Hong Kong action star Jet Li shared his feelings after narrowly escaping death several times.
The 63-year-old Jet Li recently spoke with U.S. outlet CNN about experiences that brought him to the brink of death, including surviving the 2004 tsunami, a fall during a film shoot and acute mountain sickness.
According to reports, Jet Li recalled that when the tsunami triggered by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake suddenly swept over the beach, he was on vacation in the Maldives with his family, including his young children. He said, "At that moment my wife and two daughters were by my side," and noted, "I felt the whole family came very close to death."
He pointed to his chin and said, "The water reached up to here. If it had been 20 inches (about 50 cm) higher, I would have died."
A year after the tsunami, while filming the movie 'Fearless Wong Fei-hung' he suffered another harrowing accident when he fell from a 12-foot (about 3.6 m) tower and sustained internal injuries. A few months later he also suffered severe acute mountain sickness at an isolated temple in Sichuan Province, China.
He said, "Every time I survived, my desire to truly be free grew stronger," and explained, "Today many people in the world know how to train their bodies — getting healthy, losing weight, exercising. Training the mind is also important. Happiness is mental, and health is physical. We must find a way to balance the two."
He also confessed, "Sometimes when I'm in China people just say, 'That person is old now. He can't make films anymore.' I thought many people had already forgotten who Jet Li is."
Jet Li was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in 2009; his symptoms became severe and he lost weight rapidly, looking gaunt for a time, and last year he underwent surgery to remove a throat tumor. Online, rumors of his death circulated.
He said his health condition has "finally reached a level I can control."
He also acknowledged the effects of physical aging, saying, "I used to do 10 moves in a second, but now it takes 10 seconds to do one move."
But Jet Li said he continues on his path in life guided by "freedom," represented by embracing the mindset that things will follow their natural course, and added, "If someone tells you, 'I am free,' doesn't that mean that person is not yet free? So I am still on that journey."
[Photo] SNS
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