Fearless

Year:2006
Director:Ronny Yu Yan-Tai
Cast:Jet Li, Shido Nakamura, Dong Yong, Betty Sun Li, Nathan Jones, Collin Chou , Bau Hei-Jing, Masato Harada, Anthony De Longis, Jean-Claude Leuyer, Brandon Rhea, Mike Leeder, Ian Powers, Michelle Yeoh
Description:
Jet
Li returns to Hong Kong Cinemas with Fearless,
a solidly entertaining martial arts epic billed as
the star's final martial arts film. Directed by Ronny
Yu, Fearless stars Li as real life martial
arts master Huo Yuanjia , founder of the
Jingwu Sports Federation. As a child Huo is deemed
too sickly to follow in the footsteps of his father
, but Huo trains on the
sly anyway in hopes of becoming a martial arts master.
Fueling his desire is the perceived failure of his
father, who was never able to strike the final killing
blow in regional exhibitions, and thus never became
the champion Huo always dreamed he should have been.
To Huo, the goal is fame and glory; things like sportsmanship,
goodwill, and humility are just afterthoughts.
Huo learns enough kung-fu
to become a champion as an adult, but his success
is marred by pride, jealousy, and an overwhelming
immaturity. When rival kung-fu master Chin apparently
offends one of his followers, Huo uses that as an
excuse to seek out and challenge Chin, partially to
avenge his student, but mostly to assert his own superiority.
But at what cost? Huo's hubris is his downfall, and
the so-called "Champion of Tianjin" is soon
stripped of everything he holds dear. A broken man,
he wonders the countryside until he finds shelter
in a rural village. He meets Moon , a kind
blind girl who teaches him humility and simple honor.
Soon Huo is back on the martial arts horse, only this
time he fights to defend the honor of the Chinese
people and not to establish his own name. Huo earns
redemption, but unsavory foreign types make it their
mission to take him down, lest the Chinese people
actually start having some pride in themselves. They
plot to destroy him, but Huo's legacy may be too great
to destroy. There's also fighting, and plenty of it.
The above may sound like
I've just given away the whole movie, but really,
I haven't. That's because Fearless is not a
plot-driven, beat-em-up action picture where Jet Li
takes on thirty martial arts students at once in some
overcrowded dojo. Nope, Fearless is a different
type of cinematic beast; it's a classy biopic featuring
Jet Li as a real-life figure renowned by the Chinese
people. The part is a departure for Li, as it's an
iconic dramatic role that requires more acting than
simply glowering at some bad guy before kicking his
ass. Huo Yuanjia is a classic hero out of a screenwriting
textbook; he's a man who rises from the ashes of his
own failures to become an inspiration to a nation,
and prime fodder for martyrhood. It's not an easy
role for an actor used to playing childlike heroes
or stoic badasses, but Li pulls it off with considerable
grace, if not subtlety. Li plays each stage in Huo's
development a bit too broadly. However, by the end
of the film, he's grown comfortably into the role.
This is a man who's been through a lot, and Li inhabits
him with appropriate and compelling presence.
Still, Li's performance is
disjointed, which may be a fault of the film more
than the actor. Fearless is a serious biopic,
but it seems to be missing more than a few sequences
. The first hour is
entertaining and fascinating, as we're introduced
to Huo Yuanjia and we witness his rise in the martial
arts world, complete with plenty of exhilarating fight
sequences. The sequences are marred by occasionally
obvious CGI, but choreographer Yuen Woo-Ping serves
them up with appropriate doses of grace and brutality.
After Huo's downfall, however, things get a bit less
developed. His path from fallen man to rebuilt hero
seems far too simple, and his village interlude seems
to contain a couple of gaps. He finds some peace and
humility with Moon and her grandmother, but his eventual
decision to return to martial arts competition doesn't
seem to arise from anything other than a narrative
need. Even less developed is Moon; she's played attractively
by Betty Sun, but her dialogue consists of one wise
saying after the next. Ultimately, she still feels
more like a plot device than an actual person.
The screenplay doesn't
limit its clichés to Moon; the final half of
the film is structured in a rushed and perfunctory
manner. Time is made for the pivotal fight sequences,
such as the one between Huo Yuanjia and hulking boxer
O'Brien , who offers to take on all
"Sick Men of Asia" in the ring. However,
some details are given almost no focus, such as Huo's
founding of the Jingwu Sports Federation, which happens
nearly overnight. In no time at all, Huo is back on
top of the martial arts world, with many devoted followers
and fame extending across Asia. His mucho-hyped battle
with Japanese fighter Tanaka is also
a bit mystifying, as Tanaka barely qualifies as a
character worthy of such focus. He seems to be a kindred
spirit who shares Huo's sportsmanship and honor, but
the moments seem more scripted than earned. The two
share a conversation over tea where nearly all the
film's themes get wrapped up in a neat verbal bow
- which is great for audiences who weren't paying
attention. For those who were paying attention, the
moments seem to come off as obvious platitudes.
But the platitudes work.
Despite the connect-the-dots screenplay, Fearless
features potent themes of honor and sportsmanship,
and Huo Yuanjia's discovery of the true beauty and
power of his father's martial arts can be very compelling.
Likewise, witnessing Huo Yuanjia defend the pride
of the Chinese people is rousing stuff, and the accompanying
fight sequences are vastly entertaining. Director
Ronny Yu gives the subject matter a refreshingly reverential
treatment, and almost seems to be angling for Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon territory with the film's
classy production values, and predominantly western
pacing and storytelling. Fearless still falls
a few notches short of that lofty goal as the film
takes too many shortcuts, but this is classy, satisfying
entertainment that marks a fitting end to Jet Li's
screen fighting career - if this really is his final
martial arts picture. But even if it isn't, Fearless
should be remembered as one of Li's finest accomplishments.