Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia) (Legend of a Fighter)

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Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia) (Legend of a Fighter)

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Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Ji...

Betty Sun, Collin Chou, Dong Yong, Jet Li, Nakamura Shido

"Fearless" is based on the life of Chinese martial arts master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910), the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation. It is set during the late 1800s to early 1900s, ...( read more  read more... )a pivotal period in China's history, when the whole country is shrouded under increasing internal turmoil and the imminent threat of foreign invasion.

Id: 10890953

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Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia) (Legend of a Fighter) Recent Reviews

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Jet Li's Fearless (Huo Yuan Jia) (Legend of a Fighter) Recent Reviews
  • stopitgoaway
    October 15, 2009
    stopitgoaway
    Make no mistake about it, Fearless is the best straight-ahead martial arts film since Jackie Chan's seminal Drunken Master 2. Director Ronny Yu crams more bone-jarring, well crafted fight scenes into the first forty minutes of this movie than most films can match in their entire ...( read more)runtime. This is a canny move, as it pulls in the viewer via the blurring action before beginning to develop the film's narrative in the middle third. While the story is a well used one (kung-fu bully comes to realise his skills can be used to educate rather than brutalise), it's a perfect structure on which to hang the film's many excellent confrontations. It's obvious that this film is Li's love letter to his Wu Shu background and martial arts in general. In dramatic terms, Fearless never reaches the heights of recent wuxia movies like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero and so is unable to feel truly fulfilling as a great movie per se. It is however up there with Jet Li's very best work in the genre, OUATIC & Fist of Legend for example, and if it is (sadly) true that it is to be his last period martial arts picture, it's a hell of a bang to go out on.
  • JDFortuneFan
    June 14, 2009
    JDFortuneFan
    Jet Li's Fearless is a masterpiece film. Combining the story of Huo Yuan Jia and awesome Chinese martial arts, the film is a happy, sad, intense, thrilling, captivating roller coaster ride from beginning to end. Brilliantly directed and superbly acted, if you enjoy Chinese mar...( read more)tial art films, you will be blown away with Fearless.
  • mrpopcorn
    October 6, 2008
    mrpopcorn
    After seeing this movie, I thought that Jet Li is definitely more suited for Chinese movies (movie is in Chinese with Chinese and English subtitles). The movie truly reflects not only on history, but on Chinese culture itself. The movie had a perfect mix of fighting and storyline...( read more).

    A definite must-see for brawl-loving, exotic cultured movie perfectly reflecting history.
  • Galeocerdo
    March 14, 2008
    Galeocerdo
    This film reinforces my theory that this genre simply does not translate very well. I can only hope the dialogue works much better for a Chinese audience than it did for me. Still, the cinematography and choreography were exciting enough by themselves.
  • EarthlyAlien
    March 13, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Huo Yuan Jia: "[after Zhao Jian tore his shirt] Pussy claw?
    Zhao Jian: It's Tiger Claw!"

    ...( read more)Alien/Jet-Li-Fearless.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

    It's probably no coincidence that the best-received film Jet Li has made since becoming an international commodity is Hero, which cast him as one of several characters who employed martial arts as an act of Chinese nation-building. Put him up against Mel Gibson in Lethal Weapon 4 or partner him on mean American streets with DMX in Romeo Must Die, and the man still looks like he ought to be kicking ass in flowing robes under Chinese skies. Getting Li in that position is half the battle in making a successful Li vehicle. In 2006, he was 43 and had started to look it, even if it seems not to have slowed him down. Whether or not that has anything to do with Li's decision to make Fearless his last film using traditional Chinese martial arts is unclear. But he certainly makes the most of his lifelong craft here.

    The fact that the film's Chinese title is Huo Yuan Jia says it all. Fearless is based on the life of Huo Yuanjia, a master of the Mizongyi style of fighting in the early 20th century, founder of China's esteemed Chin Woo Athletic Association and whose life is the source of endless TV films, documentaries, and films in China. In the West, we are familiar with Huo Yuanjia through the films of Bruce Lee (Fists of Fury, 1972) and Jet Li (Fists of Legend, 1994), both of which are excellent examples of the genre and tell the story of Huo's disciples after his death.

    Fearless portrays Huo's childhood, his young manhood, and his adulthood. It is, strictly speaking, a rite of passage film, showing how Huo overcame his ignorance, pride, and selfish ambition to become a great martial artist and a defender of Chinese pride. Before that happens, Huo lives his life as an angry young man with a compulsion to prove that he is the best fighter in the city of Tianjin. One of the recurring motifs of the film is a madman who repeatedly asks Huo: "When will you be champion of Tianjin?" Over the film's length, the question undergoes an evolution in tone from mocking, to triumphant, to ironic, to poignant. It is a powerful device which reflects Huo's spiritual progress even more than it does his fighting prowess.

    Huo eventually becomes champion of Tianjin, defeating good fighters, foreign fighters, and crowds of fighters along the way. When he begins to drink heavily (a metaphor for how his success has intoxicated him), his mother warns him: "Wushu is not about winning, it's about discipline and self-restraint." But it is too late for Huo. When one of his disciples is beaten up by another master, Huo takes his revenge and suffers the tragic consequences. He goes into the countryside, where he discovers who he is as an individual, apart from his identity as a fighter. In a sense, he becomes a born-again Chinese, respectful of religious traditions, of his nation's pride, and of his martial arts. He uses his fighting ability to further the cause of his people and country rather than to glorify himself.

    The story opens near the end and then takes us back to the much younger Huo and his complicated relationship with both his father and the purpose of wushu. By the time he has lost everything we have been treated to an array of action that singularly would shame a lot of recent genre films - the enraged face-off between Huo and Master Chin in which their surroundings, the building and weapons are all destroyed in the face of untapped rage is an instant classic sequence. Later it's the more refined and disciplined Huo that outfights an ensemble of colonial fighters each with their own styles and skills providing as much fun as you would find in a dozen lesser kung fu flicks.

    Jet Li's swan song to martial arts would have to be one hell of a film, and thankfully Fearless is just that. It's an epic film that ties up the best modern techniques with a traditional story and pace to deliver something rather special. Even clued up audience members that know the outcome of the film well in advance will find it hard not to be moved by the finale. There are scenes that involve wire work and a touch of computer trickery, but they are used sparingly and only in order to elevate the story which at the film's core is simply about hope rather than fighting prowess. Old fashioned in places, it recalls the best period kung fu flicks that we all grew up with, while offering something more than a Jackie Chan knockabout or a Bruce Lee-style "cool as ice" performance. This is Jet Li signing off on wushu and it's perhaps his strongest signature performance ever.

    Beyond the moments of pure bravura, the masterful, creative and, above all, convincing fight scenes orchestrated by master coreographer Yuen Wo Ping - with very little of the special effects used extensively in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or Hero - it's the sense of loss and, later, community that the film evokes which stays with you - the simple life of the farmers that offer Huo refuge from himself and the character of Moon are just as memorable as the most complicated fight moves, while even when at its most melodramatic the film is superbly shot.

    I saw Fearless in the theatre, but there is - I'm told - a longer (141 min) more complete Director's Cut of the film on DVD, which I'm dying to get my hands on. That version apparently has Michelle Yeoh's present-day scenes uncut. As it stands, Fearless is a magnificent film - that there's even more to come is something to be very excited about. As for this being Li's final martial arts film, that's a bitter sweet pill to swallow, but it's hard not to agree that Fearless is a perfect farewell.
  • Marischa2
    December 16, 2009
    Marischa2
    jet li the best kong fu actor after Bruce lee.
  • yellowleen19
    December 10, 2009
    yellowleen19
    ..,ganda din nito..,
  • ifeels1ck
    December 6, 2009
    ifeels1ck
    A proud wuxia fighter inspires the nation but taking on the greatest fighters from around the world.
  • WilliamRobertEccleston
    December 2, 2009
    WilliamRobertEccleston
    Jet Li's Martial Arts epic is probably not only his best work this decade but also one the best Martial Arts films this decade period next to Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Hero etc.
  • tambooolzvl
    December 2, 2009
    tambooolzvl
    pembelajaran hidup seseorang....
    banyak hikmah yg dapat kita ambil dari film ini....
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