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Director: Ronny Yu
Producer: Bill Kong
Choreographer: Yuen Wo Ping
Genre: Martial Arts, Wushu.
Movie Release: 2006
DVD Release: 2007, widescreen
Languages: English, Mandarin
Not Rated
I finally got around to renting Jet Li’s Fearless, announced as his last martial arts movie.
The plot is one familiar to most viewers of this genre, though this particular main character is based on the historical figure of Huo Yuanjia, founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sport Federation. The cusp of the story is set in the early 1900’s as most of China’s main cities are controlled by foreign powers. Conflicts of culture and national pride are ever present. One lone man representing his nation against the four main powers in China.
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Jump 30 years in the past. We witness a young Huo Yuanjia being denied the Wushu teachings by his father, a great fighter wishing a different life for his son. Though he learns in hiding and becomes a master fighter, winning match after match, the true nature of the art eludes him. He is arrogant in his skills and cares only about being declared “the best.” Dire consequences ensue. The story takes us through his rise, descent, and ultimate transformation into the wise and respected man and Wushu master worthy of the legacy he left behind.
Li worked closely with choreographer Yuen Wo Ping (The Matrix, Kill Bill) to keep the movie fresh and new. Indeed, the fight scenes are eye candy at its best. Fluid movements, bounds and leaps, display of strength and flexibility enough to make you cringe. The special effects were kept to a minimum, with Li’s desire to return to basics and closer to true fighting. The movie is visually stunning. The style of acting is Chinese rather than western, in that it is at times overly done in expression. Those moments may seem strange in English, but in its original Mandarin, it fits the staccato rhythm of the language.
Li insists on several occasions in the Special Feature segment that this IS his last martial arts movie, “no more.” He also feels the movie industry has wrongly portrayed martial arts as being all about fighting. A life time practitioner of the Wushu style, Li’s primary goal for this movie was to restore and convey the true ideals of Martial Arts: self-improvement and discipline through training.
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There is a section where Li goes through the form. In real life as on screen, simply watching a true master going through the movements is heavenly. There is an underlying power that is palatable. It is the most amazing dance, ease and softness flowing with force and strength. It is trance-like both for the performer and the viewer. That segment alone I could watch over and over.
Jet Li is fast, he is precise, he can be deadly. And at 42 years of age, he is certainly not slowing down. The camera actually had to roll five times the normal speed to be able to catch his movements on film. Five times the normal speed! I’ll leave you pondering that little fact.
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