A martial art film is a unique bird in the world of movies. They have to walk a fine line between the demands of action fans and the demands of the general movie goer. Some, like the Matrix, have done this with great aplomb. Others don’t worry about things like story, directing, or acting, and simply pile on the kicks and explosions. Nothing really wrong with either approach, but, I think most people would prefer an action movie to have some Punky Power to it. They would rather have some emotional weight and resonance along with their adrenaline. It’s a tough balancing act but when it’s done right it’ll give you some incredible cinema
Fearless walks that line between action and emotion with incredible deftness. The result is an incredibly moving and thrilling movie.
Fearless is based loosely on the life Huo Yuanjia. A Wushu master who lived during the time of western imperialism in china. Huo is raised by a father who fights for money and notoriety but forbids Huo from following in his footsteps. Flash forward to Huo as a grown man and he’s become what his father didn’t want. A braggart fighter who only wants notoriety and fame. The path that Huo travels through the rest of the film forces him to see the outcome of his selfishness and he is given a chance to redeem himself. He sees how the west has started to demoralize his countrymen. The leaders of the Japanese, French, German and American stage a fight where Huo will fight the best fighter of each country for the honor of china.
Where Fearless succeeds is in showing us the complete transformation of Huo from a talented fighter with a chip on his shoulder into a compassionate and gentle man more concerned with the fate of his country than his own legacy. And truthfully, some credit must be given to Jet Li for his great acting in this one. It may seem a bit of an oxymoron. Jet lit and acting. But he really does do a phenomenal job.
Any discussion of the action itself is almost superflous. It’s Jet Li. The fights are very very good and they’re never over the top for the sake of being showy. They always serve the story and help you to understand the characters and their motivation.
In the end I guess what there is to say is that Fearless was truly a great action movie and a great movie in general.
9/10
