'Romeo Must Die' a nonstop hip-hopping entertainment
By Tam Notosusanto
JAKARTA (JP): It is apparently easy to be misled by a movie poster. If you have no idea of what Romeo Must Die is about, and you take one look at the poster, you would probably think, "Hmm, Asian guy, black girl, THAT title. Don't tell me this is another reworking of that Shakespeare tragedy".
In fact, the movie bears only a slight resemblance to the plot of Romeo and Juliet. Even with singer Aaliyah in the cast, making her motion picture debut, do not expect West Side Story just yet.
It is only natural to have such assumptions, since some of this movie's elements do remind us of the Bard's legendary work. Romeo Must Die does have two warring families trying to seize control over Oakland's waterfront, and a boy and a girl from each family who end up falling for each other.
That is where the similarities end. This movie is all action, all karate, all war, and little romance. Yes, there is the Chinese guy Han Sing (Jet Li) and that sweet African-American girl, Trish O'Day (Aaliyah), and they make quite a duo. Yet they are largely consumed by the film's fireworks and martial arts stunts.
The movie begins with a murder whodunit: the son of the city's Chinese syndicate chief Ch'u Sing (Henry O), is found hanged on a streetlight in a black neighborhood. It only adds tension to the existing cold war between the city's two strong dynasties, the Sing family and the O'Day underworld empire. But Isaak O'Day (Delroy Lindo) is quick to come to offer condolences to Sing, although later he warily appoints a personal bodyguard to keep a close eye on his daughter, Trish.
Meanwhile, Sing's eldest son, Han, hears about the death in a Hong Kong prison, where he is serving a sentence that was meant for his fleeing father. Himself an ex-cop, Han then breaks out of prison and goes to America to find the murderer of his younger brother.
It is there he meets Trish in a chance encounter when she is trying to free herself from her bodyguard. He later returns to Trish when he discovers that the last phone number his brother contacted was the store where Trish works.
The two teams up to investigate the mysterious happenings around them as more murders occur and the competition between the two families grows fiercer following an enormously lucrative business deal offered to the both of them.
By this time, you should realize that Romeo Must Die is not supposed to be a profound, soulful motion picture. It's mainly an entertainment package that showcases the first English-speaking starring role of Jet Li, the Hong Kong martial arts movie star who was brought to the U.S. the first time through Lethal Weapon 4, as well as the acting chops of burgeoning R&B and hip-hop artist Aaliyah. The package shows itself through the nonstop sequences of martial arts demonstrations while the soundtrack, at least for the first hour, is hip-hopping constant in the background.
The movie's advertisements boast it as coming "from the producer of The Matrix," and the movie really delivers. Joel Silver, that producer, obviously made sure that Romeo Must Die is somewhat bigger and better than Keanu Reeves' sci-fi extravaganza. Although it does not have a load of groundbreaking visual effects, Romeo throws us eye-popping, jaw-dropping fight scenes, including one in which Li kicks off a number of prison guards while he is hanging upside down, and another where he, with the help of Aaliyah's legs, subdues an attacker. Each of the eight big fight scenes in this film is elaborately choreographed, and to that extent, they are as beautiful as any dance number in West Side Story.
The filmmakers were wise enough to tone down the romance between Han and Trish, for there is absolutely no chemistry between Li and Aaliyah. Li can appear a strong and heroic avenger when he faces his adversaries, but whenever he is with her, we can almost see his boyish face blush. The scene where he suddenly appears outside Trish's window, saying, "I miss you", is probably the most awkwardly hilarious scene of the film.
Even if the movie is action sequences first, story second, screenwriters Eric Bernt and John Jarrell plus story writer Mitchell Kapner give the movie its effective suspense and its occasional humor, even with the absence of a real love story between the two leads.
Veteran cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak, who has photographed Oscar-winning films like Terms of Endearment and Prizzi's Honor as well as Hollywood hits such as The Devil's Advocate, U.S. Marshals and Lethal Weapon 4, makes his directorial debut with this movie. He is the force that not only holds the movie together, but lends a signature style that distinguishes it from a John Woo movie. Bartkowiak goes deep to emphasize each bone that crunches or any tissue that has been torn. At the climaxes of some fight scenes, he gives us X-ray glimpses of a shattered rib or punctured body organ, making the movie's showstopping moments unforgettable.