THE ONE (2001)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*

A lot of modern film-critics hate the concept of multiverses as popularized by the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But seven years before IRON MAN, James Wong's THE ONE got there first-- sort of. Wong and writing-partner Glen Morgan, who'd done mostly TV episode work in the nineties, don't really use the concept of a multiverse as anything but a near-infinite hunting-ground for their villain Yulaw (Jet Li)-- and a way of motivating the evildoer's struggle against the hero (also Li).

The strucure of THE ONE is suspiciously similar to the franchise HIGHLANDER, which arguably became more noteworthy as a TV show than as a movie series. The immortals of that franchise went around killing one another in order to reap the power of those slain. In Yulaw's case, he has some metaphysical connection with every other doppelganger of himself in the multiverse, and when he jaunts to other dimensions and kills a version of himself there, his kung fu becomes more powerful. Dimension-protecting agents Rodecker and Funsch (Delroy Lindo, Jason Statham) finally track down Yulaw after he's killed 123 other self-reflections, and now there's only one left, Gabe Law of Los Angeles. Predictably, Yulaw gets free and invades the Earth-dimension.

There's a lot of running around and shooting until the film gets around between the Battle of the Two Lis, and Wong's direction is pedestrian, like the script. Wikipedia notes that the original star was projected to be Dwayne Johnson, and the substitution of Li in the two roles proves at least a moderate improvement. Because Li unlike Johnson is a martial performer, this obliged the script to distinguish the two foes on the basis of martial style, with Yulaw using aggressive, thrusting moves while Gabe uses more organic, cyclical stratagems. The film's ending stresses that Yulaw ends up in a hell of eternal battle while Gabe gets a new chance at love.

The film's most amusing moments are Jason Statham's scenes. Throughout the movie he painfully affects a neutral accent in place of his usual distinctive British lilt. He gets absolutely no chance to show off his own fighting skills in THE ONE, and even gets kicked around by Yulaw. This proves ironic since the two performers are situated as equal martial masters in the 2007 Statham-Li vehicle WAR. One year later, Statham broke out as a headliner in the first entry in the TRANSPORTER series, and I suspect THE ONE is one role he'd like to forget.