If Unleashed isn’t the first film I’ve seen Jet Li act in I don’t know what is. Jet Li plays a human dog, trained to be vicious when a heavy-duty collar is taken off to attack anything that the master says. With the collar on he is like a little boy with a small vocabulary and hardly any guile. Yet, with the collar off he is nothing short of a killing machine.
When his gang masters get gunned down by rival criminals, Li gets an opportunity to leave his squalid conditions, stumbling onto the father and daughter family of a blind piano tuner played by Morgan Freeman. Li slowly rediscovers his humanity and begins to awaken.
There’s enough action here for any other action film but Li does a really masterful job playing a human dog. The act fits him just right, probably because it doesn’t require much proper English dialogue. This is actually good as it highlights his acting talent (and he is a good actor as long as he’s speaking Chinese).
It’s a really grim, complex but ultimately touching film that I would recommend without hesitation.
Funny you mention this film.. It also goes by the name, “Danny the dog.” The story is unique and very entertaining..
waves hi to Baron
oh hai! I like the title “Danny the Dog” better too, I just used what wikipedia gave me for convenience. It’s a bit shocking but more fitting. I do think they could have fleshed out the complexities a bit more but it was still pretty good and funny at times too.