When you hear the name Jet Li the first thing that probably comes to mind is that he’s Asian. I’m just kidding. The first thing you probably think of is his amazing martial arts abilities but today, on Valentine’s Day, you’ll be able to experience Jet Li in a way you’ve never truly seen him before, in a full on dramatic role thanks to Well Go USA’s Blu-ray + DVD combo pack release of Ocean Heaven.
“Wang (Jet Li), a maintenance man at an Ocean Park-style water theme park, lives with his 20-year-old son, David (Wen Zhang). David suffers from autism and is unable to function independently in the outside world. He is a competent swimmer and regularly joins Wang at work, where he is allowed to play in the large aquariums with the dolphins, turtles and other tropical fish. However, when Wang discovers he has terminal cancer and only a matter of months left to live, he must help David assimilate into normal society, or risk him being incarcerated in a hellish mental asylum.”
While Ocean Heaven is a sad movie about a father struggling to figure out how to care for his son postmortem, it is also an uplifting and inspiring film about love, devotion, and the power of persistence. Wang takes on the role of both mother and father, devoting all his attention on saving money for David and making sure he is happy by allowing him to swim in the aquariums at work. As the father, Jet Li does a great job getting into his character and showing that he can also pull off these tougher dramatic roles. You could also tell that rather than trying to act, this performance was lead by his heart and how a nurturing father should be and act in a situation like that. And thanks to the solid chemistry he had with Wen Zhang, everything was able to flow smoothly, cinematically speaking that is
Well Go USA is dubbing this Li’s first dramatic role, and to an extent I agree with them. He plays a father with an autistic son and has to do whatever he can to make sure he stays out of trouble and can function somewhat independently. The reason they are dubbing this his first dramatic role is because he doesn’t get into one fist fight or battle, but I have to argue that his first real dramatic role was as Danny in Unleashed, because it was there where we saw real emotion and a completely vulnerable side of Li that we’ve rarely ever seen. I think his experience in that film helped pave the way for this role.
This movie is not for everyone and it will definitely resonate strongly with those who are well aware of autism or know somebody close that has it. First time writer/director Xue Xiaolu has done a very good job capturing the essence of Wang’s struggle to survive knowing that his son may not have a place to go. In the opening scene of the movie, he goes 
so far as to try and commit suicide with his son only to eventually fail because of David’s excellent swimming abilities. What’s more, Wang is clearly in love with a neighbor and she loves him back but he doesn’t want to place any of David’s burden on her even if she doesn’t mind.
The Blu-ray DVD combo pack is limited in its features but at least the Blu-ray quality is superb. The special features include two trailers and a 15 minute behind the scenes segment. The behind the scenes segment includes BTS footage cut with interviews with stars Jet Li, Wen Zhang and Xue Xiaolu. Not much is really learned about the film but we do get to hear a few interesting stories regarding what it was like to work with Jet Li and how some were actually concerned about his original involvement with the picture. You could tell that this became a passion project not only for Xue Xiaolu but for Li and Zhang as well, which definitely shines through when you watch the movie.
For Xue Xiaolu’s feature debut and Jet Li’s first full-on dramatic role, Ocean Heaven is a pleasant piece of dramatic cinema that radiates with passion. It’s a film that avoids the typical pitfalls of disorder based films and manages to stay nice and concise while keeping the audience members engaged and invested in the characters.
Movie Rating: A Passionate and engaging film for those willing to give it the time (6.8/10)
DVD rating: 6/10
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