Synopsis of the film Romeo Must Die: Jet Li’s Revenge and American Police Investigate the Action Case for the Death of His Sister
The following is a synopsis of the film Romeo Must Die, starring Jet Li, Aaliyah and Isaiah Washington.
This film tells the story of Han Sing (Jet Li), who becomes a former Hong Kong police officer. Han is imprisoned for allowing his father, Chu Sing (Henry O), who is a member of the Triad and Po Sing (Jonkit Lee), his younger brother, to escape to America.
He served his sentence with ease, perhaps considering what he did not do wrong because he helped his father and brother.
But his sister was killed in a nightclub owned by a black mafia in America. This made Han furious and decided to escape from prison. Han intends to head to America to find out the ins and outs of his sister’s murder.
While investigating the murder of his sister, Han meets a woman named Trish O’Day (Aaliyah).
Trish is black and Han is brown, but this doesn’t stop them from falling in love. With the goal of uncovering a murder, Trish helps Han investigate the murder of his sister.
Synopsis and Storyline Romeo Must Die – is an action film directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak and starring Jet Li and Aaliyah. In my opinion, the Romeo Must Die film is an action film that has a very general storyline, it is almost certain to find similarities with other similar films, but for those who like Jet Li, of course, they will really like it because the various action scenes it shows are interesting. Romeo Must Die was released on March 22, 2000.
Li stars as Han Sing, once a cop, now taking the rap for a crime he didn’t commit. He’s in a Hong Kong prison as the movie opens. His brother is killed after a fight at a dance club, and Sing breaks out of prison to travel to America and avenge his brother’s death. In Oakland, he meets Trish O’Day (the singer Aaliyah, in her film debut), and they begin to fall in love, while she helps him look into his brother’s death.
But what a coincidence! Her father Isaak (Delroy Lindo) may know more about the death than he should, and soon two lovers are in the middle of a war between Chinese and black organizations who are involved in a murky plot to buy up the waterfront for a new sport stadium. This real-estate project exists primarily as a clothesline on which to hang elaborate martial arts sequences, including one Jackie Chan-style football game where Jet Li hammers half a dozen guys and scores a touchdown, all at once.
Synopsis Romeo Must Die tells the story of Han Sing (Jet Li) who is a former Hong Kong police officer, he is imprisoned for letting his father Chu Sing (Henry O) who is a Triad leader and Po Sing (Jonkit Lee) escape to America. Initially, Han Sing accepts his punishment gracefully, but everything changes when he hears that his younger brother was killed after making a scene in a nightclub owned by a black gang. He also escaped from prison and headed to America to find out what really happened and find out who killed his sister.
It is a failing of mine that I persist in bringing logic to movies where it is not wanted. During “Romeo Must Die,” I began to speculate about the methods used to buy up the waterfront. All of the property owners (of clubs, little shops, crab houses, etc.) were asked to sell, and when they refused, they are variously murdered, torched, blown up or have their faces stuck into vats of live crabs. Don’t you think the press and the local authorities would notice this? Don’t you imagine it would take the bloom off a stadium to know that dozens of victims were murdered to clear the land? Never mind. The audience isn’t in the theater for a film about property values, but to watch Jet Li and other martial arts warriors in action. “Romeo Must Die” has a lots of fight scenes, but their key moments are so obviously filmed via special effects that they miss the point. When Jackie Chan does a stunt, it may look elegant, but we know he’s really doing it. Here Jet Li leaps six feet in the air and rotates clockwise while kicking three guys. It can’t be done, we know it can’t be done, we know he’s not doing it, and so what’s the point? In “The Matrix,” there’s a reason the guy can fly.
While investigating Po Sing’s death in Oakland, Han Sing meets a beautiful black girl, Trish O’Day (Aaliyah). It turns out that the difference in skin color did not prevent them from falling in love. Even Trish tries to help Han Sing in his investigation. Even though Po Sing’s death has a connection with a black mafia organization led by Isaak O’Day (Delroy Lindo) who is Trish’s father. Of course Trish is shocked to learn that her father may very well be behind Po Sing’s death.
In Jackie Chan’s “Rumble In The Bronx,” he uses grace and athletic ability to project his entire body through the swinging gate of a grocery cart, and we say, “yes!” (pumping a fist into the air is optional). Here Jet Li tries the Chan practice of using whatever props come to hand, but the football game looks over-rehearsed and a sequence with a fire hose is underwhelming (anybody can knock guys off their feet with a fire hose).
Closing notes: Many windows are broken in the movie. Many people fall from great heights. There are a lot of rap songs on the soundtrack, which distract from the action because their lyrics occupy the foreground and replace dialogue. Killers on motorcycles once again forget it is dangerous to chase cars at high speed, because if they get thrown off their bikes, it will hurt. The reliable Motorcycle Opaque Helmet Rule is observed (when you can’t see the face of a character because the visor is down, chances are–gasp!–it’s a woman). No great romantic chemistry is generated between the young lovers, and there is something odd about a martial arts warrior hiding behind a girl’s bedroom door so her daddy won’t catch him. Lindo projects competence, calm and strength in every scene. This movie needs a screenplay.
Their fathers were also at odds with each other, Chu Sing and Isaak were the heads of the mafia of each region, in fact they were competing hard against each other in fighting over an empty land by the sea for a project that could provide very tempting profits. Starting from there, their families attacked each other to fight over the wetland and of course there was a high price for getting the land, for example their lives.
This film was directed by Andrzej Bartkowiak. The story Romeo Must Die is somewhat tied to the story of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. But the warring families are African Americans and Chinese.
Romeo Must Die Cast List
- Jet Li as Han Sing
- Aaliyah as Trish O’Day
- Isaiah Washington as Mac
- Russell Wong as Kai
- DMX as Silk
- Delroy Lindo as Isaak O’Day
- DB Woodside as Colin O’Day
- Henry O as Ch’u Sing
- Anthony Anderson as Maurice
- Jon Kit Lee as Po Sing
- Françoise Yip as Meriana Sing
- Edoardo Ballerini as Vincent Roth
- Matthew Harrison as Dave
- Terry Chen as Kung
- Derek Lowe as Chinese Messenger
- Ronin Wong as the new Prisoner
- Kendall Saunders as Colin’s Girlfriend
- Benz Antoine as Crabman
- Grace Park as the Dancer
- Byron Lawson as Chief Protector
