Lee's father

Lee's Father is the father of Chief Inspector Lee. He isn't seen throughout the film series but is mention in Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2.

Before the series
Lee's father was a member of the Hong Kong Police Force and his partner was Ricky Tan. While investigating an international smuggling case. Lee's father soon discovered that his partner was a dirty cop working for the Triads. When he was set to deliver this information to his superior to prove it, Tan confronted Lee's father at gun point by grabbing him by the neck and holding him against the wall.

Lee's father knew that Tan had befriended his son and asked to promise not to kill his son. This made Tan angry so he shot Lee's father in the head and killed him. The evidence disappeared, the case was never solved and Tan resigned from the Police Force.

As a result of his father's murder, Lee joined the HKPF to make his father proud.

Rush Hour
While eating Chinese food in Chinatown, Carter mention to Lee that his father was a police officer for 15 years in the LAPD. Lee also revealed that his father was a police officer for HKPF but it is unknown how many years he had been with the force. Lee also told Carter that his father arrested 25 people by himself and caught a bullet with his bare hands.

Rush Hour 2
This film reveals parts of a backstory for the relationship between Lee's father and his partner Ricky Tan. When Lee and Carter go to meet Ricky Tan on his boat. Lee reveals to Carter that Tan was his father's partner. During the argument between Lee and Tan he tells him that if his father was still alive he would've turned to him for advice but Lee warns him to never speak of his father.

Later while dropping Carter off at the Airport, Lee tells Carter that his father was set up by Ricky Tan to be killed. Lee also tells Carter about his father's last case as a Police Detective and his death. Carter now realizing that Lee lived his life without a parent asks him to come on the plane with him to Los Angeles as he too lived without a parent when his father was killed.

In the climax when Lee confronts Tan he holds him at gunpoint the same way Tan held his father at gunpoint. Lee cocks the gun and Carter encourages him to pull the trigger. Tan taunts Lee some about his father which enrages Lee bringing himself to spare Tan. After Tan knocks the gun away in Carter's direction and the three struggle, Tan picks up the gun and is only seconds from shooting Carter when Lee kicks him out the window and he falls to his death. Lee had sucessfully avenged his father's murder though Tan's death was accidental.

At the end of the film at the Las Vegas Airport, Lee finally lets go of his past about his father by giving Carter his father's police badge. Carter at first graciously declines but Lee tells him to take it gradually improving their friendship.

Trivia

 * The only times Lee mention his father was during his cases of Soo-Yung's kidnapping and the Embassy Explosion case.
 * Lee might have received his father's police badge when he was a teenager after his father's death. Later in Rush Hour 2, Lee lets go of his past about his father by giving the badge to Carter.
 * Lee mention his father in Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2, but didn't mention his mother and it is unknown about any information about his mother.
 * It's unknown whether or not he was either Lee's biological or adoptive father as Lee mentions in Rush Hour 3 that he grew up as an orphan before eventually being adopted.