15-7-08 With Benny The Jet

July 15, 2008

THE JET LANDS IN BANGKOK : Meeting the master.

I arrive in Thailand for our film ‘Shanghai’ which, for reasons too convoluted to go into here, ended up shooting in London and Bangkok rather than in the eponymous Chinese city. I knew that the film’s star, John Cusack, was a long-time student of Benny ‘The Jet ‘ Urquidez, and I’m delighted to learn that The Jet is in town, along with his lovely wife Sara, to train John during the shoot.

Our scenes set in the Shanghai railway station are being shot on the exact same location Sammo Hung used for his Shanghai Express (out now on Dragon Dynasty), and where we later shot the opening train sequence for The Twins Effect (AKA The Vampire Effect). Seeing a familiar figure watching the scene from behind the monitor, I greet Benny warmly. Everyone calls him ‘Sensei’ (and quite right too!).

I first met Benny when he was shooting a film called Enter The Eagles, starring Shannon Lee, daughter of Bruce. He had trained Shannon for the film, and was playing a bad guy role. As was usual for the era, a western action star like Benny would be flown in to Hong Kong, and pretty much left to his own devices. I considered it a great honour to play host to The Jet, and spend as much time as I could absorbing the wisdom of his long experience in the martial arts, and in life.

I remember taking him for snake soup at a back alley Kowloon eaterie. One of the snakes escaped, and Benny got to his feet and stared it down. The reptile slithered backwards… Even snakes fear the Jet! We attended a kickboxing event staged by Billy Chow, who Benny had fought on an earlier trip to Hong Kong. (We just filmed an interview with Billy for our forthcoming DVD release of Jet Li’s Fist Of Legend). While shooting the final fight for Enter The Eagles (AKA And Now You’re Dead), Benny pulled a muscle, and I took him to one of my Hung Kuen masters, Sifu Cheung Yee-keung, for treatment. A photo of the two of them still hangs on the wall in Cheung Sifu’s kwoon…

For those not in the know, Benny has had one of the most extraordinary journeys. Of mixed Hispanic, Native American heritage, he came from the meanest streets, and was initially coerced by his elder brother to take up karate. Urquidez quickly excelled, and went on to fight in every available arena, from tough man contests to traditional karate tournaments to the kickboxing ring (where he enjoyed his greatest fame). You can see Benny in his prime in the cult documentary Kings of the Square Ring. He became a superstar in Japan, where, inspired by the Elton John song and by the victory back-flip he executed after each bout, they dubbed Benny ‘The Jet’.

Benny’s first exposure to the silver screen came when he was cast in director Robert Clouse’s reworking of Enter The Dragon, ‘Force:Five’ (anyone else remember that one?). The film itself is pretty hokey, but Benny comes off well. His work in the ring and on the screen attracted the attention of Sammo Hung, who cast him in Wheels On Meals and, later, Dragons Forever. In both films, Benny gives Jackie Chan the best fights of his career. While they were making Wheels On Meals in Spain, Jackie half-jokingly suggested that they stage a charity exhibition bout in Hong Kong. Benny readily agreed (has he ever not?), but told Jackie he’d better train hard if he didn’t want to get hurt. Someone showed Chan some of Benny’s kickboxing matches and no more was ever heard of the charity match… (To Jackie’s credit, Benny says that, had Chan focused on kickboxing as a career, instead of movies, he would definitely have been a champion).

Back in the US, Urquidez found work behind the camera, training Patrick Swayze for Roadhouse, Kylie Minogue for Streetfighter… He found a ready student in John Cusack, and the pair staged a cool fight sequence for the film Grosse Pointe Blank.

It was while I was hanging out with Benny in Hong Kong that my first son was born, and I asked if he would be Ryan’s godfather. Even though I hadn’t known Urquidez long, I knew him well. I figured my first-born couldn’t do much better in terms of mentoring, and was delighted that Benny accepted my request. (You can see Ryan busting loose some ‘Jet’-style moves on the Flashpoint MMA documentary!)

I kept in contact with Benny. Every time I worked on a film where an actor needed martial arts training, I would send them to Urquidez’ Jet Centre. Claire Forlani trained there for The Medallion, Michael Biehn for Dragon Heat (available now from you know who…). I’m looking forward to training with Benny while he’s in town. I may be an old man now, but I have three young kids to keep up with!