Fearless : Welcome back home, Jet Li
 

Just a little message in the Asian movie thread wouldn't be enough to honor that beautiful movie called "Fearless".

This film tells the story of Chinese Martial Arts Master Huo Yuanjia (1869-1910). Huo Yuanjia was the founder and spiritual guru of the Jin Wu Sports Federation."



For those who don't know about the legend, if you already saw "fist of fury" with Bruce Lee, the little dragon was playing the role of Huo's pupil. And later the remake was "fist of legend" with Jet Li. If you remember the story, the pupil wanted to avenge the death of his master, empoisoned during a martial art tournament. This movie tells the story of this master.


First of all, it's a real pleasure to see Jet Li back in Hong Kong in this historical action movie genre. Moreover, the director is Ronnie Yu, the magician who directed the beautiful and poetic "Bride with white hairs" (AKA Jiang Hu), and the martial choregrapher, Woo-ping Yuen (still need to introduce him ?). Well, kind of the dream team if you want.

And it really works.

We didn't saw that since Fist Of Legend or Once Upon a Time In China. The fights are are simply incredible. All of them. Actually I thought I'd never see those kind of fights anymore after the 90's and all the post-matrix shit wannabe. The action is intense, the photography, the lanscapes and atmosphere are beautiful, the scenario flows like you didn't saw the movie lenght.
While Jet Li wasted his time (but not his money...) doing poorly directed western movies, there is still a place where he really can fully express his talent.

I don't know when the movie will be released outside China, just you must not miss this one if you love this genre, because it's just the best that have been made since a decade.

*EDIT* Almost forgot the trailer :

http://www.fearlessthemovie.com

I just watched the trailer, wow. The sets look spectacular. I'm definitely going to check this one out once it gets released here.

I already saw this a while back. Definitly a good movie if your a jet li or martial arts fan. The story is more unique than alot of his other movies. Although I hear that it was his last movie from that era since he's basicly done it all.
This is definitly worth seeing.

Actually he said it would be his last martial art movie, but not his last action movie. Shame since he shine in the genre he wants to stop and suck in the genre he wants to continue in.

That's too bad. My favorite Jet Li films are the historical/fantastical Chinese ones. I'd love to see him do another Hero type epic after Fearless.

Oh it was his last martial art movie, i thought it was only his last movie from that specific era where he plays a monk ;_;
Its a darn shame though becuase I loved Legend, Once upon a time in China, and the sequels that came after those.
Well I guess he just has to know when he's slowing down. Jackie Chan doesn't and he's making less than average movies now. Although I'm still a big fan of his earlier works.

I totally agree. Jackie Chan once said in an interview looooooong time ago (80's) that when he's gonna be old he would only produce new talents. Damn Jackie, stick to your words and let us keep the image of the crazy jumper from the firsts Police Story and Dragon Forever. The New Police Story was lame as fuck (Jackie as a crybaby during the whole movie, is that even a Police Story ?), not to mention The Myth, which was one of the worst movie of the year (the last sequence with the fight in the air, omg). Please don't be another Steven Seagal. That guy can't even lift his legs.
But I think when we see a movie like Fearless that Jet Li still got some good years ahead.

Yeah, I really love Wong-Fei Hung movies but I love those movies even more especially when Jet Li plays him.

I've seen this movie. It was alright, I guess I would have liked it more if this movie was made back when they had the Once Upon A Time In China series. There's nothing really new to it, these back in the days Chinese movies just sort of waned.

I saw it and enjoyed it. I think if it is his last martial arts film, he ended his career in the type of films well.

The movie was alright and definately worth seeing to re-cleanse your love for Jet Li after seeing his Hollywood crap. I didn't really mind the "wire-fu" used in this movie as I did with some previous films.

The movie isn't historically accurate. Huo yuanjia actually had some children, 3 sons and 2 daughters. One of his grandsons is suing for "fabricating information about his life and portraying him as a wealthy man who was childless" (from what I read on Wikipedia)

I would have loved to see more scenes of the father fighting in the movie.
And the ending..


But overall, the movie is good.

Jet Li going back to his roots? About bloody time!!!

After all that "Americanisation" and "Rap/HipHop-ation" it's a movie like this that needs to be done to bring him back to fans' hearts. Ahh... I still think of Jet Li as Wong Fei Hung.

Oh, and Hero doesn't really count cause they over Matrixed it a bit too much.

Is there a torrent available that includes properly timed, good English subs?

Where I got mine : www.asiandvdclub.org.

Full DVD.

Sorry. Fixed.

I didn't think the fights were that impressive. Fist of Legend still has the best fights.

I liked the story though, even though it wasn't even what happened, LoL.

FEARLESS aka DUMB JAPS

Do you have something against Japanese people?

The majority of the movie was about Jet Li's character's life. Having "DUMB JAP" as the movie title instead of "Fearless" does not make sense at all.

Could you enlighten me of what you meant by that stupid comment?

Ignore Megalith. He's Chinese, so he hates Japanese. :(

Ironically, the message of the movie is about having peace and that hatred only leads to more hatred.