Director: Corey Yuen
Screenplay: Gordon Chan and Chan Kin-chung
Starring: Jet Li, Christy Chung, Kent Cheng, Sing Ngai
Country: Hong Kong
Running Time: 93 min
Year: 1994
When I requested a screener for The Bodyguard from Beijing a few months back, I was excited to check out another film from legendary Hong Kong filmmaker Corey Yuen, a man behind classics such as Righting Wrongs, Dragons Forever, The Transporter and Yes, Madam! (which David covered a few years back, read his review here) Little did I know that during the time where I was putting together my review, we’d find out that Yuen had actually passed away earlier in 2022 due to COVID-19, but it was kept secret from the public due to his family’s wishes. Going into The Bodyguard from Beijing had a bittersweet feel to it, given that revelation and I was even more excited to check out a film from a director I’ve enjoyed virtually everything I’ve seen from. The question is, how was the film?
The Bodyguard from Beijing is a loose remake of the Kevin Costner-led The Bodyguard, which I’ll admit to having never seen before, which allowed me to go into this without any prior reservations about if it held up the the original. The film follows Allan Hui Ching-Yeung (Jet Li), a professional bodyguard who’s tasked with looking after Michelle Yeung, the partner of a rich individual. Ching-Yeung is extremely cautious about everything, utterly terrified of making any mistakes while Michelle is under his watch and for the first half of the film, we’re treated to him awkwardly making sure that every aspect of her day-to-day life is safe. Whether it’s the water that she’s drinking, the food she’s eating, the bedroom she’s sleeping in, he’s very committed to protecting her and before long, she begins to fall for him.
The film has some solid action set-pieces, although they’re sprinkled out through the film and alongside supporting characters Fat Po and Keung, we’re treated to a film that mostly takes place in one location, Michelle’s house. There’s some great sequences that take place outside of the house, such as a killer action set-piece in a mall that feels like Wong Kar-Wai directed it, thanks to the stunning slow-shutter cinematography and the entire final act has one of my favourite action scenes in recent memory. Similar to Fist of Legend, another Jet Li title that 88 Films recently released, there’s a great emphasis on having stand-out action set-piece concepts that are well-executed by all involved. The final action scene involves a house full of gas, so nobody can use guns and involves Li and the big bad fighting for a sip of water, it’s great stuff.
While the central on-and-off again romance between Ching-Yeung and Michelle didn’t fully work for me, Yeun’s direction in one scene in particular really caught me by surprise, with the pair fighting their urges to fall for each other while a romantic song plays over the sight of Michelle walking closer to Li’s titular bodyguard. It’s really effective, and had me fully invested in that moment.
Is The Bodyguard from Beijing going to completely blow you out of the water? Most likely not, but it’s still a commendable action film with a romance that I wish worked more for me, outside of one or two scenes. As I mentioned before, the final twenty minutes of the film are nothing short of excellent, with some incredible action that’ll please fans of Li or martial arts cinema. It’s absolutely worth checking out and 88 Films has done a great job with their release, which I’ll get into below.
Film: 
The Bodyguard from Beijing released on the 26th August via 88 Films on 4K UHD and Blu-ray. I viewed the UHD version of the film, which contains the film and the extras. The 4K transfer is a similar level of quality to 88’s previous Jet Li UHD release for Fist of Legend, which was a solid transfer that impressed me greatly. The Dolby Vision HDR grade makes the film’s colours pop more, and I was never disappointed by how the film looked visually. On the audio side, there’s only one track, a 2.0 Cantonese Mono mix which sounds pretty good. It won’t blow you away, but serves the film well and I have no complaints. A very pleasing A/V presentation. The following extras are included:
INCLUDES SILVER BOARD O-RING
BOOKLET WITH NOTES FROM TOM CUNLIFFE & DAVID WEST
AND LIMITED EDITION A3 POSTER
Brand new 4K Remaster from the Original Negatives presented in Ultra High Definition (2160p) in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio
Presented in Dolby Vision High Dynamic Range (HDR10 Compatible)
High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray in 1.85:1 Aspect Ratio also included
Cantonese Mono
Optional English Subtitles
Audio commentary by Hong Kong film expert Frank Djeng
Interview with writer Gordon Chan
Original Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring new artwork by Sam Green & original poster
The brand new audio commentary with Frank Djeng is top class, as you’d expect from the man. I almost feel like I’m repeating myself when it comes to Djeng’s commentary tracks because they’re always top-notch tracks, filled to the brim with fascinating information about the film he’s covering, anecdotes, box office history and much, much more. Highly recommended to fans of Djeng’s commentaries.
The brand new interview with writer Gordon Chan (director of Fist of Legend) runs for 39 minutes and like many of the exclusive 88 Films interviews for their Hong Kong features, it’s an all-encompassing interview that covers everything you’d want to know about Chan’s career. Whether it’s what influenced him to become a filmmaker in the first place, how he became involved with The Bodyguard from Beijing or how inspired by The Bodyguard he was when writing the screenplay, all is answered here in a great interview.
An original trailer is included.
I wasn’t provided with any of the physical extras, such as the booklet, o-ring or poster.
While 88 Films didn’t provide tons of extras for this release of The Bodyguard from Beijing, the included extras are fantastic and perfectly supplement the film. You can never go wrong with a Frank Djeng audio commentary and Gordon Chan’s interview is well worth a look too. 88 Films’ release of The Bodyguard from Beijing will please fans of the film or Jet Li’s work and it’s worth adding to your collection.
Disc/Packaging:
R.I.P. Corey Yuen (1951 – 2022)
