Huo Yuan Jia

Note: This is a review of the Directors Cut. The story of Fearless is a definite soul searching movie. Young Yuanjia was an arrogant fighter who was always spoiling for a fight. On the same day he became the best fighter in Tianjin, he lost his mother and daughter. Crazed with grief and shame, Yuanjia fled Tianjin stumbling upon an idyllic village. Guided by the villagers’ simple kindness and generosity, Yuanjia began to forget his pain and his desire to fight. At last, he makes his peace with the world and decides to return home. Under the direction of Ronny Yu, one of Hong Kong’s most shining modern directors, Li couldn’t have picked a better movie for his presumed exit from the genre.

To clarify, it was advertised in America that this would be Li’s last martial arts film.  That was false, mainly because American marketers are naive. It would actually be his last ‘wushu‘ [click the link for information about wushu] film.  Frankly stated, after this film, there isn’t a need for another wushu film.  This is Jet Li’s best movie, wushu or not. Sure, the film’s plot could be from one of a thousand different martial arts films; arrogant upstart ignoring all advice suffers greatly, learns humility and returns to triumph. But trust me, Fearless is so much more than that.

Set before the backdrop of China in the early 1900s, a time when the country was extremely vulnerable to foreign exploitation as various powers had taken control of the country, “Fearless” features some of the most remarkable martial arts sequences I have seen in years, hands down.   Filmed with loving care, viewers are treated to a roller coaster between traditional wushu hand to hand fighting, weaponry bouts, and solemn contemplation of the more cerebral parts of life. It may lack the ferocity of their previous work in Fist of Legend but the sequences still thrill and only get better as the movie progresses. Up to this day I had only watched the western domestic release of Fearless. That will forever collect dust on my wall of DVDs. The Director’s Cut demands multiple viewings to catch everything that wasn’t in the former mentioned release. The directors cut adds vital plot points and focuses more on character development then the previous theaterical run. If you are familiar with the Ridley Scott film, Kingdom of Heaven, it should be stated that the theatrical run of that movie was a hot mess compared to the near perfect directors cut on dvd.  This is a similar case, although Fearless wasn’t a mess to begin with, the directors cut vastly improves upon the original release and should be the only mandatory purchasing option. With that in mind, up the ante, and pick it up on Blu-ray.  It is gorgeous and there are some scenes that are so vibrant my jaw dropped.

Final Score: A

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BACK COVER SYNOPSIS: Superstar Jet Li headlines this action-packed film, his final martial arts epic. The films reteams him with producer Bill Kong ("Hero") and action director and choreographer Yuen Wo Ping ("The Matrix" and "Kill Bill"). Li plays real-life martial arts legend Huo Yuanjia, who became the most famous fighter in all of China at the turn of the 20th Century. Huo faced incredible personal tragedy but ultimately fought his way out of darkness and into history, forever defining himself at a tournament for the honour of his country and the true spirit of martial arts.

FILM REVIEW: Watching “Fearless” is an enjoyable ride; it has some fantastic fight sequences, some well composed, grand visuals, and strong human themes based in historical reality. It’s a shame that the film’s characters are handled so melodramatically and the execution of the story is so two-dimensional. Jet Li does an amicable job in the lead role as Huo Yuanjia, the most famous Chinese kung fu master of the early twentieth century who restored national pride in China following several years of infighting and infiltration by the West. Although the film is loosely based on his life, the story that has been dramatised in this film had the potential to be a sweeping epic with strong character and dramatic overtones but is let down by some cheesy acting and shallow story execution. That is not to say this film is not worth watching, but the way it has been done make it completely forgettable, which is a shame because it could have been so much more.
The strongest aspect of this film pertains to Yuanjia’s personal journey through life. From a very young age, Yuanjia wants to fight but his father never allows it because of Yuanjia’s asthmatic condition. Yuanjia begins practising in secret with his best friend Nong Jinsun (Yong Dong) doing his homework while he practises his fighting style. Yuanjia becomes a selfish brat, misunderstanding the basic principles behind kung fu; it is not about fighting, it is about discipline and helping others. Yuanjia’s brat attitude is exacerbated when he witnesses his father voluntarily lose a challenge match in a town square; after boasting of his father’s abilities to all the other kids, he gets beaten by the son of his father’s opponent and from that day forward, Yuanjia vows never to be defeated again. Over time, he becomes an undefeated fighter but his ego has grown out of control. All of his pursuits are selfish and immature, which ultimately leads to a tragic showdown where in retaliation for Yuanjia killing an opponent during a fight, his mother and daughter are brutally murdered in his estate. As a shattered man, Yuanjia rebuilds his life away from everything he has come to know, eventually finding the path towards enlightenment and becoming one of the most famous, and humble fighting heroes in Chinese history.
There is so much rich material in Yuanjia’s journey to engage with, least of all being that Yuanjia’s self-absorbed, ego-driven lifestyle ultimately led to some very tragic consequences. Yuanjia may not have directly caused his family’s death, but it was his self-absorbed actions that brought it about. This is a powerful message and the strongest one within the film; anger, revenge and selfishness will ultimately bring about tragedy and misery. For a character like this it seems the greater the ego, the greater tragedy is required to put him on the right path. Only when Yuanjia starts fighting for greater ideals such as national pride and honour that he regains the respect of his old community, including his best friend Jinsun who accepts Yuanjia as his friend once again after cutting him off during his ego-driven hey day.
The visuals in this film are outstanding. Right from the outset, much care has gone in to recreating early twentieth century China with some sweeping images that are only augmented by computer graphics for a few shots here and there. The colours are rich and vibrant, giving a visual texture to the film that puts it in another class from other Asian kung-fu films. The big shots of cities are the most impressive, with even the CG shots not standing out as a clever effect but as picturesque landscapes. The images of the rural country-side where Yuanjia rediscovers himself are likewise grand in scale.
The downsides to this film lie in its shallow story execution and melodramatic acting. For a story with such potential depth, it’s a shame that no attempt was made at giving the narrative a sense of balance and dimension. It’s not until over half way through the film that Yuanjia’s family is brutally murdered, starting him on his spiritual journey. His most important achievements as a fighter of restoring Chinese national pride are skimmed over in the last thirty minutes or so; the lack of care and time spent developing this part of the story makes the film unengaging. You enjoy the kung fu but dramatically the film has lost you. It becomes only a clinical exercise in execution which is unfortunate because the story themes were strong enough to make for a far better film. The melodramatic acting does not help either. The issues lie in the first half of the film where Jet Li has the unenviable task of playing a spoilt brat. It’s a mixed affair; some times it works, some times it doesn’t. The actors around him do not fare as well, particularly Yuanjia’s disciples who are over-acted to the extreme. Only Collin Chou who plays Yuanjia’s father displays any sense of character depth. The second half of the film is better, particularly in the sequences between Yuanjia and Japanese fighter Anno Tanaka (Nakamura Shido) who fight to the end but have a mutual respect for one another. One cannot help but wonder what kind of epic this film would have been had more time been spent developing the script and characters; it would have elevated this film in to a new category.
“Fearless” is a solid kung-fu film that’s useful for whiling away a few spare hours but is ultimately forgettable thanks to its lack of story development and execution.

TECHNICAL REVIEW: The images for the video transfer have a remarkably vibrant and clear quality to them. The colours are rich and textured, with no film grain and mpeg artefacts to be seen any where. The audio transfer is likewise impressive, making great use of the surrounds, particularly during the kung fu sequences with some life-like bone-cracking sounds thrown in for effect. This flim has been given an excellent transfer to DVD.

EXTRAS REVIEW: There are no extras on this disc aside from two additional language soundtracks (French, C. Spanish) and subtitles (English, French, C. Spanish).

BOTTOM LINE: Rent it.

FILM RATING: 7/10 -- EXTRAS RATING: 1/10 -- OVERALL DVD RATING: 6/10 

Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net