Jet Li's 2001 sci-fi movie The One pit him confronting a version of himself from another universe, and used unlike Chinese martial arts forms to capture the hero and villain's personalities. The One debuted during Jet Li'due south early on rise to fame in Hollywood. Already 1 of the biggest stars in Hong Kong action movies, Li's advent as the villainous Wah Sing-ku in 1998's Lethal Weapon four kickstarted his stateside career.

Li after led the activeness films Romeo Must Die and Kiss of the Dragon, with The I being his first PG-13 Hollywood movie. In The 1, Li plays Gabriel Yulaw, a former cop for the Multiverse Bureau on a mission to electrocute his parallel selves beyond the Multiverse in order to absorb their energy. In doing then, Yulaw seeks to become an all-powerful being known every bit "The One." Having eliminating 123 out of 124 of his alternate selves throughout the vast Multiverse, Yulaw's concluding target is LAPD cop Gabe Law, both of them possessing superhuman strength and speed equally a outcome of Yulaw's killing spree.

While both Gabe and Yulaw are very skilled martial artists, each practices a distinctly different grade of kung fu. Gabe is an opponent of Baquazhang ("Viii-Trigram Palm"), while Yulaw is a practitioner of Xingyiquan ("Shape-Intent Fist"). This was a very specific choice on the part of the makers of The Ane, including Li'southward longtime collaborator Corey Yuen, who served every bit fight choreographer. In having Gabe and Yulaw utilize their respective martial arts, this was intended to reflect their individual mindsets equally people.

Baquazhang is characterized by elusive, circular footwork and open-palm strikes, with the practitioner evading and countering attacks with their flowing movements. Avatar: The Final Airbender would later on uses Baquazhang as the ground for Waterbending. The nature of Baquazhang reflects Gabe's belief, articulated to Multiverse agent Fusch (Jason Statham), that "the energy of life goes in a circle, in a perfect flow, balanced," and the need to find one'south center. In his quest to become The One, Yulaw has a totally different outlook on life. Conversely, Xingyiquan is a very linear martial art, with ambitious and direct punching and reliance on explosive ability, or "fa jing". This captures the essence of Yulaw'due south decision to go The One. With that as his singular goal, he'southward focused completely on that to the exclusion of everything else, letting null stand in his way until he achieves it.

In its original conception, The 1 was about a completely different movie altogether. Dwayne Johnson was originally in The 1, attached in the dual hero-villain office, with Johnson at the time making his transition from pro-wrestling to movies. In that version of the flick, his two grapheme'due south fighting styles were "more street-ball kind of fighting," per visual effects supervisor Eric Durst in the documentary "Multiverses Create The I" on The One DVD. Following Johnson's deviation, Li'south boarding gave Gabe and Yulaw's fighting styles a major Wushu makeover.

Over two decades since The Ane's release, the Multiverse is speedily being re-popularized on the large and small screens. Both DC and Marvel's superhero films and shows are heavily diving into their multiverses. A24'sEverything Everywhere All At One time also using the Multiverse as its basis with Michelle Yeoh anchoring the pic. Jet Li has shifted his focus primarily to philanthropy in the last few years, but the legacy he's left on the martial arts genre cannot be overstated. The One is potent testimony to that, using two unlike kung fu forms to create a Jet Li martial arts showdown that genuinely stands alone.

Side by side: Jet Li's (English) Movies Ranked, Worst To Best

All viii MCU Movies Set By Medico Foreign two

Nearly The Author

Brad Curran (752 Articles Published)

Growing up, Brad developed an innate love of movies and storytelling, and was instantly enamored with the globe of adventure while following the exploits of Indiana Jones, Japanese kaiju, and superheroes. Today, Brad channels his thoughts on all mode of movies, from comic book films, sci-fi thrillers, comedies, and everything in between through his writings on Screen Rant. Brad also offers philosophical musings on martial arts and the filmographies of everyone from Jackie Chan to Donnie Yen on Kung Fu Kingdom, where he's likewise had the privilege of interviewing many of the globe's great stunt professionals, and hearing enough of gripping stories on injuries incurred in their line of work and the intricacies of designing the acts of expiry disobedience he first thrilled to as a youngster. When he's not writing, Brad enjoys going on a ride with the latest activity hit or Netflix original, though he's also known to merely pop in "The Room" from fourth dimension to time. Follow Brad on Twitter @BradCurran.

More than From Brad Curran