corey Yuen
• Writers: Jing Wong, Sandy Shaw
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Dimension
• VHS Release Date: October 10, 2000
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305763356
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #361,985 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Probably only the Hong Kong film industry could have produced this bizarre mixture of head-kicking martial arts action and daddy-and-me sentimentality. Veteran HK action director Cory Yuen (Fong Sai Yuk), who staged Jet Li's fight sequences in Lethal Weapon 4, steers the acrobatic Mainlander through a heart-tugging crime saga about a cop who has gone so far undercover that everyone, including his troubled son, thinks he's actually a bad guy. Pop-singing actress Anita Mui (Rouge) is a policewoman from Hong Kong who befriends and protects the kid until father and son reconcile and team up against the crooks. The action episodes, which were performed without stunt doubles or wires, are eye-popping wonders, and the kid, Tze Miu, is a true prodigy. (Sensitive adults may be horrified by some of junior's more extreme stunt work.) The tough-guy emotionalism is often shamelessly effective. But Yuen is a by-the-numbers journeyman director, and for the most part this a flat, square, unimaginative exercise. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a totally successful mix, but still good at points., May 2, 2000

By 

D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: My Father is a Hero (DVD)

The Chinese title to this one was extremely deceptive: "Letters to Father". It suggests a full-out drama and, to its credit, The Enforcer (an entirely inaccurate title, actually) does contain more dramatic elements and better acting than the usual martial-arts/action fare.

What we have here is a true polarization: Truly amazing moments juxtaposed with extreme clumsiness at spots. The ultra-sentimentality of the script is beaten to death time after time in this movie, and sometimes even a pretty good actor falters because of the overkill. Anita Mui isn't very well used in this movie; the part when she breaks down and cries at the death of the mother is completely unbelievable, because the story didn't sufficiently set up the rapport between the women. Xie Mao, who plays the child, is unusually watchable as an actor thanks to some less-than-obvious choices (when his mother dies, he goes for an attempt to be strong which works quite well), and he moves well (though some shots of him in action appear to be sped up). But too much sentimentality still ends up hurting the character.

The action sequences and fight choreography are wonderful, without most of the vices that plagued Fist of Legend (slow-mo being the most important one). There *is* too much camera trickery at some points -- overheads, triple cuts, etc. -- but in this one it's acceptable. Less so are the incredibly disorienting ellipses in the storyline, and the incredibly bad acting of Yu Rong Guang, the lead villain, entirely without charisma or humanity, just another smart-cracking bad guy with no depth or real power. When will action writers realize that a villain works better when he's smart and likeable to a degree? This villain is a typical Wong Jing villain (Wong Jing being the tasteless exploitation producer/director who came up with this story), and completely grating to watch.

Jet Li does well in this movie, the character tapping into the more brooding side to his cinematic persona, but for nearly 20 minutes his character leaves the film, resulting in a temporary void.

Worth a look for slam-bang action sequences, but could've been much, much more given better above-the-line talent and less sentimental raw material.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars This movie is My Father is a Hero, March 21, 2000

By 

Wu Tang (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jet Li's The Enforcer (DVD)

Before buying this movie people should know that it is the same movie as My Father Is A Hero. Having said that, this movie was OK. Jet Li and the kid have one fight sceen each and then they have one together at the end. I watch martial arts movies because I love to see the fight sceens, and this movie just dosen't have enough fights. The story however was pretty good plus Jet Li is in it so I couldn't give it less that 3 stars.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Do not waste your money., February 16, 2009

By 

George Munoz "caso22" (Auburn, AL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Enforcer (DVD)

Unfortunately, I must agree with the negative reviews above. I own every single title released by Dragon Dynasty and have always been very pleased, not as much with the selection of titles (some are just ok, nothing great), but mostly with the quality of their transfers both in terms of sound and picture quality. And the extras are good as well. However, here comes The Enforcer, the latest Dragon Dynasty offering, a Jet Li vehicle that is far away from his best efforts. The movie itself is watchable, fairly entertaining, overacted but nicely choreographed. The extras, though scarce, are fine as well. But the transfer is plain bad. The image is not as clean as any other DD title (even the oldest ones); it is easy to tell it has not been remastered. However, the main problem here is with the audio track: there is only one offering, a dubbed English track. And it is dreadful, and it makes this film a heck of a nightmare to watch. For as far as I am concern, this shows a lack of respect for us, the consumers, on the part of DD and its parents and/or affiliates and I would like to strongly urge you to not buy this movie and, if you have already bought it, to return it and wait for a proper release of this film.